What are the 9 major development changes, 3 major development trends, and color management experiences?

For printing professionals, color management has always been an unavoidable issue. Because the essence of printing is the replication of the original manuscript, and color reproduction is a necessary factor to consider. Since the invention of laser typesetting technology at the end of the 20th century, after decades of development, color management has also flourished with the advancement of printing technology.
In order to enable printing professionals to perceive the latitude and longitude of color management from a macro perspective, clarify the application scenarios of color management, and explore the development trend of color management, the author attempts to elaborate on the relevant topics of color management from several dimensions: background overview, application status, technological development process, and future development trends.
Overview of Color Management Background
In a broad sense, all methods of controlling and managing colors belong to color management. Before the arrival of digital measurement tools, we didn't have many methods. We basically relied on manual experience to control and manage colors. At the same time, the requirements of printing buyers were not high, and the right to speak was relatively weak. It was basically the printing enterprise's the final say. If it could deliver on time, it would burn high flavor, regardless of the color of printing.
The establishment of the International Color Federation (ICC) in 1993 laid a milestone in the development of color management. International standards related to printing were successively released, and well-known printing associations such as Fogra in Germany and Idealliance in the United States established clear standards for color. With the tide of economic globalization and China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, China's printing industry began to flourish, with international orders pouring in.
For international printing buyers and brand merchants, how to achieve consistent printing colors in multiple parts of the world is a problem that must be solved. Printing according to standards has become a common pursuit, which is an external factor. As printing companies at the end of the printing supply chain, they naturally need to keep up with this requirement. As a result, color management began to be valued, and digital proofing, screen soft proofing, scanning scoring systems, and G7&PSO color standard certification were gradually promoted. Their purpose was to standardize printing, eliminate the traditional printing based on experience, and shift to printing based on data and standards.
With the further development of the industry, competition is intensifying, and raw material and labor costs are constantly rising. How to reduce costs and increase efficiency has become an urgent problem for printing enterprises to solve. One typical issue is how to use color management to improve production efficiency and reduce production costs, which is the internal factor. The concept of fully implementing standardization in the printing production process, thereby making color management more efficient and long-lasting, has been increasingly recognized and practiced by more and more printing enterprises.
Current Status of Color Management Applications

At present, a small number of printing companies in the printing industry already have a relatively complete color management system. The management has invested hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan to build a color management system, including related hardware, software, and personnel training. Digital sampling systems, scanning scoring systems, and color standardization certification have become standard equipment. Most enterprises have dedicated departments or teams for color management, and even establish their own color management centers or technology research and development centers. There are also corresponding processes to monitor production, which can basically achieve sustainable printing according to standards. Their customers are also concentrated in international big brand manufacturers and domestic high-end brand manufacturers, represented by typical large and medium-sized well-known printing enterprises.
More companies have passively launched color management projects at a certain point in time in order to obtain high value-added orders or meet the requirements of some customers. Such enterprises usually have simple hardware and software configurations, or have undergone color certification. However, they often lack professional color management personnel internally and are unwilling to invest too much cost in building a color management system or training employees. A complete standardized system has not been formed in production, and production is in a state of knowing what it is but not knowing why. Color management belongs to a state of existence where there is a need to do it or not, and it is not easy to maintain standardized printing normally. This type is generally represented by small and medium-sized printing enterprises.
In addition, some companies have a relatively low level of overall color management awareness, and most employees lack relevant professional knowledge. Unless absolutely necessary, companies are unwilling to invest any costs, and color management is optional. They may not even have basic color measurement instruments. Production is in a state of printing based on experience or relying on customer samples for color confirmation. The printing quality naturally varies and it is difficult to achieve stable output. The colors of different batches or even each batch are difficult to unify. This type is represented by small, micro or outsourced printing enterprises.
Different printing companies have different starting points in terms of scale, order requirements, and management concepts. It is difficult to describe them concretely and only provide general comments. Of course, there are also some large printing companies that are difficult to match under their reputation. Although they have established a color management system, Lian Po is old and most of them are outdated, and the colors are still chaotic; Some small and beautiful printing companies attach great importance to color management, and are even willing to spend a lot of effort to build a standardized system and train their employees. Their printing quality is no less comparable to that of large factories.
The Development Process of Color Management Technology
Looking at the technological development of color management over the past few decades, although it has undergone different stages of sublimation and baptism, it can be basically summarized into the following aspects.
01 From Subjective to Objective
From relying on manual experience adjustment and control by experienced masters, to monitoring colors with color measurement tools such as X-Rite and TECHKON, as well as color management software such as PresssSIGN, color evaluation has shifted from excellent, medium, and poor to ∆ E color difference, TVI network expansion, ∆ Ch gray balance difference, and even integrated percentage scoring. Dataization has become the norm, and printing quality evaluation and receiving standards are all based on dataization as important references.
02 From fragmentation to integration
From initially purchasing hardware and software in small quantities, to now adopting a holistic solution, printing companies need to examine color management as a complete project, seeking suppliers to provide a comprehensive solution to achieve the goal of color standardization. The software, hardware, training, technical implementation, and other aspects are all covered. Some software in the industry, such as ChromaCheck and PACKZ, focus more on designing the printing process rather than just one aspect.

