An LED is a ‘light-emitting diode’ and in the graphics industry stands for the new ‘LED’ light, which has replaced older light sources such as neon tubes and tungsten lamps. Neon tubes are mainly known from the area of D50 or D65 standard light, while tungsten light sources were mainly used in colour measuring devices such as spectrophotometers and colourimeters. Today, LED light sources are predominantly used for both standard light and colour measurement light, as they can be better spectrally adapted and often emit a more harmonious light spectrum, especially than neon light.
In modern standardised lighting, it is possible not only to set up standardised light for one type of light, such as D50, but also to simulate D50, D65, incandescent light and much more using several spectrally different LED lines by dimming and mixing the spectra differently in one lamp. In addition, the LED luminaires can often be dimmed, which was not possible with neon tubes.
LED light sources are also used in measuring devices, where several LED units are also often used, often including one for UV light in order to be able to offer a defined proportion of UV in the light.
What the industry is still waiting for are cost-effective standardised LED retrofit solutions, but these are unlikely to be long in coming. As the big players such as JUST Normlicht and GTI have dominated the market up to now, only expensive retrofits of the entire lighting unit have been offered instead of removing the old neon tubes and replacing them with new LED tubes in the same housing. At JUST, for example, replacing a small standard lighting unit with four tubes costs several thousand euros, as a completely new unit is used here and the old one has to be disposed of. Today, specialised smaller companies such as Lacuna Solutions can also offer modern and innovative, controllable standard light luminaires for new standard lighting solutions.
Today, however, LED light sources with a colour rendering index of over 98 are also available on the market, so it seems to be only a matter of time before LED retrofit solutions for D50 and D65 standard light will also be available here for the slim replacement of old standard light tubes while retaining the reflectors.
Peter Jäger is an expert in colour management that reliably works across the boundaries of printers and monitors, web and print – essentially: cross-media.
Whether it’s a large global corporation or a small company, the following often applies to designs or redesigns today: we develop everything for digital first.
Offset and Newsprint ISO Coated v2 (ECI) / ISO Coated v2 300% (ECI) Profile: ISOcoated_v2_eci.icc Standard for glossy and matte coated paper Paper: Types 1 and 2, gloss and matte coated Tone value increase curves A (CMY) and B (K) as defined in ISO 12647-2:2004 Characterisation Data: FOGRA39L ISOUncoated Profile: ISOUncoated.icc Standard for uncoated white natural paper Paper: paper grade 4, uncoated white offset, dot gain curves C (CMY) and D (K) from ISO 12647-2: 2004 Characterisation Data: FOGRA29L PSOCoatedV3 / Fogra 51 Profile: PSOcoated_v3.icc The successor of ISOCoatedV2 for glossy … read more
From now on you can order proofs for metal decor printing on white sheet metal at proof.de: The ICC profile for Fogra60 is Metal-Printing_MPC1_FOGRA60.icc
A new generation of colour measuring devices is entering the market: in contrast to the classic measuring devices, which are available as a fully encapsulated system either as a colourimeter or as a spectrophotometer, and then supply the data to a computer via an interface or app or display it directly, the new generation of colour measuring devices consist only of lighting and software, with the optics of a modern iPhone from Apple being used as the sensor. Until now, there have been two categories of measuring devices on the … read more
Even almost 9 years after the introduction of the successor colour space PSOCoatedV3, ISOCoatedV2 / FOGRA39 is still the most widespread colour space in Europe. We at Proof GmbH count around 200 jobs from time to time for the German Printing and Media Industries Federation, among others. In the last count, proofs in ISOCoatedV2 accounted for around 68% of all proof jobs at our company. This is a clear sign of the continued widespread use of the colour space. ISOCoatedV2: From the classic colour space to the beacon of the … read more
In the current issue of Fogra News “Fogra Aktuell” Proof GmbH is involved in two places. Firstly, a summary of the Fogra report on our first FOGRA55 certification for seven-colour printing with extended colour space in CMYKOGV appeared. You can also find more information on our FOGRA55 certification on the Fogra website: https://fogra.org/en/press-releases/fogracert-erste-cpc-zertifizierung-fuer-fogra55-cmykogv-330 and on proofing.de: And secondly, there was a report on the completion of the research project for textile digital printing, FOGRA58, in which we were allowed to investigate and test the proof capability of the new textile … read more
In recent weeks, there have been lengthy discussions on the Fogra digital printing mailing list as to whether a research project should be launched to define standardised tonal value gradations for spot colours. What is this all about? In the field of CMYK and seven-colour printing, the definition of clear, printable and proofable standards is well established and has been tried and tested in practice. If the paper or paper class is known and defined, a measuring standard such as M0/M1/M2 has been established and the content of optical brighteners … read more
In 2021 proof.de was again Fogra certified including Fogra “Spot cert” certification, i.e. for the display of spot colours such as PANTONE C and U.
A few days ago Proof GmbH was the first company to be certified for proofing for the new 7C exchange colour space FOGRA55. Fogra has developed characterisation data for extended multicolour printing with the printing colours CMYKOGV – i.e. cyan, magenta, yellow, black (contrast), orange, green and violet – FOGRA55 as part of a research project over the past few years. The characterisation data and the ICC profile Ref-ECG-CMYKOGV_FOGRA55_TAC300.icc have been published on the Fogra website in recent weeks. We have now carried out the certification via GMG ColorProof, as … read more