Sun Chemical will retire its SmartColour brand from the marketplace and will transfer all current customer licenses to the new PantoneLIVE eco-system from X-Rite/Pantone.
“Sun Chemical’s patented SmartColour technology and colour databases are a key foundation of the new PantoneLIVE solution. We firmly believe that the universal appeal of the Pantone and X-Rite brands, coupled with these SmartColour and IP underpinnings, are the leading reasons why Sun Chemical now fully endorses PantoneLIVE for the packaging market,” said Felipe Mellado, Chief Marketing Officer, Sun Chemical. “Moving forward, Sun Chemical will continue to be a major contributor to the initiative and in the category of ink supplier will become X?Rite/Pantone’s ‘preferred partner’ for PantoneLIVE.”
While users of any ink will be able to capitalise on the system, the implementation of PantoneLIVE in the pressroom will be easier and faster with Sun Chemical inks because of Sun’s initial contribution. The ink formulations behind PantoneLIVE are already known, and these digital targets are shared efficiently within the Sun Chemical global network. Every PantoneLIVE colour request to Sun Chemical will be created using this global platform.
Since PantoneLIVE’s colour definition is derived from real ink on real substrates with real printing processes, brand owners can predict from their design concept how their brand colours will reproduce on a wide variety of substrates, from recycled carton board to clear film or white polypropylene.
PantoneLIVE licensees can take advantage of Sun Chemical’s intellectual property in the field of digital colour communication. Starting from real colours, and enabling full digital colour communication across the workflow, PantoneLIVE now makes it possible for digital proofs to be colour accurate for almost all spot colours, and allows remote approval from anywhere in the world without concerns about costly colour adjustment.
“When packaging developers and printers mismatch a brand’s spot colour, the error may appear at the proofing or printing stage - leading to multiple proofs and adjustments before the customer approves the job,” said Patrice Aurenty, Business Leader, Colour Management at Sun Chemical. “Such mistakes are not only expensive, but they frequently lead to delays in product release and order fulfillment, mounting up losses in sales. PantoneLIVE solves this costly problem by dramatically speeding up colour approval by improving press make-ready time and achieving the right colour the first time on press.”
Originally launched in October 2007, SmartColour has been a successful system combining consulting support, customized brand color standards, software, database systems, and online collaboration tools to create a user friendly and truly revolutionary approach to managing spot colors for the packaging workflow.
Sun Chemical had announced partnerships around SmartColour with Esko Artwork and GMG Color in the past, and is now transferring the technology rights and leadership position to X-Rite and Pantone, which bring a large and growing contribution to the development of PantoneLIVE. This new eco-system will enable a fully integrated packaging workflow capable of communicating real colours on real substrates everywhere—at the click of a mouse.