Octarine conjures GMG for Kiwis

GMG has appointed newly formed company Octarine as the sole distribution partner for its colour management and workflow solutions within New Zealand

Octarine director Elton McAleer, a long-time advocate for GMG’s range of solutions, introduced GMG software to the New Zealand market in 2006, after working closely with GMG in the UK and Europe since 2001. He says, “GMG is now established as the de facto proofing and colour management solution for many of the country’s leading agencies, printers and publishers.

He adds that Octarine, trading as GMG New Zealand, has introduced new ranges of GMG products for large format, packaging and digital printing, to cater for the increasingly broad range of products produced by New Zealand print companies.

He says this hybridisation of production environments can make colour management tricky. He says, “Our entire industry relies on getting accurate, consistent colour out of printing devices in order to fulfil our customers’ expectations, but with so many variables in the production process introduced by different printing technologies, software and consumables, achieving the goal of ‘perfect colour’ is a challenge to say the least.”

By implementing GMG’s total colour solutions, McAleer says graphic arts and print companies can significantly improve their efficiency and drive production costs right down, with workflows that guarantee “right first time” colour output across multiple printing devices and technologies.

Piet Cottenie, vice-president of global sales for GMG, recent visited New Zealand and talked about the decision to partner with Octarine. He says, “GMG’s relationship with Elton McAleer stretches back many years, and he has been the go to guy for our software in this region since 2006. With McAleer’s passion for print and his expertise in the field of colour management, appointing Octarine as our sole distributor for New Zealand was an easy decision.

“We are confident that Octarine – trading as GMG New Zealand – will quickly establish itself as a leading colour management workflow provider in New Zealand, raising local awareness and uptake of our wide range of solutions.”

McAleer, formerly of Frontline and Aarque Group, founded Octarine in May. He says, “When I arrived in New Zealand in 2006, colour management was, and still is to some, considered something of a black art. As a result, some of my customers would refer to me as the Wizard when I sorted out their colour issues. In reality, I’m just a guy with a spectro who loves colour, but I thought I’d embrace the idea.”

“According to author Terry Pratchett, Octarine is an ‘impossible colour,’ a purplish yellow green, only visible to, ‘wizards and those with other-worldly insight.’” Thus McAleer sports acid green and purple corporate colours, easily identifiable on the factory floor.

Existing GMG ColorProof and ColorServer customers can also benefit from the arrival of Octarine to the New Zealand market, as McAleer explains: “The last couple of years were pretty lean for many, and as a result, software updates were often omitted at budget time. Octarine are offering significant discounts on both GMG software upgrades and media to those customers who wish to benefit from a software upgrade contract, making the cost of ownership a predictable expense.

New solutions make for a happy Panda
New solutions from Octarine and GMG include OpenColor, a specific tool for accurately proofing spot colour overprints – previously not possible using inkjet technology – and GMG CoZone, a pay-as-you-go online collaboration and approval system.

McAleer says that GMG ProductionSuite, a large format workflow solution, has also gained market share in the region. He has had an involvement in the implementation of three major regional sites: Magnify Media and Discus in Australia, and Panda Visuals in South Auckland.

Rajan Naiker, general manager of Panda Visuals, says the GMG ProductionSuite has had a significant impact on the business. He says, “We used to spend a lot of time adjusting files and proofing spot colours on the machines, because with many different devices and rips we could never be sure of what we were going to get. Since we installed ProductionSuite we are way more productive in the factory. Colour output on all of the machines is right first time, and with GMG’s centralised calibration it remains stable and predictable. We are also seeing a reduction in pre-press file handling due to ProductionSuite’s Editor, which handles pre-flighting, templates and nesting, all from the Mac. The removal of these bottlenecks in our business means that we have increased our productivity, turnaround times and customer satisfaction.

“Elton’s extensive knowledge of the product and of the New Zealand market means that we feel in very safe hands: Octarine’s direct relationship with GMG headquarters, and the development team, has resulted in some site-specific feature requests and software improvements being implemented at Panda. So we are very confident that the solution will be able to grow with us and adapt to the changing nature of our business.”

McAleer says, “The latest versions of ColorProof and ColorServer both contain significant speed and productivity improvements, are compliant with all international print standards, and, when used in conjunction with GMG proof media, represent a legally binding contract proof, with the whole system, not just the media, being certified by Fogra. Anyone wanting to know more can contact me via or they can visit the web site www.octarine.co.nz”

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