Seybold Boston--Back to Beantown

From Adobe's K2 to Apple's G3, from Markzware's MarkzScout to EPSON's Stylus 9000 and from Agfa's Galileo to Creo's SQUARESpot—Seybold brought the digital movers and shakers back to Boston, where file transfer, asset management, color proofing, thermal platesettind every other degree of digital prepress stood on a welcome, familiar platform.

BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO

Seybold, Boston. What a familiar and pleasant ring that name carries. With all the hype and hoopla surrounding the return of

Seybold to Boston last month, all roads led to the Hynes Center for the latest advancements in digital prepress, digital printing and "repurposing" content for the Internet.

Couldn't make the trek to visit the chiefs of file transfer, digital asset management, color management, imposition, preflighting, color proofing, digital platesetting and more, who were all camped in Beantown? Don't give it a second thought. Printing Impressions wouldn't miss it for all the tea in, well, Boston! For those printing executives too busy overseeing pressroom productivity, for those prepress directors too entrenched in new scanning or digital proofing initiatives, we present a sampling of the hot news, hot trends and even hotter product talk.

All Hail Adobe's K2!
Adobe, naturally, took a lead position at the show, as the father of PDF. Adobe's John Warnock, president, and Charles Geschke, CEO, laid out their collective version of publishing for both print and the Internet during the exposition's opening keynote. Both Adobe executives stressed that publishers in the near future are going to have to be conscious of the need to publish for both media simultaneously. And, to no one's surprise, both Warnock and Geschke reported that Adobe would deliver to publishers that convergence with an integrated, new set of publishing packages.

Enter K2, the code name for InDesign, the latest page design and text editing masterpiece from Adobe. The former K2 can import QuarkXPress pages using a drag-and-drop interface. Objects and text can also be placed on different layers on the page, a strong feature for multi-language document versions.

InDesign's text editing features allow text to be converted into outlines, as well as receive nested graphics while remaining fully editable—not to mention the very cool pen tool, that allows text to run around page elements.

Major news from Adobe also included the introduction of PressReady software, a professional printing and proofing tool for select desktop color ink-jets. PressReady extends the latest generation of color ink-jet printers to deliver Adobe PostScript 3 output. PressReady is based on a new Adobe PostScript 3 implementation that Adobe has optimized for use with ink-jet printers; now featured is advanced color management based on industry standards and tools to help create, print and manage color-calibrated PDF files.

Wider Is Better!
Large-format digital color output devices, ranging from ColorSpan's DisplayMaker XII Series, Roland's Hi-Fi Jet (a 1998 wide-format success story) and the big brother to EPSON's Stylus Pro 5000, the new Stylus Pro 9000—plus wide-format output options from Scitex—were strong indicators of technologies yet to come for wide-format printing. Obviously, more wide-format printing and proofing devices will hit the market as Graph Expo 99 and Converting Expo 99 approach in October.

SEYBOLD TALK. . .
Pantone announced the first cross-platform Hexachrome plug-in for Adobe Illustrator, PANTONE HexVector. HexVector allows graphic designers, packaging designers and prepress professionals to take advantage of the expanded color gamut of Hexachrome with the ability to create six-color Hexachrome separations from within Illustrator.

At the Scitex booth, all the talk was of Timna, a production data management solution tuned specifically for the data-intensive nature of prepress and preprint production. The new solution works with the Scitex Brisque family of DFEs and Scitex graphic arts servers. Scitex also announced support for the advanced color measurement tools of X-Rite within the Scitex Profile Wizard color management and Iris ColorZone color calibration software, as well as a new relationship with Kodak Polychrome Graphics. DryView technology from Kodak Polychrome Graphics is now integrated into Scitex's new Dolev 4dry imagesetter, and Kodak Polychrome Graphics will supply Kodak DryView recording film for use with the Scitex device. The two companies are working together to finalize commercialization of the Dolev 4dry imagesetter.

Preflighting technology provider Markzware introduced MarkzScout, the first product created from Markzware's new MarkzONE development engine. MarkzScout examines job elements in native documents and separates the files appropriately within any prepress workflow system, including the Scitex Brisque and Agfa Apogee.

Enfocus Software, an Adobe developer, announced it will offer a plug-in for automated preflighting of Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files saved in Adobe InDesign software.

Enfocus PDF CheckUp for Adobe InDesign provides publishing workflow-critical preflighting of font usage, image and color information. Based on the same preflight technology found in new Enfocus PitStop 4.0; Enfocus PDF CheckUp for Adobe InDesign integrates with PitStop 4.0, which provides automated correction of PDF documents.

Polaroid Graphics Imaging introduced new additions to the array of ink sheet media available for the Polaroid PolaProof digital halftone proofer—new Pantone colors and a new ink sheet size option for the three process color sets of SWOP, GRACoL and Eurocolors. Now PANTONE Matching System (PMS) designations are a part of the growing PolaProof palette. Two of the new PolaProof colors are metallics, PANTONE 873C (gold) and PANTONE 877C (silver).

Digital Art Exchange (DAX) introduced its DAX iSERVER, a complete, turnkey communications server for companies looking to expand Internet services. The DAX iSERVER offers a robust Internet services solution that includes DAX Windows NT-based e-mail, FTP server and Web server configurations in one easy-to-implement package.

