X-Rite, Incorporated announced a series of enhancements to its InkFormulation software (IFS). Developed for ink manufacturers and printers who formulate their own ink, X-Rite’s IFS provides fast, accurate and consistent formulation for offset, flexographic and gravure inks. The new version of IFS supports the next generation of CxF (Color Exchange Format), the file format for color communication. It also features the Pantone Goe System, the Pantone Matching System and HKS digital libraries.

X-Rite’s InkFormulation software provides a powerful, high-end ink formulation engine that makes it possible for users to measure a color and quickly obtain the ink recipe without having to go through a cumbersome and expensive trial-and-error process. This drastically reduces waste and shortens the downtime required for on-press corrections. With X-Rite’s InkFormulation software, printers that until now did not have in-house ink formulation capabilities will be able to save both time and money by streamlining the ink mixing and matching process.

“When printers need special colors, any delay in getting the right ink on press can cost them precious time, as well as cause customer satisfaction issues and missed deadlines. Our InkFormulation software lets ink suppliers and printers efficiently share color data and speed the formulation process using an intuitive user interface, networked databases and Internet communication,” explains Tobias Rausch, X-Rite’s product manager for prepress and pressroom solutions.

Thanks to a sophisticated math engine that provides better prediction of ink interactivity with substrates, IFS is able to rapidly calculate the optimal and most cost-effective recipe based on the printing process, ink, illumination, pigment pricing, and number of components and materials to be used.

The newest version of IFS now also supports the next generation of CxF, a file format designed to accurately and unambiguously communicate all commercially significant aspects of color across devices, applications, industries and geographies. At each step of the process, colors are defined and stored as CxF files so that they can be seamlessly and faithfully exchanged between instruments and applications throughout the printing workflow, allowing for effortless digital color communication from design to production to print.