The Color Management Group

Name: The Color Management Group
Address: 1411 N Batavia Street, Suite 121, Morgan Hill, CA, US
Telephone: +18772657648
Price range: Not applicable

Home
United States
Morgan Hill, CA
The Color Management Group

The Color Management Group is a consortium of Certified Consultants and Resellers who provide produc

09/03/2026

with Color Management Group

What makes a good proofing system today? We've been thinking about how far proofing solutions have come since the introduction of the i1PRO by Gretag Macbeth back in 2001. Back then it was a revolutionary handheld device that gave us the ability to measure small patch sets quickly by hand as we calibrated inkjet proofers for better results.

Today's proofing systems often feature automated chart readers, automated color calibration, even more automated color conversions but are they better? Let us know what you think makes for a good proofing solution in the comments.

09/01/2026

Even when converting from CMYK to CMYK selecting the wrong rendering intent can easily ruin your shadow details or alter key brand colors.

For today’s , let's examine the mechanics of the four standard ICC rendering intents:

1) Relative Colorimetric: This mode maps in-gamut colors exactly to the destination space while shifting out-of-gamut colors to the closest reproducible edge. It recalibrates the white point of the source file to match the white point of the print substrate. This is the industry standard for commercial printing, as it keeps your primary brand colors highly accurate.

2) Perceptual (Photographic): Instead of clipping out-of-gamut colors, this intent scales the entire color space down proportionally. While it slightly alters all colors in the image, it preserves the relative visual relationships between them. This prevents shadow clipping and maintains smooth gradients, making it the ideal choice for complex, continuous-tone photography.

3) Absolute Colorimetric: Similar to Relative Colorimetric, but it does not adjust for the substrate's white point. Instead, it attempts to physically print the source white point onto the sheet using ink. This mode is used almost exclusively for digital proofing workflows, allowing a proofer to simulate the exact paper color of the final production stock.

4) Saturation: Focuses entirely on maintaining vibrant color intensity rather than preserving exact hue accuracy. It pushes colors to the very edge of the device's printable limits, making it perfect for vector business graphics and charts where impact matters more than color precision.

Understanding these conversion modes helps your prepress team avoid unexpected color shifts during file preparation.

Which rendering intent does your team use by default when processing mixed commercial layouts?

08/31/2026

Evaluating printed samples under on a press console with too much ambient light or checking them next to a window is a common mistake that can easily lead to costly errors. Without controlled lighting, your eyes cannot judge colors accurately, making it easy to miss serious shifts.

Human color vision naturally shifts based on the surrounding light source. A sample that looks perfect under office lights can easily look completely different under home lighting or retail store lamps—a problem known as metamerism. Reliable quality control requires a standardized D50 viewing environment, ensuring everyone evaluates color under the exact same conditions.

The Color Management Group supplies a wide selection of certified viewing booths and standard lighting systems. We help you set up reliable inspection zones that match international viewing standards.

Ready to take the guesswork out of your color inspections? Get in touch with a CMG expert to upgrade your lighting setup.

Browse our standard viewing and lighting tools: https://bit.ly/4xw1lCo

08/18/2026

Setting an incorrect Total Ink Limit (TIL) in your separation profiles is a recipe for pressroom trouble. It leads to slow drying times, tracking on the rollers, and messy ink set-off in the delivery pile.

For today’s , the Color Management Group explains the technical math behind calculating and enforcing Total Ink Limit (TIL) targets.

Total Ink Limit (also known as Total Area Coverage or TAC) represents the maximum combined percentage of CMYK inks allowed in the darkest areas of a file. Theoretically, solid CMYK layers would add up to 400%. However, no commercial press substrate can handle that much ink without causing serious production issues like smearing, paper distortion, or drying failures.

Determining the ideal TIL requires careful testing. Prepress teams print a specialized test target that steps up ink density in controlled increments (from 200% up to 400%). Technical experts evaluate these patches to find the point where adding more ink no longer increases darkness ($D_{max}$), or where the ink begins to bleed and smear.

For high-grade coated offset stock, the limit is typically set around 300% to 320%. For newsprint or uncoated sheets, it may drop down to 220% to 240% to prevent excessive absorption.

Enforcing these limits in your export profiles keeps your presses running fast and clean, without losing shadow detail.What is your standard TIL target for your primary web or sheetfed offset jobs? Let us know below.

08/17/2026

Substrate consistency is one of the biggest challenges in printing today. Subtle changes in paper brightness, chemical coatings, or base material color between different shipments can quickly throw off your final print results.

If your team uses fixed, unadjusted press settings when starting a new batch of material, you risk unexpected color shifts and wasted time trying to fix things on press.

The Color Management Group helps printing businesses stay agile. We design smart workflows that let your team quickly test new materials, adjust profiles, and recalibrate systems on the fly. This keeps your output consistent, even when raw material supplies fluctuate.

