Software

Wasatch SoftRIP was instrumental in helping BS2i, an extra large-format printer in Honfleur, France, wrap France's tallest skyscraper, Tour Maine-Montparnasse. No stranger to the large-format printing industry, BS2i prints 30,000 to 40,000 square meters of graphics every month. They were awarded the job to provide large-format printing for The Vendée Globe, the grueling, round-the-world yacht race held every four years, by Athem, a Paris-based company that is well-known for staging brands universally through spectacular creations and ultra large formats.

 

Epson America, Inc. and EFI™ have joined forces to create what both companies expect will be the most advanced and complete proofing solution on the market to date. The new Epson Stylus® Pro 900 Series Proofing Editions combine the unique proofing advantages that come with the Epson Stylus Pro 7900 or 9900 wide format ink jet printers, along with EFI's most robust proofing RIP workflow to date, EFI Colorproof™ XF v4.0 for Epson. The end result is a unique and complete solution designed to redefine what's possible for virtually all contract-proofing applications.

"Epson is committed to being the world's leading manufacturer and provider of proofing solutions," said Mark Radogna, group product manager, Epson America, Inc. "This commitment means striving to deliver the best hardware, ink, software, and media on the market, finding new ways to keep advancing those technologies, and taking the kind of confident steps as a company that will keep the industry moving forward. Working with EFI on this ground-breaking proofing solution is a great example of that philosophy in action and we're very confident this collaborative effort will pay off for our customers in many new and exciting ways."

Epson worked closely with EFI to develop the workflow software (RIP) for the Epson Proofing Edition Series. EFI Colorproof XF v4.0 RIP for Epson takes advantage of the latest Adobe® PostScript® 3 and Adobe Print Engine 2.0 technologies and processes files to ensure consistent and accurate proofs for all types of color print work - commercial or flexographic. And with complete support of Epson's optional SpectroProofer™, virtually any color management process is completely automated, reducing complex labor costs significantly.

"This collaboration between us and Epson combines the best of both companies to provide a powerful proofing workflow solution for both commercial and flexographic proofing applications," said Marc Olin, senior vice president and general manager, EFI Advanced Professional Print Software. "Never before has such an innovative proofing solution been brought to market at such a great price point."

The Epson Proofing Edition Series comes with virtually everything needed to begin making contract-quality proofs right out of the box. The solution includes an Epson Stylus Pro 7900 (24-inch) or 9900 (44-inch) wide format ink jet printer, a complete set of Epson UltraChrome® HDR ink cartridges, and a full 24-inch roll of Epson Standard Proofing Paper 240. Furthermore, it comes with EFI Colorproof XF 4.0 for Epson (software-based RIP) with pre-installed profiles for Epson's entire line of Professional Proofing Papers.

Availability, Service and Support

The Epson Proofing Edition Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900 are now available through authorised resellers. They are supported by a standard Epson PreferredSM Limited Warranty, a one-year program that includes toll-free advanced telephone access Monday through Friday and usually next-business-day on-site service in the unlikely event of any hardware failure. Optional Epson Preferred Plus Service Plans are also available, offering one or two additional years of protection.

 

GMG, developer and supplier of high-end color management and proofing solutions, will be present on two stands at this year’s FESPA Digital. GMG will be exhibiting on stand number C70 (Hewlett Packard) and on stand number B70 (Mimaki Europe B.V.). The FESPA Digital will take place from 12-14 May in Amsterdam.

“The future is digital” – GMG subscribes to this motto demonstrating innovative software solutions to be utilized in the context of Hewlett Packard and Mimaki Europe B.V. products. The main focus will be on GMG color management solutions.

Accordingly, GMG ColorProof o5 will be on show in conjunction with the HP Designjet Z-series. The combination of GMG ColorProof o5 and a printer of this series enables an automated production of high quality contract proofs. Due to the automatic GMG ColorProof calibration of the HP Designjet Z-series and the integrated measuring device, there is no deeper knowledge of color management required to attain proofs meeting all industry standards.

Furthermore, GMG will demonstrate the extensive functionalities of GMG ColorServer as used in the general production area. As the need for color fidelity and print quality is rapidly growing in this area. With GMG ColorServer, the user can perform automated RGB-to-CMYK color conversions and separations. In case of PDF files, also CMYK-to-CMYK conversions are possible.

On the Mimaki Europe B.V. stand, visitors may expect the demonstration of a special use case of GMG ColorServer in combination with the Mimaki UJF-605 printer series. The functionalities of the GMG color management solution are here specifically applied for producing mock-ups in the packaging industry.

Of course, all visitors of the FESPA Digital 2009 are welcome to ask for general information on the product line of GMG.

“GMG is proud of being present at the FESPA Digital for the first time. Over the recent years, our products have been well established in the traditional proofing and color management business. More and more customers however use a heterogeneous production environment, e.g. offset and digital printing in parallel. Experience has shown that also in these cases our customers benefit greatly from the automatic color conversions via GMG ColorServer”, says Jawdatt Mawassii, Vice President Strategy & Business Development at GMG. “In combination with our worldwide renowned proofing software GMG ColorProof, we offer a complete solution for the optimal control of different output devices.”

 

 

Wide-format inkjet printer and  vinyl cutting plotter manufacturer Mutoh Europe nv announces availability of a media/ICC profile library onto its website.

