Software

GMG ProductionSuite, announced at Fespa last month, makes its UK debut at Sign & Digital UK on stand M60. According to GMG, it is the most complete solution in the market for indoor and outdoor advertising, sign and super-wide format printing, adding new capabilities in colour consistency, flexibility and economy.

GMG ProductionSuite is a modular system, comprising Editor, RIP, SmartProfiler, PrintStation and optional EcoSave:

• The GMG ProductionSuite Editor central processing unit: gives users access to precision visuals that profile output quality allowing a user to monitor every detail of the end result prior to printing and, if necessary, edit work directly within the application. The integrated Tiling Tool simplifies the precise preparation of tiled images for later assembly. The GMG ProductionSuite Editor displays all the settings required for processing in one main window. It takes just a few mouse clicks to define and position pockets, hems, grommets and pole pockets. The Editor calculates the required number of grommets and, using a simple checkbox, the user can choose to omit corners. By accessing native data formats, such as PDF, PSD and AI, the GMG ProductionSuite Editor enables the variable editing of closed file formats. It is just as easy to implement a long production run with a number of different motifs, as it is to change individual images, texts, graphics or other elements. Additional functions include: Integrated data preflight and process automation options.
• The GMG ProductionSuite RIP: runs in the background, entirely independently of the work steps in the Editor. Print jobs requiring full computing power can thus be prepared while others have already been sent to the RIP. To check the final RIPped data prior to printing, the image in the Output Inspector corresponds exactly to the colour separations and colour quantities in the actual print data.
• The GMG ProductionSuite SmartProfiler: aligns the colour results from several printers of similar type based on colour profiles and printer calibrations and, importantly, automatically converts spot colours to the target printer’s colour gamut.
• The GMG ProductionSuite PrintStation: Thanks to a user interface that visualises device- and media-dependent imposition, data can easily be grouped and prepared for production. Individual print jobs can be variably combined and optimized so as to ensure optimum material use and cutting sequences. The goal is to greatly accelerate order processing and significantly reduce material use.
• The GMG EcoSave option: is capable of reducing ink consumption by up to 20% ink while maintaining the same high output quality and productivity. Colour quality is maintained under optimum conditions whilst delivering substantial ink savings.
• Additional options: include Industrial Cutting, True Shape Nesting, Screen- and Variable Data Printing.

GMG ProductionSuite currently supports over 800 output devices. A flexible licensing model permits custom installation: from a simple configuration on one computer with only one RIP, one Editor and functions for driving one or two output devices, all the way to an extensive decentralised configuration with several editors that can send jobs to over ten printers and cutters.

GMG ProductionSuite runs under Mac OS® 10.5 - 10.7, Windows® XP, Vista and Windows 7.

Corel has launched CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite X6, the newest version of its flagship graphics suite. Featuring a completely revamped typography engine, inspiring new colour styles and harmonies and powerful shaping tools, the new suite offers graphics professionals its most creative and powerful tools to date. With a focus on opening up new creative possibilities for the design community, this major update delivers improved workflow and performance making it even easier for both aspiring and experienced designers to connect with assets, work with leading edge tools and technology, and output their design projects with confidence.

“Our CorelDRAW community consistently inspires us with their creativity and versatility. Our members play a central role in helping us determine the essential features and enhancements that will help to accelerate the design process, while enabling them to showcase their true design style”, said John Falsetto, Senior Product Manager for CorelDRAW. “We want to provide our users with all of the tools and options they need to be as creative and productive as possible so that they can share their vision and inspire others through their work.”

The new features and numerous enhancements included in the latest suite are designed to address the needs of CorelDRAW users in a wide variety of industries, including sign making, graphic design, fashion/apparel design, wide format printing, marketing, print production, screen printing, awards and engraving, vehicle wrap design, and others.

Key New Features and Enhancements include:

 

• Advanced OpenType® Support: Create beautiful text with advanced OpenType® typography features, such as contextual and stylistic alternates, ligatures, ornaments, swash variants, and more.
• New Custom-built Colour Harmonies: Modify colours collectively in a harmony and analyze colours and hues to deliver complementary colour schemes.
• New Native 64-bit and Enhanced Multi-Core Support: Quickly process files and images up to 50% faster than before.
• New Creative Vector Shaping tools: Creatively add effects using four new vector shaping tools – Smear, Twirl, Attract and Repel.
• New Styles Engine and Docker: Format with speed and simplify the creation, application, and management of styles for consistent formatting across multiple objects.
• New Corel® Website Creator™ X6 application: Build and manage websites with ease using the Site Wizard, templates, drag-and-drop functionality and seamless integration with XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and XML.
• New Smart Carver™: Remove unwanted areas from an image while simultaneously maintaining the photo’s aspect ratio.
• Improved Page Layout Capabilities: Create design layouts with ease using new and improved Master Layer functionality, Alignment Guides, Interactive frames and much more.
• Redesigned Object Properties Docker: Save time, fine-tune designs and get access to the object settings in one centralized location.

