PrintPlace.com Blog

Chicago, October 6, 2010 – Matt Louis, G7® Expert and Color Assurance Manager at PrintPlace.com, attended the IDEAlliance G7® Summit at GraphExpo and won the ISO 12647 standards gap analysis audit, conducted by KEE Consultants and sponsored by Alwan Color Expertise.

PrintPlace.com, a leading web to print provider, has aligned presswork with ISO 12647-2 based printing specifications since its inception in 2006. Although many of PrintPlace.com’s end users are unfamiliar with terms such as PSO, G7®, ISO 12647, Gracol® and Fogra, implementing best practices in print reproduction are nevertheless in the best interest of anyone involved in the print procurement chain. As more printers join the standards initiative, print buyers will continue to benefit from the common appearance of pages regardless of their chosen print providers. “Printing has been priced as a commodity for the past decade” says Louis, “but the way we manufacture print also had to become a commodity to enable automation and scalability. We produce thousands of pages per day and we know what every page should look like in terms of CIElab and process control aimpoints without even having to visually inspect the printed images. We are excited to have won the KEE Gap Analysis Audit to obtain measurable recommendations from a recognized expert source as to how we can improve our operation.”

Elie Khoury, founder and chair of KEE Consultants adds: “We are very happy to make our Gap Analysis Audit (GAA) available for North American printers in support to the PSA initiative (Printing Standards Audit and process certification) lead in the USA by IDEAlliance® and Rochester Institute of Technology. It is important for American printers who want to print to international standards to prepare themselves for the upcoming PSA certification, and KEE Consultants’ Gap Analysis Audit is the ideal and most cost effective way to start this preparation work.

About KEE Consultants
KEE Consultants is an International Network of Graphic Industry Leading Consultants and Experts founded by Elie Khoury, an internationally recognized French expert committed to implementing ISO standards in the Graphic Arts Industry since more than ten years.

KEE Consultants’ objectives are to promote, contribute to the development as well as implementation of Graphic Arts Industry Standards and to provide the industry with a reference platform and resource center for global consultancy, training and services.

KEE Consultants offer end-users, corporations and OEMs a wide range of on-line and on-site services including training, seminars, audits, preparation for certification, methodology and technical services related to color reproduction and quality assurance for graphic and industrial printing industries.
For more information, please visit:
www.keeconsultants.com
www.iso12647standardization.com

About Alwan Color Expertise
Alwan Color Expertise was founded in Lyon, France, in 1997 by the current President Elie Khoury. His vision – to demonstrate how important standardizing and controlling color is throughout every stage of production – has resulted in the company becoming a world leader in standardization and color management implementation. Today, Alwan provides software and consultancy to key players throughout the graphic arts industry, from printers to publishers and from software developers to hardware manufacturers.

Alwan offers a choice of four full-featured software solutions, CMYK Optimizer, PDF Standardizer, PRINT Standardizer and PRINT Verifier, each delivering specialized capabilities that enable all partners along the graphic production line to guarantee the color accuracy of their work, while ensuring optimum production further down the line.

Alwan has appointed specialist distributors for each of the targeted market segments. An ever-growing number of leading pre-press manufacturers are either bundling Alwan software with their products or recommending it with their systems.
For more information, please visit: www.alwancolor.com

About IDEAlliance
IDEAlliance (International Digital Enterprise Alliance) is a not-for-profit membership organization that has been a leader in information technology and publishing since 1966.

IDEAlliance advances core technology to develop standards and best practices to enhance efficiency and speed information across the end-to-end digital media supply chain – creation, production, management, and delivery of knowledge-based multimedia content – digitally and in print.
For more information, please visit: www.idealliance.com

About PrintPlace.com
PrintPlace.com specializes in high quality, fast turn, full color 100% offset printing. Backed by a proprietary automated ordering system with end-to-end manufacturing and shipping integration, the resulting efficiencies have allowed us to offer exceptional value to our expanding customer base.

We offer a user-friendly website with the industry’s most powerful and flexible instant quote tool.  Our workflow guarantees color management from proof to press. Proofs are instantly generated, at no extra cost, and orders can be tracked in real-time via your secure account on the website.

Operating from over 200,000 square feet across multiple facilities enables us to offer especially fast turnarounds, a benefit previously available only with digital printing.  Expanding to the West Coast has provided faster shipping transit times, with 1 and 2 Day Ground service to much of the country.

If you haven’t contemplated ordering your printing online, we hope you’ll consider us for your next printing project.  You can buy with confidence, as your orders are backed by satisfaction and on-time shipping guarantees.  Give us a call – we’re here to help!  Our goal is to make printing easy to order and affordable to everyone.
PrintPlace:  We’re Passionate About Printing.