Packaging colour accuracy is one of the most commercially consequential aspects of print quality management. Brand owners invest enormous sums in establishing colour identities for their packaging - the specific red of a sauce brand, the distinctive blue of a confectionery range, the precise green of an organic product line - and they protect those investments with colour specifications and supplier qualification requirements that set increasingly tight standards. For packaging printers and converters supplying these brand owners, the X-Rite eXact 2 is the instrument that enables the measurement precision and workflow efficiency needed to meet these demands consistently.
The packaging printing environment places specific demands on colour measurement instruments. Press runs can be long - many hours, sometimes multiple shifts - and colour must be maintained within tolerance throughout. Multiple substrates may be involved in the same product range: coated board for outer cartons, flexible film for primary packaging, and label stock for applied labels - each with different measurement characteristics requiring different measurement approach. Multiple brand colours must be monitored simultaneously on jobs with complex colour specifications. And the measurement data generated must be suitable for submission to brand owners and quality auditors as evidence of colour compliance.
The eXact 2 addresses all of these requirements in a single, production-practical instrument. Its support for ISO 13655 M1 measurement condition ensures that colour measurements on optically brightened substrates - common in food and personal care packaging - are accurate and comparable with measurements taken anywhere else in the supply chain using correctly configured instruments. Its auto-scan measurement capability handles the multi-patch measurement sets that comprehensive packaging colour verification requires, completing in seconds what individual patch measurement would take minutes to accomplish. The full eXact 2 spectrophotometer range is available through Seaga Group in Australia.
Measuring Across Packaging Substrates
One of the specific challenges in packaging colour management is managing colour consistency across different substrate types within a single product range. A brand may require that their logo colour looks the same on a coated paper label, a printed carton, a flexible film pouch, and an injection-moulded cap - four different materials requiring four different ink or coating formulations to achieve the same visual appearance. The eXact 2 measures all of these surfaces using the same calibrated spectrophotometric engine, producing colour values in a common L*a*b* framework that allows direct comparison across substrate types.
This cross-substrate measurement capability is particularly valuable for packaging brand managers and converters who need to verify that their supplier chain is achieving colour consistency across different packaging components. Rather than visually comparing a board carton to a film pouch and trying to decide whether they match - an unreliable visual judgement that will be made differently by different people under different lighting - the eXact 2 provides numerical data that makes the comparison objective and documentable. Combining this with a light booth for standardised visual assessment provides both the data and the visual confirmation that professional packaging colour approval requires.
Brand Colour Verification and Documentation
For packaging printers managing multiple brand clients, each with their own colour specifications and tolerance requirements, the eXact 2's ability to store multiple colour targets and generate structured measurement reports for each job is operationally essential. Operators can load the colour targets for the job being run, measure the press sheet, and receive pass/fail feedback for each brand colour instantly - without manual lookup of tolerances or calculation of Delta E values. This efficiency at the press-side measurement step keeps the production workflow moving without interruption.
The measurement data generated during each production run is stored and can be exported to Color iQC software for comprehensive reporting. Brand owners who require measurement compliance documentation - and many major brand owners in food, pharma, and personal care packaging do require this - receive professionally formatted reports showing the colour values measured throughout the run, the Delta E against their specification, and confirmation that every measurement met the tolerance requirement. This documentation capability transforms the eXact 2 from a production quality tool into a commercial asset that supports customer relationships and supplier qualification processes.
Reducing Packaging Rework and Waste
The most direct financial benefit of the eXact 2 in packaging printing is the reduction in colour-related rework and material waste. Packaging colour rejections are particularly costly because the substrate, printing, finishing, and often die-cutting and folding work are all invested before the colour problem is discovered. A measurement program that catches colour issues at the press-side before full production commitment prevents the vast majority of this end-of-line waste.
Press operators using the eXact 2 detect colour drift early - adjusting ink keys, water balance, or other press variables while the deviation is still small, rather than waiting for the visual deviation to become obvious. This proactive correction approach keeps the production run on target and dramatically reduces the proportion of packaging that needs to be recycled as non-conforming production. The X-Rite trade-in program provides a cost-effective path to eXact 2 access for packaging printers upgrading from older measurement equipment.
Conclusion
The eXact 2 improves packaging colour accuracy through a combination of precise M1-compliant spectrophotometric measurement, efficient multi-colour verification workflows, and comprehensive documentation capability. For packaging printers and converters operating under demanding brand colour specifications, the eXact 2 is the instrument that makes consistent, documented colour compliance achievable in a production environment - reducing rework, supporting customer relationships, and delivering the measurement evidence that brand owners increasingly require as a condition of supplier qualification.