Software - Web-to-print

BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Asset management is a field which, in a few years time, the industry might refer to as one that virtually exploded onto the scene and introduced a surplus of young technology providers and tools to a marketplace that was, in many ways, still figuring out exactly what it wanted to do with its digital assets. There are easily more than 75 asset managers currently positioned firmly in the graphic arts. Some cater specifically to digital assets in a variety of commercial prepress departments, some focus strictly on catalog production, some on manipulation of content in large-scale newspapers and others offer

BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO In this latest installment in Printing Impressions' yearlong CIP3 focus, BARCO Graphics reports on its company's push to digitize ink key settings—even before Heidelberg's spearheading of CIP3—and the attributes of InkPlanner, an option on BARCO's FASTRIP/B. Cutting costs. During press makereadies, valuable production time and paper are often wasted. Likewise, ink is an important cost factor in any commercial printing environment. Control over paper and control over ink are goals of every printer, especially those printing operations pursuing CIP3. An early member of the CIP3 consortium, BARCO Graphics recognized the need for tighter control over all consumables within the production environment. More specifically,

If repurposing digital content from a catalog or brochure to a dynamic Internet site is part of your average day at the office, you better get your fill on Java! BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Java junkies say the appeal of Java applications is that they are easy to distribute across networks and can run on any computer platform. Some proponents believe the adoption of Java will jog a move to the network computer. Others predict Java will play a bigger role than originally anticipated in the management and delivery of content over the World Wide Web. Why does Java matter? Since its introduction three-plus

Take a moment and ask yourself this question: What impact will the World Wide Web have on the printing industry in the next five years? I'm going to guess what answer you gave. You're probably thinking that the impact will not be large. You're not denying that the Internet will influence many other industries, but there's just not much evidence that it's going to have a big impact on print. That's certainly what I've been thinking—up until now. The impact of the World Wide Web on printers has indeed been very slight thus far. In the last two years, about half of all printing companies have created

BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO When it comes to the task of imposition, prepress managers are looking for integrated solutions—tools that can allow the adoption of an all-digital CTP environment. Why? The technological enhancement of digital imposition software, large-format computer-to-film devices and new launches in the CTP market have put greater emphasis on the role electronic imposition plays in moving to an all-digital domain. Factors encouraging new launches of imposition software encompass movements from in-RIP trapping, to the utilization of Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) and Adobe PostScript 3, to full-scale automation the likes of CIP3. In more detail, catalysts for imposition software tools include the following

BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO The seventh installment of Printing Impressions' ongoing focus on CIP3 visits ScriptWorks RIP manufacturer Harlequin, an early member of the CIP3 consortium. Currently in the final stages of beta testing a plug-in for CIP3's Print Production Format (PPF), Harlequin is working with its team of leading prepress OEMs to navigate the cutting edge of CIP3 developments. FACT: NO longer are components of a prepress environment expected to work as an independent module of a commercial printing operation. Instead, the electronic prepress department is called upon, more and more, to function as the first leg of an advanced digital journey that ends

BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Color management systems, woven into digital proofing devices, are trying to deliver—and some argue are now delivering—effective, repeatable digital bluelines. Up-and-coming models for standardization, from commonly used International Color Consortium (ICC) profiles to new initiatives from the General Requirements for Applications in Commercial Offset Lithography (GRACoL), are refining the color delivery potential of the digital proofer. To better gain a proof positive perspective on the performance of color in today's digital proofing environment and what the market has and will soon have to offer, Printing Impressions polled a sampling of technology providers. On a company by company basis,

BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Handling the sheer volume of scans seems to be a more daunting, more demanding task. It isn't solely the imagination of your prepress manager. Lucky for the prepress manager, scanning has been brought to an all-time level of ease, thanks to a robust product market laden with devices that boast built-in gradation curves, preset color look-up tables and expanded capabilities to digitize reflective and transmissive art at an impressive array of scanning depths and optical densities. From the AgfaScan T-5000 from Agfa Div., Bayer Corp., to the vertical-drum Tango from Heidelberg Prepress to the Fuji C-550 or the EverSmart

BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO The sixth installment of Printing Impressions' yearlong focus on CIP3 activities turns to Agfa Div., Bayer Corp., and the prepress innovator's introduction of CIP3-compliant architecture within its Apogee PDF-based Workflow Production System. Apogee PrintDrive, a multi-page buffer for more than one RIP, is the newest member of Agfa's family of RIPs—and its most innovative workflow enhancement, to date, from a CIP3 standpoint. Currently, Agfa, one of the founding members of the CIP3 consortium, is working closely with MAN Roland and other press manufacturers to define and refine the digital links between prepress and press. Apogee, which comprises the Apogee

The fifth installment of Printing Impressions' ongoing focus on CIP3 activities targets the integration power of MAN Roland's PECOM networking system. PECOM, including the PPI2 prepress interface and Technical Press Preparation (TPP) workstation, links MAN Roland's open architecture CIP3-compliant fiber-optic based Roland 300, 700 and 900 sheetfed and ROTOMAN web presses with other devices. It uses the Print Production Format (PPF) file structure established by the CIP3 consortium. In digital prepress, sophisticated front-end technology obsolescence occurs every 18 months or even far sooner. In the pressroom, however, change is far less accelerated. A printer will buy a printing press and, while digital upgrades and