‘OPP’ stands for “Oriented Polypropylene”, a type of plastic film. OPP film is made from polypropylene and is characterised by its orientation. The orientation of the material is achieved by a special manufacturing process in which the film is stretched to improve its physical properties.
OPP films are transparent, glossy and have a smooth surface. They offer high clarity, are tear-resistant, water-repellent and have a good barrier effect against moisture, oils and gases. These properties make OPP films versatile and they are used in various areas, especially in the packaging industry.
There are four so-called ‘finishing proof’ standards from Fogra for film lamination with OPP matt films and OPP gloss films: Fogra49 and Fogra50 for OPP film-based papers in the classic ISOCoatedV2 300% standards, and Fogra56 and Fogra57 for OPP finishing of PSOCoatedV3 prints.
PSO Coated v2 300% Matte laminate (ECI)
Profile: PSO_Coated_v2_300_Matte_laminate_eci.icc
Commercial offset printing, positive copy, AM screen with 60-80 lines/cm, with subsequent matt film lamination (typical OPP matt film 15 μm with medium opacity ~70%, i.e. brightening ΔL* = 6 on black solid colour after finishing), white measuring base.
The profile is consistent with the old profiles ISOcoated_v2_eci.icc and ISOcoated_v2_300_eci.icc and shows the matching matt-finished result.
Paper: Paper type 1 and 2, glossy and matt coated image printing
Dot gain curves A (CMY) and B (K) from ISO 12647-2:2004
Characterisation data: FOGRA49L
PSO Coated v2 300% Glossy laminate (ECI)
Profile: PSO_Coated_v2_300_Glossy_laminate_eci.icc
Commercial offset printing, positive copy, AM screen with 60-80 lines/cm, with subsequent glossy film lamination (typical OPP glossy film 12-15 μm), white measuring base.
The profile is consistent with the old ISOcoated_v2_eci.icc and ISOcoated_v2_300_eci.icc profiles and shows the matching glossy result.
Paper: Paper types 1 and 2, glossy and matt coated image printing, dot gain curves A (CMY) and B (K) from ISO 12647-2:2004
Characterisation data: FOGRA50L
PSO Coated v3 Matte laminate (ECI) New 2020
Profile: PSO_Coated_v3_Matte_laminate.icc
The ECI offset profile PSO_Coated_v3_Matte_laminate.icc is based on the characterisation file ‘FOGRA56. txt’ and applies to the following printing conditions according to international standard ISO12647-2:2013: commercial offset, premium coated paper, dot gain curve 2013-A, with subsequent matt film lamination (typical OPP matt film 15 μm with medium opacity ~70%, i.e. brightening ΔL* = 6 on black solid colour after finishing), white measuring substrate. The profile is consistent with the PSOcoated_v3.icc profile and shows the matching gloss-finished result. The profile was calculated using Heidelberg ColorToolbox 2019 with the following settings Black length 9 (inset point 10%), Black width 10, max. area coverage 300%, max. black 96%.
Characterisation data: FOGRA56.txt
PSO Coated v3 Glossy laminate (ECI) New 2020
Profile: PSO_Coated_v3_Glossy_laminate.icc
The ECI offset profile PSO_Coated_v3_Glossy_laminate.icc is based on the characterisation file ‘FOGRA57.txt’ and applies to the following printing conditions according to the international standard ISO12647-2:2013: commercial offset, premium coated paper, dot gain curve 2013-A, with subsequent gloss foil lamination (typical OPP gloss foil 12-15 μm), white measuring substrate. The profile is consistent with the PSOcoated_v3.icc profile and shows the matching gloss-coated result. The profile was calculated using Heidelberg ColorToolbox 2019 with the following settings Black length 9 (inset point 10%), Black width 10, max. area coverage 300%, max. black 96%.
Characterisation data: FOGRA57.txt
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
Shortly after Adobe’s announcement to remove PANTONE colours from their products, PANTONE removed the popular PANTONE Find a Color from their website
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
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
Digimarc is a digital watermark that can be used to embed information in images, videos or other media. Digimarc watermarks are invisible to the human eye, but remain recognisable to special software or devices. Digimarc is becoming increasingly popular in the packaging sector in particular, as this technology allows the digits of the EAN barcode and more to be applied invisibly to all areas of the packaging. Digimarc and EAN barcode at the supermarket checkout When scanning at the checkout, the checkout staff do not have to search for the … read more
Today I received an email in which PANTONE asked how it should orientate its products and services in the future. The users were asked which countries, industries and company sizes they come from, but also what PANTONE products should look like in the future and what customers would be prepared to pay for PANTONE services in the future. Question: How much can PANTONE services cost? PANTONE appears to be orientating itself on the PANTONE Connect prices: All price queries have the lowest price category < $ 7,- / month, i.e. … 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
Several errors have crept into the new PANTONE 2023 fan decks. In both the PANTONE Solid Coated and the Solid Uncoated color fans, there are colours for which the new ink formulations are incorrect. In the PANTONE Formula Guide Solid Coated fan 2023, PANTONE 107 C and PANTONE 108 C have absolutely identical ink recipes, as well as PANTONE 113 C and PANTONE 114 C. As the colors differ, this cannot be the correct. Several errors in the PANTONE Solid Uncoated fan 2023 In the PANTONE Solid Uncoated fan 2023 … read more
Over the last few months, we at Proof.de have been thinking about further improving our already very good colour measurement technology in terms of speed and measurement precision. Relatively quickly it became clear that only two devices would come into question: The KonicaMinolta MYIRO-9, the successor of the former FD-9, or the X-Rite ISIS 2 XL. The starting point: Since we at Proof GmbH have 5 proofing devices, the calibration of targets for profile optimisation is a time-critical undertaking for us. Therefore, we had been looking around for an upgrade of … read more
This year we once again created proofs for Fogra certification and sent them to Munich-Aschheim for testing. With these proof prints, which we print according to three different proof standards and on three different papers, we point out that we not only deliver excellent proof quality through internal quality controls and checks, but that the quality of our proofs is also measured and confirmed by external experts. We have now had test prints certified by Fogra for the 12th time. We have also been “Spot-cert” certified for the display of … read more