About

Chuck Spontelli (Owner) – Print Color Specialist

Chuck has worked in some facet of the printing industry his entire career. He is a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, with a Master of Science from the School of Printing. He is an Associate Professor Emeritus at Bowling Green State University. Chuck taught courses in printing technology and color applications. Chuck and Bill Birkett have been doing color calibration for printing research since 2003. Bill and Chuck created the Colorimetric Tone Value which is now Spot Color Tone Value (SCTV) – an ISO standard (ISO 20654:2017). The SCTV measurement is included in color instruments sold world-wide. They also developed the Optimal Method for calibrating color printing systems (Offset, Flexo, and Digital). This is a method to create optimized calibration curves that direct a printing process to match a desired reference. e.g. ICC Printing Profile. Printing calibrated with this technique matches a color managed proof better than calibration with near-neutral or TVI.

Precise Color Proofs

Because print buyers demand it, it is essential that all color printing processes print predictably and consistently. We help printers do just that. Printing predictably means matching pre-press color proofs and a customer’s brand-colors. In critical color printing situations, it is typical for the printer to ask a client to approve and “sign-off” on a certified hard-copy ‘contract’ proof.

Because inkjet devices have a larger color gamut than CMYK-offset, most color proofs are printed with color managed inkjet. We meticulously profile inkjet printers for color management and proofing. We developed PressCal free calibration software and the Optimal Method. To insure the best possible match between the inkjet proof and any printing standard e.g. GRACoL 2013, our FREE PressCal software creates calibration curves for the most common Digital Front Ends DFEs from FUJI, XITRON, KODAK, ESKO, AGFA, EFI, HP, HARLEQUIN, and SCREEN. We use color management (profiling) to match the inkjet proof to a reference standard e.g. GRACoL2013. We use curves created by the optimal method to match the press to the proof.

Press Calibration with Optimized Curves

PressCal is a powerful software tool for building tone reproduction curves. It began as a demonstration of the Optimal Method, and now supports the older legacy methods, TVI, G7, and SCTV. PressCal uses standard mathematical techniques employed by scientists and engineers, to make perfect curves for any printing process. It’s now the best curve building tool available, and it’s free.

PressCal is also an effective color printing analysis and development tool for print color specialists. The color calculations and data delivered by PressCal can provide valuable insights into a multitude of interactions between the many variables of a multi-color printing process. It will tell you how well you are matching any standard printing reference.

We (the authors) are practicing print consultants. We developed PressCal based on our experience with clients. We like our consulting work, and don’t want to be in the software business. Our business model is very straightforward. Our software tools are free. If you want our help using them, we charge for that. We hope our users will be, or will become, self-sufficient.