Colour Analysis

Background

Within many print shops, colour-capable devices are used both in the colour and black and white modes. It is important that online quotations are able to accurately reflect the actual colour/mono content and format of jobs to avoid the Print Shop incurring colour click charges for mono or blank pages.

The problem

At trade shows visitors would frequently highlight a problem with work submitted which customers assumed to be black and white only but that in fact was a mixture of greys with perhaps the occasional hyperlink thrown in for good measure. This was a particular problem in the education sector. Without a simple, speedy way for the operator to check the colour content the job could be submitted to a colour capable device resulting in a high click charge that could not be easily recovered.

How we fixed this

We introduced a new capability to the upload utility that scans a document and produces a colour analysis report of each page available to both user and print room operator. The print room could with confidence send a requested B&W print job to a colour-capable device knowing that the job was, in fact, true B&W.

Results

• Production could review the entire job quickly and simply check and see any colour pages

• A user could be shown where colour existed, and allow them to re-visit their document if required to remove the colour element

• Print shop remove unexpected click charges