Color/Quality Control - Software

ALTHOUGH MANY industry pundits were quick to label Drupa 2008 as The Digital Ink-Jet Drupa—given the technology previews shown there by the likes of Kodak, HP, Océ, Screen and Fujifilm—traditional sheetfed and web offset press manufacturers were just as diligent in showcasing their vision regarding the print shop of the future. Based on the sampling of new press offerings highlighted here, the massive trade show could just as easily have been called The Large-Format Press Drupa; The Short-Run, Fast Makeready Offset Press Drupa; and even The Value-Added Press Drupa. These themes were very apparent from Heidelberg, which filled two entire halls that were

OAKDALE, MN/LAHR, GERMANY—April 22, 2008—For drupa 2008, NELA has chosen the motto „Pre-press to Press Automation“. The company which headquarter is based in Germany will present a complete range of products which close the gap between CtP-room and press while ensuring absolute quality control. During live demonstrations on NELA’s booth, Drupa visitors will experience that total automation of the pre-press area has truly become reality: imaged, punched and bent plates are delivered at the right time directly to the right press cylinder. Paper waste, delays caused by wrongly mounted printing plates and problems to adjust color register on press are eliminated. Peak production

HOD HASHARON, ISRAEL—April 8, 2008—Advanced Vision Technology (AVT) and its subsidiary Graphic Microsystems Inc. (GMI) will be launching new solutions for a variety of printing applications as part of their joint presence at drupa in Hall 3, Stand F69. New solutions include the AVT PrintVision/Orion automatic inspection solution for folding carton single package applications; the innovative AVT AconPro solution for advanced press control; the GMI ColorQuick II with new capabilities and pre-press connections for heat-set web printers; Microcolor III remote ink control solution for narrow web applications; the ColorQuick N color control solution for the newspaper market, and other solutions that address new market

PITTSBURGH—April 3, 2008—The Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (PIA/GATF) is pleased to announce the establishment of the Center for Color Management assisting members with the implementation of color management and production color controls. The Center provides consulting, training, publications, and case-study evaluations of international print standards and printing reference conditions. The association reports that printers recognizing the power of color science, advanced technologies, and integrated systems consistently increase color accuracy and repeatability among various digital and print media devices, while also reducing production waste. Ken Rizzo (PIA/GATF, Director of Consulting and Custom Training) along with Joe Suffoletto, MS, CDPS (PIA/GATF, Senior Technical

ALEXANDRIA, VA—March, 20, 2008—IDEAlliance today announced that its GRACoL Committee is launching a new activity to assist printers in qualifying their presses for G7 Calibration. The new G7 press pre-qualification toolkit will provide guidelines and tools to help printers access the readiness of their press to undergo G7 calibration. Background After nearly two years of on-press G7-calibration experience on over 200 presses worldwide, the GRACoL Committee has learned some critical lessons. The first lesson was that G7 alone is not enough. Good printing techniques must be practiced on a daily basis if the true benefit of G7 is to be

GRAND RAPIDS, MI—March 6, 2008—X-Rite, Inc., a global leader in color technology, and its wholly owned subsidiary Pantone, Inc., the global color authority, today announced that they will unveil a complete range of color solutions and new initiatives at Drupa 2008 (Düsseldorf, Germany, May 29 – June 11, 2008). X-Rite will showcase its complete product range on stand DO2 in Hall 5, and its Pantone® products on stand E04 in Hall 9. X-Rite’s recent acquisition of Pantone enriches the X-Rite product portfolio and positions the company as the leading provider of innovative, integrated, full spectrum solutions for color specification, color management

PRINT RUNS are getting shorter. Everyone in the industry now takes that as a given, but what does it mean? Is a short run in the hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands? The answer varies depending on the piece and the platform used to print it. One thing that is clear: A trend toward shorter runs at any level requires producing more jobs to achieve the same sales volume. Printers need to have highly efficient technology and processes in place to maximize their revenue and profits from this business. They must be able to get more jobs on and off a press per shift.

THE PRIMARY goal of color management is to reproduce consistent, predictable and repeatable color across a range of devices, such as scanners, digital cameras, monitors, printers, offset presses and corresponding media.

Print has become a digital-centric process with software, the glue that controls and holds the diverse elements of print production together. As traditional printing processes decline in volume, digitalography is growing with a developing technology race among the diverse strains of digital output (as is detailed in the January issue of Printing Impressions). This PI e-posting picks up where the print article left off with the forecast of a process race between toner and ink-jet digital printing. Product showing and announcements at Drupa 08 in May will serve as a process competitive benchmark in the race, which really seriously started at Graph Expo ’07,

CARLSTADT, NJ—Sept. 5, 2007— Pantone, Inc., the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, today unveiled the PANTONE Goe(TM) System (pronounced go), the first completely new color inspiration and specification system for the graphic arts industry since the introduction of the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® 45 years ago. With 2,058 new PANTONE Colors, the PANTONE Goe System is designed to inspire creativity and fulfill the requirements of a fast-changing, technologically advancing industry. PANTONE Goe is more than a single product with exciting new colors. The System includes modern tools and interactive software to improve versatility in an increasingly