Mcor IRIS Becomes First 3D Printer to Embrace International Color Standard

It's not enough for a 3D printer's colors to be big, bold, plentiful and realistic (an extremely rare combination): they must also be accurate.

That's why Mcor Technologies today announced that the Mcor IRIS, already the world's most color-capable 3D printer, became the first 3D printer to include an International Color Consortium (ICC) profile. The profile ensures that the 3D printer will precisely produce industry-standard colors as presented in a photographer's, engineer's or designer's photograph, CAD model, scan or illustration. Without the ICC profile, 3D printers translate incoming colors to machine-specific ones, introducing unintended changes in the 3D printed color along the way.

"Ask any creative or marketing professional: accurate color matters," said Dr. Conor MacCormack, co-founder and CEO of Mcor Technologies Ltd. "That's why standards exist, and why we are the first 3D printer manufacturer to embrace them. A gram is a gram and a meter is a meter anywhere on the planet because of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. Likewise, a company's logo will be the same color on the computer screen as on a model 3D printed by the Mcor IRIS because of our ICC profile. The result is a truly what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) experience."

The ICC is an international organization for color management, and the Mcor ICC profile is calibrated to device-independent Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage, International Commission on Illumination, (CIE) colors.  The CIE is a standardized, globally recognized reference for display, input and output devices.

"Any printer without a standard-based color profile is likely to produce 'off colors,'" MacCormack said. "Printing without it is like painting your living room without a swatch from the manufacturer. We're the only 3D printer manufacturer that has one."

The ICC color profile is embedded within the company's latest version of its SliceIT driver software.

One-click file fixing has arrived

Mcor also announced an enhanced user experience that for the first time makes design files ready to print as they're received. The new automated file-fixing software, included with every Mcor 3D printer, removes unseen geometries that can complicate 3D printing of sophisticated models.

"This solves a problem that has dogged the CAD industry for years," said MacCormack. "It has helped us achieve our goal of a one-click solution that makes any STL file geometrically printable."

These and other new capabilities unveiled today follow Mcor's recent announcement of a 2X print speed enhancement on its Matrix 300+ and IRIS 3D printers.