Enfocus Software

BOSTON—April 17, 2007 -- At an awards ceremony this afternoon, Questex Media Group, Inc. announced the winners of the On Demand Best of Show Award program. InfoTrends, a leading market research and consulting firm in the digital imaging and document solutions industry, partnered with the On Demand Conference & Exposition to produce the awards program. The On Demand Conference & Exposition is taking place this week at the Boston Convention & Exposition Center. The On Demand Best of Show Awards were judged in eight categories. One Best of Show award was presented in each of the following categories: Bindery, Finishing and Mailing

SINCE THE digital revolution began, developments in the front end of the printing process have been as much about big ideas as they have specific products and solutions. The latest in a string of topics that have been debated include PDF versus native files, violet versus thermal CTP and process automation via JDF. At Graph Expo and Converting Expo 2006, the discussion tended to be focused back at the product level. The parameters of the state-of-the-art in workflow, for now, have been clearly defined. They include: • PDF-based file processing in a color managed environment is a given; • computer-to-plate is also a given,

Gämmerler will launch the BL 408 bindery stacker for use behind saddlestitchers, perfect binders, folders and inserters. Features wide format range, two-stage stacking system and a low copy drop height. The infeed is equipped with four top belts and eight bottom belts. Visit www.piworld.com/infocenter and enter number 381 Goss International will unveil its Pacesetter 2200 and 2500 saddlestitchers. The systems feature servo-driven hoppers and excel at quick makereadies. The Pacesetter 2200 system completes up to 22,000 books per hour. The Pacesetter 2500 model features a dual stitcher and a 25,000 books per hour capacity. Visit www.piworld.com/infocenter and enter number

IT HAS taken almost a decade, but the adoption of soft—or virtual—proofing now seems to be on a trajectory similar to the one for computer-to-plate production. Critical color and press-side applications still could be considered in the early adopter stage, but the number of users is growing and a much larger group is becoming open to the possibility. The product category also continues to expand, both in terms of the solutions offered and the applications they support. In just about a year, the number of vendors offering SWOP (Specifications for Web Offset Publications) certified systems has gone from two to five, for example.

BY THIS time, the shipping crates are certainly well on their way to Birmingham (UK), if not already on the grounds of the National Exhibition Centre, laden with the latest and greatest that exhibitors at IPEX 2006 have to offer. Earlier this year, nearly a dozen companies gave the industry media a preview of their show plans at an event organized by the British public relations firm AD Communications. The primary intent was to give those already committed to attending the international exposition a head start in developing a must-see list. But, it’s not too late for others to book a last-minute trip if

Quark Inc. announced a strategic alliance with Enfocus Software aimed at improving the overall PDF experience within QuarkXPress and to provide bundled solutions that streamline Certified PDF-based workflows. Agfa's Graphic Systems business group has added an industry specialist to support the company's recent entries into the wide-format printing market. Steve Cutler has joined Agfa's team as marketing manager for the newly formed Sign, Screen and Display segment. Brandtjen & Kluge reports that four employees have reached their 25-year anniversaries with the company. They are Deb Mitchell, accountant; Dave Peterson, journeyman machinist; Kathy Soul, computer technical officer; and Kevin Robbins, sales and service manager. In keeping

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor Not to get philosophical, but if a word comes to mean everything, there's a danger of it ending up to mean nothing. The digital revolution was already on its way to making "workflow" a catch-all term in prepress, when the rise of CIM (computer-integrated manufacturing) extended its use to the entire print production process. As a result, an ever wider array of products now can be called digital workflow solutions. For the purposes of this article, the definition is being limited to the evolution of what used to be called prepress systems. Vendors have responded to this trend with

Vendors Time Release Products for Drupa DÜSSELDORF—Drupa 2004 will most likely have begun its run by the time this story is in print, yet it technically is still part of the pre-show coverage. Two companies elected to make their announcements embargoed until now. Presstek previously released information about its next-generation thermal imaging head, ProFire, but details of its application were held back. Formal product launches were being saved for Düsseldorf. The company is teaming up with Ryobi, KBA (Karat) and Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG) to introduce an entry-level, lower cost digital offset printing platform based on ProFire. An entry-level version of the yet-to-be- named

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor The media road tour leading up to Drupa 04 recently made stops in Brussels, Belgium, and Athens, Greece. Judging by the vendor previews offered so far, people making the trek to Düsseldorf for the international trade fair should expect to see incremental advances, not revolutionary changes, in the products shown. The outlook for the global economy—and printing industry—leading up to this year's event is vastly different from the heady days that preceded Drupa 2000, says Albert Follens, general manager, Graphic Systems, at Agfa-Gevaert N.V. The keys to success are increasing manufacturing efficiency and streamlining how business is transacted between

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor To paraphrase Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the result to change. File preparation for print almost fits that definition, except no one has really expected the results to change. For going on 20 years, the graphic arts community has been vexed by missing fonts, RGB images, inadequate image resolutions and other issues that result in "bad files." What has made this situation all the more frustrating is that the problems and remedies are commonly known. The disconnect between the design/creative and production stages of the process