Web Offset--Efficiency Is Inevitable

Although it will be some time—and maybe never—before the industry locks down on one digital file format, printers and clients are customizing workflows of their own.

Ithaca, NY-based Wilcox Press, a top winner in the 1999 Gold Ink Awards for printing and production excellence, recently installed the Creo Prinergy workflow ("Print with Energy"). Adobe, Creo and Heidelberg Prepress have put together a system based on Adobe's Extreme workflow, whereby the printer need not revert PDF files back to PostScript prior to platesetting. This page-based prepress software automates the handling of PDF, Extreme PostScript or CT/LW files, by utilizing Adobe's Portable Job Ticket Format (PJTF). The result is a scalable system standardized on a file type and platform that plays well with others.