PacPrint Hot Picks Part Two – More standout products from the show
PacPrint closed last Saturday to general acclaim as a great technology show. By my calculations, about 25 per cent of the floorspace was taken up by pure digital imaging technology (Océ, HP Indigo, Scitex Vision, Fuji-Xerox, Canon, Ricoh, Konica-Minolta, Roland DG etc) with digital influences on at least 50 per cent of the other booths. This speaks volumes on the direction of our industry. In this second round of 'Hot Picks,' I'm looking at impact, value, innovation and environment. There was no doubt many more worthy Hot Pick product candidates. If you feel your technology missed out, tell me about it here
The thrifty Scout - Mark Andy's label value
$228,000 (USD) is not a great deal of money for a multi-colour press of any kind and when it is a six-colour narrow web flexo, fully installed the value is even more remarkable. For the budget-conscious label printer, not much can beat the Mark Andy Scout shown on the Aldus booth. There's no fancy trimming, panel work or 'go faster stripes' on this workhorse, but print quality is uncompromised offering expansion up to eight print and 3 die-cut stations. Foiling can be added and the ink system uses easy snap-in, snap-out cartridges. Web width up to 254mm (10”), speed 91 metres (300ft) per minute and push-button start-up. Dib-dib-dib, it's a beauty - Scout's honour.
(Above: Chris Bodger pictured with the Scout Printing Press)
Fuji-Xerox DocuColor 8000, mid-range common sense
It's easy to blow the budget on a digital press but for some, the new Xerox DocuColor 8000 is all they will ever need. Shown for the first time in Australia with the Horizon 8000 booklet maker attached inline, the DC 8000 is an 80 (A4) page-per-minute digital press that can handle up to 250gsm cover stock and A3+ sheet size. Some of iGen3's technology has filtered down to this model (such as Corotron Charge Cleaning), and at 2400dpi, colours and text are crisp and clear. A choice of 3 digital front ends from Creo, EFI or Xerox. The Horizon finisher bolted on can staple through 20 pages, making 80 A4-page booklets, or finishing can be taken offline. Add XMPie web-to-print software for an all singing and dancing digital storefront.
Roland DG White Eco-Solvent ink
For as long as I can remember, digital presses have struggled to print good colour on clear substrates because of a lack of suitable white ink. At the high end of clear packaging printing, flexo printers lay down a white in the areas where they want saturated colour, and print CMYK over the top. Now you can do this on Roland DG's range of Eco-Solvent inkjet machines by slotting in the new Eco-White. A seemingly simple technology, but with profound possibilities in short-run packaging, prototyping, flexo proofing and signage/display.
Cyrachrome's Octopus wraps its tentacles around grand-format printing
Print 21 publisher Patrick Howard had his own favourite HotPick for the show, the centrepiece of Cyrachrome's PacPrint stand: the Octopus X4-360 BIG wide-format UV printer from Czech manufacturer Grappo. The slimy beast drew gasps of disbelief from the crowd for the stupendously diverse range of substrates it was capable of printing on, many of which were available to take a look at throughout the week. Grappo reps Roman Marek and Ivana Jemelkova were flown over from the Czech Republic to show the new machine off, simillar to its Octopus predecessor but now able to print at 3.4-metres wide and restricted to roll-to-roll production.
(Above: Cyrachrome managing director Michael Laird with Patrick Howard)
EPSON '800s' take large format to next level with K3
With the A2 Epson Stylus Pro 4800 and larger 7800 and 9800, EPSON is moving large format inkjet to a new dimension. Add new K3 ink and you have 8-colour machines capable of exceeding the gamut of silver-halide imaging and making prints that outlast the history of photography itself. For proofing, the '800' series is a dream with the extended K3 gamut and much reduced metamersim. Whether for 2-up, 4-up or 8-up proofs, add the right colour-managed RIP and the new EPSONs are ready to save you thousands on contract proofs, display images or archival art reproductions.
