Spot Matching System (SMS)

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SMS for design and advertising

Getting started with SMS colours

SMS BLOCKS

SMS for print

Printers (in all categories)

SMS test forms

SMS READY or not?

The Spot Matching System, both our Standard and ECO colour palettes, as well as custom SMS colours, are adapted to be completely seamless whether the colour is printed on coated or uncoated substrate or if they are displayed digitally on displays or monitors capable of displaying at least 45% NTSC/60% sRGB.

The colours are optimized for reproduction/printing in full accordance with ISO 12647-2.

In short, this means that any print shop that is capable of printing correctly according to ISO 12647 within a dE00 of 3 is qualified for an SMS READY certification for sure. SMS READY certified print shops are entitled to offer their customers to use SMS colours in design to be printed at the print shop, - and they are trained to check incoming jobs to make sure that all SMS colours are correct, before going to press, - and how to use the SMS READY control strip to check if the job is correctly prepared for the destination substrate, whether there are SMS colours included within the job or not.

See further information for print shops at www.spotmatchingsystem.com/printers and www.spotmatchingsystem.com/services.

Digital / hybrid Printers note: Here is a very useful handbook that describes how you can adjust your digital presses to print according to the ISO 12647 on your digital presses, - PSD - Process Standard Digital.

Printshops (Offset, Flexo, Gravure, Digital)

ISO 12647-2/3

ISO 12647-3 is the global standard for coldset, newspaper printing. Our SMS ECO colours are optimized for newspaper printing to this standard. Newspaper printers interested in offering printing of SMS ECO colours to their customers, please contact sms@spot-nordic.com for assistance.

ISO 12647-2 is the default printing standard for CMYK offset printing worldwide and consequently the printing standard to be used for correct reproduction of SMS Standard and SMS MAX colours (and of course our SMS ECO colour can also easily be printed correctly using these standards).

Most printers will be familiar with the Fogra 39, Fogra 47, Fogra 51, Fogra 52 or GRACoL CRPC3 and CRPC6 in the case of G7 printers. Designers may be more familiar with names of icc profiles, such as ISO Coated v2 or PSO Coated v3 etc. ISO Coated v2 is simply the name of the icc profile created for printing to Fogra 39 and PSO Coated v3 is the name of the icc profile that is made for printing to Fogra 51.

Print shops in all categories of printing (not only offset) that are able to receive PDF documents prepared using one or more of the supported ICC profiles for SMS colours, either for direct output and printing according to ISO 12647-2 or for CMYK-to-CMYK conversion to an in-house printing standard resulting in the same colour outcome, - visually identical to a certified proof according to ISO 12647-7-2016 for the respective substrate are qualified to be SMS READY.

Our goal is not to make things difficult for Print shops.

Quite the opposite actually. Our goal is to make life as easy as utterly possible for brand owners, designers/print customers and print shops.

To keep things as easy as possible for the customers of the printshops, SMS READY certified print shops have to be able to receive PDF's that contain SMS colour in CMYK format with one of the supported, standard icc profiles embedded to the PDF.

SMS READY workflow

At the design side there should be at least one SMS READY Expert to verify that all SMS colours within the layout are correct, once they have been converted to the CMYK destination gamut.

This should be enough information for an SMS READY print shop to know what papertype to use for the job and what colours the customer expects.

Again, print shops are free to use their in-house icc profiles and fingerprint even each press for itself. However, each press/printer has to be up to the task of printing our SMS colours correctly on the requested substrate, which the embedded CMYK icc profile dictates.

This however does not mean that print shops that print on non-standard substrates cannot print SMS colours on those substrates. As long as the colour gamut is large enough, an SMS READY printer can print on any substrate they wish.

SMS READY certified print shops can even supply their customers with custom icc profiles and assist them (if necessary) to convert their SMS colour correctly to the custom CMYK icc profile for each job.

The SMS READY control strip (see picture above) can always be checked against the supplied CMYK icc profile to make sure that it is in gamut.

The condition for the SMS READY certificate remains the same, regardless of substrate - a MAX dE00 or 3 or less for the SMS colour palette the print shop is certified for.

We have recently streamlined our test form and in fact changed it into a few colour patches that can be added to any job and printed along with the regular colorbar.

The SMS test patches can be downloaded free of charge here.

Please contact sms@spot-nordic.commfor a higher resolution version of the badge or further information..

In general
It is not a condition that the print shop has a formal PSO/PSD or G7 certification but we recommend formal certifications for print shops, just like we recommend taking advantage of the best available solutions available for process control in prepress and on press for best possible outcome.

A lot of companies insist on printing to ISO 12647 standards and it would simply not make sense for a print shop that is capable of printing the SMS colours NOT to offer printing to ISO 12647 standards, since that is only a simple matter of doing a quick in-house colour conversion from - say Fogra 39 to the in-house standarid for the respective press using a CMYK-to-CMYK device link icc profile.

This may sound awfully expensive and terribly time consuming, but actually any print shop can do this in-house during down time in prepress and the cost of the equipment required to create such device link icc profiles is only about EUR 7.000 or even less if you shop around.

You can take as much time as you like to create your device link icc profiles and once you are ready to get certified, just send us your measurements and we will issue the SMS READY certificate, valid for 12 months for your print shop.

It is simply up to each Printer to decide whether they are ready to commit to keeping SMS colours within a MAX dE2000 of 3, a MAX dE of 2 or even less. This depends a lot on the printing process but dE00 of 3 is the red line.

Print shops in all sectors of printing, interested in offering printing of SMS colours may want to consider buying the i1 Pro 3 profiling solution that Spot-Nordic offers to customers worldwide - see www.spot-nordic.com/qc, which is in our opinion the easiest and least expensive way to adjust printers and presses, analog and digital to universal standards, - enabling the same colour output from all your printers and presses.

We have put together appropriate icc profiling packages for print shops here and here for evaluation.

But to be on the safe side, contact info@spot-nordic.com and have a discussion about what substrates you are working with before you decide which option is right for you.

If you are confident your print shop is all set to go and that printing SMS colours will not be a problem at all, feel free to order your SMS READY certification.

You can then ask us to provide you with the correct SMS READY control strips ready for the print standards you are offering (typically Fogra or G7) - or use the opportunity and have one employee (the person that will be responsible for checking SMS colours and will be our contact person) first do the included SMS READY Expert training and then have him or her prepare the SMS READY control strips - and we will of course be right there to make sure that everything is perfect.

If in doubt, you can download our free SMS control strips here, convert them to your CMYK icc profile in Adobe Photoshop using Absolute Colorimetric Rendering Intent, print them and when you have reached the dE00 you are comfortable with on the presses where SMS colours will be printed, purchase your SMS READY certification - or order it from us.

Once your order has been processed we will ask you to send your results to sms@spot-nordic.com and following that we will issue your SMS READY certificate.

SMS READY certification for product manufacturers

Digital Displays/Monitors/TV displays/LED displays

Manufacturers in these categories that manufacture digital displays that can be calibrated with display calibrators such as the Calibrite or Spyder display calibrators and are capable of displaying at least the Home & Office version of the SMS colours - requiring the physical colourspace of the display to be at least 45% NTSC/60% sRGB (for a certification for the ECO (e), Standard Home & Office (o) and MAX Home & Office (xo)) - or 100% of the sRGB gamut for a full range SMS READY certificate - ensuring correct displaying of all 5 colour palettes of the Spot Matching System, can apply for an SMS READY certificate for their displays.