Spectrophotometer is the word

Here is a press release that I just did for a packaging service that I am going to offer. I invested in an X-Rite spectrophotometer because it is the ultimate prepress gadget and also takes some of the subjectivity out of doing color matches. The companies that really care about color (like Coca Cola) use these when they go on press so I thought that smaller companies can benefit from the technology too. You just can't blindly use it, but to be able to tell the pressman that the ink in the press will never make the standard on the first color pull is huge in my opinion. Let me know what you think.


CARMEL, NY, March 17, 2009 – Barry Sanel, a respected printing and packaging solutions executive with over 20 years of industry experience, announces customer press approval services uniquely geared towards the Flexographic Industry using X-Rite’s new SpectroEye spectrophotometer color management tool.
Consumer product companies (CPCs), now more than ever, are looking for flexo printers to be able to match ink standards set by offset litho or rotogravure printing. Barry Sanel Packaging Advisors can now establish quickly and easily if a mixed or process color will ever match the standard at any density after the first press-pull.
By using X-Rites best-match feature, the color hue can be matched more closely to the standard across different processes and substrates; such as flexible package printing, paper or pressure sensitive label, preprint & direct print corrugate, metal & plastic closure and foil printing.

“This is a critical step when trying to achieve a consistent look across the many different kinds of packaging a brand may use,” Sanel noted.

Many times, the brand manager while on press is challenged by hitting color targets and has to labor through hours of press-pulls. The printer also suffers with lost productivity. This service removes subjectivity, cut hours out of the press approval process and provides high quality feedback to both the printer and the customer.

How this service works:
Barry Sanel Packaging Advisors will attend your first press run, with or without your customer present and validate the color on press until the closest match possible is made to the approved standard. A comprehensive report will be provided detailing each press-pull until the print standard is achieved. When requested, we can communicate the match in any colorimetry standard such as: CIE L*a*b*, E* CIELAB (delta-E) etc. . .

"In my years within the packaging industry, I have seen many print jobs go over budget or get delayed because of color matching trial and error. My service eliminates this guesswork.”

Barry Sanel Packaging Advisors is located in the New York City suburb of Carmel, NY. Contact Barry at 845-228-5556 or barry@barrysanel.com.

Top Ten Myths about Sustainability

Recently, Scientific American posted an interesting and well written article on the Top Ten Myths about Sustainability written by senior science writer Michael D. Lemonick.  

As people who create and sell packaging it is important to not sell our products as being "Sustainable" Which Mr. Lemonick points out at the beginning of the article,  "The word has devolved into a meaningless cliché, or it has real conceptual heft. “Green” (or, even worse, “going green”) falls squarely into the first category. But “sustainable,” which at first conjures up a similarly vague sense of environmental virtue, actually belongs in the second." 

The point to be made as it relates to packaging is that no amount of packaging reduction is going to save the environment or the earth as long as the goal is to increase sales. Packaging, at best, along with cars and energy can only continue to be made more efficient to a degree and as he points out is not an easy concept to wrap a consumers head around.