With this new web tool, Mutoh Europe offers both existing and new Mutoh wide-format printer users free access to a database of more than 1500 media profiles.
 
By creating a free member account at www.mutoh.eu, Mutoh printer users can download profiles in a straightforward folder structure, categorised per Mutoh printer type, ink type & colour configuration, both for Mutoh Edition software as well as their original counterparts from Mutoh Europe’s RIP partners : Caldera, EasySIGN, Onyx Graphics and Sai.
 
The on-line database lists profiles for a wide variety of media such as self-adhesive vinyl, banner, backlit film, photo paper, blue back paper, fine art paper, canvas, etc… 
 
The Mutoh media/ICC profile database is the result of a group effort from third party companies, leading media manufacturers  and Mutoh Europe’s Technical Marketing Department.
 
Mutoh Europe’s technical marketing team along the years has built up a strong relationship with key media manufacturers in the sign industry.   This has led to joint profiling efforts in view of harvesting the best results out of printer - ink - media combinations, fully tuned to Mutoh’s Intelligent Interweaving guided printer set-up tool.

 

EFI announced the release of version 4.0 of its market-leading EFI Colorproof XF for software colour proofing and Fiery XF for production printing. Patent-pending Dynamic Wedge™, Intelligent Calibration, and enhanced spot-colour simulation provide a measurable advantage for achieving colour accuracy for every job and device, even in remote locations. EFI's new software increases productivity and saves costs by eliminating redundant production steps.

"Printing today requires full control of the entire colour supply chain with maximum productivity," said Frank Hueske, EFI product marketing manager. "EFI's new Colorproof XF 4.0 and Fiery XF 4.0 allows users to manage colour in a new dimension with efficient and fast production tools to achieve standardised, accurate colour effortlessly."

EFI Colorproof XF and Fiery XF V4 automation features ensure accurate set-up and maintenance of a perfectly defined colour workflow from linearisation and profiling to calibration, allowing hands-free overnight calibration.

Dynamic Wedge

EFI's patent-pending Dynamic Wedge™ is a revolutionary technology that checks and initiates optimisation of key colours - including spot colours - based on a dynamically created wedge. Unlike a static wedge (for instance the Ugra/Fogra media wedge), the software always takes into consideration the job's key colours and all spot colours relevant to colour analysis. Dynamic Wedge uses its advanced algorithms to analyse these colours. It also ensures the highest accuracy of output devices onsite and at remote locations. It is an essential tool for controlling key colours either in proofing or wide format production. Its dynamic analysis and tracking of spot colours makes it perfect for the packaging applications. Dynamic Wedge is a critical tool for matching logo and other special colours in CMYK. Another unique advantage of the Dynamic Wedge, which is essential for colour-critical applications, is its ability to automatically verify colour accuracy against standards such as ISO 12647-7.

Printing systems with embedded spectrophotometers will also benefit from the Dynamic Wedge. It fully automates verification and optimisation-for labour-saving colour-quality assurance.

Intelligent calibration

Version 4 of EFI Colorproof XF and Fiery XF also includes a re-linearisation and re-ink-limiting feature, which checks the calibration of output devices and automatically brings it back to its original state when parameters, such as media or ink, change. After analysing the device XF will either launch the re-linearisation or re- ink-limiting/-linearisation for easy and effective printer calibration. This new feature provides a fast and accurate method of ensuring calibration accuracy.

Enhanced spot-colour simulation

Enhanced spot-colour simulation automatically identifies the ideal output values to provide dead-on spot-colour simulations, with challenging low Delta Es.

Automated Proofing with Epson Stylus Pro x900

EFI Colorproof and Fiery XF v 4 prints a label directly on the proof on Epson Stylus Pro x900 printers with embedded spectrophotometer after inline verification. This allows the user to see if the proofs failed or passed immediately. This fully automated feature eliminates the use of a semi-automated measuring device as a first step before printing the label.

Each step of colour measurement from linearisation, profiling, calibration, optimisation and verification, as well as the immediate label printing directly on the output can be executed automatically. This complete workflow automation maximises productivity while ensuring colour accuracy.

"EFI XF v 4.0 solutions, which includes the revolutionary Dynamic Wedge, will dramatically change the current proofing workflow", said Hueske". V4's combination of features provide XF customers with the highest degree of colour control and automation."

Additional improvements include wizard-based licensing, set-up and configuration, Intuitive one-click spot-colour handling, uniform page scaling, easy conversion to grey scale, enhanced tiling and step-and-repeat functions.

EFI's improved proofing and print production tools extend automation with JDF-based communication to EFI's leading MIS and Web2Print Solutions. Support of latest technologies such as Adobe PDF Print Engine v2.0 streamline and enhance workflow communication.

 

 

 

ColorGATE has successfully developed support for the new HP Designjet L65500 Printer and its universal PRODUCTIONSERVER5 for high quality color management and the seamless integration with existing workflows and numerous application requirements. Following the successful introduction of previous RIP certification programs, HP has again defined an exhaustive set of criteria to verify compatibility and integration with the HP Designjet L65500 and hence ensure optimal printing performance.

ColorGATE provides the first certified Production RIP for the latest HP Latex Large Format printing system and the driver is now available in the ColorGATE printer driver category II. The HP Designjet L65500 Printer is the first of a new category of large format signage printers with HP Latex Inks that reduce the impact of printing on the environment.

More information: www.colorgate.com