InkJet Age

JUN 2014

Quick Printing is the only business resource serving the quick and small commercial printing niche in North America. Quick Printing is the authoritative source for business information, emerging technologies, shop profiles and management insight.

Issue link: https://quickprinting.epubxp.com/i/322242

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 17 of 25

18 JUNE 2014 • INKJET'S AGE www.MyPRINTResource.com Similar to a traditional print model, high-speed inkjet presses are expected to run at or close to rated speed regardless of the jobs that are submitted. "As presses get faster and faster, they are simply capable of producing more waste at higher speed unless the DFE is reliable and predictable," said Bailey. Vendor Offerings Looking at the combined tasks of color management, layout/imposition, and data preparation for the target engine, Canon has made substantial improvements in each area, said Jansen. "The color management for PDF and AFP has been extended, add- ing additional features for rules-based color management automation. The key in this area is to optimize the output format for the target device in an automated manner to rapidly prepare large volumes of data for high-speed print," Jansen noted. "The lay- out/imposition support has been extended to fully support the JDF fold catalog, including an automated JDF imposition mechanism based upon the JDF standard naming convention." Global Graphics' Harlequin RIP tech- nology, which is OEM'd to other compa- nies, including inkjet press vendors, focuses on the issues that drive its customers' sales and their customers' satisfaction, includ- ing speed, quality, color, and cost, added Bailey. "With its fast processing speed, the Harlequin RIP reduces the risk of poorly constructed jobs slowing down production and exceeds industry requirements in keep- ing presses running at full speed," Bailey said. Harlequin supports all PDF features relevant for printing; balancing compliance with the PDF standard and compatibility with key viewing and approval products. It offers full support for live PDF transpar- ency, as well as PDF/X and PDF/VT. "With the increase in personalized data that we are seeing, Harlequin offers a fea- ture that speeds up the processing of vari- able data in PDF and PDF/VT files, called Harlequin VariData," said Bailey. Harle- quin ColorPro gives color process control for the greatest possible color fidelity, faith- ful matching of brand colors with Pantone look-up tables, as well as full ICC support. HP recently launched full integration between the SmartStream Elite Print Server and SmartStream Production Center. "This combination delivers the unprecedented ability to automate and control produc- tion from prepress through shipping for HP and non-HP devices," said McGrew. "Customer service and sales can now know where each job is in the production pro- cess. Supervisors can manage manual and automated work centers, predict when jobs will be late, and reprioritize on-the-fly to meet tight deadlines. Executives will also know the profitability of each job." Operators to vice presidents can au- tomate reprinting of damaged portions, manage production of multiple job compo- nents, and provide instant visibility down to the job from any networked device. Op- erators can also automatically accept and process jobs from multiple sources includ- ing MIS, web-to-print (W2P), marketing automation, ad hoc processes and more. To ensure its machines stay at top speeds while printing variable data, a key ap- plication of production inkjets, Fujifilm has adapted Adobe's Mercury RIP, said Kammes. The technology takes full advan- tage of the enhancing features designed to optimize high-speed print production on the J Press digital inkjet press series. Fujifilm customers are also requesting that their inkjet systems include MIS, W2P, workflow, remote solution, etc., in- tegrated within each other to automate the process from start to finish, said Kammes. Its latest release of XMF v5.5 has under- gone a number of internal technology up- grades to accommodate the more complex demands of high-speed digital printing, as well as to optimize more traditional CTP plate production. XMF Workflow supports both the most innovative (PDF/VT) and well-established (PPML) variable data formats. In addition, a new database has been implemented within XMF to sustain the high data pro- cessing volumes associated with variable data printing and to maximize productiv- ity, explained Kammes. CIP4 certification for XMF v5.5 pro- vides connectivity to many different MIS systems. A new JDF tool interprets and converts incoming MIS instructions into JDF-compatible ones. XMF v5.5 offers improved proofing capabilities through the automated dis- tribution of 3D proofs. The 3D proofing module, already embedded in previous ver- sions of XMF workflow, gives printers the ability to create a 'virtual printed product' to provide their customers with an accu- rate representation of the final print job. Within XMF v5.5, this is now processed automatically, saving time, and increasing efficiency, said Kammes. Finally, XMF Workflow v5.5 features further improvements to support XMF ColorPath, the cloud-based color manage- ment system that is designed to help print- ers calibrate and maintain compliance to printing standards. Xerox also offers a number of solutions, depending on the application. For books, FreeFlow Core automates the assembly of the book pages, preflight, imposition, color management, and submission to the de- vices using standards like JDF/JMF. For direct mail, XMPie technology cre- ates marketing campaigns to target custom- ers. FreeFlow VIPP technology for transac- tional variable-data printing is recognized for being the fastest variable composition at RIP time, said Rouhana. For transpromo applications, Xerox offers the Integrated- PLUS GMC solution for managing end- to-end workflow and for a true automated document factory. ✚ HARLEQUIN Parallel Pages, a feature in the Harlequin Host Renderer, accelerates page processing time to give faster throughput for digital printing solutions. QPsupp_17-18_0614 Prepress.indd 18 5/15/14 11:57 AM

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of InkJet Age - JUN 2014