Colour Bars

[Kristian]

What type of information do you have in your colour bars ie. Slur bar, reg marks, gray balance.

Our colour bars only consist of the tints 100%, 80% and 40%. I feel they need a revamp to give the press guys some more info as to what they are printing.

We dont have any template files to use for a colourbar, we make them ourselves. Do any of you use the standard SWOP Colour Bars, would anyone be kind enough to send me a PS or PDF file of it, or any others you use.

Any other help is parreciated.

Thanks in advance

[geozinger]

At most of the shops I've worked in the pressmen have their 'favorite' color bars and that's what we put on the press sheet. At this job, they prefer solid CMYK squares. At a previous job, color bars from the X-Rite densitometer were their favorite. Of course, they had the X-Rite equipment and had been trained by the vendor on how to use the denso and color bars in combination.

It seems to depend on the shop and what they are comfortable using.

Most of the pressmen I know are EXTREMELY resistant to changing anything on 'their' press sheets. If I were to try and change something like that in our shop, I think it would be wise to start a dialogue to see what all of our concerns are, and see what works best.

[seetomtype]

We use solid boxes here. I could send you the file if you'd like, but I think
that's it's shamefully simple. We output most files from Quark, so that's
the native application they are in. They are just a series of CMYK .25"
boxes that I step and repeat across the tail end of the press sheet. Let me
know or PM me.

I would not change a thing without buy-in from the press room on any new
ideas. My system works fine here, as they use an X-Rite densotometer.
I'd rather run in the street with scissors than try to change what's not
broken in this shop's pressroom.

We don't use slugs, screens, or slurs.

Hope it helps.

[jason]

When I started at my current position there were just solid patches of C, M, Y & K in the color bar. All the pressman were concerned with was correct density readings.

If there was a issue with a press sheet matching the proof I had little info to use to diagnose the problem. So I created a new two row color bar that is aligned to the ink key zones of the press, contains 2%, 25%, 50% 75% & 95% patches of each color and has a gray balance patch at 50%. I made a presentation to the pressman and detailed all my reasons for the change and how it would help diagnose color matching issues. They said ok.

I check all plates before they reach the pressroom and I can look at press sheet and take a quick visual check of the gray balance patch to see if things are not working correctly.

If something is wrong I can use the data from the color bar to determine if it is a prepress issue or press issue. If the pressman do not agree, I have readings to backup my claims.

[duck]

I changed our color bars at the request of the pressmen here also. They wanted solid 100% CMYK blocks all the way across with slur bars at the ends. I guess they only read the solids, and if they are too far apart they can't control the ink as well in between. I'll give them whatever makes them happy.

If they have color issues, I can show the actual ink values of the digital file and verify that my plates are accurate ( I only read plates about once a week or less - they are always within 1-2%). If I can prove that everything is accurate on my end, it's up to the pressman to make it work on his end!