Spectrum 2011; What About Color?
Posted On Monday, January 24, 2011 at at 9:48 AM by Dianne Kennedy
i M back in my office. Dreaming of the beauty and warmth that accompanied the Spectrum Conference! But the good news is that now I can start planning for the upcoming IDEAlliance Primex Leadership Conference being held in Coral Gables, FL in late February.
For the past few years, color was a major theme of the Spectrum Conference. But this year, not so much! On the closing day of the conference someone, at a town hall asked “What about color?” The interesting response was that publishing to tablets is much more difficult than getting color fidelity ever was – who would think?
But seriously, Spectrum 2011 focused on “change” and “innovation,” and not on color. Sessions included “Building the Ultimate Premedia Workflow,” “Changes and Innovations with Print,” “Impact of Technology on Content Creation” and “New Media Channels and Standards.” The only session to address color at all was the “Monitors and Lighting Lab.” Of 6 pre-conference learning labs, only Don Hutcheson’s session on G7 addressed color. So, “What about Color?”
From my perspective, the big color issue was introduced by Mike Belknap, Art Director, Better Homes and Gardens in his luncheon session. Belknap talked about how workflows to support tablet publishing are quickly evolving. In terms of color, Belknap indicated that he works with his print product as the target. But when moving content to tablets, he has been unhappy with the color match. His interim solution has been to adjust color profiles on a device by device basis since there are no color profiles yet available for these new and bourgeoning digital delivery platforms.
When the idea of creating new color profiles for content delivery to the tablet channel was subsequently raised in a Spectrum town hall meeting, the response was mixed. Some believe color on these devices is as critical as it is for print. The example given was the importance of color when ordering from digital catalogs. Ken Pecca, Hearst Corporation dissented. According to Ken, color on his iPad is highly dependent on the environment where he is using his iPad. “And what is the effect of all those fingerprints?” One thing is clear; the IDEAlliance Print Properties and Colorimetrics Council will need to tackle the issue of color on tablets and set a course for the industry.
Dianne Kennedy
