EFI

Attendees at EFI’s users’ conference, EFI Connect, will learn how real-time connectivity between KODAK PRINERGY Workflow and EFI Fiery Controllers can create a single workflow to serve blended production environments.

MAY DAY, observed as a holiday in his native England, proved to be a busy day for Tony Seaman. The director of Printing and Graphic Services at the University of Mississippi put the in-plant’s new five-color Kodak NexPress 2500 digital press into service on May 1, leaving little time to dance around the Maypole. Seaman, born in Binbrook, England, just outside of Oxford, admittedly deviated a bit from the in-plant’s norm with the addition of this machine. Traditionally utilizing Xerox equipment exclusively on the digital side of shop, Seaman decided on the Kodak digital press after comparing its features to that of the Xerox

Barr Systems Barr Enterprise Print Server: input/output management solution. Receives data from multiple sources (hosts, servers, network apps) and outputs to multiple destinations (network and production printers, archive, e-mail, Web). StreamTracer: high-speed print data stream comparison application for AFP, Metacode, LCDS, PostScript, and PDF formats. It displays “before” and “after” document snapshots side by side and highlights all differences. EFI With the Fiery open platform and compliance with industry standards such JDF, PDF, and PPML the Fiery seamlessly integrates into customers’ overall print shop operations, including offset/digital hybrid environments and third-party graphic arts workflows, including CTP environments. The Fiery server is integral

Eastman Kodak Kodak Approval NX thermal halftone proofer supports specialty, corporate and brand colors, including metallics. The system can control density, dot gain and print on actual printing stocks. Matchprint Virtual for InSite proofing software enables SWOP-certified soft proofing on calibrated monitors with consistent and accurate color. PressProof extends monitor proofing to the pressroom utilizing qualified LCD monitors. The Veris ink-jet proofer uses Multi Drop Array technology for true 1,500x1,500 dpi addressability. Color consistency assured by 4D calibration and quality-controlled consumables. ICC compliant. Matchprint Ink-Jet proofing marries drop-on-demand (DOD) imaging with the same software as Veris for color accuracy, enhanced image smoothness, quick calibration

Agfa ColorTune X color management software solutions work in combination with measuring devices to generate accurate, ICC-compatible color profiles. QMS X (Quality Management System) checks the calibration and engine performance of Sherpa proofers in contract proofing applications. Every proofer in the workflow can be calibrated to achieve the same tonal response within predefined tolerances. Alterno color conversion tool broadens the CMYK color spectrum. It enables printers to standardize their presses on a self-defined ink set that extends the color gamut. EFI ColorWise in-RIP color management system provides a range of simple and expert-level tools. A standard component of Fiery color print servers, it includes

THIS WILL be the ink-jet Drupa. No, it will be the green Drupa. Or, maybe the print buyer Drupa. Actually, it will be big enough to be all three, and much more. In case you’re new to the business, Drupa is the largest trade show in the graphic arts industry. Held every four years in Düsseldorf, Germany, it will boast more than 1,800 exhibitors and cover more than 1.8 million square feet of exhibit space in nearly 20 halls when it kicks off on May 29. Putting a label on Drupa is one way to make it more digestible. Another is for

After years of relying on local service bureaus and printers to provide film, Palm Beach County’s Graphics Division has moved into the computer-to-plate (CTP) arena. The Greenacres, Fla.-based in-plant recently added a Presstek Dimension 425 platesetter with an EFI Fiery RIP and the EFI OneFlow PDF workflow. The thermal platesetter is chemistry free; its processor uses water to rinse the metal plates. Manager John D.L. Johnson says his shop loves the faster turnaround time that CTP has brought, as well as the control it gives his in-plant over jobs. The shop worked out a 48-month lease on the equipment. “We were spending about $30,000

SITUATED ALONG the San Joaquin Delta waterway, about 80 miles east of San Francisco, San Joaquin Delta College has a student body of about 20,000 educated by more than 400 teachers. To help ensure students’ academic success, instructors provide assessments of each student’s progress just before final grades are assigned. The teacher identifies particular areas that need focus so students can gear their efforts accordingly. To produce a variable data piece such as this Academic Progress Letter, the college turns to its 12-employee Publication Center. “With our number of students and faculty, we probably do a half a million sheets of VDP a

I AM NOT a “techie.” I’ve never sent a text message in my life. I can barely navigate my basic cell phone, which I carry under protest. But that said, I am an absolute evangelist for Web-based submission for in-plants. By Web-based submission I mean the following: • A robust, interactive and customer-friendly Web site for your in-plant. • The ability to receive job orders, estimate requests and job files from your customers. • Easily accessible and useful information about all aspects of your operation (online work authorization forms, a map of how to find your facility, tips on preparing files, staff names and phone numbers, etc.). Why bother?

GRAPH EXPO returned to Chicago last month, bringing printers together from all over the globe. Despite its earlier than usual start the weekend after Labor Day, the four-day graphic arts trade show packed a decent crowd. Granted, opening day attendance thinned noticeably around NFL kickoff time (it was the season opener, after all), but by day two McCormick Place was jammed solid. An impressive 640 exhibitors (including 120+ new ones) spread out across 460,984 net square feet of exhibit space. In-plants interested in wide-format printing or in mailing/fulfillment could go to special sections of the show floor where such equipment was clustered.