Master Targets?

[I Branding]

Hey guys now I have been in the printing industry for 11 years, and currently I am employed at a job where I am being asked to print color targets every week before production starts for visual purposes. To me it is unnecessary to print these color targets. I have a proof control software that when I start a roll I print a little ideal alliance color strip according to the gracol icc standard and read it into the proof control software which basically measures against my profile that I have created. We have large wide format printers and are spitting out full wraps all day, I have never seen or heard about standard industry master targets to print out for visual purposes. Can anybody help me out or explain this to me?

 

[Correct Color]

Well it doesn't have to be an industry standard to work. It just has to provide an accurate representation of how the printer is currently printing versus some kind of verified standard. If they're having you print a visual target and compare it to a known original, there's no reason that couldn't be every bit as effective as your software generated test.

It'd depend on the target how effective it is at accurately showing any drift.

(Edited to add: Oh, and yes, before I developed Certified Correct Color, I used to tell my clients that the best way to check for drift was to keep the test images we printed, run them again and check them against the originals I printed. Bottom line is always if the greys are dead on, the machine hasn't drifted; if they've moved, there's a problem. I still think personally that's a perfectly valid test.)