Testimonials

Tiger Press - Taking Color Digital Press to the Top in it's Class

"I met Henry Freedman of Image Test Labs at a conference shortly after installing our Canon C10000VP Image Press. I was very impressed with his technology of testing the quality of the digital and offset presses. Henry provided us with some test to run on our new machine, and then he reviewed the results.

He sent us a detailed report outlining the performance of our machine and a list of things we need to do to improve the quality. He worked directly with Canon to bring our machine up to high quality standards. Today, our Canon digital press is amongst some of the top quality machines in United States. We will be testing the quality every three months to make sure its performance remains continually superior.

Without the test provided by ITL and their expertise, we could not be able to get the press quality we now do."

Reza M. Shafii, President TigerPress

FUJIFILM Benchmarks Future of Printing with Image Test Lab’s Image Grader

"As a leading developer of innovative products for the graphic arts industry, FUJIFILM utilizes the Image Grader from Image Test Lab (ITL) to benchmark the output coming from our printing systems including the FUJIFILM J Press 720S digital ink jet printing machine and the FUJIFILM 540W high performance ink jet web device.

ITL's Image Grader provides our print technical and marketing teams with standardized systems of measurements for interpreting specific output results and image quality within our product line and across multiple printing platforms. ITL's grading system confirms that our machines meet specifications we have set for each device, and allows for making comparisons between ink jet and offset printed output as well as other technologies for making comparisons regarding imaging characteristics.

As a neutral, third party testing source, ITL enables additional validation via their Image Grader. This reflects the real condition of the product output and identifies areas that may be out of specification in a very practical and easy to use method. The Image Grader system also helps to improve our overall results when working in our technical center and optimize the results we can produce for our customers.

FUJIFILM Image Quality is an uncompromising and unwavering standard; to date we have not seen anything that compares with the ease of use and practical method of application, or that provides a similar level of benefits provided by the ITL system. We receive valuable results from Image Test Labs Image Grader that we can communicate with applications for printed media."

Stephen Sanker, Director of Strategic Product Development, FUJIFILM North America, Graphics System Division

Stephenson Printing's Superior Quality Demands Special Skills and Tools

George W. Stephenson, President, Stephenson Printing, Inc., has for many decades delivered the highest quality printing to the most demanding customers in the commercial printing industry. Stephenson's management philosophy insisting on quality first requires hands on top managerial and technical oversight of the entire printing process. According to Stephenson:

"We have successfully run ITL grading on our offset, digital and proofing systems. In over 50 years of production printing I have never seen anything like ITL’s image grading...I want you to know just how impressed I am with Image Test Labs' image grading system. As of today, since this past October we have graded our Approval and GMC Inkjet proofing systems, our Xeikon dry toner digital web press, our HP Indigo liquid toner digital sheetfed press and our new Hi-speed Hi-Print Roland sheetfed press. We are currently using the Image Grader product on our Heidelberg full-web presses.

"The Image Test Labs grades have been extremely helpful in verifying or own internal testing and, in many cases, improving image standards. In fact, with one press, we were able to show the manufacturer specifically where their quality standard could be improved which led to us getting a much better use of our service program with them. Again, I am extremely impressed and just want to thank you for bringing Image Test Labs Image Grading system to Stephenson Printing."

George W. Stephenson, President, Stephenson Printing, Inc.

Benchmarking Presses at Cohber, Rochester, N.Y

Cohber is a highly respected, quality-dedicated commercial offset and digital printer in upstate New York. Eric C. Webber, Cohber’s President and CEO discusses here how Cohber uses Image Test Labs Image GraderTM to Benchmark its presses.

“In our case we measured two different NexPress devices, one HP Indigo device and one MGI device. The ITL Image Grader allowed us to compare the NexPress dry toner and the HP Indigo liquid toner. This allowed our team to see where the strengths and weaknesses were.

"At a later date when we wanted to benchmark our MGI for internal reasons, we were able to do so. The benefits we received included differences determined between devices, problem areas that we needed to address and operator education. As a result of the good benefits of the ITL, Image Grader, we recently purchased four more.”

