Overview
Why you should complete this activity
ColorFlow software Workflow edition is integrated and shipped with the Kodak Prinergy software.
The emphasis of this activity is to demonstrate how ColorFlow generated color setups and options can be selected at different stages in a Prinergy workflow.
This activity provides a description of the ColorFlow software, but doesn't demonstrate how to use ColorFlow software to generate color setups. Information about the use of the ColorFlow software is available in the ColorFlow resource information listed below in Recommended Reading.
Recommended reading
- Kodak ColorFlow Computer-based training
- ColorFlow User Guide
- ColorFlow Workflow Poster
- Prinergy Workflow Workshop User Guide
All items are available on the Kodak Partner Place internet portal at https://partnerplace.kodak.com/.
What you'll need
For this activity you need to locate:
Prinergy Activity Practice Files / Act_24_ColorFlow
The instructor or coach will provide you with the location of the practice files.
Note: If you are completing this activity on your own or coaching others in your shop, copy the Prinergy Activity Practice Files folder (available on the Kodak Partner Place internet portal at https://partnerplace.kodak.com/) directly to your workstation. For further information about these procedures, see Activity 1.
Note: If you skipped Activity 1, consult the Activity 1 Instructor's Notes for information about best practices for managing activity practice files during a training session. Activity 1 also contains important information related to the Prinergy client and server relationship, which could be helpful to the customer.
What you need to know
ColorFlow software
Kodak ColorFlow software delivers color relationship management that unifies all color control elements, such as ICC device profiles, DeviceLink profiles, and plate and print curves. Essentially, ColorFlow manages the relationship between all color control elements and device print conditions.
The ColorFlow software is where the color characterization data is stored, and where you generate and edit curves, import ICC device profiles, and import, generate or edit ICC DeviceLinks for use in the Prinergy refine and output processes.
After initially setting up a device in ColorFlow, you can create variations of that setup. For example, imagine that you invest a considerable amount of time measuring color responses and creating conversion and simulation links within a particular color setup. You establish your press condition as a color reference point. If you now want to simulate a different color response, all you need to do in ColorFlow is duplicate the color setup and choose the new simulation target. Using traditional methods, you would need to manually create several conversion DeviceLinks one at a time, to align with the new target.
About color setups
A color setup is the virtual structure you build to define the color relationship of all the devices in your printing task. It includes: device condition(s), a simulation target, and color control elements such as DeviceLink profiles and curves.
A color setup manages how its device conditions simulate the Primary Color Output (PCO). If those device conditions change, the relevant color control elements are automatically adjusted.
About snapshots
A ColorFlow snapshot captures the status of the entire colorstore, making its elements available to the Prinergy workflow. Prinergy can only access ColorFlow color control elements that have been captured in a snapshot.
The snapshots feature makes it unnecessary for you to manually save and name multiple versions of individual color control elements after creating and adjusting them. When you capture a snapshot, the current state of all color control elements in all color setups are captured and made available in Prinergy. At any time, you can revert to the state of a previous snapshot. When you revert to a previous snapshot, all color setups are restored to their state at the time the previous snapshot was captured. Any color control elements and color setups that you created after the snapshot that you revert to are deleted
Important: Since snapshots capture the entire colorstore instead of individual color setups, when you approve or revert a snapshot, multiple color setups may be affected.
You specify a snapshot in the refine process template or output process templates in Prinergy.
By default, the approved snapshot is used for all Prinergy jobs. If you are creating a Prinergy job for testing or for setting up the color on a device for the first time, you may want to select a snapshot that you captured after the approved snapshot, in order to test the output.
During testing, it is best practice to capture a snapshot after each change you make in order to easily identify the result of your changes.
When you are satisfied with the color control elements in all color setups, you can capture a snapshot and approve it. Only one snapshot can be in the approved state at any time.
How Prinergy uses ColorFlow elements
You choose a Default Job Color Setup in Job Attributes when you create a job.
Or you can choose to manage ColorSetups in Refine and Output Process Templates, selecting the desired Color Setup and Snapshot under the ColorFlow section of the Process Template.
Note: Your instructor, service representative, or system administrator will supply a user name and password, and tell you which server and Prinergy volume to use.
The following procedures describe how to complete this activity.