03 From two-dimensional to multi-dimensional
Initially, digital printing often only focused on basic two-dimensional indicators such as density and color depth. Nowadays, 3D Lab values have become standard in the industry, and color difference requirements are everywhere. Gray balance standards are also indispensable. Therefore, the transformation of printing ribbons is also diverse, including on-site printing, overlay printing, dot printing, gray balance, etc. Due to the complexity of the light source, the phenomenon of failure of same color but different spectra has repeatedly occurred. More complex, comprehensive, and scientific spectral data have gained attention, so many companies have begun to try using spectral data such as CxF-4 to define spot colors or even manage four-color colors.
04 From four-color to multi-color
The basic color for printing is CMYK, theoretically all colors can be replicated and gradually reduced to printing according to the ISO 12647 standard. With the need to bring new experiences to consumers, the continuous surpassing of color needs, and the constant challenge to traditional four-color, the concept of wide color gamut has emerged. In recent years, relevant software and standards have undergone new developments, such as the release of multi-color color management software such as CGS ORIS X Gamut, and the release of the CMYKOGV seven color specification for Fogra 55 in 2021, which have greatly promoted the development of wide color gamut.
05 From offset printing to diversification
The most mature field for color management applications is offset printing. But in recent years, digital printing has gradually become popular, including laser imaging machines for toner, equipment such as FUJIFILM, HP Indigo, inkjet digital printers, equipment such as EPSON, Canon proofing machines or many brands of large format UV printers, as well as flexographic printing, etc. The colors are difficult to unify and there is no corresponding industry standard, so only offset printing standards can be compared. But with the development of diversified printing and the evolution of industry technology standards, CRPC7 has emerged for the digital printing field, and PSD certified for the digital printing field has also begun to be promoted. In 2021, the release of ISO 12647-9 filled the gap in the printing industry standards, and Fogra 60 provided a timely reference for the implementation of metal printing color standards.
06 From large factories to the private sector
Color management is no longer just an empty theory lying in books, nor is it a form or totem that cannot withstand the cold from high places. It has gone from being as high as a temple to entering ordinary people's homes today. From coastal areas to inland areas, from large factories to the general public, especially small and medium-sized printing enterprises, they have begun to pay attention to color management and refresh their digital awareness. They have started installing printing wiring systems, using instruments to measure and control colors, correcting screen soft samples and publishing linearity, conducting G7/GMI color certification, introducing scanning scoring systems, etc., making previously visible and intangible color management a vivid and lively daily practice.
07 From the factory to the international market
In the early stages of color management, international standards and specifications were not yet popular, and everyone pursued consistency between digital proofing and actual printing. Each enterprise was conducting its own color testing, constructing its own color standards, and regarded them as secret weapons. There were color barriers between factories, which brought many constraints and troubles to printing buyers. The emergence of international color standards for unified measurement has solved this problem, and well-known standards such as Fogra 39/47 and GRACoL 2006 have gradually become the industry's unified standards. Printing companies need to catch up with these standards in order to gain the favor of printing buyers. With the widespread use of fluorescent whitening agents in the paper industry, new versions of color specifications such as Fogra 51/52 and GRACoL 2013 were introduced in 2013 with the update of international standards. The standards are gradually transitioning from our own factory standards to internationally unified standards, and whether the colors of printing enterprises can effectively meet international standards has become a new touchstone for printing buyers to test suppliers.
08 From unlicensed to licensed
The shift from a seller's market to a buyer's market has led more and more printing companies to attempt to enhance their corporate image and gain competitive advantage by obtaining a series of ISO standard certifications, thus color standardization certification has become popular. Among them, Fogra, Ugra, and Idelliance are highly regarded, while PSO and G7 experts have become the industry's hot commodity, synonymous with professionalism. Printing companies compete to showcase themselves through these professional certifications. And companies such as PressSIGN and MellowColor have also taken advantage of the situation to launch their own certifications, but due to their limited brand influence, they have only become niche products. On the contrary, GMI certification, which holds brand merchant order authorization, continues to thrive and intensify in the industry. China's own C9 certification has established clear standards for printing standardization and gradually gained recognition from domestic publishers and brand owners, with a promising future ahead.
09 From local to network
The printing industry has developed to a certain extent, and centralization is an inevitable trend. Companies such as Yutong, Hongxing, Junsi, and Meiyingsen have established their own branches nationwide and even overseas. How to achieve consistency in the colors of each branch has become a new requirement. For brand owners, they also encounter the same challenges in managing multiple printing suppliers, which puts forward new requirements for color management. So color management software has also shifted from local to cloud based. For example, PressSIGN GPM, CGS, ColorPath, etc. have all launched cloud based network versions. The software has a unified server-side, and each branch installs the client and uploads its own measurement data to the cloud for centralized monitoring by managers. This is also a new development trend.

