‘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, followed by matt film lamination (typical OPP matt film 15 μm with medium opacity ~70%, i.e. lightening ΔL* = 6 on black spot colour after finishing), white measuring surface.
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 in accordance with international standard ISO12647-2:2013: Commercial offset, premium coated paper, tone value increase curve 2013-A, followed by matt film lamination (typical OPP matt film 15 μm with medium opacity ~70%, i.e. lightening ΔL* = 6 on black spot colour after finishing), white measurement substrate. The profile is consistent with the PSOcoated_v3.icc profile and shows the corresponding gloss-finished result. The profile was calculated using Heidelberg ColorToolbox 2019 with the following settings: black length 9 (starting 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
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
Adobe products are ideal for image retouching and layout and handle RGB and CMYK colour profiles very well. However, when editing and retouching grayscale images, for example for a black-and-white photo book, the experience is quite different. Suddenly, images look completely different in InDesign than they do in Photoshop, and even when exporting the image to PDF, greyscale images are suddenly treated differently. This article explains where the problems lie with black-and-white images and greyscale profiles in InDesign and Photoshop layouts, and how you can work in a more ‘colour-accurate’ … read more
In recent years, various problems have arisen with our previous proof paper supplier. On the one hand, we sometimes had to wait more than three months for paper deliveries; on the other hand, we sometimes had significant problems with batch-to-batch discrepancies, surface defects and much more. After lengthy deliberations, we decided in December to replace all the paper. We therefore received pallets of new paper at the turn of the year, which we are now gradually incorporating into our production. There will be no hard cut, but the new papers … 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
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.
In this short image video we – the Proof GmbH – introduce us and our work. Find out who we are and what drives us. What do you think of our short film?
From now on, it’s much easier and faster: in the Proof Shop, you can call up and reorder entire orders or individual proofs directly from your order history. This saves you from having to re-enter every detail and gives you the assurance that all settings will be exactly the same as last time. With just a few clicks, your proofs are reordered – reliably, easily and in no time at all. What exactly is new? You can find your order history in your customer account. There are two new options … read more
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
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
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