Software - Prepress & Design

Mimaki’s FineCut cutting plugin for Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW is now available for the latest CS6 version of Illustrator. Offering powerful cutting functionality and sign making tools within industry standard graphic design applications, Mimaki FineCut is provided with every Mimaki cutting plotter or integrated printer / cutter.

The upgrade is via a free download from the Mimaki website and can be found by visiting UK & Ireland distributor, Hybrid Services Ltd’s site (www.hybridservices.co.uk) and typing “CS6” in the search box.

Mimaki FineCut 8.0.1 works on both Mac and PC within Adobe Illustrator CS6 and enables sign makers to utilise an integrated workflow from design, through printing and finally contour and die cutting their output. The cutting software seamlessly integrates with Mimaki’s RasterLink RIP software ensuring an easy to use and highly productive process.

Loughborough University has streamlined its design and print services and improved control of its corporate identity across all types of printed application following the installation of EFI's flexible web-to-print solution Digital StoreFront.  Reducing departmental costs, and simplifying online ordering and execution of jobs have led to greater efficiencies, resulting in increased throughput across all production equipment via a more refined workflow.

Loughborough in Leicestershire is one of the country's leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines. For the past 30 years its Design and Print Services have been paramount in providing departments, services and on- and off-campus organisations with professional design, print, photography, video and web design services.

"We were aware that having an online store, and managing it in-house, would enable us to streamline and improve our print services across campus, providing an accessible workflow for users, and we chose EFI™ Digital StoreFront after consultation with other universities and councils," states Helen Clarke, Business and Administration Manager. "We have seen a dramatic take up of the service throughout October 2012, providing an 82% increase in job submissions since the software was installed. Because it is essential that a coherent and consistent visual identity is applied across all of our communications, we will be moving forward with Digital StoreFront to provide a simplified collection of document templates that our print customers can use both on and off campus, and that support our documented visual identity guidelines."

Powered by EFI Fiery® front-ends, which provide a direct link to Digital StoreFront, Loughborough University's print facilities focus on a Canon imagePress 1135 production engine with inline finishing and a Canon imagePress C7000 for colour production, with complementary wide-format printers, booklet makers, folding, binding and stitching equipment. Being able to offer such a broad range of services from a large number of sources relies on a sleek and efficient interface with users, proving the value of Digital StoreFront in educational environments as well as within the commercial print sector.

For more information, please visit www.efi.com

Corel has announced the CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite X6.2 update for CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 customers. For users with a free Standard Membership, X6.2 provides the latest performance and stability improvements. For users with a Premium Membership, X6.2 adds a variety of new functionality including a new alignment and dynamic guides docker, enhancements to the colour styles docker and a new Corel® PHOTO-PAINT™ guidelines docker. Plus, X6.2 equips CorelDRAW Premium Members with six new colour harmony rules and more preview options that further simplify the design process.

“Our focus for this update is to provide our users with frequently requested features that support and enhance their graphic design workflow,” said Gérard Métrailler, Sr. Director, Product Management, Graphics at Corel. “With X6.2, Premium Members get immediate access to a number of new time-saving features which won’t become available for non-Premium Members until the next major version of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite is launched. As we continue to release updates such as X6.2 and beyond, Premium Members will benefit by always being up-to-date and receiving the latest functionality.”

New Features Available to Premium Members Include:

• Alignment and Dynamic Guides: View, set up and modify alignment guides and dynamic guides more easily and as adjustments are made, the custom Dynamic Guides updates in real-time
• Guidelines Docker: The new Guidelines docker adds the ability to precisely position, rotate and edit guidelines
• Colour Styles and Harmonies: Apply a rule to a colour harmony to shift all colours according to predetermined logic and create various colour combinations – includes six harmony rules and the ability to create a colour harmony from scratch
• Viewing Colour Styles: Page sorter view and hint view are now available in the Colour styles docker to work with styles more easily
• Previewing styles and style sets: Choose what style or style set to apply to an object by pointing to them in the Object styles docker and then preview the object attributes that will be applied
• PHOTO-PAINT Alignment Guides: The new Alignment guides docker helps to align objects as they’re created, resized or moved in relation to other nearby objects
• Displaying rulers in PHOTO-PAINT: Rulers can now be displayed by default on new documents
• Setting up Guidelines in PHOTO-PAINT: The new Guidelines docker allows for more precision and is an easier way to add, manage and modify guidelines including locking them in place
• Premium Content: Extra clipart, digital photos, vector patterns, fonts and more

For CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 Users

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 customers who have signed up for a free Standard Membership or have a Premium Membership can download the second update (previously known as a “Service Pack”). The X6.2 update delivers stability improvements, enhanced support for digital cameras RAW formats as well as general performance updates.

Availability and Pricing

For CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 customers in the United Kingdom, Standard Membership is free and Premium Membership is only £7.95 per month when purchased as an annual membership for £95.40. All prices are VAT included.

