K1 Packaging Group – X GAMUT
Extended Gamut & Multi-Channel Color Management
For K1 Packaging Group X GAMUT has yielded ROI through reduction in time and paper waste.
K1 Packaging Group is an innovative family run company that provides custom packaging solutions for consumer products. Offering fully integrated services from start to finish, they conceptualize, design, prototype, validate, and manufacture. The company prides itself on bringing value to their customers by delivering innovative, sustainable, and custom-tailored packaging solutions. K1’s ability to design, manufacture, and provide multiple packaging solutions all within their facilities is just one feature that sets them apart from their competitors.
K1 Packaging Group has been a CGS ORIS customer since 2006 when they first started using COLOR TUNER followed in 2010 by PRESS MATCHER. Recently the company acquired a Landa S10 Nanographic Printing® Press. The Landa S10 has a fixed set of extended process inks which makes X GAMUT the perfect solution for color management and accurate spot color reproduction. “Other software options didn’t offer the same level of customization or offer such a user friendly interface, like X GAMUT,” Adam Aguirre, Print Technology Supervisor.
K1 had struggled to achieve GRACoL standards on their Landa S10, “COLOR TUNER was already color managing us to GRACoL on our Epson proofing system but the color from the press wasn’t matching the proofs. X GAMUT has allowed us to easily harmonize the color in our production files so the press matches our GRACoL proofs accurately.” Little to no adjustments are now needed which has saved the company an immense amount of time, “time spent working on color adjustments have been greatly reduced since implementing X GAMUT.”
The Landa S10 has become a solution for K1 for printing jobs below 10,000 sheets, sometimes even just a couple hundred sheets. X GAMUT helps to solve any color issues that may arise on the Landa in an efficient manner. For Adam Aguirre it’s a simple color adjustment, “X GAMUT takes over and corrects the color.” As the press receives color matching targets, color that may have shifted is automatically adjusted, “being able to just print out of the set of swatches, scan, and have X GAMUT
adjust its algorithm to hit the same color target that we had before makes our process much smoother and far more efficient.”
“The Visual Spot Color Optimization tool was a game changer for us. Other color management products on the market did not offer as advanced of a solution, with such a diverse set of tools. With X GAMUT I can go 21 levels out from the calculated spot color. It’s amazing how many options there are.” Often time customers are not color experts, for a company like K1, it is their job to be the color experts for their clients. The consistency X GAMUT allows K1 to achieve keeps their customers coming back time and time again.
The Visual Spot Color Optimization tool in X GAMUT allows K1 to easily adjust spot colors. “We will scan everything, compare it to our target and then select the best match. Once the color swatch is updated we can output the same PDF that is already in our workflow and then drag it directly to the Landa to update the spot colors,” explains Adam Aguirre “It’s so convenient that when I put in a spot color, I simply get what I want.” Recently when faced with a particularly critical green from a customer no swatches seemed to be what the customer required. K1 was able to provide a Visual Spot Color Optimization tool printout which immediately rectified the issue and satisfied the customer. “I think this is how we’re going to be choosing spot color matches moving forward for customers who rely heavily on color accuracy and consistency.”
”ROI has largely been found in the reduction of time and paper waste for K1 Packaging Group. “Press time is very expensive, the time that we spend out there is crucial. Too many adjustments can be the difference between printing three jobs a day to printing four jobs a day.” Reduced paper waste has been a huge money saver as well with less color adjustment print outs required. “Now with X GAMUT all we need is one printout, this leaves us with more paper to use for actual production jobs as well as far less time wasted sheeting more paper.”
CGS ORIS prides itself on its’ customer support and response times, this was no exception with K1. “Everyone I’ve talked to has been very friendly and helpful, there’s been no issues with anything. Your entire team stood behind our needs and supported us. We were under a very strict time constraint, and CGS ORIS made it happen.”
X GAMUT was an ideal solution for K1 Packaging Group, helping them achieve color accuracy with their extended ink set press. With easy to achieve color they have saved valuable time. “X GAMUT certainly makes Extended Gamut printing an easy process to implement. There’s a lot of variables that can get in the way, and that’s the issue that we were facing in the beginning. X GAMUT was integrated, and within two hours we achieved what we had been working toward for nine months.”