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Gorazd Golob

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
gorazd.golob@jpmtr.org

The news section of the Journal: Topicalities

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The consequences of choosing and specifying brand colors directly from a screen − and the need for brand color management 

Michael Abildgaard Pedersen 

E-mail: map@dmjx.dk 

The Danish School of Media and Journalism (DMJX), Department of Media Production and Management, 72 Emdrupvej, 2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark 

Abstract

This paper examines some of the implications of choosing brand colors directly from a software program, based on what the designer sees on the screen. The reason is that more and more graphic arts designers tend to choose colors directly from the screen and to a lesser extent from a physical color catalog such as the Pantone fans. Therefore, designers do not really know what color they have chosen until it is available in the final printed form and this can bring unpleasant surprises. The starting point for this study was the digital solutions from Adobe CC and the web service Pantone Connect. The focal point was sRGB, as Pantone recommends, which also is the standard for internet and mobile devices. Initially, the problem with using a small color space as sRGB to select and define brand colors was investigated. Examples of Pantone colors outside sRGB gamut but still available for the designer to choose without any warnings, have been sought. For example, if the designer chooses Pantone Green C as a brand color, the result would be a color difference of 10.5 ΔE₀₀. The CIELAB values for a color defined in sRGB were compared to the CIELAB reference values for the same color as it will appear as a printed spot color. This gives a color difference ΔE₀₀ between how the color appears on the screen versus the physical color as it appears on a print, printed as 1-color solid spot color. Pantone Connect’s feature for converting colors from sRGB to Pantone Solid spot color is also investigated. As an example, entering sRGB values for cyan (0/255/255) resulted in a proposal for Pantone 311 C as Best Match, giving a color difference of 17 ΔE₀₀ between the reference values for Cyan and the reference values for the proposed Pantone 311 C. In addition, the feature to extract color code values from an uploaded photo was examined. An iPhone screenshot image of Pantone 1505 C (orange) was uploaded to Pantone Connect, which interpreted the color as being Pantone 1585 C giving a color difference of 6.3 ΔE₀₀. The overall conclusion is that it is very uncertain and unpredictable to choose colors directly from a screen. The color differences between the color as it appears on the screen and the color as it appears on the final print can be very large and thus be the cause of the customer’s dissatisfaction, even if the customer is partly responsible. As a consequence of the lack of management and control in this area, brand color management is introduced as a new technical concept. It is an extension of traditional color management, so it also includes color selection, color specification, color description and an extended form of color control. 

Keywords: sRGB, spot colors, Pantone Connect, color difference, color reproduction

JPMTR-2208 Research paper | 160
DOI  10.14622/JPMTR-2208
UDC 774.8:004.353|62.5 

Received: 2022-04-26
Accepted: 2022-05-27

Accuracy of spot color reproduction in a 7-color, expanded gamut, flexographic printing system 

Reem El Asaleh, Martin Habekost and Abhay Sharma 

E-mails: reem.elasaleh@ryerson.ca; mhabekos@ryerson.ca; sharma@ryerson.ca 

School of Graphic Communications Management, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON, Canada 

Abstract

Expanded gamut printing involves expanding the number of process colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) by orange, green and violet colors to reproduce many spot colors with the new fixed ink set (CMYKOGV). This study focuses on evaluating flexographic expanded gamut printing on a narrow web flexographic label press located at Toronto Metropolitan University. Esko Equinox and GMG OpenColor expanded gamut software solutions were used, where each system was tested with its own proprietary characterization test chart. The Idealliance Expanded Color Gamut (ECG) test target was also used in this study. A verification test chart was created, with selected Pantone spot colors. The test chart was then processed using the characterization data from the proprietary and nonproprietary characterization press runs. The builds of the selected Pantone colors were analyzed and CIEDE2000 color difference was calculated. Both software solutions did better in regards to color accuracy with their proprietary characterization targets than using the data gathered from the Idealliance ECG small chart. 

Keywords: extended color gamut, flexographic printing, Pantone spot colors, test chart, print contrast

JPMTR-2119 Research paper | 161
DOI  10.14622/JPMTR-2119
UDC 655.1:774.8 

Received: 2021-12-21
Accepted: 2022-04-05

A new approach to fuzzy logic analysis of Indian currency recognition  

Sonia Sarkar and Arun Kiran Pal 

E-mails: sonia140897@gmail.com; arunkiranpal@gmail.com 

Department of Printing Engineering, Jadavpur University, Salt Lake Campus, Block-LB, Plot-8, Sector-III, Salt Lake, Kolkata-700106, India 

Abstract

In the modern society the advancement and development in the field of scanning and printing technology is rapidly increasing day by day. This gives rise to the generation of counterfeit currency notes in the economy. The goal of this present investigation is to limit the circulation of fake currency notes using logic that can be also referred as fuzzy logic. This paper deals with the utility of fuzzy logic in the domain of Indian currency notes. An integrated banknote detection system implementing a fuzzy-based security features classifier has been developed. The important security features that have been considered are on the basis of the Indian denominations used as well as present in foreign currency notes. The rules that have been developed are formulated upon logic, observation, people’s feedback and experiences while dealing with currency notes. With the help of the Surface Viewer several output surfaces have been generated upon varying the security features with each other. This gives an evaluation approach to the existing security features for controlling banknote forgery. 

Keywords: security features, fuzzy inference system, membership functions, IF-THEN rules, Surface Viewer

JPMTR-2207 Research paper | 162
DOI  10.14622/JPMTR-2207
UDC 336.74(540)168.3 

Received: 2022-04-25
Accepted: 2022-05-28

A comparison of current solutions for creating web animations on Apple hardware

Jaka Mušič and Helena Gabrijelčič Tomc

E-mail: helena.gabrijelcic@ntf.uni-lj.si 

University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, Department of Textiles, Graphic Arts and Design, Chair of Information and Graphic Arts Technology 

Abstract

The content available online consists of titles, texts, images, and multimedia, including animations. Some animations are immediately noticeable, while others are less obvious, yet they play an important role in the interactivity of a website. When implemented correctly and working properly, animations can greatly enhance the user experience. In the theoretical part of this paper, the basic technologies of the web are introduced. These are Hypertext Markup Language, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript. The history of web animations is presented as well as the perception of animations in terms of the qualities required by the human eye to perceive them as fluid. In the experimental part, methods for creating animations were selected for testing. These were CSS animations, Web Animations Application Programming Interface (WAAPI) and Lottie animations. For each of these methods, an identical animation was designed and implemented on a website. The animations were then tested with a different number of elements in two browsers on multiple devices and Apple hardware. During creation and testing, an analysis was made of how difficult it is to design and implement the animations on a website, and how powerful they are: the ability to display a high number of frames per second, how much memory they require on the graphics card, and how much data must be transferred from the server for them to play properly. The results were recorded and summarised. Some recommendations were made in the results, i.e. which method to use depending on the intended use case. The CSS and WAAPI animations and transitions were found to be more suitable for complex web animations, while Lottie was found to be useful for simpler animations. 

Keywords: interactive website, cascading style sheets (CSS), web animations application programming interface (WAAPI), Lottie animations

JPMTR-2110 Research paper | 163
DOI  10.14622/JPMTR-2110
UDC 004.92:004.7|004.03 

Received: 2021-08-15
Accepted: 2022-04-08