With our typical candor, we want to tell you that while our ColourMagic! cartridges do a wonderful job in replicating color (that is why we call it "Magic on Metal"), beauty, quality and color acceptability is always in the eye of the beholder.

Reproducing great color is as much a function of good color management as it is anything else. Quite simply put, the better you know your program, and how color works, the more sophisticated you can be with your images. Even commercial printers, using $100,000 color correction programs, still have to do manual color corrections to get a specific shade of color that they want. However, while there is no substitute for proper knowledge, understanding and skills with the graphics program you choose to use, we do provide tools and help, to help you get more out of your ColourMagic! cartridges and maximize your profit opportunities. Our tools include-

• Understanding and Reproducing Color This highly useful manual is written by national known photographer (and ColourMagic! sublimator), Robin Ingraham, Jr. In the manual, Robin explains the basics of color, color spaces, hue, chromaticity and reproducing and analyzing color. For the technically orientated, Robin also explains how monitor, printer and scanner profiles are used to manage color. Also included is information about the use, care and maintenance of your cartridges, to optimize out put. It's a great jump-start.

• Grayscale Picture Target - Presented on a custom ColourMagic! CD, a 30% gradient gray scale is provided, along with the "prospector" picture found on the Home page of this site. Printing the grayscale on silver allows you to easily check color saturation and neutrality of cast. While we provide specific print density for all four cartridges (CMYK) there can be differences between different printers (just like there can be between identical new cars). By checking the plate for any color cast we can easily help you make adjustments.

• "Sweet 16" Color Target - Quite often, an awards dealer is just trying to produce a plaque with nice looking colors and close color matching is not needed. The "Sweet 16" Color Target (also on the CD) provides sixteen pretty colors and shades of green, red, blue, purple, brown and flesh tone, etc. A quick visual reference is available by printing this target on silver and the specific type of gold tone metal you are using. The Color Target can also become the core of a custom color palette, in your favorite graphics program. Insofar as actual color matching goes, we suggest that you always tell a customer that you can get close to a color; not match it. Even screen printers dealing with PMS color matching, don't make that mistake.

We will end this section on color management with some information for current users of the HP 4500 and HP 4550, but who are not yet ColourMagic! customers.

We know that you have not ever received any color management tools, like we described above. We also know that most of you have also received very little help in profitably and efficiently using your HP 4500 series system.

Courtesy of Robin Ingraham Jr.

With ColourMagic!, by Alpha Supply Company, that will change. First, we have a passionate commitment to helping fellow pros in the business. Your concerns are our concerns and we will be there for you.

Second, when we do talk to you, we are not speaking as some nameless sales rep, or as just a cartridge supply company. We are awards professionals too, although we are no longer in retail. Our conversation and help is based on experience, not theory.

Third, you do not have to buy and replace all of your current cartridges to start using ColourMagic! cartridges and benefit from our color tools. While we can do nothing about it if your cartridges are defective, adding even one of our cartridges gives us enough of a baseline to help you get better colors.