Software - Web-to-print

Whether drum or flatbed, today's high-tech scanning systems are allowing prepress departments to do more, create more—even charge more. Here's a look at some of the new technologies and creative techniques empowering prepress with high-voltage scans. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO The scanning market, like those of its prepress counterparts, is continuing to evolve, especially the flatbed component. Interesting, though, how much hype is concentrated around the kings of digital output, such as the thermal platesetter—arguably the most hyped digital output device ever to hit electronic prepress. But what of the content creator—the device that enables color images to be digitized, manipulated, then output?

At Seybold San Francisco, Creo and Heidelberg are launching Prinergy—a page-based workflow solution that leverages Adobe Extreme technology to create customized PDF job tickets and process plans. What's so electric about Prinergy? The first joint-venture development for Creo and Heidelberg, Prinergy brings Adobe into the alliance by offering an end-to-end workflow solution based not only on PDF, but also Extreme. Prinergy is one extreme workflow management system that integrates, organizes and automates the individual tasks in prepress. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Prinergy, a page-based workflow solution being launched this month at Seybold San Francisco by Creo and Heidelberg Prepress, elevates Adobe's PDF file format and

I admit it. I am a UNIX bigot. Having come to the printing industry from the computer side—they called it "data processing" back then—I took a dim view of other operating systems. That was back in 1989. Of course, I have had to eat my words on more than one occasion since then, attacked on one side by Macintosh evangelists (zealots?) and, later, Windows NT folks on the other. For those of you who aren't up on the latest in UNIX, this operating system was initially developed by Bell Labs back in the '70s. Ma Bell did not commercialize it because of antitrust concerns and

If maximizing RAID storage power and strengthening server support sound promising, surf the fibre channel— the next tech wave to boost the potential of RAID. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Imagine that you're on a tight deadline to finish a four-color project—a high-end, 110-page catalog featuring automotive accessories for a popular sports utility vehicle dealer. It is 8 p.m. on Tuesday. All is going well. Images have been scanned and the project is almost done being pushed through the prepress department. Working late and feeling benevolent, you decide to order pizza for your night shift, kick back, send a few long overdue e-mail responses

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

I'm working on a new seminar series for Insync Media, a Los Angeles-based printing and new media firm, and I thought I'd share some of the insights that are emerging from the process. Most of my seminars are offered to printers and prepress shops. When I say "you" in my seminars, it's usually the same "you" that I reference in this column. However, this new series is, instead, directed at your customers or, more specifically, at a segment of your customers—namely senior managers of creative/production services at large corporations, ad agencies and design studios. With all of the upheaval caused by the Internet and

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit a commercial printer that, in many ways, is representative of our industry. It is a privately held firm that was started right after World War II and has grown from being a local printer into a mid-sized firm with a national clientele. This firm, which shall remain anonymous, faced the digital prepress issue a bit earlier than most commercial printers. But, what is notable about it isn't that the firm put in Macintosh workstations and started outputting its own films. No, it's the approach that management used that is important. The principals—the president and general manager—knew they needed

Moving to new levels of digital asset management? Be sure to network and organize effectively to lay the foundation for an astute database. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Content manager. This is the latest descriptive to find its way onto your ever-clever corporate promotional materials. You are a general commercial printer, an innovative digital prepress provider—a digital content manager. Needless to say, your database capacity has, well, grown-up during this maturation from pure print provider to overall digital asset controller. REALITY: You have only begun to investigate ways to bolster your database power to make the move from print provider to all-in-one print provider and digital asset manager.

The purpose of an electronic job ticket is to convey information relative to the production of a print job. Simple, yet complex, these virtual managers may offer a few surprises—but they won't replace the paper trail, just yet. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO The electronic job ticket is not a practical replacement for the existing paper system. Odd but true. It is impossible to carry the electronic job ticket around a printing plant for continuous reference, as required during setup and the actual run. Clearly, then, the electronic job ticket has significant advantages over the time-honored paper system, when it comes to updating critical

Two years ago, Printing Impressions explored the digital asset management and repurposing services of Color Associates. At that time, its top management reported that selling data services and exploring new ways of distributing client information was the future for prepress providers. Were they right? You bet your assets! BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO The year is 1997. At Color Associates—a St. Louis-based digital prepress, creative imaging services and display graphics provider—the focus is clear: The time has come to sell, market and fully exploit digital content management and the expanding role of digital communications. The Internet, they reasoned, would play a major role in