Software - Web-to-print

I admit it. I am a UNIX bigot. Having come to the printing industry from the computer side—they called it "data processing" back then—I took a dim view of other operating systems. That was back in 1989. Of course, I have had to eat my words on more than one occasion since then, attacked on one side by Macintosh evangelists (zealots?) and, later, Windows NT folks on the other. For those of you who aren't up on the latest in UNIX, this operating system was initially developed by Bell Labs back in the '70s. Ma Bell did not commercialize it because of antitrust concerns and

Moving to new levels of digital asset management? Be sure to network and organize effectively to lay the foundation for an astute database. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Content manager. This is the latest descriptive to find its way onto your ever-clever corporate promotional materials. You are a general commercial printer, an innovative digital prepress provider—a digital content manager. Needless to say, your database capacity has, well, grown-up during this maturation from pure print provider to overall digital asset controller. REALITY: You have only begun to investigate ways to bolster your database power to make the move from print provider to all-in-one print provider and digital asset manager.

If maximizing RAID storage power and strengthening server support sound promising, surf the fibre channel— the next tech wave to boost the potential of RAID. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Imagine that you're on a tight deadline to finish a four-color project—a high-end, 110-page catalog featuring automotive accessories for a popular sports utility vehicle dealer. It is 8 p.m. on Tuesday. All is going well. Images have been scanned and the project is almost done being pushed through the prepress department. Working late and feeling benevolent, you decide to order pizza for your night shift, kick back, send a few long overdue e-mail responses

NEXPO, headlining in Las Vegas this month, touts trends in digital asset management, imagesetters, new RIP releases and other digital prepress tools designed to make the front page move in digital directions. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Newspapers are at a disadvantage when it comes to reaping the full benefits of electronic prepress, at present, for the obvious reason: Experimentation can cost—and, with the front page at stake, few newspaper greats would push for thermal imaging innovation at the risk of an unplanned late edition. However, are newspaper executives, who are in positions of operational and production management, taking note of the technologies driving thermal

I'm working on a new seminar series for Insync Media, a Los Angeles-based printing and new media firm, and I thought I'd share some of the insights that are emerging from the process. Most of my seminars are offered to printers and prepress shops. When I say "you" in my seminars, it's usually the same "you" that I reference in this column. However, this new series is, instead, directed at your customers or, more specifically, at a segment of your customers—namely senior managers of creative/production services at large corporations, ad agencies and design studios. With all of the upheaval caused by the Internet and

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit a commercial printer that, in many ways, is representative of our industry. It is a privately held firm that was started right after World War II and has grown from being a local printer into a mid-sized firm with a national clientele. This firm, which shall remain anonymous, faced the digital prepress issue a bit earlier than most commercial printers. But, what is notable about it isn't that the firm put in Macintosh workstations and started outputting its own films. No, it's the approach that management used that is important. The principals—the president and general manager—knew they needed

The purpose of an electronic job ticket is to convey information relative to the production of a print job. Simple, yet complex, these virtual managers may offer a few surprises—but they won't replace the paper trail, just yet. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO The electronic job ticket is not a practical replacement for the existing paper system. Odd but true. It is impossible to carry the electronic job ticket around a printing plant for continuous reference, as required during setup and the actual run. Clearly, then, the electronic job ticket has significant advantages over the time-honored paper system, when it comes to updating critical

Two years ago, Printing Impressions explored the digital asset management and repurposing services of Color Associates. At that time, its top management reported that selling data services and exploring new ways of distributing client information was the future for prepress providers. Were they right? You bet your assets! BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO The year is 1997. At Color Associates—a St. Louis-based digital prepress, creative imaging services and display graphics provider—the focus is clear: The time has come to sell, market and fully exploit digital content management and the expanding role of digital communications. The Internet, they reasoned, would play a major role in

Will 1999 be the year that the Internet is finally recognized as a viable alternative for the transfer of larger graphic arts files? Keep dreaming—but, for certain, the Internet is gaining the attention and trust of commercial printers and prepress pros. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO The Internet offers critical mass and open compatibility and, at the end of the day, that's exactly what commercial printers are looking for in digital file delivery. True or false? More and more, the answer appears to be swinging to true, as the Internet gains both the recognition and investment dollars of leading digital file delivery providers—leading

Commercial printers, trade shops, publishers and industry suppliers are banding together under the Graphics Century Project (GCP) umbrella to share critical information and find practical solutions concerning common Y2K problems. BY ERIK CAGLE (Editor's Note: This is the second in a year-long series of articles examining the Y2K problem as it applies to the commercial printing industry. This installment takes a look at the Graphics Century Project, an association-led effort to exchange knowledge.) Pat Maher will be one of the first to admit that the commercial printing industry falls short in the