Mitsubishi A3+ CTP - quick, cheap and eco-friendly
On PacPrint newcomer Cyber's booth, there were excellent demonstrations of Ryobi presses but what caught my eye was Cyber general manager (Vic & SA) Greg Knight and his explanation of easy, environmentally-safe plate making using Mitsubishi's Silver Digiplates and the SDP-Eco1630III, CTP platesetter with integrated processor. The SDP (pictured right) is a fast polyester or paper plate imaged by a 635nm red laser. It's roll-fed then sheeted post-exposure and processed using only an activator and stabiliser which 'coat' rather than 'dunk' the plate, using very little chemistry. Makes 77 404mm x 450mm plates per hour at 1200dpi or 20 pph at 2400dpi for 4-colour work. Two-up CTP heaven.
NexPress' 5th unit and digital glosser
The Kodak NexPress has been around for a couple of years but new at PacPrint was the 5th unit that can be used for a clear 'Dry Ink' that can then be activated to a high gloss on the glossing station. The glossy digital prints being produced were outstanding, yielding an ultra-high sheen reminiscent of the best fashion magazine covers and more vivid than even UV varnish. The effect is totally smooth, without flaw and adds great value to digital printing. The 5th unit can also be used for a special colour that extends the NexPress gamut well beyond CMYK. Packaging prototypers and test marketers will love this feature.
Metrix calculates press sheet layouts and saves money
Now this is a really fantastic piece of software, shown at PacPrint on the Graphic Systems Australia booth. What's more, it's home-grown from Rohan Holt's Wollongong, NSW Lithotechnics. Efficient impositions and gang-printing of same stock jobs can save thousands of sheets - and dollars - but; how to calculate the best layout? Metrix does it all for you - enter the job/s and the best layout is instantly calculated. Metrix exports JDF, CIP3 or Preps templates for seamless integration into most workflows. One example shown - a 12-up job was made to fit the same sheet size as a 15-up by bleeding on three not four sides, saving 800 sheets (20%) for 50,000 copies of the final product. Beat that.
(Above: Terry Crawford from GSA)
ApogeeX 2.5 - fastest workflow in the West?
Adding to Agfa's Hot Pick for the chemistry-free Azura plate, is ApogeeX 2.5. Of course, Apogee is the well-known Agfa workflow but PacPrint visitors could see version 2.5 for the first time as it was released worldwide only on May 23rd - and it is very fast indeed. Agfa's demo showed a 160 page full colour, high resolution catalogue being imposed, separated and trapped in less than 10 minutes. PDF creation, Pre-flighting (using Enfocus) and proofing are also included in ApogeeX 2.5. The latest Adobe Postscript Interpreter is employed and improvements to late-change editing, Pantone rendering and remote proofing have been incorporated. No doubt other guns will ride into town for a shootout at the 'workflow coral' but there was nothing faster to be seen at PacPrint.
Teletubbies transfer clean PDF files at D2P
You couldn't miss the D2P stand with its 3 metre-high 'Teletubbies' but there was more to this display than pink and green fluff. D2P Express is a well thought out variant on the established D2P remote workflow. We all know PDF files can come in a bit wonky, but try telling the customer that. The same type of customer often wants the job yesterday and expects you to fix up all their problems 'if you want to keep my business.' Enter D2P Express, a PDF creation and delivery engine optimized specifically for your equipment and workflow. The software is given freely to the customer, who uses D2P Express to make and send the file and bingo! All PDFs received will be clean and usable, complete with job ticket and email notification. Customers from Hell will be suddenly beatified, and will bless you with more work.
(Above: D2P's John Weichard flanked by two teletubbies)
Adobe Creative Suite 2
What more can I say about Adobe's gift to graphic design? It's priced right, featured right and performs way beyond 'right.' I hear of a few bugs with early evaluation versions but this is what evaluation versions are all about. If Adobe packs any more goodies into Creative Suite, it may be all the software 80% of us will ever need. Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, Illustrator, GoLive, Bridge, Version Cue and some stock images are all shrink-wrapped for fun, business and pleasure. Adobe might be a big scary software monster now it also owns MacroMedia, but it's more like Shrek than Godzilla. Hot Pick, especially now it's being advertised at under $2,000!