“People are looking for software that produces professional results without the complexity. This is especially important for those who rely on graphic software for their business”, said Kathleen Maher, Senior Analyst at Jon Peddie Research. “This is what CorelDRAW Graphics Suite was designed to do, and we see that legacy continuing strong in the new version. Corel has balanced new features that keep the software competitive for experienced designers, but new users can still get up and working quickly.”

What’s Included in CorelDRAW Graphics X6:

• 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

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. Corel will continue to enhance the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 experience by making more content and functionality available throughout the lifecycle for X6 users.
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 a full list of everything included in CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 and to download a free 30-day fully-functional trial version, please visit www.corel.com/coreldraw.

Availability and Pricing

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 is available immediately as an electronic download (ESD) from www.corel.com in English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Brazilian-Portuguese and Dutch. Box versions will be available from Corel’s authorised resellers later in March.

Suggested retail pricing (SRP) is £399 for the full version and £179 for the upgrade. All prices exclude VAT. For more detailed information about pricing and upgrade policies please visit www.corel.com/coreldraw. Commercial and education licenses are also available.

Polish, Czech, Russian, Swedish, Finnish, Hungarian and Turkish language versions of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 will follow later in spring 2012.

Media & Blogger Resources

For additional CorelDRAW resources including reviewer’s materials, images and videos, please visit www.corel.co.uk/newsroom

Meet the CorelDRAW Community

• Join the user community www.coreldraw.com
• Connect with CorelDRAW on Facebook www.facebook.com/coreldrawgraphicssuite
• Follow our updates @CorelDRAW

 

Druckerei Laub GmbH & Co. KG in Elztal-Dallau (Germany) has decided to replace its Alphagraph Prinance workflow with the EFI Pace print MIS.  The full-service, owner-operated offset and digital print shop with over 60 employees has been supplying its customers with a wide variety of printed goods for 115 years. After using the Alphagraph Prinance workflow since 1997, the company decided to switch to the EFI Pace system following an intensive evaluation process.

The family-owned company is run by Gerhard Cherdron and his daughter Anke Cherdron, who was heavily involved in the evaluation process.  "We decided in favour of EFI Pace because just like Prinance it was developed by experts who are fully conversant with technical production operations in print shops," said Anke Cherdron.  "We developed a comprehensive materials planning system that we had not been able to update since 2009 due to increases and special requirements, but now we can use again with EFI Pace.What was helpful to us was the option to transfer part of the data from Prinance.Changing software after 15 years of use provides the opportunity to clean out-of-date data.."

A key decision-making criterion for Druckerei Laub was that Pace is a browser-based server that runs local or in the cloud.  "We used to have to complete the updates of around 15 computers individually and simultaneously, which was forever causing us problems and taking up a lot of time.With Pace, only the server is updated and all the computers accessing the server use the latest data," added Cherdron.

EFI played another part in the decision-making process.Laub was already familiar with EFI as a company from the Fiery colour servers working on various imagesetters and printing machines.  "With EFI we are investing in a market leader with an international presence and sufficient resources for ongoing development and support for their software, so we hope to be able to work with EFI Pace in the long term," said Cherdron.  "We estimate that it will take about six months until we have added all the information to Pace for all our requirements during ongoing production, and then around a year until all employees are fully conversant with their workspaces. In these circumstances, we simply cannot trust a system supplier unless we can be certain they will still be around in five years."

Solutions from Alphagraph such as Prinance, etc. will still be developed, supported and sold to existing customers, but will no longer be offered to new customers. Alphagraph customers on maintenance are eligible for special price discounts on new EFI systems.  EFI will continue to provide reliable support for customers using Alphagraph solutions - currently more than 6000 installations in 15 countries - for several more years to come, was the assurance from Georg Hollenbach, Managing Director of EFI GmbH and Alphagraph on the occasion of the acquisition of Alphagraph by EFI.

For more information, please visit www.efi.com

Over 130,000 Enfocus PitStop users worldwide will benefit from significantly more accurate and flexible PDF preflight and correction when Enfocus releases PitStop Pro and PitStop Server 11 at drupa 2012.  PitStop 11’s “Smart Preflight & Correction” is a key Enfocus advance that allows real-time interactions of user or job-fed Preflight Profile settings.

According to Enfocus, the automated use of metadata (e.g. JDF and XML) for job processing, via PitStop Server, introduces a new level of automation.

