Esko, X-Rite Pantone, Enfocus and MediaBeacon Form 'Inspiration Zones' at drupa 2016

GHENT, Belgium — April 5, 2016 – At drupa, Esko will be showcasing a wide range of innovations together with sister company X-Rite Pantone and subsidiaries Enfocus and MediaBeacon. drupa takes place May 31 to June 10, 2016 in Düsseldorf, Germany. The companies will be located in Hall 8b, stand A23.

Stand Overview
The main part of the 900-square-meter stand will consist of six Inspiration Zones that will take visitors through each step of a typical packaging production workflow. Each zone features solutions and key innovations from exhibiting companies.

The zones are:

• Brands, Specification and Briefing
• Design
• Artwork and Repro
• Flexo Platemaking
• Printing and Ink Management
• Finishing

Each Inspiration Zone features solutions and key innovations from exhibiting companies. In addition to these Inspiration Zones, Enfocus offerings will be present in the booth and Pantone will occupy a dedicated zone to display and sell its well-known Pantone guides and tools for color inspiration and design.

Brands, Specification and Briefing Zone
This zone will focus on the holistic packaging production process from idea to shelf, connecting stakeholders such as brands, designers, premedia and converters; and integrating with business systems such as MIS, ERP, PIM, MRM and Content Management.

X-Rite will showcase new tools that allow brand owners to select and communicate color so that it can be consistently achieved across multiple substrates, printing processes and locations. Featured solutions include X-Rite’s PantoneLIVE digital color management; Esko WebCenter for project management; and MediaBeacon, the digital asset management company acquired by Esko in 2015.

Design Zone
The focus here will be on creating designs that meet event the strictest brand owner’s specifications, quickly and accurately. Attention will also be paid to connecting design with production/logistics for faster time to market and the ability to ensure achievable designs prior to the expense of production. 3D and digital color visualization support brand approval and drives down design time for complex multi-component POP displays and packaging. Overall, quality is improved with early automated error detection. Featured solutions include Pantone Color Guides (including the new Extended Gamut Guide), X-Rite CAPSURE, X-Rite i1Pro Solutions. ArtiosCAD structural design for packaging and displays, Cape Pack palletization software, Studio Visualizer for graphical packaging design in 3D and Studio Store Visualizer for hyper-realistic retail environment visualization.

Artwork and Repro Zone
This zone focuses on ways to produce print-ready artwork efficiently and avoid rework. The solutions showcased in this zone demonstrate how operations can address the larger number of smaller jobs running through prepress by better controlling and streamlining workflows. Visitors will see the latest techniques for ensuring accurate translation of color from proof to production-ready files. Among the showcased solutions in the Artwork and Repro Zone will be Esko WebCenter for online collaboration and approval on artwork, WebCenter Content Management, ArtPro+, the new native PDF prepress editor linked to Automation Engine workflow automation software. Visitors will be demonstrated how this powerful combination takes 60% of errors and 50% of time out of the artwork preparation QA process. Further featuring here are the X-Rite i1Pro Solutions Family and Judge QC Light Booth.

Flexo Platemaking Zone
This zone showcases how customers can take control of flexo plate production and achieve faster plate production turnaround times while delivering more consistent flexo plates. Esko’s developments in digital flexo platemaking focus on simplicity: with Esko solutions, making a digital flexo plate can be as easy as making an offset plate.

On display will be the most exciting innovation in flexo platemaking since the introduction of the CDI (Cyrel Digital Imager): a brand-new integrated flexo imaging and exposing solution, the CDI CRYSTAL 5080 XPS. This new flexo platemaking solution delivers impressive benefits, including a 68% reduction in operator time for platemaking; 50% reduction in operator training time; and 74% faster time to plate.

Printing and Ink Management Zone
This zone presents methods of dealing with the increased complexity of mixed printing environments (digital, flexo, gravure, offset) as well as achieving color consistency across an ever-growing number of substrates and production locations. Learn how X-Rite’s newest PantoneLIVE offerings, coupled with the company’s most sophisticated ink formulation software and color measurement devices, improve converters’ speed to market by reducing set-up time and eliminating physical on-press approvals.

There will be information about fixed color palette (Extended Gamut) printing solutions that enable the profitable production of short run jobs on conventional flexo presses. Extended Gamut printing allows customers to reduce job changeover times and press downtime, produce more short run jobs per day, and reduce media waste and ink inventories. Press uptime is increased by 50%, and there’s a 34% reduction in printed waste per job changeover.

