Fujitsu to Help Printing Industry Reduce Ink with InkFit Software

Tokyo, February 07, 2012

Fujitsu today announced the release of InkFit, a software package developed for the printing industry to reduce the ink used during printing. The new software will be available starting in early February.

When equipped on a system that generates printing data, InkFit analyzes image data composed of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) channels, and can convert it into color combinations that will use the least amount of colored ink. The image quality produced as a result of this process is comparable to conventional printing, except that it becomes possible to reduce ink by 15–30%⁽¹⁾ from the total volume used. In addition to cutting costs through ink reduction, the new software shortens drying times and reduces stains to both printing equipment and printed matter, thereby enabling lower labor costs.

InkFit is a new software package that reduces color ink usage in order to reduce printing costs. Past attempts to reduce ink usage have generally not been successful at maintaining image quality, but by minimizing usage of cyan, magenta, and yellow color inks used, and compensating for the difference with black ink, which has been calculated using Fujitsu's proprietary color-matching technology, the new software achieves both equivalent image quality and a reduction in ink usage.

Product Features

1. Ink usage reduced by up to 30%

Fujitsu's proprietary color-matching technology analyzes the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black channels that make up image data and converts them in a way that results in both minimal change to the colors and minimal use of colored inks. For example, a given shade of gray might be represented as 70% C, 70% M, and 70% Y, but this software can convert these to 5% C, 30% M, and 30% Y. This means total ink savings are in the range of 15–30%.

2. Consistent printing results

With grays and other shades that use the four ink colors in large quantities, color variations occur with even the slightest difference in volume of each type of ink. For that reason, reducing the volume of ink enables the stable printing needed to reproduce colors. Consistency in color reproduction when printing helps to reduce paper required for color matching when setting up a print job.

3. Reduced ink staining

Reducing the volume of ink required to produce colors that ordinarily require large quantities of ink, such as process blacks, which are produced as a combination of cyan, magenta, and yellow inks, helps avoid problems like show-through⁽²⁾ and scuffing⁽³⁾, which can be caused by excessive ink usage. This also reduces staining of the printing press itself, which leads to lower cleaning costs.

4. Shortened drying times

Less ink used means shorter drying times for printed matter. This makes it possible to accelerate other tasks and shorten labor time.

Pricing and Availability

Pricing and Availability

Product Name	Pricing	Release Date
InkFit	Open pricing	Early February

Sales Targets

Sales of JPY 300 million by the end of FY 2013 (Fujitsu's fiscal year ends March 31)

Key Specifications

Key Specifications

Software size	30 MB
Programming Language	Java
Resulting profile format	ICC (device link profile)
Operating environment	Any PC/AT compatible computer running Microsoft Windows 7. The profile generated by InkFit is used by raster image processors capable of handling ICC device link profiles.