Creo will launch new prepress solutions at drupa 2004

The new products are designed to help printers streamline operations, decrease costs and grow sales. The innovations, which reinforce Creo’s leadership as a supplier to all segments of the graphic arts industry, will be unveiled at the quadrennial trade show in Düsseldorf, Germany.

"Our new products will continue to add to our customers' ability to differentiate their businesses and increase profitability," said Amos Michelson, Creo chief executive officer. "At Drupa, Creo's show theme is Business Acceleration. Our new prepress solutions will allow packaging, newspaper, publication and commercial printers to serve their own customers better and grow their business, as well as increase productivity, and reduce operating costs. These are solutions that offer our customers real and fast payback, even in challenging times."

Executing the Digital Media Strategy

Creo is the world’s leading supplier of computer-to-plate (CTP) equipment; its existing customers represent the largest single market for digital media, including printing plates, proofing ink and paper. The company is actively expanding its ability to offer customers complete Creo solutions, including consumables.

With new open connectivity software, the innovative Veris proofer will now be available to printers who have third-party PostScript and PDF prepress workflows.

Creo will produce, sell and support two new negative thermal plates from its U.S.-based manufacturing facility acquired last week. The new Creo plates are Fortis PN for the newspaper market and Mirus PN for the commercial and packaging market. Combined with the Creo Positive Thermal Plate, Creo has complete solutions for printers in all markets. The Fortis and Mirus plates are available in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and will be available in other regions later this year.

Expanding Markets

The new Creo solutions have been designed to solve the unique challenges of each printing segment and with special focus on the high growth markets— commercial, packaging, digital and newspaper printers.

Creo is introducing the fastest fully automated, very large format CTP imaging device on the market, the Magnus. This brand new design builds on the success of the market-leading Creo Trendsetter VLF.

The new Prinergy Evo workflow system delivers power and performance to commercial printers with a low cost of ownership. Built on the foundation of the market-leading Prinergy workflow, Prinergy Evo features proven PDF processing power and ease of use.

Commercial offset printers can now easily add digital printing to their production. A new hybrid prepress workflow integrates the Prinergy workflow management system for offset printing with Xerox DocuColor digital color presses. This development is a result of the joint development agreement announced by Xerox Corporation and Creo in January 2004.

With the new Exactus thermal gravure system,Creo provides cost savings, superior imaging quality, improved process control, and enhanced throughput for gravure printers in packaging, commercial, and publication markets. This unique gravure prepress system combines Creo SQUAREspot thermal laser imaging heads and the electrolytic copper removal process developed by Acigraf. Gravure printing is renowned for its ability to produce high-quality presswork with broad tonal range and color stability on a wide variety of substrates for extremely long run lengths.

Synapse NewsManager is a new PDF workflow management tool that will help newspaper printers improve productivity, grow sales and reduce material costs. Based on open file standards, this modular system integrates easily into a newspaper printer’s existing system and is scalable to meet the needs of contract printers to metropolitan, national and international newspapers with multiple print sites.

Building Customer Success

Printers are discovering that using innovative solutions from Creo can add to their bottom line by helping them to collaborate better with their customers; to deliver unequalled print quality; and to automate and optimize their operations.

Creo is introducing two new software packages that allow printers to increase pressroom efficiency by dramatically reducing the use of special inks. Spotless 4 and Spotless X software allow printers to offer new capability to their clients and free designers from the constraints of using only a few spot colors in a particular job.

Creo is introducing a new version of Synapse UpFront production planning software featuring deeper integration with Preps imposition software. Using the software results dramatically decreases labor costs because manufacturing plans require less preparation time and accuracy is greatly improved.

Four new partners have joined Networked Graphic Production (NGP) to participate in the development of solutions that use the JDF file specification to automate production processes and connect with the other NGP Partners’ solutions. They are Ryobi Ltd., Objective Advantage, Inc., Press-sense Ltd and NovaVision Software Denmark A/S. All 36 members of Networked Graphic Production will be represented at Drupa in the NGP Pavilion in Hall 4, Stand B22.

Creo will demonstrate all of these business accelerating prepress solutions at Drupa 2004 in Hall 4, Stand 10, from May 6-19.