Future Development Trends of Color Management
01 Dataization
Color management is based on color measurement data, which digitizes colors, uses data to manage colors, and then forms standards. These standards are then used to measure and evaluate colors, reducing reliance on manual experience or perception. This is the core theory of modern color management. The popularity of color measuring instruments, the spread of data-driven scoring systems, and customers' preference for data reports all indicate the development of this trend of dataization. We believe that this trend will continue to extend in the future, and through more advanced and intelligent data collection and perception methods, various factors in the entire printing process will be increasingly digitized, forming true big data. After all, everything that can be digitized will eventually be digitized.
02 Intelligence
The intelligence of color management is built on the basis of dataization. Currently, some color monitoring settings are built into digital printing machines. When color abnormalities are detected, the equipment will automatically calibrate the colors to ensure that the output colors are standard and meet the standards. This largely avoids the dependence on the operator's ability. At the same time, the color management process can also be automated. With the help of automated program design and online measurement equipment, the equipment can automatically complete its own color calibration without relying on manual operation. Idelliance's forward-looking G7 AI Master certification is designed to meet this demand scenario, and currently HP Indigo 100K, 15K and other digital printing machines have obtained this certification. It can be anticipated that the integration of artificial intelligence and printing will continue to deepen in the future, automatically selecting suitable standards based on equipment status, order requirements, medium changes, and material conversion, and conducting real-time non manual color management.
03 Personalization
Personalization is to please customers and consumers, and to explore emerging market demands on the basis of standardization. With the popularization of standards and market segmentation, colors that comply with ISO standards have become commonplace and can no longer attract consumers' attention. The wide color gamut represented by CMYKOGV brings buyers a new experience. The color management for special light sources, or special inks such as rose red ink, fluorescent ink, fragrance ink, and temperature change ink, is expected to be further developed. At the same time, the widespread application of special media such as gold and silver cards, film, and laser paper will greatly broaden the research field of color management. In addition, the application of personalized spot colors such as gold, silver, and white will also be a beautiful landscape in future color management.

Color management has never been the present perfect tense, but the present continuous tense, which needs to keep pace with the times and innovate in order to maintain vitality forever. We look forward to and call on more printing professionals to understand the laws of color management, perceive the trends and changes in industry development, actively embrace these changes in practical work, and stay at the forefront of trends in order to maintain the sustainable development of enterprises and assist in the transformation and upgrading of the printing industry.