Digital is the watchword. Because the era of approximation and arbitrary disputes is over. The future is looking to be dominated by new “communication media” like PantoneLIVE and innovative applications
and services like SunColorBox..

On the occasion of “Color, Art and Fragrances”, held on September 26th, hosted by Sun Chemical Italia, at the Ca’ del Bosco winery in Erbusco (BS), the importance of color was discussed, as well as the need to correctly “measure” it, manage it and better communicate it. In particular, the conference focused on the evolution of PantoneLIVE (real inks, printed using real technologies on real supports) and the solutions developed by Sun Chemical in its position as Preferred Partner (all shade libraries are made exclusively using its colors).

Beyond color… SunColorBox
Color is a marketing tool capable of transmitting emotion and, thus, of influencing product purchases. On this basis, Paolo Caiani, technical director of offset, UV and screen-printing inks, highlighted the value of color for brand owners (brand recognizability) and consequently, the importance of managing to accurately measure and reproduce it.
The human eye’s perception of color is highly subjective and difficult to quantify. The task is aided by technology and color theory, which, using mathematical algorithms, has managed to translate a process as complex as vision into a numerical datum (l-a-b coordinates).
Color is important, but accurately transmitting it is just as important, and via Internet, of course. For these reasons, Sun Chemical has developed a toolbox called SunColorBox designed to help better manage digital color, as explained Egidio Scotini, the concern’s technical director of liquid solvent and water-based inks.
Specifically, the first tool is SunColor Consulting, which represents the initial phase for the printer in creating the digital color flow and involves an audit of the converter’s facilities, a color management plan and a color audit.

The second tool is a proprietary software of Sun Chemical’s called SunDigiProof, which, based on Photoshop, enables faithful reproductions with an inkjet printer, the shades of which originate from their corresponding digital data.
The third tool, called SunDigiGuide, enables the converter to print from digital color catalogs and standard colors that are personalized and uniform, enhancing transmission of the color to customers.
Finally, the concern has designed SunColorHouse, in which SunMatch digitally links the printer to Sun Chemical to define the ink formulation, whether the converter has their own color lab or requires a ready to use product. What’s more, this network enables the printer to archive all its digital palettes in a space of their own, making it possible to share them with multiple production facilities.

PantoneLIVE, a communication tool for the entire supply chain
These tools, as Caiani explained, make it possible to definitively reach the heart of SunColorBox, PantoneLIVE, a radical change in digital color communication.
Pantone was originally created as an offset-printed paper reference catalog, with inevitable differences from one copy to another and, it goes without saying, widely differing potential assessments of the final results on the part of its various beholders: customer, graphics specialist, printer.
In order to eliminate these problems, Pantone defined the Standard Colors, digitizing Pantone shades and thus obtaining unequivocal reference data. Nonetheless, this says nothing about how the ink should be formulated, all the more so when the shades are reproduced on supports radically different from those used for the catalog.
And so was born PantoneLIVE, which, starting from the Pantone Master Standard, unequivocally defines dependent standards, obtained in collaboration with Sun Chemical, printing real inks on real supports, using real printing technologies.
In other words, with the Dependent Standards, which also contain information on half tones, variation from the master standard is defined, accepted and controlled according to the materials and process employed.
In such a way, not only are the standards much closer to the real conditions under which the operator works, but the graphics specialist who prepares the work layout also knows from the beginning what the final

Color, Art and Fragrances
The world of printing, on packaging and otherwise, gathered to talk about color… Sun Chemical Italia presided at Erbusco with care and attention to detail.
The choice of location was superb, the organization impeccable and the objective fully focused: offering, as noted by the multinational ink supplier’s managing director in Italy, Fabio Deflorian, a gathering of people and enterprises operating in diverse sectors, from publishing to offset printing for paper producers, from label printing to that on flexible packaging. An occasion for reflection together on how to guide the evolution of the printing sector in the direction of a sustainable business, first of all, but also one capable of carrying value for all members of the industry.

A bubbling encounter
The session dedicated to illustrating more technical issues was succinct and effective.
Following addresses by Massimo Battaglia, sales director of the concern’s offset inks division, and Marco Ferrari Dagrada, sales director of the liquid inks (flexible packaging) division, a Sun Chemical Italia video was shown concerning its production facility in Caleppio (MI), on the organization and structure of its research labs.
Next came a presentation on “Color as the expression of packaging” marked by outstanding clarity, given by the concern’s two technical directors, Paolo Caiani, for offset inks, and Egidio Scotini, for liquid inks, who fielded numerous questions from participants.
Things then quickly moved on to the social portion of the event, with a visit to the Ca’ del Bosco winery. Visitors were impressed by the care and precision with which the various processes are executed with the objective of obtaining an excellent product in terms not only of taste and smell but also of sulfite content (it is one of the few companies in the world that washes the grapes before fermentation and does not employ pumps for bottling).
A refined lunch with lively conversation followed, with warm goodbyes (and how could they have been anything but?).
To put it shortly, all in attendance appeared in the end “sobered” and satisfied.