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Rutherford’s Academy 🎓

Offset color management, taught by people who run pressrooms.

Online courses and masterclasses on closed-loop color, MeasureColor, IntelliTrax2 and ColorLoop: built by Rutherford for offset printers, packaging converters and brand owners. 25+ years of pressroom experience, distilled into structured curricula.

Browse masterclassesStart with a free course

Free introductory courses

Get the fundamentals right: at no cost

Three short courses to build the shared vocabulary every press team needs before tackling closed-loop.

45 min5 modules

Offset Color Management Fundamentals

The shared vocabulary every press team needs.

  1. What "good color" actually means on a press
  2. ISO 12647 in 10 minutes: substrates, TVI, primaries
  3. M0, M1, M2, M3: when to measure under which illuminant
  4. ΔE, ΔE 00, density: what to trust on the press floor
  5. The role of standards (G7, GRACoL, FOGRA) without the jargon

35 min4 modules

Press-Side Measurement Essentials

From manual densitometer to inline scanning.

  1. Handheld vs strip-reader vs inline scanner: pros, cons, cost
  2. The geometry that matters: 45°/0°, polarization, UV filtering
  3. Color bars decoded: what to put on the sheet and why
  4. Repeatability vs reproducibility: the trap that costs you hours

30 min4 modules

Where Color Hurts: From Makeready to Saleable Sheet

The hidden cost of inconsistency.

  1. Anatomy of a makeready: 800 sheets, 120 minutes, €450 on the floor
  2. The "good copy" myth: why subjective approval is killing your margin
  3. Drift, contamination, fountain solution, paper batch: the four silent killers
  4. Self-financed automation: how reduced waste pays for the system

Premium masterclasses

Deep dives, certificates, real production wins

Six masterclasses covering the Rutherford / X-Rite / MeasureColor stack end to end.

Flagship masterclass

120 min8 modules

The Complete Closed-Loop Color Masterclass

The definitive course on building a closed-loop offset operation, from setup to scale.

  1. The closed-loop concept: sensor, decision, actuator
  2. Anatomy of the Rutherford system: console interface, ink-zone control, learning logic
  3. Integrating with your press brand: Heidelberg, KBA, Komori, Manroland workflows
  4. CIP3/CIP4 presetting: turning prepress data into ink-key opens
  5. Spectral targets and ΔE strategy in production
  6. Operator workflow: what changes day one vs week one vs month three
  7. Closed-loop on extended gamut (ECG, 7-color)
  8. Scaling across presses, shifts, sites

90 min6 modules

MeasureColor Production: From Setup to Daily Operation

Master the measurement workflow that runs the pressroom.

  1. Installing and configuring MeasureColor Production
  2. Job templates, color bars, tolerances
  3. PQX, CXF, MIF, ICC, CGATS: what each format gives you
  4. Daily operator routine: measure, judge, document
  5. Integration with your MIS / job management via open XML
  6. Troubleshooting common errors and false positives

80 min6 modules

MeasureColor Reports: Dashboards, Root-Cause & Continuous Improvement

Turn measurement data into management decisions.

  1. The Reports module architecture: data flow from press to dashboard
  2. Building the dashboards that matter (per machine, per operator, per brand)
  3. Drill-down for root-cause analysis: finding the failure pattern
  4. Brand-owner reporting: what to send, in which format
  5. Benchmarking machines, operators, shifts, sites
  6. Driving continuous improvement loops with Reports

90 min6 modules

IntelliTrax2 & IntelliTrax2 Pro: Automated Scanning Mastery

Get every advantage out of X-Rite’s flagship scanning hardware.

  1. IntelliTrax2 (model 2900) vs IntelliTrax2 Pro (model 2900PRO): when to pick which
  2. Hardware setup: tracks, sheet positioning, calibration
  3. Geometry and conditions: 45°/0°, M0/M1/M3 single-pass strategy
  4. Color bars sized for 2 mm: what fits, what breaks
  5. Maintenance: non-contact best practices, UV LED life, certification cycles
  6. Migrating from legacy IntelliTrax (discontinued): what to expect

70 min5 modules

ColorLoop AI: Predictive Setup for Modern Offset

Rutherford’s own software: the new generation.

  1. What "AI-guided makeready" actually means (and what it doesn’t)
  2. Training the model on your jobs: first 30, 90, 365 days
  3. Predictive ink-key positioning vs reactive correction
  4. ColorLoop’s data layer: connecting press, measurement, MIS
  5. From operator decision to autonomous correction: staged adoption

60 min5 modules

Offset360 in Practice: Rutherford + IntelliTrax2 + MeasureColor

The X-Rite + Rutherford solution bundle, in real production conditions.

  1. The Offset360 architecture: what each component does
  2. Wiring the three systems together
  3. End-to-end job flow: prepress → setup → measure → correct → report
  4. Real-world ROI: calage, gâche, brand reports
  5. Common implementation pitfalls and how to avoid them

Bundle

Rutherford Academy Pass

All six premium masterclasses, lifetime access, six certificates, private Q&A community, quarterly live sessions with Rutherford engineers.

  • 38 modules · ~510 minutes of content
  • 6 certificates of expertise
  • Lifetime access & updates
  • Private Q&A community
  • Quarterly live sessions with Rutherford engineers
Two Rutherford engineers reviewing color data

Why learn with us

Built from real pressroom experience

25+
years of pressroom experience
1 000+
deployed systems
30+
countries
X-Rite
PANTONE partner

Rutherford has been pioneering closed-loop color control on offset presses since the 90s, with 1 000+ systems deployed across 30+ countries. We co-developed MeasureColor with ColorWare and continue to integrate with X-Rite PANTONE measurement tools.