Have you ever spent days, weeks, or even months waiting to get prints approved? Have you ever wondered whether the prints you are trying to colour match to are faded, damaged or weathered? All prints change over time. For this reason we should set a standard which will not change over time.

AVA QA facilitates accurate an instantaneous verification of digital or conventional prints against either another print or an objectively defined digital ‘standard’ or ‘master’ remotely.

Instead of generating copies of a proof at a remote location, then waiting while they are delivered by expensive couriers to sites hundreds, or thousands of miles away (or, worse still, having to travel to remote manufacturing sites in order to undertake on press approvals), AVA QA allows you to discuss prints with satellite sites secure in the knowledge you are all are looking at the same thing. AVA QA removes the risk of remote prints being affected by heat or direct sunlight or problems with a remote printer, inks or substrate and enables design, production teams and even customers to discuss prints remotely, secure in the knowledge that they are all talking about the same print.

The approved print receives instant pass or fail feedback and a unique reference which allows the customer to view AVA QA results for all prints in all locations via a web browser.

Installing AVA QA

The Mac® you install Productivity Manager on to will be the computer all other systems connect to and where all print information will be logged. This system does not need to be on site.  In fact it can be located anywhere in the world!

Firstly, it is important to ensure you are always using the latest version of AVA. AVA QA has a minimum requirement of AVA 4.16.

1. Install AVA as normal, then drag the Productivity Manager application from Applications > AVA nn to your dock.
2. Launch Productivity Manager.
3. Go to Productivity Manager Menu > Settings .  The following window will open.
   

Print Info

Enter the following information as accurately as possible.

• Job Print overhead - the amount of wastage you have per print. You should account for the amount of substrate you use in threading it through the printer upon setup.
• Ink Cost - this is the cost per litre of your ink cartridges.  The field below this can be used to record ink costs for special inks such as metallics and inhibitors.  So, inks which have a different cost to the rest of the cartridges. To add a special ink, click the + symbol under the field, and enter a name for the ink and price for the ink in pence.
• Acceptable Individual Delta E - set the colour tolerance of individual layers to be used in conjunction with AVA QA. Any differences above this number will fail the quality assurance.
• Acceptable Average Delta E - set the tolerance for the average delta E to be used as pass/fail mark in QA.

Users

Within this window, the administrator of Productivity Manager adds and removes users, and creates individual user passwords. Administrators may wish to consider user names such as Colourist, Designer. Separation Artist… as it is these names which appear in the activity log.

Web Set Up

1. For the highest level of security, tick Use HTTPS.
2. Choose whether to use a dynamic or static IP address.
3. If you choose to use a Static IP address, you should enter that address at the bottom of the window.
4. A hyperlink will now appear for that address. Click the hyperlink to see your logged information in your browser.
   
   

Feedback

• Send Crash Reports - ticking this option will automatically send crash reports from Productivity Manager to AVA’s technical team. This data is used to improve and develop the the software.
• Feedback name - this is the name attached to any crash reports which are sent to AVA’s technical team.
• Check for updates on launch - ensure you are always using the latest version of Productivity Manager.

Activating AVA QA

From AVA menu to Settings > Productiverty Manager, make sure that Log QA is checked.

Uploading reference data

This the set of colours your prints with be QAed against.  You need to have these colours in a ColourSys file, from the QA menu in ColourSys, go to 'Uploading reference Measurements' and give them a appropriate name.  You will then need to go to the Layout window print record in your browser and 'Attached Reference Measurements' then select your Measurements.

Validating a print

Read the corresponding colours from the print new print in to a new ColourSys file.  From the QA menu in ColourSys go to 'Validate Proof', the following dialog will appear. 

Type (or paste) in the Print Reference, this will be on the bottom of the print or can be copied from the record in the browser. The Descriptor is optional. Click Validate. If your print is accurate enough you will get a tick in the print record, see example below, to see this you need to look at the Layout print record in the browser (you might need to refresh the page if you were viewing it).

The print above passed as the dE errors are less than the tolerance set in my Productivity Manager Settings .  The print below failed, you can see that some of the colours are very different to what was expected and the individual and average dE is higher than my tolerance.  This could indicate that a head is blocked on the printer or that the profile is out of date or incorrect.