Agfa Graphics

BY MARK SMITH The basic concept has been given many names. Digital Smart Factory. CIM—computer integrated manufacturing. CIP4—International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress. Or, you can simply call it "process automation." Welcome to system integration in the digital age. The terminology alone is confusing enough. System integration used to be a fairly straightforward problem in the graphic arts arena, even if productive solutions were sometimes hard to come by. The challenge was to get different pieces of electronic prepress equipment to communicate and work together efficiently in a unified workflow. While the digital revolution was redefining the front

Exploring Digital Options BARCELONA, SPAIN—As part of its ongoing efforts to provide educational resources to the graphic arts community, Agfa-Gevaert N.V. hosted an international press forum here recently on digital technology options. Digital proofing and computer-to-film (CTF) or -plate (CTP) workflows were the primary topics of discussion. Digital color proofing is one of the hottest areas of interest among Agfa customers, reports Willy Van Dromme, international marketing manager for digital proofing. It's still seen as the missing link in the all-digital workflow, he says, and there is considerable confusion about the technologies and their applications. The halftone dot/no-dot debate is one source of confusion, Van Dromme

BY ERIK CAGLE You won't see Jim Hopkins' face on the cover of Fortune magazine. His commercial printing company, Hopkins Printing, isn't likely to challenge Quebecor World, R.R. Donnelley or any other top 10-performer as an industry sales heavyweight. Hopkins Printing manages to fly under the radar screen, and chances are you've never heard of the 27-year-old, Columbus, OH-based establishment. Then again, Hopkins Printing has never laid off massive numbers of employees. You won't see any major restructuring because of missed quarterly revenue reports or disappointing stock valuation performances. His upper management team isn't a revolving door. There are no angry shareholders, no elimination

BY ERIK CAGLE Way back in the early days of the Internet, around the dark ages (late 1998), someone asked me, "Exactly what can you find on eBay?" Well, anyone who has visited the Internet auction Website behemoth will return volley by posing the following question: "What can't you find on eBay?" It seems that anything which can be stuffed in a box and have postage slapped on it would fit the description. Ah, but that's not entirely true. Automobiles, viking ships, even internal parts of the human anatomy (one such lot was quickly quashed by the site) can be found there. Founded

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA—California Polytechnic State University now can give is students training on the Indigo TurboStream six-color digital offset press, thanks to a donation from Indigo N.V. Dr. Harvey Levenson, head of the school's Graphic Communication Department, commended the manufacturer for officially joining Cal Poly as a "Partner in Education." (www.indigonet.com) SPARTANBURG, SC—Altman Printing has been designated a Certified Microsoft Publisher 2002 Service Bureau. The certification process required the company to develop a specialty in outputting and printing electronic document files from the software program. (www.altmanprint.com) PITTSBURGH—Presstek is helping the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF) renew its commitment to

Printers and prepress operations looking to step up to outputting imposed, eight-up film have a number of drum imagesetters from which to choose. Key features of the leading systems are highlighted here to help potential buyers start making some comparisons. Agfa SelectSet Avantra 44The SelectSet Avantra 44 product family includes three internal-drum models—Avantra 44XT (performance), Avantra 44S (quality) and Avantra 44E (lower cost). The Avantra 44XT has a 30,000 rpm spin motor, enabling it to output 1,113 square inches per minute or 21 flats per hour at 1,200 dpi. It also features a high-performance media handling system. The Avantra 44S boosts the machine's top output

BY MARK SMITH In a surprisingly short span of time, computer-to-plate production has evolved from being the ideal—but still impractical—workflow, to the domain of risk-taking digital pioneers and, finally, to a mainstream process. Since it's human nature to get caught up in all things new, it's understandable that the substantial role film still plays in the industry often gets overshadowed. In fact, by most measures, film is still the dominant workflow. Momentum alone would be enough to keep film around for years to come, but costs and other issues are limiting computer-to-plate adoption rates in certain segments of the industry. Even in CTP's sweet

Its Own Digital Roadmap Toward the end of last year, Agfa Corp. announced that Robert J. Stabler had been named president of its Graphic Systems North American business unit. Stabler replaced Alexander van Meeuwen, who had led the business group since 1996. The new group president joined Agfa U.K. in 1984 and has since held a variety of positions of increasing responsibilities in photo sales and marketing, both in Agfa's U.K. and U.S. organizations. In January 1999, he joined the U.S. Consumer Imaging group as vice president of marketing and was promoted to senior vice president in April 1999. To gain some insight into

Val DiGiacinto is spreading the message of variable data printing and one-to-one marketing. And his clients are heeding his call. BY CAROLINE MILLER If you build it, they will come. It is the now-famous phrase uttered in the movie "Field of Dreams." It also aptly describes the transformation that the New York City-based The Ace Group underwent in the 1980s when it changed its core business from typography to digital prepress. It continues to hold true today as The Ace Group plans its next metamorphosis into the world of digital and variable-data printing. "We are now a commercial prepress company that does digital printing," explains

Digital Ins and Outs Tech Alert is the yearly conference at which the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF) presents the results of its latest original research studies. At the recently held 2001 conference, studies presented in the digital arena included "Digital Imaging Press Print Attributes," "Digital Photography" and "Remote Proofing—State-of-the-Art Report." According to Dr. Richard M. Adams, study presenter and a GATF research scientist, the digital imaging press study wasn't intended to be a "shoot out," whereby output from competing devices is compared to determine the "winner." Still, manufacturers of the presses in question were asked to print press sheets from a digital