Enfocus PitStop Pro and Server users repeatedly say that their PitStop preflight solution is the most crucial contributor to the success of their PDF workflows. “PitStop 11 allows customers to continue to use their familiar PitStop technology while moving into this new era of preflight,” says Enfocus Product Manager for PitStop Pro and PitStop Server, Leen Vanmaele.

Preflight made Specific to Each Job

Vanmaele says the company has been working to make the preflight process more accurate, and specifically reflective of individual job requirements. In sum, she explains that organisations have not been able to take full advantage of PitStop’s preflight and correction capabilities, because creation of individualised preflight checks and fixes for each job required highly time-consuming creation of a different Preflight Profile for every possible combination of values and conditions.

New PitStop Pro and PitStop Server 11 unleash the full power of the checking and correction options available in the PitStop engine with user-fed or automatic, job-fed values. These are used by the Preflight Profiles to direct which checks and fixes should be over-ridden and open to change at job run-time. Fast and correct linking of the PDF with customers’ specific requirements makes service faster and more accurate. Overall quality is improved and processes are standardised.

PitStop Pro 11 will give its customers the ability to use smart values to check and correct a PDF; while PitStop Server 11 users can enjoy a completely hands-off, new level of automation. In the latter case, PitStop Server preflight settings and values can be driven by job-specific information such as JDF or XML job tickets, often generated by a MIS or an Ad Booking system.

Additional Features: Streamlined Interface and Smarter Text Editing

Additional improvements and changes to PitStop 11 include a cleaner, more streamlined interface making preflight and result navigation more user friendly.

PitStop 11 also brings smarter text editing. For instance a handy “Find and Replace” text tool allows PitStop Pro users to quickly find text, and if desired can immediately replace it while maintaining the PDF’s existing format. Text is also automatically re-merged on a single line, if needed. This will significantly improve ease of use and editing capabilities.

PitStop Server Customers Will More Easily Move into Smart Automation

Research data shows that PitStop Server 11 users will be well positioned to move into more advanced, digital workflows where metatagged, JDF and XML-embedded files interact intelligently with production processes along the way.

As PitStop Server customers become more familiar with utilizing metadata, they will aim to achieve end-to-end automation within a workflow. Switch 11, Enfocus’ new modular automation solution, is the answer to these users.

“Enfocus continues to improve production environments in a profound, yet logical, way,” says Fabian Prudhomme, Enfocus VP. “We round the next curve before our customers do; so that we’re ready for them when they reach their next goal or destination.”

Availability

Beginning immediately, users purchasing or upgrading to PitStop Pro / Server 10 now will be entitled to a free upgrade to PitStop Pro / Server 11, until the actual release date.  Pre-drupa promotions are also available through Enfocus resellers.

PitStop Pro 11 and PitStop Server 11 will be available by beginning of May 2012.

For more information on promotions and pricing, please contact your local reseller or Enfocus at sales@enfocus.com.

Enfocus has announced the launch of Switch 11. According to Enfocus Vice President Fabian Prudhomme, there has been “a metamorphosis” of the Switch product line following a 'ground-up restructuring of Enfocus’ uniquely flexible and powerful Switch automation technology.'  Enfocus will show Switch in its newest iteration at the drupa 2012 exhibit Hall 8b, Stand A23.

Over a year of behind-the-scenes process improvements and focused market research have combined to transform the Enfocus Switch line into the future-proof, next-generation Switch 11 version.

Now, instead of choosing between three versions of Enfocus Switch (Light, Full, and Power), customers can completely customise Switch according to their unique needs. The difference begins with a new, multipurpose Switch Core Engine that not only serves as the necessary foundation for all Switch operations, but is now itself an automation solution for the most common, time-consuming tasks faced daily by all publishing production companies.

Eight additional modules cover the market’s most in-demand functions for intelligent connectivity with existing or new prepress, database and other applications. These are the Configurator, Metadata, Database, Scripting, SwitchClient, Web Services, Performance and SwitchProxy modules. More modules may be developed by Enfocus on an as-needed basis; and customers have the option of using the Scripting module for development of specific integration needs.

Smart Automation for the Next Communications Age

Finding new revenue streams and differentiating from the competition are both gaining in importance, because the ways people consume communications are changing rapidly. The Switch 11 Generation, and beyond, reflects the broadest marketplace’s need for intelligent automation that can be put to work – and help them grow -- relatively quickly.

The new system structure will perfectly serve every operation and application in the marketplace, and in fact renders them future-proof by evolving with customers’ changing needs.

What is Switch Automation and How Customers Drove the Change

Enfocus Switch’s open architecture and neutral file format handling means it can seamlessly integrate with existing systems, software, and people ; effectively unleashing their power by creating connections and optimising capabilities that in many cases have not even been utilised before. Built-in intelligence allows Switch to “see” deep inside of files, software and workflows to maximise resources and to make existing workflows ‘smart’.

