drupa 2012 at a Glance
Violet Digitplate (VDP) is a new chemistry-free, cross-linking polymer plate from Mitsubishi Imaging that is being offered as polyester- or paper-based plate material in thicknesses up to .28mm. After imaging, the plates are washed off using only water. They can be used with the Violet Digiplate VDP-CF 3070 platesetter.
Fit Primus from Xingraphics is a positive-working thermal plate designed for high-quality commercial printing applications. The product doesn’t require any pre-heat step and is rated for 250,000 impressions unbaked and 1 million impressions when baked. It is said to offer a wide operating latitude and improved imaging stability with a 1-99 percent dot at 450 lpi resolution.
Web-to-Print Solutions
EFI Fiery Dashboard provides a cloud-based service, giving users real-time access to production data for Fiery-driven devices from any Internet browser, including mobile phones and tablets. Shop managers can remotely view production parameters such as print engine utilization and status, jobs and pages printed by media and the split between color and black-and-white jobs, as well as access to a range of metrics that identify the source of production inefficiencies.
Also in the cloud is the XMF PrintCentre V3 hosted system from Fujifilm that delivers print-ready PDF files to production systems such as the company’s XMF Workflow. New features in version 3 include a text editor module within the template editor, enhanced PDF preflight control for ad-hoc print jobs and a larger preview of jobs being ordered. The system also now includes features specifically for wide-format printing.
XMPie, a Xerox company, was preparing to release uStore 6.0, which adds a document submission feature to the Web-to-print system. It supports the uploading and production of customer-submitted documents in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or PDF format, which can be combined with documents available in the portal’s catalog. Among the other new features are a 3D preview of the job with the chosen binding method, real-time dynamic pricing and online automatic preflight.
