Prepare for take-off
The highly competitive nature of the modern signage industry means companies are on the look-out for ways to gain an advantage over other companies. One way of doing this is to ensure you have the right software installed to ensure you are operating at your maximum potential.
RIP and pre-flight software are extremely useful tools for sign-making and wide-format print businesses looking to gain an edge over the competition, with new solutions on the market helping to give their production processes a boost.
Here, we take a look at some of the latest launches and analyse how these products will support sign-making businesses in the busy, modern market.
Making life easier
First up, Esko is a specialist provider of software for the sign and display industries, offering a range of pre-flight options. Jan De Roeck, director of marketing, industry relations and strategy at Esko, says pre-flight is a “vital” part of the overall prepress puzzle.
Jan De Roeck, of Esko, says pre-flight is “vital” for modern businesses
“Ensuring accuracy ahead of wide-format print not only reduces waste, thereby improving efficiency, but the removal of errors also serves to increase productivity,” De Roeck says, adding: “Digitising and automating the pre-flight process is one of the keys to success in today’s business environment.
Digitising and automating the pre-flight process is one of the keys to success in today’s business environment”
“Today’s sign and display manufacturers already face a growing demand for increased accuracy, consistency and efficiency. Without a doubt, the innovation delivering the clearest tangible benefit to businesses in meeting this challenge is the adoption of integrated hardware and software to automate workflows, systems, and processes.
“As a key early phase of the prepress process, pre-flight is an area where Esko continues to deliver innovations to automate and digitise the process, in order to make the lives of print manufacturers easier.”
De Roeck explains that while unique pre-flight software is a key feature in any Esko workflow, it has many different forms to accommodate the ever-changing needs of the sector.
“Not only do we have technology from Enfocus embedded in our workflow, but we have also introduced a new pre-flight tool for Variable Data Printing, or VDP,” De Roeck says, adding. “This module, part of the ArtPro+ prepress editing solution, has been devised and built to automatically check thousands of variants at once, saving hours of operator time.
“Another important deployment of pre-flight technology is with our Colour Pre-flight tool, which checks the artwork to find out what is the most efficient ink set to reproduce artwork within a given colour tolerance. As the print process of choice for wide-format signage and display manufacturers, inkjet digitally prints predominantly in the CMYK colour space.
“Colour Pre-flight technology in Automation Engine also predicts whether a given job will reproduce within gamut tolerance on any given press using Esko colour management technology. This helps the manufacturer with cost estimation and go or no-go decisions, as well as in optimising the use of their digital press and providing better overall equipment efficiency.”
De Roeck goes on to say that the latest version of the Automation Engine features a host of quality assurance tools, such as the new Viewing option that looks at separations with the right colour profile and can preview and measure ripped and screened separations.
The latest version of Esko’s Automation Engine features a number of quality assurance tools
“The latest version also features automated quality control tools such as Compare Artwork, Inspect Braille, Inspect Barcode(s), Inspect Text and Check Spelling,” De Roeck says, adding: “These all serve to ensure accuracy, eliminate costly errors and improve efficiency saving time and eliminating costly errors, waste and re-runs by minimizing operator input and eliminating human error.”
Efficient processes
Next up, Solimar Systems also offers a number of solutions that Jonathan Malone-McGrew, senior director of engagement, says will help users to implement a much more efficient production process.
ReadyPDF from Solimar Systems optimises file structures, replaces fonts and controls colour spaces
“The importance surrounds the need for efficient processes that allow for work to flow into the organisation and production environment and progress through to delivery to the intended destination and recipient,” Malone-McGrew says.
“RIP technology and pre-flight software have the goal of improving the time to market. Pre-flight software seeks to make improvements to the files coming into and through the production environment so that they are smaller in size, free of errors that would impede the RIP’s ability to process at rated speed and optimised for the destination device.
RIP technology and pre-flight software have the goal of improving the time to market”
“The quality of the software and hardware impacts how many people have to interact with your pre-flight and prepress processes as well as how much time will elapse prior to submitting work to the RIP and output devices. The more places people have to intervene in the pre-flight processes, the more opportunity there is to add time and costs to the production processes.”
Looking at the solutions available from Solimar Systems, Malone-McGrew highlights a core focus on PDF optimisation technology and points to ReadyPDF. He describes this solution as an aggregation of multiple technologies and libraries found in other PDF optimisation solutions available today.
O Factoid: Independent testing from Keypoint Intelligence found that ReadyPDF from Solimar Systems reduced PDF files by 40% on average across a test file suite O
“However, it is differentiated by our in-house developed technology that is proven in customer environments to process large PDF files that other solutions fail on,” Malone-McGrew explains, adding: “It optimises the file structures, replaces fonts, controls colour spaces including detecting and changing Rich Black to pure K and/or applying ICC colour profiles, and can automate the entire process through templated automation built-in as a standard feature and deployment methodology.”
He adds that the ReadyPDF Prepress Server is also moving the needle for print providers in the security area. The ReadyPDF server can keep Personally Identifiable Information (PII) secure for proofs, test files, and print samples without the need to create and recompose with test or dummy data. The ReadyPDF obfuscation feature jumbles all of the data or specifically identified fields through our PDF indexing feature.
“We have current Customer Advisory Council members that are leveraging this to troubleshoot issues with hours and days of time savings as they are able to quickly remove all PII concerns from their live files and send them to other departments, external organisations, and vendors for review, testing or analysis,” Malone-McGrew says,
“As a standard feature, this is a significant value-add for print and digital producers as it shows the expertise and commitment Solimar has to providers producing communications around the globe.”
Save time, reduce waste
Also weighing in is SAi, which provides RIP software for printing and sign-making programs. Annette Plummer, vice president of marketing at SAi, says quality RIP software can help you process jobs faster, as well as utilise your media more efficiently.
“Your software should allow you to easily drag and drop files into the queue and manually or automatically nest different jobs together,” Plummer says, adding: “In addition, quality RIP software can drive multiple printers and cutters simultaneously, further increasing your efficiency.
The latest version of SAi Flexi from SAi can drive up to five printers or cutters at the same time
“By being able to check the details of a job before it goes into production you can catch mistakes before you print, so you save time and reduce material waste. Good RIP software also improves colour quality with features like spot colour mapping.”
Looking at the solutions available from SAi, Plummer points to the latest version of SAi Flexi software, which includes advanced production features that she says allows the user to utilise the full output capabilities of the newest printers and cutters.
“Layers printing with white ink has never been easier,” Plummer explains, adding: “With SAi Flexi, you sandwich white layers between layers of colour then preview each layer individually for accuracy before you print. The white layers can be created using a design program or ‘on-the-fly’ in Flexi.
“SAi Flexi’s enhanced RIP-while-print feature means you never have to wait for one job to finish before queueing the next. SAi Flexi can drive up to five printers or cutters at the same time.”
Variable data is another new feature in SAi Flexi that allows users to customise text, pictures and barcodes – something Plummer says is a useful tool for producing jobs like personalised mailers or business cards. In addition, SAi Flexi supports barcode and OPOS Xtra Marks for a seamless print-and-cut workflow with accurate alignment.
“SAi Flexi is the only RIP software to come with an easy-to-use design interface that includes tools specific to the sign and print industry,” Plummer says.
The general consensus here is that investment in quality RIP and pre-flight software offers a whole host of benefits to your business. From having greater control over production, to improving the quality of output, these solutions can go a long way in helping you gain an advantage over your competition.
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