Hail mellow fellow from Mellow Colour
Alan Dresch (pictured right with Andy McCourt), inventor of ISOLithO, came all the way from the UK to the DES/Chromaticity booth to show us his precision-colour press profiling system and to deliver workshops. ISOLithO is for the serious printer who probably owns 'long' perfector or web presses and has colour-critical (and possibly international) clients. It's all about compliance to ISO 12647-2 specification and making the colour in Sheffield match the colour in Sydney. It's more than proof-to-press fidelity; ISOLithO is about reduced make readies and waste, customer satisfaction and improved efficiencies. Available either as a consultancy project with local Chromaticity colour guru David Crowther, or as a software licence, Mellow Colour's ISOLithO 2005 wins a Hot Pick for sheer colour quality.
Quickcut PacPrint world first and EFI partnership
Those clever chaps in Brookvale used PacPrint to preview version 5 of the famed files-for-publishing software. QuickPrint 5 is the world's most advanced method of preparing files for print. It enables users to create, validate, colour manage and deliver files within one solution. The Adobe PDF Library has been built in to version 5, which is available on both Mac and PC platforms Grant Schuetrumpf, ceo of Quickcut, said: “QuickPrint 5 is at least two years ahead of any competing solution because of its ability to capture variable unique printing specifications and guide artwork at its creation. The application will not only reduce workloads but guide users through the many pitfalls that plague pre-press production with little or no margin for error.” EFI also announced a partnership with Quickcut resulting in “AssureProof” - hard copy proofs that can be sent anywhere and verified against specific publication and printer specifications.
(Above: Quickcut systems integrator Helena Eldred)
Tee shirts in a jiffy with T-Jet
Anyone in the tee-shirt printing business will know the challenges of short run multi-colour jobs. Too short for screen printing and if transfer methods are used, they can be tedious and sometimes not wash-fast. The T-Jet is a US-made desktop solution that prints directly onto light coloured shirts, baseball caps, towels, mouse pads and bibs. Using Epson printheads and special aqueous inks, the image is inkjetted onto the shirt which is held in a frame and then heat-pressed for permanence. About $25,000 sets you up in business including Corel design software. Image area is up to 300 x 450mm and shirts are ready to wear inside 2-3 minutes. Well made and a white ink is coming so dark textiles can be printed too.
GMG shows the RGB workflow we have dreamed of
I'd like a dollar for every time someone has asked “why aren't all image workflows RGB, converting to CMYK only when the file is ready for output?” Well, the sleeper product on the GMG stand, amidst the excellent proofing, was CamFlow, an all-RGB workflow whose name belies its applications beyond digital photography. This is a dream workflow for large and grand format, and for picture-intensive publications such as Auto and Sports magazines. For example, Spain's Motorpress Iberica experienced quality problems when their 27 sports and motor magazines gradually changed to all-digital photography. GMG CamFlow has returned the same control to this publisher, as they had with CMYK scanned transparencies. It not only converts from RGB to CMYK colour space, but also between varying RGB spaces as all digital cameras differ.
(Above: Ivan Khoo, GMG sales manager for the Asia Pacific)
$228,000 (USD) is not a great deal of money for a multi-colour press of any kind and when it is a six-colour narrow web flexo, fully installed the value is even more remarkable. For the budget-conscious label printer, not much can beat the Mark Andy Scout shown on the Aldus booth. There's no fancy trimming, panel work or 'go faster stripes' on this workhorse, but print quality is uncompromised offering expansion up to eight print and 3 die-cut stations. Foiling can be added and the ink system uses easy snap-in, snap-out cartridges. Web width up to 254mm (10”), speed 91 metres (300ft) per minute and push-button start-up. Dib-dib-dib, it's a beauty - Scout's honour.
Print 21 publisher Patrick Howard had his own favourite HotPick for the show, the centrepiece of Cyrachrome's PacPrint stand: the Octopus X4-360 BIG wide-format UV printer from Czech manufacturer Grappo. The slimy beast drew gasps of disbelief from the crowd for the stupendously diverse range of substrates it was capable of printing on, many of which were available to take a look at throughout the week. Grappo reps Roman Marek and Ivana Jemelkova were flown over from the Czech Republic to show the new machine off, simillar to its Octopus predecessor but now able to print at 3.4-metres wide and restricted to roll-to-roll production.
