Software

ColorGATE, a participant in the international HP Designjet Certification Program, has announced that Productionserver has been certified for the HP Designjet L25500 with an outstanding rating of 21 stars.

Users now have the certified guarantee that, with Productionserver, they will be able to take full advantage of the complete range of functions offered by the HP Designjet L25500.

The solution scored full points for all the certification criteria: calibration (3/3), media flexibility (3/3), printer reporting (3/3) and job management (3/3); in addition, the ColorGATE production RIP has also been equipped with high-quality profiles for the modern HP media, including the recyclable signage media of HP heavy textile banner / HP light textile banner, HP HDPE reinforced banner, HP photo-realistic poster paper as well as HP white satin poster paper—this led to another three of a possible three stars for the criterion of HP Media Support. HP has published the current star rating for the ColorGATE Productionserver.

In contrast to the international competition, the ColorGATE solution was also able to claim the maximum number of points in two further areas of the HP certification process. Tested for printing performance, for example, Productionserver proved that it is able to support the new HP concept of concatenating, which provides for optimum throughput for job processing by automatically sorting and grouping the jobs according to the print settings; this reduces the switch from cooling to new heating phases to a minimum. Three of three stars were also awarded for the complete integration of HP Professional PANTONE Emulation (HP PPE).

"The exact reproduction of PANTONE colors always presents an exacting challenge, in the field of advertising in particular," said Thomas Kirschner, managing director, ColorGATE. "The use of the HP Designjet L25500 in combination with the HP PPE-enabled Productionserver allows reproduction results that clearly surpass all the alternative methods currently available on the market—and that is possible even without the installation of special libraries. The results: top-quality, more productively and simply than ever before."

"We are very happy that we are able to support an eco-friendly solution with our feature-rich production RIP right from the day of its market introduction in an area of application that used to be restricted exclusively to the solvent segment," said Kirschner.

On the release of Productionserver Version 6, ColorGATE now presents two editions that have been customized for use with the new HP printing system: the PS 6 HP L25500 Best-Price Edition includes Productionserver 6 Pro with one queue, one RIP process and one printer driver; the PS 6 HP L25500 Producer Edition is additionally equipped with another RIP process for optimal capacity utilization along with an integrated profiling solution. It also features Ink Saver, a new ColorGATE technology that uses GCR-optimized DeviceLink profiling to reduce ink costs by up to 30 percent. Both editions are now on offer at an attractive price. "The price/performance ratio is simply phenomenal," said Kirschner. "That should make it very, very easy for all interested users to make a quick decision."

The easy to use profiling tool GMG SmartProfiler brings colour quality and colour consistency for digital and LFP printers to the next level and opens new business opportunities.

GMG, supplier of high-end colour management and proofing solutions announces that the unique color profiling solution GMG SmartProfiler is now shipping.

GMG SmartProfiler is a wizard which allows users to create high quality ColorServer profiles even without profound knowledge of colour management.

"We have been using GMG's ColorServer for our wide format industrial printing applications for a while. The colour results are great and we achieve excellent matches between different machines and media. However, the process requires good colour skill and knowledge. GMG's new SmartProfiler makes the process much easier and faster, allowing us to support our entire production process. GMG listened to our needs and has provided a great upgrade to an already excellent product," says Bob Boileau, General Manager of Screen Print Dow, Wilmington, USA.

The combination of GMG SmartProfiler and GMG ColorSever opens new opportunities for digital and LFP printers to enhance the colour quality and colour consistency to a totally new level. Therefore the GMG products secure the high investments in digital and LFP printers. The higher print quality increases the customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Users, especially in the rapidly growing digital and large-format printing sectors, increasingly expect high colour accuracy, repeatability and colours that match those of print media produced by classic printing processes, such as offset or gravure printing.

With centrally controlled colour management, using GMG SmartProfiler and GMG ColorServer, companies can greatly increase productivity, production reliability and in particular the colour quality of their products. Due to the identical quality of the printed output, flexibility in hybrid production environments is enhanced, because the output system to be used for printing can be selected at the last minute.

"X-Rite and GMG have shared a mutual commitment to accurate and consistent colour reproduction in pre-press, digital and large format workflows for years. X-Rite's i1 solutions have long been the de-facto standard across the industry when it comes to consistent, high-quality colour management, offering extremely fast and highly accurate measurement, precise patch recognition and unmatched versatility. When combined with GMG's profiling tools, X-Rite's i1 solutions offer customers unprecedented levels of productivity, reliability and flexibility, and we are delighted to further expand our long term and fruitful partnership, with our instruments' seamless support for GMG's new SmartProfiler solution," comments Sonia Megert, X-Rite's Vice President of Inbound Marketing.

The high degree of automation in GMG's colour management will help to cut costs, while increasing productivity and achieving consistent colours.

EFI™ today announced that for customers upgrading to gain the benefits of the newest Microsoft® Windows® 7 operating system release, EFI solutions will work seamlessly in their print environment. Fiery® server, Fiery Central and EFI MicroPress® production print customers can continue to run their print operations, without impact, using the currently shipping WHQL-certified drivers, without making any changes to their Fiery configuration.

"As part of our ongoing commitment to support Microsoft systems, EFI is excited to offer customers who install Windows 7 an easy, pain-free way to ensure they can print the documents they need day one," said Charlotte Tueckmantel, manager of product line management, Fiery division, EFI. "Many alternative solutions require a complex upgrade or won't support the new Windows 7 for months. After rigorous testing, we are delighted with the feedback our customers are giving us about Fiery working with the latest Microsoft operating system."

