Software - Workflow

At drupa 2016, Enfocus and its Solution Partners will highlight a range of integrations that don’t just touch the future, they automate it.

London creative production house Screaming Colour is targeting business growth after becoming the latest company to choose an MIS system from Tharstern.

Immediate access to production status updates and real time information about quality consistency are now reality.

EFI has entered into a partnership with RISO KAGAKU CORPORATION, a leading printer manufacturer in Japan, to launch a Fiery® digital front end (DFE) for new high-speed, full-colour RISO ComColor® inkjet printers. 

Yukimoto Sakata, General Manager of the Research & Development Division at RISO KAGAKU said: "As we continue to improve our ComColor inkjet technology with higher native speeds and better colour quality, a Fiery DFE became a natural fit for us. Fiery technology brings our customers greater versatility and higher performance for our new ComColor GD series. Advanced RIP and variable data technologies, along with easy-to-use Fiery workflow tools, will be particularly well-suited for the high-volume printing market." 

The Fiery DFE, ComColorExpress FS2000C, will be based on the latest award winning Fiery FS200 Pro platform. According to Toby Weiss, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EFI's Fiery business unit: "This partnership will allow us to deliver industry-leading Fiery performance, colour accuracy, ease of use, and integration to markets such as schools, municipal governments, churches, and high-volume in-plant CRDs where RISO has already established a very strong presence with their compact, low-cost, but very-high-speed inkjet printer with unique inline finishing features."

The ComColor GD series provides an entry into high-speed cutsheet inkjet printing with a low running cost for affordable colour prints. Now RISO customers will have access to Fiery Command WorkStation®, with the ubiquitous, award-winning, intuitive user interface and workflow used by more than a quarter million production print operators today. Fiery operators around the world can easily take advantage of the unique capabilities that RISO ComColor offers to answer the diverse demands of today's high-mix, short-run, quick turnaround printing.

RISO will demonstrate the ComColorExpress FS2000C at drupa 2016 in Düsseldorf, Germany, May 31 through June 10. One of the features highlighted will be the high-performance variable data printing (VDP) capabilities built into Fiery DFEs that require no third-party VDP composition tool.

Enfocus announces a significant update to its customer automation solution: Connect ALL 13 update 2.

This important new release transforms the job submission process by giving Connect ALL customers the ability to deploy dynamic HTML job tickets in their remote Connectors. These new Connectors enhance the experience of the printer’s customers, while providing a way to capture important job-related information that can ultimately flow directly into the printer’s workflow. With Connect ALL 13 update 2, the value of automation now extends all the way to the customer’s desktop.

Connect ALL is a customer automation solution that ensures the quality of a file while streamlining the file submission process. With Connect, print service providers, design firms and corporations can pre-define settings for a variety of tasks including job ticketing, PDF creation, PDF preflight and correction, and file delivery. Once defined, custom Connector applications are created that are used by internal and external customers to automate these processes, making it easy for graphic art professionals and novice users to consistently create print quality PDFs and deliver them to a remote server.

The features in this new release build on the value of Connect ALL by tying together all of the intelligence about a job. Using Connect ALL13 update 2, the printer can deploy dynamic HTML job tickets in the remote Connectors they configure for their clients. Once clients start to use these new remote Connectors, they are then able to provide valuable, job-specific information using these HTML job tickets. All of this data is then included when a completed job ticket gets submitted back to the printer, and can then be sent into the printer’s workflow ensuring the proper action is taken. Establishing this dynamic connection creates an easier, more efficient process for both the client and the printer.

“Many of the customers we speak to are looking for better ways to tie-in their back-end systems with the order process,” says Michael Reiher, Product Manager for Connect. “In this release, our goal was to address that challenge by delivering a fully dynamic job ticketing solution that makes the customer part of the automation process. This new release ensures that vital job ticket information can now tie directly into critical systems such as an MIS system to help direct the order process. Moreover, that customer and job intelligence can be passed even further downstream to workflow automation solutions, such as Enfocus Switch. Connect ALL 13 update 2 not only ties these processes together, it also ensures that everyone involved in the process is on the same page.”

This updated version of Connect ALL includes three options for creating and deploying HTML job tickets:

· Basic job tickets – these are designed to be simple to create and easy to deploy, allowing basic customer and job data to be collected as jobs are being sent in.

· Internal HTML forms are embedded in the remote Connectors providing a wider range of field and layout options for job tickets.

· External HTML forms (hosted from a web server), allow the job tickets to be easily linked to back-end systems to automatically retrieve customer and job information, making the job tickets totally dynamic.

All three methods produce a properly formatted XML, TXT, or CSV based job ticket file that can be used for downstream automation. The information collected in the job tickets can be used as variables for the processing of files allowing for client-side preflight to be customised on-the-fly, rename files, or create custom delivery folders.

Adding the power of Enfocus Switch

When used in conjunction with Enfocus Switch, Connectors can drive new jobs right into the workflow automation process. With this direct connection to Switch flows, files arrive in the workflow with job ticket data describing the job along with the PDF file quality status, provided by the built-in Enfocus Pitstop preflight and correction technology. When all technologies are combined, files are instantly sorted and routed into the right workflows speeding up production and minimising operator interaction.

Other new enhancements

Connect ALL and Connect YOU 13 update 2 also includes enhancements for delivering InDesign file packages along with a PDF. These new features[1] allow the original layout file – along with all its graphic resources – to be packaged and delivered in one step.

Connect 13 update 2 is a free update for all Connect 13 and 13 update 1 users and owners of previous versions under a maintenance contract.

The latest version of the world’s most widely used sign making, large format display software product will be available at the end of April 2016.