A good understanding of digital colour management is core to a printer’s success these days. So should you be enrolling on what is Europe’s first specific colour management course for the printing industry? Launched by The Centre for Industrial Collaboration (CIC) in Digital Print and backed by the University of Leeds’ Department of Colour and Polymer Chemistry and Leeds College of Technology, the ‘Concept of Colour Master’ course has been designed to ensure that the UK’s printers remain at the forefront of this rapidly evolving industry. As commercial manager Dave Williams points out: “We developed this course to reverse the decline of true expertise in colour as a result of the rapidly changing technologies facing the UK’s print industry. We want to encourage businesses across the UK to send an employee, from junior level right through to senior management, to take the course and help the UK stay ahead of our international competitors. “The University of Leeds is one of the world’s leading centres of expertise in colour sciences and reprographic technologies, so it makes sense to hold this prestigious course there. Students of the Colour Masters course will use the latest technology to learn printer and press colour management, printer colour profiling, proofing, profile quality and editing, colour measurement and digital imaging techniques and applications.”

The course has something for everyone, having been categorised into three stages: basic, intermediate and advanced, with each stage lasting for three days. Based at Leeds College of Technology, applicants will cover theory and practical elements involved in colour application specifically for a printing environment.

Importantly, all three courses include the use of the printing college’s presses and ancillary equipment, enabling students to accurately calibrate press profiles, ensuring consistency from artwork and proofing to final output.

The basic stage (Level 1) of the Colour Masters course is aimed at beginners, although students will be expected to have a basic knowledge of printing and workflow applications, but will learn more about the principles of colour vision and colour reproduction in computer displays, scanners and printers. They will also be given hands-on experience of calibrating and profiling scanners and monitors and an insight into subtractive colour mixing and colour-managed proofing.

At intermediate level (Level2) students will learn to create, test and optimise ICC profiles using high-end colour management software. They will be given hands-on experience of printer profiling, proofing and designing the targets for colour quality control in Photoshop and an insight into separation settings, linearisation, calibration and choice of medium, screen and inks. Advanced level (Level 3) students will receive in-depth tuition in profile creation and editing, gamut mapping options, photometry, densitometry, colorimetry and spectrophotometry. They will receive hands-on experience of calculating densities, dot gain and trapping, custom built profiling targets and metamerism and gain an insight into bits and pixels, reading histograms, image compression, linework and halftone resolution.

And that’s not all you get for your £1,800 course fee – after completion of each course, a colour scientist from the University of Leeds will visit the delegate in their own work environment to ensure that the lessons from the course are being implemented and to assist with any queries. Completing all three stages of the course will entitle businesses to one year’s free membership of the Digital Print CIC.

“We believe the Colour Master course will help companies identify improvements and efficiencies in colour management and quality control and troubleshoot any technical problems that may arise along the way. It is a fundamental part of Digital Print CIC’s service portfolio for customers and we are looking forward to using the platform to create an evolving programme of courses and literature for customers across every aspect of print and printed packaging,” says Williams.

He adds: “Our aim is to evolve this course to become a prestigious industry benchmark, assuring businesses that those with the qualification are able to deliver on their colour promise.”

Yorkshire Forward has established 14 Centres of Industrial Collaboration (CICs) to help businesses harness the innovation and cutting edge technical expertise of some of the world’s leading research facilities. If you want more information about the Colour Master course visit www.cic-digitalprinting.com.

Back to top