Featured solutions include Esko Equinox software for Extended Gamut printing, X-Rite InkFormulation Software, PantoneLIVE Private Cloud, PantoneLIVE Rationalization Service, ColorCert, eXact Xp and IntelliTrax2.

Finishing Zone
This zone focuses on how companies can achieve increased throughput using digital finishing for packaging, sign and display applications.

Kongsberg digital cutting solutions address a tangible throughput increase by integrating cutting tables with workflow software for production control.

Customers will experience 10% more throughput, 30% less operator time and a 50% reduction in training requirements while being able to improve on time delivery of critical jobs towards their customers. Featured will be the updated family of Esko Kongsberg tables, artwork preparation software i-Cut Suite, workflow automation software Automation Engine and structural design software for packaging and displays ArtiosCAD.

Enfocus
Enfocus will have its own zone featuring its highly rated software solutions for PDF preflighting and editing and modular workflow automation, including the latest developments with Switch and PitStop and Connect. With the recently released Enfocus Appstore, enabling Switch users around the world to instantly purchase and use apps created by other Switch users, Enfocus further stretches on the scalability and simplicity of its automation solution Switch. Users will have access to an infinite number of tasks and integrations that can be automated through Switch.

By leveraging its PDF-knowledge with PitStop into other solutions, Enfocus owned or third parties’ applications, Enfocus will be giving even more people than today access to its new powerful PDF preflight capabilities.

Enfocus will also show a number of Cloud integrations for their current integrations including PitStop Server subscriptions, Asset Syncing for Switch and a move towards HTML based user interfaces, in order to maximize flexibility and user experience for users.

Enfocus experts will be on hand to explain how these solutions can deliver additional efficiencies to new as well as to its existing customers.

Pantone Store
In the Pantone store in the booth, designers, prepress and print professionals will be able to explore and purchase the latest Pantone Color Guides and other tools and publications for color inspiration and design.

About Esko
Esko is a global supplier of integrated solutions for the packaging, labels, sign and display industries. Esko products and services help customers manage, create and produce better labels, packaging, signs and displays.

Portfolio
The Esko product portfolio supports and manages the packaging and print processes for brand owners, retailers, designers, premedia and trade shops, packaging manufacturers and converters. For nine out of 10 retail packages, Esko solutions are used in packaging management, asset management, artwork creation, structural design, prepress, 3D visualization, flexo plate making, workflow automation, quality assurance, sample-making, palletization, supply chain collaboration and/or the production of signage and displays.

The Esko solutions consist of an extensive suite of software and two hardware product lines: CDI flexo computer-to-plate imagers and Kongsberg digital cutting systems, complemented with professional services, training and consultancy.

Enfocus, with its suite of automation solutions and PDF quality control tools for printers, publishers and graphic designers, is an Esko subidiary. MediaBeacon, with its digital asset management (DAM) solutions is also part of the Esko family.

Facts and numbers
Esko employs about 1,500 people worldwide. Its direct sales and service organization covers Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Americas and the Asia Pacific, Japan and China regions and is complemented by a network of distribution partners in more than 50 countries.

Esko is headquartered in Gent, Belgium, and has R&D and manufacturing facilities in five European countries, the United States, China and India. Esko is a Danaher company.

About X-Rite
Founded in 1958, X-Rite Inc. is a global leader in color science and technology. With its wholly owned subsidiary Pantone, X-Rite employs more than 800 people in 11 countries. The company’s corporate headquarters are located in Grand Rapids, Mich., with regional headquarters in Europe and Asia and service centers across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. X-Rite Pantone offers a full range of color management solutions used by manufacturers, retailers, printers, photographers and graphic design houses to achieve precise management and communication of color throughout their processes. X-Rite Pantone products and services are recognized standards in the printing, packaging, photography, graphic design, video, automotive, paints, plastics, textiles and medical industries.

About Pantone
Pantone LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of X-Rite Inc., has been the world’s color authority for nearly 50 years, providing design professionals with products and services for the colorful exploration and expression of creativity. Always a source for color inspiration, Pantone also offers paint and designer-inspired products and services for consumers.

About Enfocus
Enfocus provides modular and affordable tools safeguarding job quality and enabling automation throughout the complete production chain. Innovative solutions improve communication between design and production while enhancing productivity and predictability through automation of routine tasks.

Step-by-step deployment dramatically increases added value without forcing users to completely rethink their way of doing business. Well-known brands include PitStop, Switch and Connect.

Enfocus is a business unit of Esko and has its headquarters in Ghent, Belgium.

Source: X-Rite.