Work Flow: News
Features
PDF and a new profit center
Mar 1, 2006 12:00 AM, By AP staff
Graphic Arts Services began searching for a workflow that would help the company recieve recieve files from the outside while generating PDF files internally. That's how www.pdfandaproof.com was born.
Stir it up
Feb 1, 2006 12:00 AM, By Julie Shaffer
In this article, we will look at some useful plug-ins to augment a print/publishing workflow for the big five DTP applications: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat and QuarkXPress.
The match game
Jan 1, 2006 12:00 AM, By Joseph Marin
This article can be used as a guide to implement the first steps toward ensuring the first good sheet matches the last good sheet of a press run as closely as possible.
2006 Technologies & Trends
Dec 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By Julie Shaffer
Some of the trends and technologies that are sure to impact the print production world, especially prepress, in 2006 and beyond.
November Cover Story: Proof positive
Nov 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By Denise Kapel
The key to achieving the best quality inkjet proof is to combine the right equipment, software and consumables to match your pressroom equipment. The following products represent the latest developments in inkjet for contract quality proofing.
Build it or buy it?, Part 1
Oct 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By Julie Shaffer and Joseph Marin
There are two primary ways to build a prepress workflow solution: Acquirie a single-vendor “turnkey” system or put together a “do-it-yourself” (DIY) system.
Build it or buy it?, Part 2
Oct 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By Julie Shaffer and Joseph Marin
The build-it or buy-it workflow decision depends on business needs and in-house resources. DIY workflows have come a long way and are much easier to use as well as more reliable than they’ve been in the past. They also allow users to graduate into a fuller featured, or turnkey, workflow system if/when that time comes.
Divine intervention
Sep 1, 2005 12:00 AM, AP staff
Matthews Packaging Graphics & Design and Heidelberg speak the same language--the language of color--thanks to Matthews PG&D’s multiple installations of Heidelberg’s PrintOpen color profiling software.
Indexx accelerates job throughput and sales
Sep 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By AP staff
Indexx Printing Solutions was one of the first companies in North America to implement Metrix job planning software. After just five months using the software, the company sees impressive bottom-line savings.
Keep it CIMple
Aug 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By Chuck Gehman
CIM is not an all-or-nothing proposition. It can be implemented in stages as budget and time allow. But it’s important to identify areas where CIM can benefit your operation today and where it can take your company in the future.
Digital Platemaking Without the Chemistry
Jul 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By Jill Roth
Since the advent of thermal computer-to-plate (CTP) technology about 10 years ago, the industry has looked for a trouble-free, environmentally friendly platemaking system. The missing link has long been the digital plate. Today, however, printers are seeing the introduction of a variety of new technologies that fulfill the promise of chemistry-free operations in the plant.
Does painless RGB to CMYK conversion exist?
Jun 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By Julie Shaffer
For our purposes, let’s define painless RGB to CMYK conversion as "changing the color space of an image in a way that honors the original creator’s intent (within the limits of the printing process) and doing so in as automated a fashion as possible."
Database basics
May 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By Hal Hinderliter
If you’re afraid of accepting a customer’s harmless little database file, you might be missing out on everything from simple addressing jobs to profitable personalized marketing campaigns.
Online fulfillment
Apr 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By Denise Kapel
We don’t think of ourselves as a printer, but as a communications provider," says Dik Bolger, president of Bolger: Vision Beyond Print, a 200-employee, $26 million printer in Minneapolis. "Printing, along with everything else we do, is a tool to help in communications," he adds.
April Cover Story: Hot spots & cool dots
Apr 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By Denise Kapel and Katherine O’Brien
Today’s screening technology is enabling printers to achieve truly dazzling results. But before reviewing the latest AM, FM and hybrid offerings, printers should consider what they’re trying to do, rather than how it can be done. In other words, they should think outside the dot.
Dealing with customer files
Apr 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By John Giles
You don’t have to turn a salesperson into a computer geek to handle customer-created files. A little education for your sales staff will go a long way toward training customers to properly construct files.
LCD vs. CRT, Part 1
Mar 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By Katherine O’Brien, editor
In previous proofing features, we’ve focused on color management issues as well as the two leading monitor-based proofing solutions. This time around, we’re highlighting the most basic soft-proofing component: the monitor.
LCD vs. CRT, Part 2
Mar 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By Katherine O’Brien, editor
In recent years, many graphic arts users have replaced their chunky cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors with sleek new liquid crystal displays (LCDs). New models offer improved brightness, increased gamut and wider viewing angles.
Imposition software, CIM & you, Part 1
Feb 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By Hal Hinderliter
With the arrival of computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM), the graphic arts industry is teaching disparate islands of computerized production to communicate. Estimating systems can now talk to prepress, which can share data with the pressroom, bindery and shipping departments, all through the magic of the eXtensible Markup Language (XML). With better integration and streamlined tasks, it’s no wonder some pundits have predicted the prepress department’s demise. But as long as there are jobs that need imposing, prepress will remain a vital function.
Imposition software, CIM & you, Part 2
Feb 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By Hal Hinderliter
With the arrival of computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM), the graphic arts industry is teaching disparate islands of computerized production to communicate. Estimating systems can now talk to prepress, which can share data with the pressroom, bindery and shipping departments, all through the magic of the eXtensible Markup Language (XML). With better integration and streamlined tasks, it’s no wonder some pundits have predicted the prepress department’s demise. But as long as there are jobs that need imposing, prepress will remain a vital function.
