Millennium Print Group

Specializing in premium specialty and trading cards, Millennium Print Group has undergone dramatic growth in less than a decade by meeting their customers' exacting standards. Kodak software and technology services play a critical role in helping them hit color management, print quality, and productivity targets.

Since 2014 Millennium Print Group has grown from less than 20 people to more than 730 running eight presses and two output devices. And standards are high for their primary business: producing premium trading cards involves intense color management, meticulous proofing, and exceptional output. In the early days Millennium managed color quality and consistency by eye using popular color tools. But their business must often match colors developed exclusively for non-standard cards and meet specs even tighter than industry norms. Staff struggled with curves and visual matching, sometimes needing as many as five iterations to achieve customer requirements to match within 1.5 delta E—adding significant makeready time and expense. As the business grew, the human element was no longer accurate, consistent, or fast enough to keep up with workflow demands. They needed a more rigorous, quantitative approach to color management.

Millennium Print Group had a well-established relationship with Kodak, long relying on the quality of KODAK TRILLIAN SP Thermal Plates and from day one using KODAK PRINERGY Workflow Software to run their prepress workflow at top efficiency. But the introduction of KODAK COLORFLOW Pro Software was a real game-changer, giving them a numbers-based tool to control every aspect of their color environment, from color matching and consistency to the plate, press, proof profiles, and curves, all from one source. Millennium staff worked closely with the Kodak Color Services team to master the new software and integrate it into their overall PRINERGY workflow. Instead of eyeballing color management, they now rely on COLORFLOW Pro's numerical color controls and automated adjustments, dramatically boosting job accuracy and business productivity. They continue to work with Kodak to fine-tune their skills and consult on color issues and ink optimization challenges.

Thanks to the mathematical precision and speed COLORFLOW Pro brings to their process, Millennium has reduced makeready times by 75% and now gets customer signoff on first proof about 70% of the time. Everyone from managers to prepress staff to press operators has learned to trust the numbers and automated processes, virtually eliminating manual errors, remakes, or waste due to color issues. Millennium considers their COLORFLOW expertise to be an important competitive differentiator, key to establishing a reputation for color quality and consistency that has built them a loyal and growing customer base.