An industry-leading product since 1991, with more than 1.6 million installations worldwide, Fiery servers deliver power, performance, and speed to high-end print environments such as graphic arts, design firms, commercial printers, and pre-press businesses with unmatched colour output, extensive variable data printing support, and superior workflow management. A 2009 BERTL®'s Best award winner, Fiery Central is a complete workflow designed to centralise and unify digital production. EFI MicroPress controller and production workflow solution helps customers increase efficiency and reduce costs through streamlined and automated workflows.

BARBIERI electronic wants to share the knowledge gained in more than 25 years of colour measuring with their customers and partners to help them getting most accurate colours on most different media in digital printing.

The BARBIERI White Paper points out the colour measuring challenges most different media pose as well as how to meet them.

Step by step the whole preparation and measuring process is described and guidance is provided on optimal techniques, highlighting technical insights in measuring technology in order to understand how colour measuring works and to learn how to address future measuring challenges.

The 'cost savings' white paper is free of charge and can be downloaded by clicking here.

 

For an International list of official Barbieri distributors click here. Barbieri devices are distributed in the UK by IGS UK Ltd, www.igsuk.net

 

ONYX Service offers a line of products designed to help keep your business up and running.  Ranging from free web services to VIP care, ONYX offers the right option to make your customers’ lives easier.  ONYX Service options include email support, 24/7 access to web tools and resources, a phone center staffed with a highly experienced Support Crew, and two software maintenance options.
 
Our full line of ONYX Service products now include: ONYX Links, ONYX Plus, ONYX Advantage, and ONYX Premium service options.

The ONYX Links free suite of services is designed to help keep your business up and running.  Subscribing to ONYX Links suite connects you 24/7 to web site downloads for the latest features, printer drivers and profiles; the ONYX Service Web Portal for expert technical information and articles; and ONYX PrintMetryx JobView – a new web-based service designed to help you track printing costs and production trends.  Available mid-October.

The ONYX Plus service is designed to help you solve problems quickly and efficiently through 24/7 web diagnostic tools, articles containing the latest technical information, hotline access to the experts in the ONYX Call Center;  along with all the benefits of ONYX Links.  Available now for customers in N.  America.

The ONYX Advantage product is a simple and cost-effective way for ONYX PosterShop, ONYX ProductionHouse and ONYX PrepEdge software users to keep their software up-to-date.  The ONYX Advantage service provides product upgrades, new printer drivers, automatic disk updates, and a free additional active printer and RIP at purchase – in addition to all the benefits of ONYX Links.  Available now worldwide.  Contact your local reseller for more information on subscribing to this service.

The ONYX Premium suite of services is designed for the ONYX PosterShop, ONYX ProductionHouse and ONYX PrepEdge shop owner who wants to ensure their ONYX Workflow product is always up-to-date with the latest software and printer drivers; and who wants full access to the expert personnel and tools offered by the ONYX Call Center.  It includes all the features of the ONYX Links, ONYX Plus, and ONYX Advantage products.  Available now for customers in N.  America only.

Important Changes – in enhancing our line of ONYX Service products, we are discontinuing the ONYX Support Prime and ONYX Support Plus 6-Month agreement options.  

For more information on purchasing one of these products, contact your local reseller.

ONYX Graphics Inc. has announced the ONYX PrintMetryx Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform of web-based tools designed to give insight to wide-format printing operations. The first two products utilising this new platform will help wide-format print shops better manage their printing costs: ONYX PrintMetryx JobView service, a free, easy to use tool for tracking printing costs; and ONYX PrintMetryx In-House service, a subscription-based service designed to help in-house printing departments save time, reduce costs and improve productivity.

"With this new family of SaaS products, ONYX Graphics expands our portfolio to address the growing need of print providers to have on-demand access to information about their printing operations," said Jeb Hurley, CEO of ONYX Graphics. "Companies are bringing printing in-house to decrease print turnaround time and reduce costs, making accurate reporting of productivity and printing costs especially important."

ONYX PrintMetryx JobView service will be available at no cost with a subscription to ONYX Links service option—plus the latest version of ONYX RIP software version 7.3.2 packages. ONYX PrintMetryx JobView service gives print shop owners and production managers insight into daily printing operations. Each print job contains a thumbnail image, detailed information about the print job, and costs for ink and media.

Shops using ONYX PrintMetryx JobView service can also track production trends such as what is printed each day and which printers and media are used most frequently. Tracking production trends helps ensure that the shop is running efficiently and that materials are available when needed.

ONYX PrintMetryx In-House service is a web-based subscription service that shows the value of in-house printing by delivering proof of production and reports on printing costs. To help production managers save time and money, the ONYX PrintMetryx In-House service streamlines print tracking and reporting, enabling the creation of reports in minutes rather than hours. Visual dashboards quickly display work and cost information, and users can quickly find a job and view the details. Users can also customize reports to display the information they need.

"We started printing our own signs to save money on printing costs," said Jeremy Brown, an ONYX PrintMetryx In-House Service customer. "By using the ONYX PrintMetryx platform, I can see how much a sign costs to print and show management how much we are saving by printing the signs ourselves instead of outsourcing our prints. Since printing is a cost center, the ONYX PrintMetryx platform helps me show the value of doing printing in-house."

ONYX PrintMetryx JobView service and ONYX PrintMetryx In-House service require the new version 7.3.2 of ONYX RIP software (ONYX ProductionHouse, ONYX PosterShop, and ONYX RIPCenter packages).