In recent years, as digitization of graphic-related industries such as printing, design, etc. has progressed, numerical control of the color of printed materials from printers and printing presses rather than relying on visual evaluation has become increasingly important.
Many kinds of paper used for printing contain fluorescent whitening agents (FWAs) to make the paper appear brighter, and the effect of the paper fluorescence on the color of printed materials is particularly large when viewed under Illuminant D50 which is used as the standard in the printing industry. However, until now there has not been a handheld spectrodensitometer that can measure and quantify colors with the fluorescence adjusted as if under Illuminant D50.
The Fluorescent Spectrodensitometer FD-7 and FD-5 being introduced this time are equipped with Konica Minolta's original VFS (Virtual Fluorescence Standard) technology that enables color evaluation taking into consideration the fluorescence of paper under Illuminant D50^*3, the standard light source used by the printing industry for color evaluation^*4.
Since introducing a compact handheld colorimeter in 1982, Konica Minolta has developed and manufactured various kinds of color-measuring instruments for color quality control in diverse industries for products such as automobiles, household appliances, textiles, etc. as well as for displays such as TVs, monitors, etc., and has achieved a top share in many areas. The new VFS technology takes advantage of the optical, sensor, and software technology cultivated through our long experience with color-measuring instruments to enable virtual measurement under a variety of light sources while including the influence of fluorescence.
In addition, this product is equipped with an automatic wavelength calibration function that enables the measurement wavelength compensation currently performed during manufacturer maintenance to be performed at the same time as daily white calibration to always provide high-reliability measurements. Plus, this product weighs only approximately 350g which is around half of the weight of conventional spectrodensitometers, making it the world's lightest display-equipped spectrodensitometer.

Konica Minolta Sensing will continue to provide useful products and services utilizing advanced sensing technology to support the progress of digitization and demanding color control in the drastically changing printing industry.

*1

The phenomenon in which UV energy is absorbed and re-emitted as energy in the visible-light region.

*2

For a spectrodensitometer equipped with a built-in display. As of June 25, 2010.

*3

An artificial light source defined by the CIE having a spectral distribution simulating daylight commonly used for color measurement.

*4

Color evaluation including fluorescence under Illuminant D50 is specified in ISO 13655 (2009), a standard used in the graphic arts industry.

The 2009 revision of ISO 13655 (Graphic technology -- Spectral measurement and colorimetric computation for graphic arts images) describes standards for color evaluation including fluorescence under Illuminant D50 (daylight with a correlated color temperature of 5000K). In this standard, Measurement Conditions M0, M1, M2, and M3 are defined with different illuminants, but until now only instruments conforming to M0 (Illuminant A, the same as is used for density measurements) and M2 (Non-polarized light with UV-cut filter to measure with only light in the wavelength range of 400nm or higher) were available and there were no instruments conforming to M1 (Non-polarized light matching Illuminant D50 or measurement corresponding to D50).
The Spectrodensitometer FD-7 developed this time is the world's first M1-type instrument, utilizing Konica Minolta's original VFS (Virtual Fluorescence Standard) to provide measurements corresponding to D50.
In addition, optional PC software enables easy evaluation of conformance to ISO 12647-2, an international standard for offset printing.

With spectrophotometers, white calibration is performed as part of the daily work, and this calibrates the spectral reflectance coefficients (vertical axis in the graph at right). The new Spectrodensitometers are equipped with the industry's first “Automatic Wavelength Compensation” function which automatically calibrates in the wavelength direction (horizontal axis in the graph at right) when white calibration is performed.
In this way, the wavelength compensation that was conventionally performed during manufacturer maintenance can now be performed as part of daily work, greatly improving the reliability of measurement values.

In addition to spot measurements of density values or colorimetric values, manually scanned measurements are also possible when the instrument is connected to a PC. The density/colorimetric measurements (at printing site) and color-patch scanning that previously required two different instruments can now be performed with this single instrument.

If the illumination environment under which evaluations will be performed is measured, colorimetric values under that light source can be displayed. This enables numerical evaluation of printed materials in a light box as well as under any other type of illumination conditions.