HI–FI COLOR

HI–FI WORKFLOWS

By Hi–Fi Color Workflow, we mean any workflow that involves printing with more ink colors than the traditional CMYK inkset. A typical Hi–Fi ink set might include CMYK plus orange and green, CMYK plus blue, orange, red, and green, or similar combinations. We sometimes refer to these as 6–channel or 8–channel color systems. We do not include systems that use only light cyan and magenta or dilute ink in the Hi–Fi workflow definition.

These Hi–Fi systems allow for a vast range of color output responses. These responses can actually be different from each other, and yet be still colorimetrically correct. The reason for these variations is that there are an enormous variety of different rules for color mixing. In order to ensure that you have access to the best possible color management tools, Wasatch's innovative implementation of multiple industry standards is essential. Only SoftRIP ensures access to all available color management options.

Straight Through Hi–Fi workflows
One alternative color management method allows the Hi–Fi color separation to be determined by software 'upstream' of the RIP. Wasatch SoftRIP accepts such jobs via the Hi–Fi Tiff, Hi–Fi PSD, and recombined DCS 2.0 file formats.

When a Hi–Fi file containing more than four channels is opened for a print mode that also has more than four channels (a Hi–Fi printer), most Wasatch color management is bypassed. Each color channel in the file is routed directly to the calibration curves for that channel. In this workflow, only linearization is handled by the RIP, which provides a separate linearization curve for every output channel.

RGB, CMYK, and CIE L*a*b* workflows
In these workflows, a traditional or non–HiFi color specification is received by the RIP, which then converts the color into a formula that utilizes Hi–Fi inks to increase color gamut or achieve other goals. Wasatch SoftRIP offers two main options for performing this transform.

One option is to use Hi–Fi ICC profiles produced by software from companies such as Monaco or Gretag. These profiles generate Hi–Fi ink information from the ICC profile's 'connection space'. The output from the ICC profile for each channel is routed directly to the calibration curves for that channel. These profiles can be created by using these profiling packages together with the straight through workflow described above. This combination provides complete flexibility.

The other option is to use RGB or CMYK ICC profiles pipelined with Wasatch SoftRIP's Separation Rule capability. The Wasatch Separation Rule may provide a benefits in areas such as ink limiting and optimization of ink usage to match halftoning.