Software - Web-to-print

The best way to accurately reproduce a colored paper stock on a proofing device such as the HP 5000 inkjet proofer available from Heidelberg is to create a new target (press) ICC profile using the PrintOpen module of Prinect Profile Toolbox. First, print test patches for PrintOpen using the colored paper to be reproduced on the proofer. Read the values into PrintOpen using a spectrophotometer, and PrintOpen will create a target profile from this data. A quicker but less accurate solution is to bring the existing target profile into PrintOpen for editing. Using a spectrophotometer, read the LAB values from the colored paper to

Presstek Committed To Short-run Market HUDSON, NH—In response to growing demand for short-run color output, Presstek Inc. believes it has developed digital solutions that target this marketplace and provide customers a smarter way to print. That was the primary message expressed by company executives during a pre-Graph Expo press event held at its headquarters last month. “While market data shows that other areas of the print market are shrinking, short-run color is growing,” noted Ed Marino, Presstek president and CEO. “Whether print service providers choose to address this opportunity with the speed, quality and profitability of a highly automated DI press or with

How can you eliminate moirés? Satin Screening, a second-order stochastic screening solution from Heidelberg, does away with the problem entirely. With conventional screening systems, switching screen angles can give better results in certain color motifs (including flesh tones). If, for example, smooth gray-greens are predominant, then switching the screen angles of cyan and magenta can…

With digital printing in its various forms having been in the marketplace for more than 15 years, most industry pundits agree it has reached a level of maturity. Buyers of printed product, who once may have had objections to the quality or price of digital printing—or both—now no longer voice those objections for most projects. And as they have come to understand the advantages of digital printing— the ability to economically produce high quality short runs of full color materials on demand and its unique capability to deliver one-to-one communications—the face of printing has changed forever. No one is suggesting that offset printing is

STANDARDS ARE not the sexist topic. The need for exactness can make even their names a tough read. Take, for example, ISO 12647-2, the standard for “Graphic technology - Process control for the production of halftone color separations, proof and production prints - Part 2: Offset lithographic processes.” That is instantly memorable. The payoff from implementing common languages and practices is a more efficient and consistent printing process. Efforts to that end continue on a number of fronts, but two have been particularly active of late. Users of print that operate on a global basis want their materials to have a consistent appearance regardless

Prepress, Press, Postpress Equipment Installed Around the Country KENNESAW, GA—August 31, 2006—Heidelberg USA announces the following sample of new product installations: Lithotone, Inc. Replaces Two Presses, Doubles Productivity with Speedmaster XL 105 Press from Heidelberg Founded in 1962, Elkhart-Ind.-based Lithotone, Inc. recently installed its first Heidelberg press – a 6-color Speedmaster XL 105 with coater. “We looked at the competition, but the XL 105 was the only press we saw that could actually run at its maximum production speeds,” reports Jim Priebe, vice president. Installed to replace two older presses, the new Speedmaster XL 105 has more than doubled productivity in the shop. “We

RESTON, VA—August 29, 2006—The International Color Consortium announced it is launching a new user forum on color management on September 1. This will be an open forum hosted on the ICC web site at http://www.color.org/icc_users.html. The user forum is a further step in providing information and resources on the use of ICC profiles to the user community, and is in line with the ICC’s goals of building a user community, increasing participation by both members and non-members, and improving implementation of the V4 profile format. William Li, ICC chair, said “The goal of this listserv is to provide a forum where ICC color

Integrating digital and offset workflows drives efficiency at Dallas printer ROCHESTER, NY—August 23, 2006—Over the past two years, sales at Padgett Printing have increased 50 percent, strong growth made more impressive by the fact that Padgett added no new equipment during this period. Instead, David Torok, President of Padgett Printing, attributes his company’s success to a unified workflow that integrated production, color and data processes. “We’ve seen higher throughput, quality and accuracy ever since we first implemented Kodak Unified Workflow solutions several years ago to manage our offset and new digital printing capabilities,” said Torok. “Thanks in large part to our Kodak Unified Workflow

ROCHESTER, NY—August 7, 2006—A desire to enhance his company’s productivity led Kamron Motamedi, president of American Printing and Copy, to install a trio of Kodak solutions. Motamedi selected Kodak Prinergy Evo News software, a Kodak Magnus 400 platesetter and the Matchprint Inkjet 9800 proofing solution to advance his time to press and grow his business. “We needed to improve our speed to press because that’s where we make our money,” explained Motamedi. “After a thorough review of different technologies and multiple vendors, Kodak became the single choice because they offered the best products in all three categories — workflow, proofing and computer to plate.”

The Preset Link option for Prinect CP2000 Center and Print Center press consoles not only makes it possible to transfer CIP4-PPF ink key presets from Prinect Prepress Interface to a press over the plant’s Ethernet production network—it also enables all so-equipped presses to communicate with each other. For example, assume that a job is set to run on a Speedmaster press that is down for scheduled maintenance or is busy printing another job. With Preset Link, all of the presets for the job can be sent over the network to a second Speedmaster for production. All preset values can be transferred from press to press,