Current: In January of 2021, SpotOn Press software was acquired by Hal4D Consulting, LLC owned by Chris Halford. Chris has a decades long career in the printing and color measurement instrument industries. He has worked for both printing companies and color measurement instrument manufacturers. In both capacities, his focus has been on building solutions that are easy to use and affordable. Today, he has written and continues to write the vast majority of the version 3 SpotOn code. The launch of version 3 includes a name change to SpotOnColor which reflects the complete rewrite of the code from the ground up.
Historical Perspective: After Bruce Bayne (founder and former owner), color management and G7® Expert, had completed several G7 calibrations and training sessions, he realized there were no relevant tools available for measuring and tracking press conditions to the G7 process.
In 2006, Bayne created a spreadsheet in Excel to help track and manage the data collected by using an i1Pro spectrophotometer. He introduced the spreadsheet while consulting in printing facilities. It was immediately understood and valued by press operators, who saw it as a powerful visual tool for managing conditions on the press. As interest grew, Bayne decided it was time to fully develop an application to meet the needs of the market and expand the spreadsheet’s functionality to include a database and trending charts. The result was SpotOn.
In March of 2008, SpotOn was released into beta testing, then officially released in May of 2008. SpotOn is used by ink manufacturers, medium and large size print shops, photographers, content creators, large format printers and color management professionals.
SpotOn is now a suite of calibration and process control software tools for any printed materials. Printers and consultants use SpotOn to calibrate presses using the G7 method. Grand format printers, prepress shops, ad agencies, designers, and photographers use SpotOn tools to verify prints are within tolerance to specification.