Eric Webber, President and CEO, Cohber, Rochester, New York

Konica Minolta - Improving operational efficiency and continual improvement using ITL data.

"Konica Minolta established a joint program with Image Test Labs (ITL) over two years ago to evaluate image quality for Konica Minolta digital presses and competitive devices. There was simply no other product in the market like ITL's to grade and compare capabilities. They provided us an easy-to-use, affordable, PhD. level quality analysis with a unique image grading system. ITL testing services for device-to-device, OEM-to-OEM, and technology-to technology competitive analysis is now the standard for Konica Minolta Business Intelligence Services. ITL’s database of image quality grades provided us scientific evidence for research and development, contractual negotiation, requests for purchase, operational decision-making, and continual improvement activities. Most of all, it gave our customers sound data to make intelligent equipment purchases. Specifically important was ITL’s patented image test elements developed by ITL’s scientists to grade 11 key attributes of image reproduction quality.

We were confident ITL’s service would meet our technical requirements like no other solution. Because of ITL, we have now significantly reduced expensive onsite service activities to determine actual print image quality and engine performance. As well, the service is extremely efficient. Testing and analysis was executed completely online through ITL’s unique website. This allowed our customers, and our field support to access testing with minimal interruption to production schedules. Another benefit of the ITL was the image quality report card reviews directly with ITL’s scientists via webinar at no additional cost."

Jeffrey S. Collins, National Color Solutions Manager, Industrial Print Solutions Konica Minolta

Copy General, a Digital Printing Pioneer, Uses ITL for Testing Both Dry Toner and Liquid Toner Presses

Ahead of the curve, Copy General is a very early adopter of digital printing. Xerox worked with CopyGeneral for the testing and roll out of their iGen3 family of products. A well-run business with a success record to match, Copy General President, Ken Chaletzky, shares his feedback on Image Test Labs:

"This is the first tool I’ve seen that provides a really objective report on a specific press. For people who want to see how their presses are performing qualitatively, this is it. And, if I were buying a press, I would want to see one of these. It’s like a CarFax report for presses.

"I wanted to let you know how helpful ITL's Image GraderTM has been for us. We have used it several times to compare the performance of our Xerox iGen 150 press with our Indigo 7500. In addition, ITL has stored our original iGen3 presses' data and can compare these going forward in any future scenario. This gives us valuable information to help understand how we stack up and helps us manage our press performance. We also see great value in using ITL Image GraderTM before buying future equipment. As I have mentioned before, I see ITL Image GraderTM as sort of the CarFax for press buyers...."

Kenneth B. Chaletzky, President & CEO, Copy General

SuperWeb Digital - Super tuning DFE/RIP to Ink Jet Web Press and Papers Makes Quality Jump

"We met Image Test Labs (ITL) in the late of 2015 and from then, I knew they were going to benefit not only me, but my company. ITL is led by the fearless Henry Freedman who comes from years of printing and publishing and has been held in high regard in the industry for some time. Super Web being new to the digital inkjet market, was in need of analysis to help sell the innovative WEBJet™ 200D.

Quickly, we started to learn all about what ITL could do for us. We went on to purchased a resometer and learned how we could improve connection between our Press and it's DFE/RIP. addressing. We next applied ITL's ImageGrader for color measurement, adjustment and competitive comparison. Our prepress department learned how to find dpi of paper leading to a strong sample of our machine.

Finding that ITL was willing to analyze our samples to see how we sized in the market was a large success for us. ITL has a vast knowledge and intimate understanding of color and how it applies to paper. ITL changed the way we viewed our work and encouraged my staff to become more competent in coloring. We recommend ITL for this award because without them we would not have had the tools to move our product upwards."

Paul Schwartz, President SuperWeb

Gwin's - Delivered a baseline quality standard determining press performance throughout the term of agreements.

".... After installation of our second device and great effort to keep both units printing at similar quality levels consistently. We discovered Image Test Labs and immediately recognized the value of an objective system for measuring print quality in various categories through a simple grading system that is much easier to evaluate than complex measurements interpreted differently by different observers.