Creo showcased a new calibration technology that enables accurate proofing of copydot files on the Heidelberg/Creo Trendsetter Spectrum and the Creo Proofsetter Spectrum digital halftone proofing devices. Creo's new calibration algorithm allows customers to alter the tonal curves of copydot data. By using tonal curves to compensate for differences in media composition, users can produce proofs that accurately match the standard presswork specifications, independent of time or location.

Fujifilm announced the new Luxel CP5600 Final Proof, a digital halftone proofer for high-end commercial printers. Fujifilm's Final Proof provides true halftone dot screening at the same resolution as Fujifilm output recorders, while utilizing Fujifilm pigment-based colors. Fujifilm also launched its SUMO Luxel F9000 eight-up imagesetter.

Xinet announced shipment of FullPress, its premier prepress server, for Apple's new server operating system, Mac OS X. Xinet's FullPress version 9.04 and WebNative version 1.04 were demonstrated. Both sport increased functionality over previous incarnations.

Screen, sporting a leaner, meaner persona, launched a new, external drum, eight-up imagesetter called Tanto 5120. The Tanto 5120 replaces Screen's DT-R3100 imagesetter. It can support six different media sizes, capable of imaging up to 44.1˝ in the primary scanning direction, with a maximum media size of 33x45˝.

Agfa made several announcements at the show, including the introduction of the Agfa AiiS integrated image server, which accepts mainframe data generated for black-and-white or spot-color printing formats and moves it into a full-color, variable-data format ready for printing on the Agfa Chromapress; the launch of the AgfaJet RIP server, incorporating features that benefit customers who already own AgfaJet equipment; and the availability of Agfa's P971 thermal plate to coincide with deliveries of its Galileo thermal CTP system. The P971 is a 1,064nm thermal plate, featuring no prebake or postbake processing for run lengths up to 100,000 impressions. Agfa also announced the AgfaScan XY-15 high-end CCD scanner for multi-shift use in high-production environments.

Plus, Agfa touted the introduction of Galileo S, a high-speed, visible-light platesetter that images plates up to 50 percent faster than the standard Galileo visible-light system. Galileo S enables users to create a 44.5˝ plate in just under three and a half minutes, at 2,400 dpi.

At Kodak Polychrome Graphics, the focus was on the launch of Kodak DryView recording film, DryView—a hard-dot, negative-acting, infrared-sensitive, heat-developed film that uses a heat-stable polyester base.

Silicon Graphics announced StudioCentral Library Release 2.0, an integrated digital asset management solution for digital content creators. Building on an open development environment, this new version of StudioCentral adds a client/server environment and support for Silicon Graphics' visual workstations and Origin servers, as well as Windows NT, Windows 95 and Macintosh clients.

So, where was WAM!NET? Where was that oversized, even overzealous purple exclamation point? Where was that super polished purple semi, tanked with hot digital prepress technologies? While WAM!NET did not have a booth at Seybold, it did have a presence, if not a bit imported, in the form of Lyndon Stickley, former president of 4-Sight and currently director of WAM!NET's European marketing.

During a press conference led by Stickley, the former ISDN evangelist and Ed Driscoll, CEO at WAM!NET, reported that WAM!NET is now offering two new pricing programs: Value Bundles and automatic volume discounts. Through these programs, customers can achieve savings of 10 percent to 70 percent off the list prices for megabyte transmission fees. WAM!NET also announced complete global access to the WAM!NET digital network with the shipping of its ISDN On!Ramp product and the Internet Gateway beta program, already in process.

Heidelberg Color Publishing Solutions (CPS) unveiled SAPHIR HiRes, a new single-pass, 42-bit color scanner employing a 10,500 pixel color CCD and offering dynamic range up to 3.6D. SAPHIR HiRes offers a vibration-free moving plate design and the DoubleLens system, which allows users to select the resolution that best suits the original's size. Heidelberg CPS also announced a new relationship with digital asset facilitator Canto Software. Canto and Heidelberg CPS will be bundling Canto's Cumulus media management solution with the SAPHIR HiRes scanner, as well as the SAPHIR Ultra 2 scanner.

X-Rite chose Seybold for the debut of its DTP41/T autoscan spectrophotometer, which enables automated measurement of transparent and semitransparent material, as well as prints. X-Rite also promoted its support of Apple's USB system architecture, in the form of X-Rite's Monitor Optimizer, a four-channel colorimeter.

Hello Vic Stalam!
Vio Worldwide Ltd. introduced a 20-year graphic arts veteran, with former ties to Kodak and XYAN, who will lead its U.S. operations as president and COO of Vio North America.

Vic Stalam, formerly general manager and vice president of Kodak Digital Products (1996-97) and vice president of marketing and sales at XYAN (1997-99), is responsible for all of Vio's North American sales, marketing and customer support operations. Stalam's top priority will be to build a self-standing organization in North America, while establishing sales and distribution channels to key markets.

In other news, Vio announced the commercial availability in North America of several value-added applications and features for its managed production network. The new service offerings include automatic file retrieval, automatic forwarding and color-managed remote proofing.