Digital Distributors showed smart solutions at Print Expo 2009
Digital Distributors, South Africa’s leading suppliers of colour management and process control solutions that assist printers in achieving ISO 12647 compliance, displayed some of the most exciting new technologies available to the print industry at Print Expo 2009.
Technical Director of Digital Distributors, John Panton, commented on this year’s Print Expo: “Digital Distributors brought great new technology to the market with some of our solutions that were on display for the first time in South Africa, including:
• Alwan Print Standardizer
• Serendipity Veripress
• InkZone solutions from Digital Information Systems
• EFI’s Web Control Centre and Proofing
• Bodoni PressSign Pro
• Xrite’s - Latest process control tools
“We did not see too much other new print technology from an offset perspective, although we were running a busy stall and couldn’t look around too much. Kemtek had the Screen Truepress Jet on show, which is very impressive.
“For the duration of the show, our Ink Zone’s Ink key Preset and closed loop feedback for Ink key adjustment attracted most attention at our stand. This can be used on almost any offset press at very affordable prices. Veripress’s on-press soft proofing also proved very interesting to our visitors at the Expo.
An overall comment I’d like to make about this year’s Expo is that, although the show did not attract huge numbers of visitors, the people who did visit our stand were all print business owners and senior managers in the printing industry. However, in my view, the show has become dominated by packaging and the print side seemed to lack support from some of the industry’s role players. The result was that, although we reached our target market, we found not enough attendance from people directly looking for offset print solutions.”
Digital Distributors aims to help printers increase their efficiency, which is crucial in today’s environment where a decrease in print volumes and lower selling price necessitates the printer to reduce input costs in order to improve margins and stay competitive.
According to Panton, who is a PSO 12647 certified expert and member of the international KEE consultants group: “It is our mission to provide state of the art solutions that will improve the use of resources and reduce costs. However, these solutions must be affordable and open, allowing implementation at almost any customer’s worksite regardless of their chosen pre-press workflow or printing presses. We have selected partners and products that fit this philosophy and provide best of breed, focused solutions.”
Detailed description of the latest solutions Digital Distributors had on show at Print Expo 2009:
Alwan Print Standardizer
Alwan Press Standardizer (APS) is the first solution of its kind. Already respected as leaders in Data Standardization, re-seperation, press matching and ink saving using their unique dynamic device link profile technology, Alwan has developed a state of the art solution to control press dot gain and ensure printing in accordance with ISO 12647.
The process of creating CTP curves based on a number of measurements taken on a given day, is very limiting because there are continuous factors that influence press dot gain. Alwan's APS solution uses measurement data taken during the daily production on the press. From these measurements, APS applies analysis and filtering based on tolerances and builds an optimised data base per press and paper type. Continuous and automatic update of the correction curve can then be applied after each job, every week or every month, based on a history of jobs over a prescribed time. This leads to continuous tracking and correction of press behaviour over time, resulting in ISO 12647 compliance of daily production while significantly reducing make-ready times and eliminating the need for costly press calibration.
Veripress
Soft proofing is undeniably becoming a requirement for people involved in the design and print chain. Here Veripress, the fastest, easiest and most colour accurate on-press soft proofing solution available today, comes into play.
While soft proofing at the press desk is still a new concept, it holds significant advantages, not least of which is the cost saving on hard copy proofs.
“In fast turnaround environments like newspaper, it is now possible to have press side proofs for every page. In packaging and flexo environments, it is possible to zoom into your proof to check trapping and over printing, and you can even turn off one or more separations,” explains Panton.
Other key features are:
• De-imposition on the fly - allows the press room to see the finished product at the touch of a button.
• Flip book - allows the operator to scan through the magazine or newspaper in 3D and compare to the final production.
• Back Page tool - simulates the effect of show through in double sided printing.
• Spreads Tool - shows pages side by side to aid with identifying problems with full page spread advertisements.
• Virtual Loop - allows magnifications to dot level of sections of the page as well as accurate readings of the dot percentages.
• Spectro Tool - allows comparing measurements off the sheet to values in the soft proof.
• Ink Usage Tool - calculates the ink consumption for the entire print run.
• Calcheck - verifies the performance and calibration of the monitor against the gamut of the printing process or reference standard, e.g. ISO 12647.
InkZone
The benefits of InkZone solutions include affordable online Preset of ink keys, based on CIP4 data and closed loop feedback to the ink keys during the press run, reduced make-ready time and stable control throughout the print run, resulting in less time and material waste and greater profit.
What makes InkZone solutions so unique is that they are press manufacture independent, more affordable than any other solution and significantly easier to use than most. Ink Key preset is only as good as the preset calibration and it is here that InkZone preset excels due to its ability to read back from past production runs.
This self-learning artificial intelligence means that your preset curve is changing as the environment that you print is changing. One small example of this is how ink thickens or flows more easily as the temperature changes from winter to summer.
Bodoni
Breaking new barriers in ease of use, price and performance, Bodoni PressSign helps the printer find ways to print in accordance with any given standard, including ISO 12647.
No complicated interfaces are required. The press operator can see the solid tone values for CMYK, the TVI for CMYK, grey balance, trapping and over printing together with an overall score for that measured sheet, at a single glance. More importantly, dot gain correction curves can be calculated for almost any CTP workflow from measurements taken from other jobs. Correction curves can also be easily exported for digital presses like HP Indigo.
Bodoni PressSign has already helped a number of printers and print buyers in SA not only achieve greater compliance to ISO standards, but also much closer match between proof and press.
EFI
EFI Colorproof XF technology is very well entrenched in South Africa with an overwhelming majority market share in the hard copy proofing arena.
Digital Distributors displayed the latest Epson 7900, with built in Spectroproofer together with EFI Colorproof XF and EFI’s latest offering, namely Web Based Verification, at Print Expo 2009. EFI facilitates the monitoring, via an internet connection, of a number of proofing devices within an organisation at different locations all over the world. Using EFI with the Epson 7900 and Spectroproofer gives users the most affordable, advanced and automated proofing solution available on the market today.
Xrite
Using affordable auto scanning solutions on the press to scan the entire process control bar on the press sheet in just seconds, Xrite creates fast accurate feedback of all the data necessary for ISO 12647 compliant printing.
Digital Distributors not only had the latest Auto Scanning solution from Xrite on display at Print Expo, but also showed Profile Maker Packaging solutions and multi channel proofing to packaging customers.
For more information, please email John Panton at john@digitaldistributors.co.za, or call +27 21 423 5695.
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