Heidelberg

Prinergy can scale its client/server architecture to increase system throughput in small-to-large commercial printing operations. The objective: Add software and hardware components until the workflow is keeping up with the pace of CTP. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Client/server technology has been implemented in many industries. Whether booking reservations for air travel or making a last-minute stop at an ATM, both are direct links to some form of client/server architecture designed to improve speed and performance. Now, prepress is following suit. Yes, client/server architecture—a term just vague enough to encompass a variety of digital workflow solutions that link users at their desktops to the servers processing their files—is

What's the latest technological perks to thermal platesetting? What is the hot news on thermal consumables? What recent thermal purchases are fueling CTP? What's the current talk on thermal? Here are hot bytes on the hottest developments. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Thermal innovator Creo Products and Heidelberg Prepress report the installation of the 1,000th CTP system at Holland, MI-based Steketee-Van Huis. SVH recently took delivery of its new Trendsetter Spectrum 3244 digital halftone proofing system. The installation of the thermal Spectrum marks the 1,000th digital CTP system implemented by Creo and Heidelberg. Of the 1,000 installs, roughly 900 have been thermal. At Steketee-Van Huis, the Trendsetter Spectrum

Riding high on its belief of embracing technological innovation, The Hennegan Company, a four-generation heatset web and sheetfed commercial printer founded in 1886, meets modern-day quality demands by leaping into thermal CTP and cutting-edge digital proofing. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Sixty minutes. That may not sound like much time, but when those 60 minutes are spent, in seclusion, dissecting a select grouping of printed samples produced at the century old Florence, KY-based Hennegan Company, now in its fourth generation, each minute amounts to time very well spent. It only takes one hour of concentrated scrutiny to detect the meticulous care that must

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

Adobe. Agfa. BARCO Graphics. EFI. Epson. IBM. Indigo. Heidelberg. PageFlex. Scitex. Splash. Varis. Xeikon. Xerox. The movers and shakers of on-demand got together recently in the Big Apple to promote everything from variable-data software to wide-format output to the latest initiatives in PDF functionality, servers and digital cameras. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Between the digital prepress performances of Seybold Boston and Seybold San Francisco, the greats of the on-demand digital printing industry hit the Big Apple with the latest in digital color presses, variable data software, digital cameras—everything and anything designed to boost the short-run performance standards of the on-demand digital printing market.

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

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.

Customers are finally beginning to recognize the added value in embracing targeted, digitally printed communications that incorporate variable data, personalization and on-demand turnarounds. BY ERIK CAGLE A better understanding. That is the repetitive phrase on-demand printers are using to describe print customers' attitudes toward the digital market. Customers are becoming more particular about their needs, about the audience they're targeting and how they're targeting that audience. With that better understanding is a better appreciation for digital printing, and a sampling of the nation's leading on-demand printers couldn't be happier. Well, that's not entirely true—they could be happier. There's still much to be accomplished in