“Switch is a masterpiece of automation engineering,” Prudhomme explains, “But because it’s always been ahead of its time, restructuring the range of Switch offerings has resulted in easier implementation by broader markets.” 

Prudhomme explains that Enfocus teams therefore worked on making Switch easier to customise. “The system is fully scalable and can evolve with client needs, so that professionals utilise the building blocks they need, at least initially, and then use additional modules as their requirements change and grow.”

Best Practices Advance and Are Incorporated in Next Generation of Switch

An inspiration for the next generation of Switch was the way its best practices evolved, and the company recognised that one-at-a-time automation “wins” allow operators to learn Switch in a natural way that builds on itself, and produces the best results over time. The most common, highest ROI “wins” are now integrated within the Switch Core Engine solution.

“There are great numbers of people out there who understand how to really manipulate Switch,” Prudhomme says, referring to several hundreds of existing customers ranging from small, local operations through to mid-size and large organisations such as The Economist, Hallmark, and Playboy.”

Now, shop owners and managers who didn’t think they had the people, time or “know how” to take advantage of Switch; are interested in its “easier” entry point, through the Switch Core Engine.  “They see how genuinely fast and significant the ROI is, and the modular approach makes it even simpler to get started,” Prudhomme says.

Maximising Existing Systems and People

Successful Switch utilisation results in tremendous time savings and efficiency. Margins will grow as systems produce automatically, allowing people to invest their time in perfecting quality and service that will insure loyalty from current customers, while allowing time to explore new business and customers.

Switch is Critical in Vulnerable Times of Change

Highest growth areas include digital printing, as well as cross-, or multi-channel media. These applications allow printers and other service providers to offer new wide format and variable options, and new media output, among other things. A variety of reasons leave these businesses confused and vulnerable about tying their old and new digital workflows together. This is one of the most perfect applications of Switch: its open architecture allows it to be the glue that binds any publishing production systems and applications together, without the need to purchase additional software.

Says Prudhomme, “Switch will be instrumental to the people and companies who are changing the course of publishing history.”

Availability:

Switch 11 is available as of today. Pricing of Switch 11 starts at 1.500 Eur. For more information on pricing and modules, please contact your preferred reseller or contact sales@enfocus.com.

Esko will officially launch Suite 12 at drupa 2012. This major update to its software suite for the packaging, label, sign making and display industries, will play a central role at Esko’s drupa stand A23 in hall 8B.

Bernard Zwaenepoel, Senior VP Software Business at Esko, comments, “Our customers reported increased demand to push more products to market faster, at the lowest possible cost, enabled by global world-wide-web based communication. Consumer Packaged Goods manufacturers demand commitment to brand execution from the packaging supply chain and insist on higher shelf impact designs, no-compromise print quality, more package variations and increased compliancy with regulations. The complexity for packaging service providers and converters has increased, and in this challenging environment Suite 12 provides strong answers,”

With Suite 12, Esko provides answers to the challenges of modern brand execution. Enhanced 3D capabilities are pushing the “first moment of truth” further upstream in the supply chain. Packaging management tools in WebCenter 12 provide an overview on the entire packaging project and more control over each step in the process. And with Color Engine 12 a major breakthrough is set for consistent and accurate colour reproduction.

“Packaging professionals looking for faster time to market, effective and reliable workflow solutions and guaranteed colour consistency will be impressed by Suite 12. They will see many examples of our commitment to our customers and our dedication to continuous improvement of our solutions," continues Zwaenepoel.

Suite 12 brings additional productivity and efficiencies to the user.

• Integrated “best in class” applications. The new releases of the flagship applications ArtiosCAD, ArtPro, PackEdge, DeskPack and Studio combine interactive editing power and integration with workflow automation and colour management.
• Rich 3D functionality for a holistic experience. Stunning structural design in 3D and realistic graphics editing and visualisation of a package “in context” speeds up the production process and is an efficient QC tool reducing the risk at human errors.
• Mobile collaboration in a web-enabled workflow. Mobile interaction with the workflow is now possible, and with the Internet as a backbone for collaboration and resource-sharing, Suite 12 software manages and automates every step of the production workflow.

Zwaenepoel adds, “Esko once more confirms its leadership position in the packaging industry: no one covers the width and depth of our packaging solutions. We are aware of our responsibility towards thousands of users worldwide for whom our solutions are business critical. The upgrade to Suite 12 will improve their competitive strengths. The upgrade is fully included as part of their customer’s Maintenance Contract, ensuring that they continue to work with the latest and most advanced tools available in the marketplace.”

Suite 12 will be commercially available for customers worldwide as of June 2012.

For more information, please visit www.esko.com