ORIS Color Tuner 5 passes the Altona Test

The PDF/X-3 test form from the European Colour Initiatiive defeated the best efforts of international RIP manufacturers – until CGS got serious.

RIP producers were first confronted with the Altona Test Suite 1.0 from the Bundesverband Druck (German Association of Printers) during the Digitaldruck Forum in Stuttgart in October 2002. The downloadable test form (www.eci.org) consists of three parts: Measure (with ECI2002 chart, colour control and tone value bars), Visual (visual evaluation) and Technical (technical evaluation).













The focus of the test is on correct processing of PDF/X3 files. The first page of the Altona test suite is used to check the adjustment of the printing process to standardised procedures for full colour and tone value application. The test also contains criteria for visual evaluation, focusing on the representation of colours, the interpretation of ICC profiles for RGB to CMYK image conversion, reproduction of duotone images and correct processing of rendering intents and source profiles in PDF/X-3 files.

In the technical part correct overprinting of process and spot colours is checked with a total of 864 test patches.

During the forum in October none of the participants passed the test. But within a period of months CGS, creators of the industry-leading ORIS range of prepress software, came back with an upgrade that passed with flying colours.

Now Olaf Drümmer from callas software, Berlin, a member of GAP, says: "It is impressive to see in how short a period of time CGS has enhanced Color Tuner 5 to correctly process the Altona Test Suite. All test patches are reproduced correctly. We congratulate CGS on this result and consider it as a confirmation of our work for the test scenario. This is one more milestone in the process of establishing the PDF/X-3 standard."

"CGS has spent considerable development resources to implement the PDF/X-3 standard in all ORIS products. The new versions of ORIS Page and ORIS Works also process PDF/X-3 documents," reports Marketing Manager Klaus Eickhoff. ORIS Color Tuner 5 is available now from CyraChrome.

"Whilst we are still working to fully familiarise ourselves with the Altona test suite, we recognize it as the most sophisticated PDF/X3 quality standard available," said Andy McCourt of CyraChrome. "We will be proofing the Altona 1.0 visual reference proof at PrintEX and adding it to our stable of colour management and workflow calibration tools in the near future."

According to the ECI, the Altona Test Suite 1.0 offers a unique method to test components and systems in digital prepress workflows for their capability to process PDF/X-3, all with relatively little effort. While initially targeted at digital proofing systems, the Altona Test Suite 1.0 is equally well suited for evaluating PostScript and PDF RIPs as well as any other component involved in a digital workflow. Even for somebody not yet ready to use PDF/X-3, the Altona Test Suite allows users to quickly and clearly identify weaknesses and limitations of currently used solutions with regard to processing PostScript 3 and PDF 1.3.

The ORIS product family is used by printers, newspapers and repro houses in Australia and all over the world to increase productivity.
It range of products includes:

• ORIS Page
• ORIS Works
• ORIS Check
• ORIS Color Tuner
• ORIS News

The Altona Test Suite Visual sb