Techkon GmbH has released ChromaQA 7.5, expanding its color management suite with 18 new features across the Spec, Press, Standards, Admin, and Smartink modules. The new version is designed for print shops and brand owners who want to more precisely capture, evaluate, and document color quality during the production process.
The focus is on new capabilities for creating color standards, defining measurement points, and generating reports. Martin van Balkom, VP of Marketing at Techkon USA, says: “ChromaQA 7.5 offers more flexible color quality control for printers and brands than ever before.”
New Features for Measurement and Standards
In Chroma Spec, PDF or JPG files of the print artwork can now be integrated when creating templates. This allows measurement positions to be defined directly within the artwork. For press operators, this makes the print job visually traceable, while also enabling precise definition of measurement locations.
Another new feature is the ability to import print standards from ICC profiles. In addition to Chroma Standards, PantoneLIVE, and GMG OpenColor, Chroma Spec now also supports ICC v2 and v4 profiles as well as CMYK and multichannel profiles. CIELab values and TVI curves can be imported.
In Chroma Standards, users can generate customized drawdown reports and export them as PDFs or print them. For PantoneLIVE colors, the selection of illuminant and observer has also been added. ChromaQA then uses the corresponding CIELab target values during sampling.
More Analysis and Documentation During the Process
Chroma Press now offers a new reporting metric: Substrate Opacity. The target value and tolerance are defined in the template; measurements are taken against white and black. The opacity is then documented in the job results.
Chroma Admin now supports multiple scorecards for different evaluation logics, such as internal specifications, GMI, or brand-specific requirements. In addition, upper limits can be defined that no single color value may exceed. This allows for the detection of deviations that might remain hidden when considering only the average value.
Another new feature is the ability to deactivate individual color channels in standard color control strips. This is intended to simplify work by reducing the number of different layouts required. In Smartink, Colibri Colorant Sets can be imported, from which a suitable dye set is automatically generated. This saves manual work when creating new drawdowns.
Advanced Calibration and Correction Functions
Spectrocheck has also been enhanced. After calibration, a report can now be generated that includes reference values, measured values, and Delta E values. This additional documentation supports compliance with ISO requirements.
Other improvements include more precise Smartink corrections with the “Show in Cups” feature, sorting Color Books by name as well as creation and modification dates, master templates in Chroma Spec, and custom Delta E tolerances for individual colors in Chroma Standards. With these updates, Datacolor|Techkon continues to expand the suite, particularly in the areas of process control, standard management, and quality documentation.