Exasperated, faced with unacceptable downtime and a vendor pressuring us to replace our second unit with a newer device they felt would be more stable, we searched for a way to agree on a baseline standard for quality, then have a way to retest print performance throughout the term of our agreement. We needed the vendor to provide a service click charge for that period and to maintain the quality we expected, with reasonable up-time over the life of our agreement.

Image Test Labs solved our problem. Their objective tests allowed us to verify the installation of the new device, identify a problem with color settings at the RIP during installation and provide a benchmark of reproduction at installation for comparison down the road as needed to verify machine maintenance. We would strongly urge you to consider Image Test Labs..."

Randy Osmon, General Manager Gwin's Commercial Printing

Xerox - A new way to se market while providing customers with an innovative game changer showing where they stand.

"How do you know if your image quality is good, great, or even deficient compared to the world in which you compete? How do you get a report that is easy to read and understand? How do you do this is a simple, low cost, easy way? Image Test Labs for me has been a great way to simply and cost effectively benchmark my print image quality across a population that before this service would have been impossible to achieve.

ITL is the only provider with this level of understanding and a reliable and proven database of content across device types and manufacturers. The report is turned around fast. It is clear and insightful. The consultation that you get from the ITL staff is outstanding – the level of insight provided in a word: amazing. These people know their stuff, the database they have amassed is incredible, the insight from the report is relevant, but, the ‘color commentary’ provided by the team and comprehensive report (yet simple to understand) is game changing.

Bottom line, I could not achieve this level of insight period. To attempt to do even a fraction of what ITL can provide would be order of magnitude more in cost, effort and time.

What ITL offers is truly unique, very innovative and a game changer for printers who want to really know where they stand is an easy, fast and low cost way."

Brian Segnit, Global Marketing Manager, Xerox Graphic Communications

NewPage Research and Development Evaluates Papers and Presses with Image Test Labs Image GraderTM

NewPage is an industry leading paper manufacturer of both offset and digital printing papers that work well with a wide variety of printing processes including offset, toner and inkjet presses. Jim Niemiec, Senior Manager Product Development, explains how the company uses Image Test Labs products:

"NewPage Research and Development is using Image Test Labs Image GraderTM in the evaluation of various commercial and developmental paper samples.

"Our experience has been that the uniquely numbered test files drop into digital front ends and workflows very easily. The system can be applied to the vast array of toner and inkjet hardware technology platforms which are of interest to our company for commercial benchmarking as well as new product development.

"The tests can be run very quickly and the grading is done by a neutral third party which provides valuable and objective feedback for R&D as well as marketing purposes."

J.P. Niemiec, Senior Manager-Product Development, Fine Papers and Digital Printing

Premier Press Keeping Image Quality at Best Levels for Customers

Premier Press is truly a premier commercial printing firm in Portland, Oregon. Scott Gorman, Premier's V.P. of Manufacturing describes how Image Test Labs Image Grader helps Premier manage its printing press equipment investments and new product purchases.

"I am very intrigued by the technology from Image Test Labs. They have run some tests and given reports from a couple different pieces of our equipment and I find the data to be valuable and a good way to benchmark how our equipment is performing compared to others in the market place.

"The test that was performed on our wide format inkjet printer showed us where we were deficient and prompted us to do some further testing to evaluate how we could get a higher quality output from our machine.

"In the future, as more data is collected, I see it being very valuable as a tool to use when evaluating equipment and how it performs, as well."

Scott Gorman, VP Manufacturing, Premier Press

Fairfax County Inplant Printing Facility Manages Vendors With Image GraderTM

"Image Test Labs provided convincing results showing whether my digital color press was performing up to specifications or not. Categories tested are extremely relevant to how today’s print buyers grade their color. The report can also be a base point for discussions with one’s color technician when reviewing the performance consistency of your machine."

Mike Gatti, In-Plant Mgr. Fairfax Cty. Govt.