2026 Print & Packaging Color Management Training Session Successfully Held in Longgang

On the afternoon of April 15, 2026, X-Rite (Shanghai) Color Management Co, Ltd. together with Longgang Printing and Packaging Industry Association, successfully held the first session of the 2026 Printing and Packaging Color Management Training Course in the Printing & Graphics Town. More than sixty press operators, technical specialists, and quality management personnel from printing and packaging enterprises in Longgang and surrounding areas attended the training.

At the beginning of the event, Liang Xiaoke, Secretary-General of the Longgang Printing and Packaging Industry Association, emphasized that as Longgang transitions from "China's Printing City" toward cultural and creative sectors, color standardization has become a core competitive advantage for securing high-value orders and moving away from homogeneous competition. Implementing comprehensive process control reduces waste, stabilizes quality, and enables enterprises to excel in premium packaging and creative products, thereby advancing Longgang's printing industry toward higher-quality growth.

Wen Yantao, East China Sales Manager for Print & Packaging at X-Rite, shared insights on industry trends and end-to-end color management. He stated that shifting color evaluation from subjective experience to objective data is the fundamental solution to challenges such as unstable standards, process deviation, and batch-to-batch color variation.

Chen Chao, Key Account Technical Manager at X-Rite, then introduced the Autura cloud-based ink formulation system. The system rapidly generates spot color recipes, effectively mitigates metamerism, and enables the reuse of leftover ink. According to actual case statistics, ink waste has been reduced by approximately 35%, and press downtime has been cut by half following implementation. Chen also conducted a demonstration of advanced eXact 2 spectrophotometer functions, including plate dot measurement, color difference comparison, color library creation and retrieval.

Guo Sen, Senior Application Engineer at X-Rite, presented on closed-loop color across the print and packaging workflow. Addressing real-world issues such as color-related returns and makeready time, he outlined methods for converting physical standards into digital references, establishing reasonable tolerances, and building compensation curves for solid density and dot gain. He also emphasized the role of equipment maintenance in ensuring color stability. Guo further demonstrated the practical operation of the Rutherford pre-inking closed-loop system, the IntelliTrax2 scanning device, and MeasureColor quality control software, offering attendees a firsthand view of the efficiency gains enabled by automated color management.

Following this, Wen Yantao introduced the X-Rite Offset360 solution, an integrated offering combining hardware, software, and services designed to help offset pressrooms reduce makeready time and improve color consistency across shifts. Feng Nengfa, Product Manager at Kodak, shared insights on the application of Kodak ColorFlow software in color management, providing attendees with a multi-vendor perspective on workflow integration. The training concluded with a hands-on session and assessment. Participants brought their own eXact series instruments and, under expert guidance, performed color difference measurements, created color libraries, and inspected plate dot quality. Following the practical session, all participants completed an online examination covering the day's color management curriculum. Those who passed received a training certificate jointly issued by the Longgang Printing and Packaging Industry Association and X-Rite (Shanghai) Color Management Co., Ltd., validating their learning outcomes and supporting internal skills credentialing within their organizations.

Moving forward, X-Rite Pantone will continue to partner with the Longgang Printing and Packaging Industry Association to offer additional color management courses, supporting local enterprises in strengthening end-to-end color control and optimizing the IP industry chain. Through process innovation, we aim to drive business transformation—using the foundation of print to illuminate the brilliance of creativity—and contribute to the high-quality evolution of Longgang's printing industry.

About X-Rite Pantone
Founded in 1958, X-Rite Pantone is a global leader in the science and technology of color and appearance. Together with its Pantone business, X-Rite Pantone employs more than 800 people in 11 countries. The company’s corporate headquarters are located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, with regional headquarters in Europe and Asia and service centers across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas. X-Rite Pantone offers a full range of solutions used by manufacturers, retailers, printers, and graphic design houses to achieve precise management and communication of color and appearance throughout their processes. X-Rite Pantone products and services are recognized standards in the printing, packaging, graphic design, automotive, paints, plastics, and textiles. For further information, please visit www.xrite.com.

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