Equinox

Limit press downtime: eliminate color changes

Print brand colors accurately
with a fixed set of inks

Demand for shorter packaging production runs for targeted campaigns and product variations are increasing. The packaging printer needs to meet these challenges in a time and cost effective way.

By converting spot colors to a fixed ink set, you can reduce downtime between jobs and increase productivity. There are two ways of doing this:

• Convert spot colors to CMYK and eliminate spot colors where possible
• Standardize on expanded gamut (CMYK + 2 or 3 extra inks)

Benefits of extended gamut printing with Equinox

• Reduce inventory of spot color inks
• Less wash-ups on press
• Increased productivity with reduced downtime between jobs
• Enable ganging of jobs on press
• Achieve brand color matching across printing technologies

Our goal was to limit press downtime caused by color changes. By using the same set of inks for all print jobs, expanded gamut printing eliminates the need for wash-ups when switching jobs and it reduces make-ready times.

Cédric Ladroue, General Manager, Statim, France

Reduce printing costs with extended gamut printing

• No ink changes means more press uptime
• Thinner ink film increases press speed
• No color limits, you can combine jobs

Did you know?

Whether you are in the folding carton printing business or in the narrow web label printing, expanded gamut technology saves you an impressive amount of money and increases press uptime. Don’t just take our word for it; check the numbers below.

Choose your gamut

Equinox allows you to convert spot colors to CMYK as well as having the option of expanded gamut printing.

Depending on the print application and the requirements of the brand owner, a CMYK fixed ink set may be able to replace some or all of the spot colors.

Using Equinox you can easily work with the standard or extended ink set that best meets the needs of the brand owner. Equinox provides complete predictability on the gamut and accuracy you can achieve with any ink set, allowing you to make the optimal choice.

Extended gamut printing

Extended gamut printing allows you to print faster with superb quality while lowering your printing costs.

Equinox is Esko´s solution for the implementation of extended gamut printing. Equinox standardizes your printing presses on a set of inks of your choice. With this, you save on inks (and plates) for your packaging work and you save time as the press changeover workload between jobs is reduced to merely changing printing plates.

Want to know more about extended gamut printing?
is extended gamut printing?

Printing in an extended or expanded gamut means that packaging is not printed in a combination of CMYK and spot inks. Typically the press will be standardized on CMYK + 2 or 3 extra inks (e.g. orange/green/blue). By adding extra colors to the traditional CMYK range, printers can achieve more and better color.

With Equinox, printers do not have to change spot inks for each and every packaging job, so they are able to increase productivity of their presses while reducing costs of inks. At the same time, quality and consistency improve – fulfilling the needs of brand owners that are looking for reduced costs without compromising accurate colors and quality printing.

Use Equinox with the PANTONE® Extended Gamut Guide

The PANTONE Extended Gamut Guide gives a visual reference for printing a PANTONE color in expanded gamut. This will help designers and brand owners decide when to select extended gamut, CMYK or a spot color for their packaging.

Implementation of Expanded Gamut at the converter requires a good tool set and Equinox is the ideal solution. Based on printing process and substrate, Equinox can calculate the optimum color conversion to match the PANTONE Extended Gamut reference, and implement this in the workflow.

Equinox and the PANTONE Extended Gamut Guide are an ideal combination.

It is a major innovation being able to print PANTONE colors with just seven inks. Thanks to Equinox we can now offer higher quality, more saleable print with less color differentiation. We have boosted our color space and regularly use extended gamut printing. We are also saving an average of 25% in inks.