DIGITAL bytes
VANDALIA, OH—The Association of Esko-Graphics Users recently held its annual meeting in St. Louis. A series of Adobe product and technology presentations met with considerable interest among attendees, as did the synergies afforded by the Esko-Graphics DeskPack solution released within the past year. The agenda covered a range of prepress topics and applications, including automated workflow, color theory, Internet proofing tools and alternative color models. (www.aeg.esko-graphics.com)
PITTSBURGH—The Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF) has published a report of the findings from its original research study comparing the quality of print jobs from digital color and DI presses. The print technologies used in the research included two direct-imaging presses and seven digital color presses.
GATF researchers report print jobs produced by some digital presses fared better in rub resistance tests than did offset jobs. They also found that digital color printing jobs were equal to or greater than offset jobs in run consistency. Additionally, greater overprint trapping was provided by digital color press technology, which translates into a larger color gamut being achieved, the researchers claim.
Heavily illustrated with charts, the "Digital Color Printing and Direct Imaging Benchmarking Study" is a 56-page soft cover booklet available for $199, not including shipping. (www.gain.net/store)
BARCELONA, SPAIN—During its recent meeting, the International Color Consortium (ICC) reports it took steps to broaden participation in the development of its color management strategies and gain international recognition for the most recent version of the specification. The consortium voted to invite a larger number of knowledgeable technology users and industry consultants to participate in future meetings. It also submitted Version 4.1 of the spec for approval as an international standard through the International Organization for Standardization's Technical Committee 130, Graphic Technology. (www.color.org)
CHANHASSEN, MN—The Instant Web Companies (IWCO), a direct mail services company, has added an Océ digital printing system as part of an expansion of its personalization platform. The system, built on the Océ VarioStream 7650cx Twin engine, will provide new format capabilities and greater throughput to enable IWCO to produce 100 million personalized direct mail packages monthly in one location. (www.iwco.com/www.oceusa.com)
CHATTANOOGA, TN—Artistic Color Graphics has tripled its prepress productivity with the installation of a Fujifilm Quattro flatbed color scanner and a Saber Luxel Vx-9600 CTP platesetter, reports Scott Spaulding, one of the company's partners. "We dragged our feet in getting into this area (CTP) because we wanted to see the technology mature a little bit before committing," Spaulding explains. (www.fujifilm.com)
SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA—Electronics for Imaging and Xerox Corp. announced the donation of a Fiery EX2000d server with Fiery Graphic Arts Package and a Xerox DocuColor 2060 digital color press to California Polytechnic State University's Graphic Communication Department. (www.efi.com/www.xerox.com)
VALHALLA, NY—Enovation Graphic Systems, a Fujifilm company, has signed a reseller agreement with Xerox Corp. to sell the latter's line of high-end digital color presses in the graphic arts market. Enovation will immediately begin selling Xerox DocuColor 2045, 2060 and 6060 digital color presses to commercial printers and prepress companies. (www.enovationgraphics.com/ www.xerox.com)
ROCHESTER, NY—Creo Inc. donated a Trendsetter VLF thermal computer-to-plate (CTP) system and the Prinergy workflow management system to the Rochester Institute of Technology. (www.rit.edu/www.creo.com)
ROCHESTER, NY—In order to provide a wider choice of paper, NexPress has introduced a Solutions Substrate Qualification Program targeted at paper manufacturers and distributors. Once qualified, substrates are listed in the NexPress 2100 press substrate catalog. Each substrate script instructs the press on the proper amount of NexPress DryInk to use for each impression. The latest scripts can be downloaded directly from the manufacturer's Website. (www.nexpress.com)
SEATTLE—Seattle Book, a digital publisher, and Fidlar Doubleday, a provider of digitally printed materials, have teamed up to enable their customers to efficiently publish and distribute both e-books and print-on-demand books. The same files and information used by Seattle Book for conversion, distribution and promotion of e-books can be sent automatically to Fidlar Doubleday for output from a wide selection of print-on-demand options, says Tom Burkhardt, general manager of Fidlar Doubleday. (www.seattlebook.com/www.fidlardoubleday.com)
