The second installment of Printing Impressions' year-long CIP3 report profiles the activities of Scitex, most notably its InkPRO, and shares the prepress technology provider's take on full digital workflow integration. At Scitex America, Leigh Kimmelman believes that CIP3, in theory, is conceptually sound in its mission to automate production processes from prepress to postpress. As product marketing manager for output imaging systems, Kimmelman must track CIP3 activities and increase market awareness of the latest Scitex CIP3 technologies. Kimmelman has been one busy guy, as has his CIP3 European counterpart, Les Bovenlander, marketing manager/commercial printers, for Scitex. Bovenlander is instrumental in overseeing the implementation of Scitex's CIP3
Software - Web-to-print
Catalog printers, pay close attention: XML—an enhancement of HTML or a redefined, simplified version of SGML, depending on how you view it—is one document manipulation language you need to know, and know well. XML will be your friend. Why? Extensible Markup Language (XML) allows users to define their own structure and tags, completely tailored to a particular document. XML is considered a subset of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)—the 20-year-old, far too complex, yet far too vital to lose an ounce of respect for—document language. HTML is an application of SGML. For commercial printers, notably high-end catalog printers that repurpose wares onto glitzy
Whether the issue is tracking the status of 4,000 color images for a massive catalog or managing a vault of more than 100,000 images, text and fonts for a sophisticated prepress operation, the secret to success is securing an ingenious workflow. If one word could describe the prepress fervor of 1997—the motivating factor in the development of sophisticated software tools for expediting everything from imposition to job ticketing—that word would be workflow. Workflow, workflow, workflow—that was the single most effective, overused and yet understated buzz- word for 1997. Large commercial printers were implementing extensive technological investments to enhance prepress to postpress workflow, midsize commercial
Once upon a time, electronic desktop publishing seemed miraculous. No more awkward cameras, no more messy paste-ups. Put all of your work on a disk, then overnight a package to the printer. Simple. Nowadays, electronic desktop is trite. Everybody's got it. Everybody's using it. And the ability to accept a disk delivered overnight doesn't impress print buyers who want their jobs yesterday. Today's removable media, such as SyQuests and Zips, may boast high memory capacity, but you can't ship them any faster than floppies. If you want quicker delivery, you need the speed of digital file transfer. Digital file transfer performs new miracles in
CIP3 is the International Cooperation for the Integration of Prepress, Press and Postpress, launched in 1995 by a team of prepress, press and postpress industry innovators, with German pressmaker Heidelberger Druckmaschinen serving as catalyst. As the industry begins to pay closer attention to CIP3, the consortium—now more than 30 members strong—continues its initiative of establishing an open standard for exchanging digital information from prepress to postpress stages. Each month throughout 1998, Printing Impressions will profile one specific member of the CIP3 consortium, from software developers to digital prepress innovators to press manufacturers to postpress players. Ultimate Technographics, an imposition software pioneer, will launch our