On PacPrint newcomer Cyber's booth, there were excellent demonstrations of Ryobi presses but what caught my eye was Cyber general manager (Vic & SA) Greg Knight and his explanation of easy, environmentally-safe plate making using Mitsubishi's Silver Digiplates and the SDP-Eco1630III, CTP platesetter with integrated processor. The SDP (pictured right) is a fast polyester or paper plate imaged by a 635nm red laser. It's roll-fed then sheeted post-exposure and processed using only an activator and stabiliser which 'coat' rather than 'dunk' the plate, using very little chemistry. Makes 77 404mm x 450mm plates per hour at 1200dpi or 20 pph at 2400dpi for 4-colour work. Two-up CTP heaven.
Now this is a really fantastic piece of software, shown at PacPrint on the Graphic Systems Australia booth. What's more, it's home-grown from Rohan Holt's Wollongong, NSW Lithotechnics. Efficient impositions and gang-printing of same stock jobs can save thousands of sheets - and dollars - but; how to calculate the best layout? Metrix does it all for you - enter the job/s and the best layout is instantly calculated. Metrix exports JDF, CIP3 or Preps templates for seamless integration into most workflows. One example shown - a 12-up job was made to fit the same sheet size as a 15-up by bleeding on three not four sides, saving 800 sheets (20%) for 50,000 copies of the final product. Beat that.
You couldn't miss the D2P stand with its 3 metre-high 'Teletubbies' but there was more to this display than pink and green fluff. D2P Express is a well thought out variant on the established D2P remote workflow. We all know PDF files can come in a bit wonky, but try telling the customer that. The same type of customer often wants the job yesterday and expects you to fix up all their problems 'if you want to keep my business.' Enter D2P Express, a PDF creation and delivery engine optimized specifically for your equipment and workflow. The software is given freely to the customer, who uses D2P Express to make and send the file and bingo! All PDFs received will be clean and usable, complete with job ticket and email notification. Customers from Hell will be suddenly beatified, and will bless you with more work.
Alan Dresch (pictured right with Andy McCourt), inventor of ISOLithO, came all the way from the UK to the DES/Chromaticity booth to show us his precision-colour press profiling system and to deliver workshops. ISOLithO is for the serious printer who probably owns 'long' perfector or web presses and has colour-critical (and possibly international) clients. It's all about compliance to ISO 12647-2 specification and making the colour in Sheffield match the colour in Sydney. It's more than proof-to-press fidelity; ISOLithO is about reduced make readies and waste, customer satisfaction and improved efficiencies. Available either as a consultancy project with local Chromaticity colour guru David Crowther, or as a software licence, Mellow Colour's ISOLithO 2005 wins a Hot Pick for sheer colour quality. 
Those clever chaps in Brookvale used PacPrint to preview version 5 of the famed files-for-publishing software. QuickPrint 5 is the world's most advanced method of preparing files for print. It enables users to create, validate, colour manage and deliver files within one solution. The Adobe PDF Library has been built in to version 5, which is available on both Mac and PC platforms Grant Schuetrumpf, ceo of Quickcut, said: “QuickPrint 5 is at least two years ahead of any competing solution because of its ability to capture variable unique printing specifications and guide artwork at its creation. The application will not only reduce workloads but guide users through the many pitfalls that plague pre-press production with little or no margin for error.” EFI also announced a partnership with Quickcut resulting in “AssureProof” - hard copy proofs that can be sent anywhere and verified against specific publication and printer specifications.
I'd like a dollar for every time someone has asked “why aren't all image workflows RGB, converting to CMYK only when the file is ready for output?” Well, the sleeper product on the GMG stand, amidst the excellent proofing, was CamFlow, an all-RGB workflow whose name belies its applications beyond digital photography. This is a dream workflow for large and grand format, and for picture-intensive publications such as Auto and Sports magazines. For example, Spain's Motorpress Iberica experienced quality problems when their 27 sports and motor magazines gradually changed to all-digital photography. GMG CamFlow has returned the same control to this publisher, as they had with CMYK scanned transparencies. It not only converts from RGB to CMYK colour space, but also between varying RGB spaces as all digital cameras differ.