Don't let material changes slow down your shop. Contact a CMG consultant today to make your workflow more resilient.

Connect with our national expert network: https://bit.ly/3Jox1Wg

08/14/2026

For industrial digital printers handling recurring jobs like décor laminates, ceramic wall tiles, or branded packaging, consistency over time is everything. A reprint ordered six months from now must match the original production run perfectly.

Traditional workflows rely on keeping physical master samples, but these can fade, get damaged, or change color over time. True consistency requires a digital master reference. By capturing the complete colorimetric fingerprint of the initial print run, you create a permanent, unchanging digital standard. This ensures that future print runs can be matched accurately every time.

The Color Management Group integrates advanced production servers and fingerprinting software into industrial printing setups. We help you digitize your color standards, protecting your business from the risks of physical sample wear.

Ready to secure consistent quality for all your re-runs? Contact a CMG consultant today through our website here: https://bit.ly/3Jox1Wg

08/13/2026

Welcome to the CMG forum.

In multi-color printing, achieving clean ink trapping is essential for sharp, vibrant graphics. When printing wet-on-wet or wet-on-dry inks, the tack, viscosity, and drying speed of each layer must be perfectly balanced. If the second ink layer fails to stick properly to the first, you end up with poor ink transfer, mottled colors, and visible shifts in your brand shades.

Managing this balance requires constant attention from prepress and press teams, especially when working with specialty inks or challenging synthetic materials.

When dealing with ink trapping issues on press, do you primarily adjust the physical properties of the ink (like tack and viscosity), or do you use prepress techniques like custom trapping values and choke/spread adjustments in your files?

Share your real-world solutions and experiences in the comments below.

08/12/2026

If your pressroom cannot generate clear, data-driven quality reports, you will struggle to win work from major print buyers and international brands. Modern clients demand proof that your production stays within spec from the first sheet to the last.

pressSIGN 12 is a top-tier print quality control software designed to give you complete visibility into your press performance. It measures color bars and instantly calculates a clear quality score based on industry standards like GRACoL, ISO, or your own custom brand targets. The software shows operators exactly how to adjust ink keys to correct any drift mid-run, helping them stay inside tolerance effortlessly.

With its robust database, pressSIGN 12 makes it easy to generate detailed compliance reports for your clients, proving your commitment to top-notch color quality.

The Color Management Group provides full software integration, network setup, and team training to help you get the most out of pressSIGN 12.

Improve your print quality tracking. Buy pressSIGN 12 at: https://bit.ly/4xB8Asl

08/11/2026

What makes the G7® methodology so effective at ensuring visual consistency across completely different printing processes? It all comes down to its focus on visual appearance rather than old-fashioned dot gain targets.

For today’s , the Color Management Group examines the mathematical foundation of G7: the Neutral Print Density Curve (NPDC).

Traditional printing standards relied heavily on measuring Dot Gain (TVI) at specific steps like the 50% patch. While helpful, TVI calculations do not guarantee that different printing systems will actually look the same. A flexographic press on film and an offset press on paper can have identical 50% dot gain numbers but look completely different to the human eye due to differences in ink and substrate brightness.

G7 changes the focus by calibrating the press based on how human eyes perceive tone and gray balance. The NPDC defines two exact curves: one for the CMY three-color neutral blend, and one for the black-only scale. These curves map out a precise relationship between the printed digital percentages and the actual, measured optical densities on the sheet.

By aligning your printing devices to these exact neutral curves, you achieve a shared visual appearance. This ensures that whether a file is printed via offset, flexo, screen, or digital, the images look beautifully consistent across every format.

Is your production facility currently certified as a G7 Master? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. If you want to learn more about G7 and G7+ reach out to us through our website here: https://bit.ly/3Jox1Wg

08/10/2026

For consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, the retail shelf is the ultimate test. If a product's packaging color varies from one box to the next, consumers immediately notice. This variation hurts brand trust, often leading to rejected shipments and costly product returns.

When a brand owner rejects a large packaging run due to poor color consistency, the cost of materials, freight, and lost production time falls completely on the printer.

The Color Management Group helps packaging printers eliminate this financial risk. We help you implement robust, data-driven color control systems that verify quality at every step of production. This gives you the documentation you need to prove your color matches the client’s exact standards, ensuring every shipment is accepted without issue.

Protect your business from costly product rejections. Contact a CMG consultant today to upgrade your quality control setup.

Contact us and let us help you design a color management solution for your unique needs. https://bit.ly/3Jox1Wg

Address

1411 N Batavia Street, Suite 121
Morgan Hill, CA

Telephone

+18772657648

Website

http://www.colormanagement.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Color Management Group posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to The Color Management Group:

Want your business to be the top-listed Business in Morgan Hill?