Software - Web-to-print

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor "Workflow" used to be an easy, concise way to reference the digital equivalent of conventional prepress. It spanned the processes from when a file came in the door until the plate went out to the pressroom. Over time, usage of the term has been extended to encompass so much of the print production process that it now is in danger of applying to everything and effectively defining nothing. Workflow already has been—or is in the process of being—extended: * back to the customer, initially in the form of preflighting and remote proofing solutions, but increasingly including production portals

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor Industry vendors continue to weave a convoluted web of interconnecting technologies and business relationships. Imagine, for a moment, if all of such connections between exhibitors at PRINT 05 & CONVERTING 05 had been represented physically by running strings between their booths. The result likely would have rivaled the work of even the most industrious spider. Quiet a few new strands would have been added just at the show, particularly in the areas of interfacing offset and digital workflows and marketing of new plate technologies. Though not expressly sold as JDF (Job Definition Format) solutions, that technology generally

Philly Delivers For On Demand PHILADELPHIA—According to show organizers, the change in venue for AIIM On Demand 2005 met with "rave reviews" from attendees and exhibitors. Therefore, the event has been scheduled to return to the Pennsylvania Convention Center on May 16-18, 2006. More than 35,000 people are said to have registered for the 2005 installment, which included some 21,000 attendees and staff from the 350 exhibiting companies. A wide range of hardware was on display around the show floor, but advances in software accounted for most of the new product announcements in the production printing arena. Xerox Corp. did formally introduce the

By Erik Cagle Senior Editor There was a time, not all that long ago, when just being on the World Wide Web was hip enough for the commercial printing industry. The term "Web presence" was bandied about freely by printers in the period of roughly 1998 to 2001. The Internet was little more than an opportunity to showcase a company's brochure electronically, and most of the old guard only viewed this medium as a complementary driver for the brick-and-mortar business component. Clearly, though, the "me, too" syndrome has given way to a more progressive school of thought on not only driving more

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor Any claims of being "first" practically beg to be disputed. That inherent risk didn't scare off Great Lakes Integrated (GLI) from adopting the one-word declaration—FIRST—as a brand identity for its mix of marketing communication services. The Cleveland-based organization is comprised of three divisions. GLPrint provides offset and digital printing services. GLDirect is a mailing and fulfillment operation. AKSESS provides a suite of Web-based marketing communication solutions based on an ASP (Application Service Provider) model. Those latter database-driven tools are central to the company's marketing claim and provide a backbone for its integrated service. They are designed to be used by customers and also

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor In terms of the production process, proofing often is the last remaining physical tie between the print buyer and printer—except for the finished product, of course. Both parties have resisted changes to the status quo. Soft, or monitor-based, proofing is a logical step toward a truly all-digital workflow. The notion of evaluating and approving work on-screen probably was suggested the first time work was produced digitally. Yet, the various solutions that have been introduced are still working to gain acceptance, especially for approval of color. Issues related to monitor technology can still be sticking points, but the biggest

I look at my 2000 Toyota Rav 4 with admiration. And, yes, I now drive and have owned the exotic cars that make men behave like little boys. But when you cut to the chase, an automobile's job is to efficiently take you where you want to go without you having to take it where it needs to go. More than five years after I drove my Rav 4 out of the dealer's showroom, other than the usual oil changes, it has never needed a single repair. So my Boxter may be more fun and far more appealing, but it's my dependable Rav 4

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor Since the earliest days of the digital revolution in prepress, choosing a data format has brought trade-offs in file flexibility, portability and processing consistency. For almost as long, the unique requirements of the print advertising workflow have driven a quest to achieve a universal workflow. Now, more than 10 years after its introduction, Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) is finally providing a foundation for realizing that goal in advertising applications and beyond. The effort to establish an open, yet predictable, workflow started with DDES (Digital Data Exchange Standard). It took a sustained effort by the DDAP (Digital Distribution

At CIP4, Good Things Come In Threes RESTON, VA—CIP4 (The International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress) has gotten off to a fast start in the new year, with a deal to expand its scope, further testing and take on a new initiative. The organization entered into an agreement with NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies that transfers the PrintTalk specification and schema to CIP4 for its long-term maintenance and distribution. PrintTalk is the specification for exchange of business data between print providers and their customers. It defines a "best practice" common and

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor For better or for worse, and maybe a little of both, self-service has become the model of business efficiency in the modern world. Vending machines aside, the trend first took hold at the gas pump, then led to ATMs popping up like weeds and now is spreading to the grocery store checkout line. Online interfaces to customers are the printing industry's latest take on the self-service trend. The basic concept is not new, but the way printers are now executing it differs from the wave of eProduction/eCommerce ASP ventures that enveloped the graphic arts during the dotcom bubble.