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Quality Speaks ——The happy marriage of Artron and EIZO
When Artron, the pride of China’s printing sector, meets EIZO, a renowned brand in the world’s monitor industry, what could happen?
To insiders of China’s printing sector, Artron is connected with “quality printing”. The leader of the “academic school”, Artron Color Printing (Beijing) Co., Ltd. is known for its pursuit of new technologies and insistence on quality. It is the winner of many international awards, which in turn highlights its leading status in China’s printing industry.
In the world’s design, video and printing industries, EIZO is also synonymous with “superior quality" and “professionalism”. With leading image display and adjustment ability, EIZO monitors have been hot items for high-end clients. Owning an EIZO monitor has even become criteria for the judgment for the technological level of a printing company.
The two companies—both outstanding in their respective fields—formed a formal partnership in 2004, creating a path leading from first meeting to better acquaintance to the eventual marriage of the two powerful players.
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First meeting in Japan: the edge showed in comparison
At the end of 2002, the pretreatment division of Artron Color Printing Co., Ltd. was planning to replace its monitors to address the requirements of technical and service development. At the time, LCDs were not in mass application in pretreatment of for the printing sector. Therefore, the first candidate that the equipment division and the technical division thought of was CRT monitors. They made thorough comparison of monitor products available in the market.
In 2003 and 2004, Artron Color Printing (Beijing) Co., Ltd. sent a number of employees, including vice director of the typesetting division Jiang Xianhu to Japan for investigation and study. During the two Japan trips, EIZO left Artron with a deep impression for the extensive application of its monitors in the printing sector. According to Mr. Jiang Xianhu, they found that one of the factories they visited had replaced all CRT monitors with LCDs in early 2004. Mr. Jiang discovered that compared with CRTs, LCD monitors have a number of advantages, including smaller sizes, better space and energy efficiency, which allows incorporation of a number of LCD monitors for the same application. What’s more, EIZO had overcome weaknesses of color gamut and visual angle, problems often seen in products of other suppliers. Capable of producing good effects, LCD products of the company were the best available in the market at the time. Compared with other leading brands, EIZO offers a higher cost-performance ratio. Later, Mr. Jiang visited EIZO’s head office in Japan and became more determined to introduce EIZO monitors to his own company.
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Better acquaintance in Beijing: prominent advantages learnt in field operation
When he came back to Beijing, Mr. Jiang Xianhu submitted his proposal to the management of the company. After a series of tests and comparisons, Artron Color Printing (Beijing) Co., Ltd. purchased 3 EIZO ColorEdge CG19 monitors, which were customized for the printing industry. At the present time, Artron Beijing has introduced 8 monitors of the same type to replace the old pretreatment equipment, which consisted of many different brands.
For the high-end printing sector, particularly Artron, which is known for its duplication of art works, the technical level of the printing division is the source of the core competence, according to Mr. Jiang. For the pretreatment division, which holds a critical position in the company, monitors have two main roles. One is communication with the clients. Graph processing is judged by 2 standards, i.e., the original drawing of the client and status tracking for communication with the client whenever necessary. Through this means, the client can adjust the colors and graphs according to his/her own judgment. The other is the secret weapon of the graph adjustment operators: color adjustment, the precision of which affects the quality and efficiency of the pretreatment work.
Artron Beijing selected EIZO ColorEdge CG19 because it provides professional hardware, software and parts capable of satisfying the high-quality demands of Artron.
In terms of hardware, ColorEdge CG19 has unparalleled performance. The one point that Artron cares about most is the consistency and stability of the display effect. Precise, non-fluctuating gamma values are essential for correcting color display. If the colors are not based on set values and unchangeable, the images will be different on different monitors.
During the one year field application, ColorEdge CG19 has significantly changed the pretreatment, or even the entire production processes, of Artron. In Mr. Jiang’s words, 1) it allows the operators to have a more straightforward and precise control of the colors, and, therefore, it improves the efficiency of the pretreatment or even the entire production processes; 2) as EIZO monitors can effectively restore the original colors, it enables “what you see is what you get”. Compared with other brands, it allows faster and more convenient communication with the client; 3) EIZO monitors have been integrated into Artron’s color management process, which, in turn, has become smoother and offers more precise color restoration. Particularly, in the aspect of soft typesetting on the screen, EIZO has outstanding advantages. The top priority in the market investigation and comparison was to find out which product could deliver the best color restoration. The purpose of soft typesetting on the screen is to ensure the consistency between the results of the display on the screen and that which is eventually printed out. Therefore, the most critical factor is a non-uniform color display on the screen, which would render it impossible to judge whether the display effect is correct and whether it affects the operation of the pretreatment workers. Field operation proves that ColorEdge CG19 can basically ensure “what you see is what you get", i.e., consistency between the digital typesetting and the graphs displayed on the screen; 4) being an LCD, ColorEdge CG19 can, to a certain extent, protect the eyes of the operators who have to stare at the screen for a long time.
To the artwork duplicating company Artron, eventual high-quality printed work comes from strict requirements on every single link along the production line. ColorEdge CG19 offers high color precision and strong color management ability. Therefore, it improves the technical level of the pretreatment link and offers the follow-on links with color references.
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New development in South China: true service
Having benefited from the improved efficiency and color restoration quality brought by the ColorEdge CG19, Artron Beijing, after it had replaced all monitors along the pretreatment links, recommended the product to Artron Shenzhen and Artron Guangxi. At present, the Artron family has 11 ColorEdge CG19 monitors in total. Artron’s Shenzhen and Guangxi branches are planning to replace their monitors gradually. Of course, their first choice is EIZO.
 If high quality products are the cornerstone of a brand, caring and in-time service guarantees its prevalence in the market. EIZO adopts the exclusive distributor system in every country in the world. In China, EIZO has trusted the mission to Synnex Technology International (HK) Limited (formerly Laser Computer Limited) for more than a decade. With over 20 branches in Hong Kong, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu, Shenyang, Wuhan, Xian and a number of other cities across the country, Synnex has built a well-established distribution and service network to provide its clients with professional and caring technical support and logistics services before, during and after product delivery. As the first professional printing user of EIZO monitors in China, Artron Beijing naturally becomes the first to experience the international service of Synnex. According to Mr. Jiang Xianhu, Synnex’s technical support and service have guaranteed the successful operation of EIZO’s equipment at Artron.
“Not the best, but better.” is Artron’s goal for its products. It is also the principle of self-discipline of every employee of the company. It is believed that, with continued introduction of new products at EIZO, Artron will maintain its marriage with EIZO in pursuit of “true" colors. |
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