X-Rite Inc.

NEXPO, headlining in Las Vegas this month, touts trends in digital asset management, imagesetters, new RIP releases and other digital prepress tools designed to make the front page move in digital directions. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Newspapers are at a disadvantage when it comes to reaping the full benefits of electronic prepress, at present, for the obvious reason: Experimentation can cost—and, with the front page at stake, few newspaper greats would push for thermal imaging innovation at the risk of an unplanned late edition. However, are newspaper executives, who are in positions of operational and production management, taking note of the technologies driving thermal

Las Vegas is the home of Creel Printing, a heatset web and sheetfed commercial printer that's betting heavily on the payoff of digital prepress. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Las Vegas. The most infamous desert oasis. A city that never sleeps. Towering casinos, massive neon billboards, throngs of vacationers, glittering wedding chapels. Decadent, opulent—and a few other descriptive dents. No wonder legends played here: Sinatra, Elvis, Creel. What's that, not familiar with Creel? Creel Printing just happens to be one of the largest commercial printers in Nevada, operating in the shadows of Las Vegas' most famous casinos—Bally's, Harrah's, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Circus Circus,

BOSTON—With all the hype and hoopla surrounding the return of Seybold to Boston last month, all roads led to the Hynes Center for the latest advancements in digital prepress, digital printing and "repurposing" content for the Internet. From Adobe to Apple, from Markzware to Epson's Stylus 9000 and from Agfa to Creo, Seybold brought the digital movers and shakers back to Boston, where digital file transfer technologies, digital asset management, color proofing, thermal platesetting and every other degree of digital prepress stood on a very warm, very Bostonian, very welcome, familiar platform. Adobe's John Warnock, president, and Charles Geschke, CEO, laid out their

From Adobe's K2 to Apple's G3, from Markzware's MarkzScout to EPSON's Stylus 9000 and from Agfa's Galileo to Creo's SQUARESpot—Seybold brought the digital movers and shakers back to Boston, where file transfer, asset management, color proofing, thermal platesettind every other degree of digital prepress stood on a welcome, familiar platform. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Seybold, Boston. What a familiar and pleasant ring that name carries. With all the hype and hoopla surrounding the return of Seybold to Boston last month, all roads led to the Hynes Center for the latest advancements in digital prepress, digital printing and "repurposing" content for the Internet.

BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Seybold San Francisco may not have the same prepress hardware punch as its East Coast counterpart, but digital file delivery, digital content manipulation, color management and Internet design tools are enough to get the industry pointed in a Golden Gate direction. What to expect? Count on the show emphasizing content manipulation and color management—from creation through output. Be ready to see a variety of software tools to handle everything from creation of files to data storage, archival and retrieval—not to mention unique enhancements to the movement of repurposing digital content for the World Wide Web. Get ready for a hearty serving of alphabet soup—as

SAN FRANCISCO—Seybold San Francisco was just what the industry expected: A hearty serving of alphabet soup with discussions on PDF, XML and ICC proliferating the conference halls as well as the trade show floor. Seybold also delivered new launches of color management and digital asset manipulation software, digital file delivery alternatives and Internet design tools, and—what else?—an entertaining keynote from Apple's very own Steve Jobs, jeans and all. Technological wizardry from Adobe Systems, Apple Computer, Bitstream, Creo, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Markzware, Microsoft, Quark (yes, Quark; just Quark, not Adobe's new parent), Pantone, Silicon Graphics, WAM!NET, Xerox, X-Rite and more cast the spotlight

BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO The mere mention of color management and the status of color consistency in today's graphic arts industry rarely results in a black-and-white discussion. Color delivery in the entire design and production phase, from digital camera to high-end scanner to digital proofer or on-demand printer, is mission-one critical. What better way to get a read on today's color concerns than to poll the minds of the industry? The question Printing Impressions posed was simple, but comprehensive: Where are we today in color management and color manipulation and what do we, as an industry, need to do to improve our color