Tradeprint is this year celebrating its 25th anniversary and has been part of the Cimpress family of businesses since 2015. One of the UK’s leading upload and print businesses, Tradeprint specialises in booklets, brochures and magazines, as well as clothing and merchandise. One their fastest growing categories is wide format, including rigid boards and flexible banners. The company is using GMG across their multiple HP Indigos, Canon high speed inkjet devices, litho long perfectors and flexible and rigid large format devices.
Greg Smith, Quality & Compliance Officer at Tradeprint, explains the impetus behind taking on GMG: “We had always managed colour directly within the artwork for consistency. As we lacked the ability to set artwork up specifically for each output device, we decided to leverage technology to bring our process up to date.” GMG ColorServer enables Tradeprint to build a library of output profiles by stock and device to ensure maximum consistency across their multiple devices and output conditions. “We’ve achieved reliable colour consistency without impact on customer files - this is leading to improved quality control and happier customers,” Greg adds.
Tradeprint Sales & Customer Success Director, Anthony Rowell, is also the company’s Sustainability Lead, so his focus was on what GMG could bring in terms of both efficiency and sales potential. He says, “GMG’s ink optimisation function helps cut the cost of consumables and reduce drying times to keep devices running at full speed.” GMG InkOptimizer reduces ink spend while maintaining colour quality. It does this through replacing expensive colour inks with black ink and preserving the integrity of the black channel for an enhanced grey balance. It additionally cuts wastage caused by streaking/mottling, while reduced inkjet head wear means less downtime.
Anthony continues: “From a sales point of view, it [GMG ColorServer] provides additional confidence and enables us to pursue higher end, more colour critical work.” Predictable and consistent colour is particularly important across the advertising, publishing and packaging businesses Tradeprint works with. They leverage technology to optimise production flows and keep print costs at a level where they are hugely competitive for their customers. Greg explains, “That’s why we work with GMG Color - to ensure we have world-leading colour management capabilities in house. It’s not just the software solutions but also the in-depth know-how from GMG that benefits us. We were impressed by their knowledge and commitment to getting the best out of the implementation for us.”
GMG ColorServer integrates into Tradeprint’s production workflow software; Files can be passed via their MIS system, enabling them to share ink optimisation in the workflow. Tradeprint are planning a further roll-out of GMG ColorServer. “As we bring additional manufacturing stream online, we will have GMG at the top of the list to support us with colour management. Next steps will be to introduce this to our third-party fulfiller network,” says Greg.
Paul Williams, Sales Manager at GMG Color concludes: “With such a varied set-up of digital and litho presses printing on different materials, and a discerning client base, Tradeprint were an ideal candidate for GMG ColorServer. Its core capability is standardising colour across multiple variables according to defined print standards. We look forward to building on the successful install and working more with Greg and Anthony at Tradeprint.”