To become a Standard or Premium Member, users must create a Corel account within CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6. Membership options are available to box and electronic download customers of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 at this time.

Those who hold a current subscription to CorelDRAW are also provided with a Premium Membership in order to stay up-to-date and can take advantage of the early access to the latest functionality by downloading the X6.2 update.

To learn more about the CorelDRAW Membership Program, please visit www.corel.com/coreldraw.

Shiraz Software has announced availability of Shiraz Focus V4 Wall Art Edition for the latest Windows and Mac OSX operating systems.  This major new update adds the unique Wall Art module that enables users to create canvas gallery wraps arrangements that are 'simply stunning'.

The extensive list of features and the ease of use of Shiraz Focus V4 Wall Art Edition should appeal to any organisations involved in the canvas gallery wrap production.  The inclusion of full visualisation of designs in both room view and 3D rendered canvas wraps means that that designs can be visually confirmed before committing to production avoiding any expensive mistakes. Added services to the end customer can be provided by an actual proof of the design as it would actually look in room situ.

Additionally it is also possible to produce wallpaper output of the required width, overlaps and trim marks that can be combined with the canvas output to create unique wall arts.

Other major addition to the software is the new hot folder widget that allows for easy setup and configuration of multiple hot folders for fully automated workflow and production. Any number of job parameters can be assigned to these folders including canvas gallery wrap templates.

More enhancements to the software include a revised and improved user interface that makes using the software even easier and an overall update of all core technologies for faster and more accurate processing of images.

Drivers for the new range of Epson SureColor range of printers as well as the new Canon iPF9400/8400/6400 devices are also included.

The software has been tested and certified for the latest Mac OSX 10.8 as well as the latest Windows operating systems.

For more information and access to trial versions, please www.shiraz-software.com.

Corel has launched a cost-effective CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite X6 Small Business Edition which includes up to three installations for each purchase.  With its content-rich environment as well as professional graphic design, photo-editing and website design software, the powerful suite enables start-ups and small businesses to create impactful and eye-catching visual communication.

Thanks to new included learning materials, instant content finder and professional templates creating distinctive logos, signs to custom websites, web graphics, billboards, car wraps, flyers and more is now easier and quicker than ever.

In addition to the three serial numbers, each copy contains:

• CorelDRAW® X6, an intuitive vector-illustration and page-layout application
• Corel® PHOTO-PAINT™ X6, a professional image-editing application
• Corel® PowerTRACE™ X6, a utility to quickly and accurately convert bitmaps into editable vector graphics
• Corel® CONNECT™, a full-screen browser to search the suite’s digital content on a computer, local network, or disc and stock imagery from iStockPhoto® and Fotolia
• Corel CAPTURE™ X6, a one-click screen capture utility
• Corel® Website Creator™ X6, a powerful new do-it-yourself website creation software
• Three Quick Reference cards in each SBE copy

Users also receive 10,000 high-quality clipart and images; 1,000 new professional high-resolution digital photos; 1,000 OpenType fonts, including premium fonts such as Helvetica®; 2,000 vehicle templates; 350 professionally designed templates; and 800 frames and patterns. All box versions of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 include a comprehensive full-colour, hard cover Guidebook to help users of all skill levels getting started quickly.

For more information, please visit www.corel.com/coreldrawsbe.

Availability and Pricing

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 Small Business Edition is available immediately from www.corel.com or from Ciorel's global authorised resellers. Suggested retail pricing (SRP) for the English Box version is £699, excluding VAT.

Mimaki has announced a new version (v8.0.4) of its cutting plug-in software, FineCut, which now supports CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6.

CorelDRAW is a professional graphic design package which offers sophisticated graphic design tools, web design facility, content-rich images and fonts, photo-editing capabilities, and the ability to process bigger files and images with the augmented speed of 64-bit support.  Mimaki FineCut 8 is powerful plug-in cutting software which is provided as standard with all Mimaki cutting plotters and printer/cutters and provides signmaking-specific tools within industry standard graphics software such as Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW.

Existing Mimaki FineCut customers can download the upgrade to version 8.0.4 from the Mimaki website: http://eng.mimaki.co.jp/download.  They will require a v6 or v7 original installation disc in order to verify the process.  In order to download the update, users should navigate within this page to select options for Software; Cutting; FineCut8 for CorelDraw; and then the appropriate operating system for their PC. It is then simply a matter of following the instructions for installing the upgrade.

Richard Williams, responsible for software at Mimaki’s exclusive distributor, Hybrid Services Ltd, comments,“The upgrade to ensure full compatibility with the latest CorelDRAW release will be a welcome addition for our sign making customers and offers them powerful and productive features out of the box.”

For further advice and support customers should contact their authorised Mimaki reseller or visit www.hybridservices.co.uk for specific information related to FineCut.