Whether the issue is tracking the status of 4,000 color images for a massive catalog or managing a vault of more than 100,000 images, text and fonts for a sophisticated prepress operation, the secret to success is securing an ingenious workflow. If one word could describe the prepress fervor of 1997—the motivating factor in the development of sophisticated software tools for expediting everything from imposition to job ticketing—that word would be workflow. Workflow, workflow, workflow—that was the single most effective, overused and yet understated buzz- word for 1997. Large commercial printers were implementing extensive technological investments to enhance prepress to postpress workflow, midsize commercial
Software - Web-to-print
Once upon a time, electronic desktop publishing seemed miraculous. No more awkward cameras, no more messy paste-ups. Put all of your work on a disk, then overnight a package to the printer. Simple. Nowadays, electronic desktop is trite. Everybody's got it. Everybody's using it. And the ability to accept a disk delivered overnight doesn't impress print buyers who want their jobs yesterday. Today's removable media, such as SyQuests and Zips, may boast high memory capacity, but you can't ship them any faster than floppies. If you want quicker delivery, you need the speed of digital file transfer. Digital file transfer performs new miracles in
CIP3 is the International Cooperation for the Integration of Prepress, Press and Postpress, launched in 1995 by a team of prepress, press and postpress industry innovators, with German pressmaker Heidelberger Druckmaschinen serving as catalyst. As the industry begins to pay closer attention to CIP3, the consortium—now more than 30 members strong—continues its initiative of establishing an open standard for exchanging digital information from prepress to postpress stages. Each month throughout 1998, Printing Impressions will profile one specific member of the CIP3 consortium, from software developers to digital prepress innovators to press manufacturers to postpress players. Ultimate Technographics, an imposition software pioneer, will launch our