Joined up thinking

One such trend is towards all inclusive production software, such as Pixel Blaster, a new program recently announced by SA International. This is the same company behind the Flexi family of sign design programs. But whereas Flexi offers an all-in-one package for designing and outputting files for printers and cutters, Pixel Blaster covers every part of the job process from file verification, job preparation and colour management to Ripping and output. As such it’s all about pushing jobs through the production process as quickly as possible.

It’s been designed as a scaleable modular system so that users can tailor it to specific applications, such as output to ceramics and glass. It also includes support for finishing such as contour cutting and marks for grommets and hems. It will support multiple printers, regardless of the ink type in use, or the substrates, with consistent colour output. It will also run on both Mac and PC.

Meanwhile, Four Pees, the Belgian distributor that is also involved in development, has something similar in PrintFactory. This also is a modular system that appears to have most bases covered and will run equally well on Mac or PC. At its core is a production Rip capable of driving over 600 different devices together with a PrintStation to allow an operator to see the jobs queued in production.
It also includes an Editor module which can be run on a separate computer, thus splitting the production from the job preparation stage. The Editor can be used to preflight and edit jobs, including any scaling and rotation necessary as well as adding grommets and other cutting marks. It also offers colour accurate soft proofing and can create and edit ICC profiles.

There are a number of options to extend the usefulness of PrintFactory. This includes Spectro, for connecting most common spectrophotometers to PrintFactory, and WebFront, which allows customers to submit jobs via the Internet. There’s even a module to connect with DFlux, the Four Pees system for building your own workflow by stringing different processes and applications together.
There’s a lite version aimed at smaller bureaux called PrintFactory Go, which is a single application offering the file checking and job editing functions together with Ripping and wide-format output.

GMG has also entered this area, having just announced a new ProductionSuite. Up to now GMG has mainly concentrated on colour management, seeing wide-format inkjet as a proofing device, but last year GMG bought Aurelon, the Dutch developer behind PrintFactory. That led to a GMG edition of PrintFactory, and ProductionSuite appears to build on this. As with PrintFactory, it’s a modular system having a Rip plus a PrintStation for operators to control the printing, as well as an Editor for preflighting and modifying jobs. Not surprisingly it makes good use of the technology in GMG’s ColorServer, a proven solution for achieving consistent colour across different devices and with multiple media. Consequently it includes SmartProfiler for creating and editing colour profiles. It also includes EcoSave, which can help reduce ink usage without affecting colour quality. GMG says that it can already drive some 800 or so output devices. It too will run on both Mac and PC

Automation and design
These production systems are all about automating as many functions as possible in order to increase the throughput of work. One of the most obvious areas to automate is that of preflighting, as it stops those jobs with problems - such as missing fonts - from clogging up the print queues. To this end Onyx Graphics has licensed the PitStop Pro technology from Enfocus, and used it to develop its own SmartApps version.
PitStop is a preflighting program that can also be used to automatically fix problems, ranging from fonts to colour spaces. SmartApps Pitstop Pro is an Acrobat plug-in but one designed specifically to deal with the kind of problems typically found in wide format jobs. It’s a standalone system that’s not limited to the Onyx Rip.
Onyx has also developed a Sign and Banner SmartApp, a plug-in for Adobe Illustrator. This is a very fast way of creating fold marks and adding bleed data as well as grommet and eyelet points from within Illustrator, meaning that its done at the design stage and not on the production floor. It will work with any version of Illustrator from CS3 onwards, on both Mac and PC.
EasySign has also updated its sign design program to version 6, with an emphasis on faster production. The Print Server Rip has been rewritten for faster performance, the PDF workflow has been updated and it has gained true spot colour management. It also has better integration with other design programs, including Photoshop and CorelDraw, though it still only works on Windows. It also has additional Helper routines for particular tasks such as converting design proposals to HTML emails.

Colour
Another clear trend is that colour management has become much more important to the wide-format world. X-Rite continues to dominate the colour management market, having bought most of the competing companies over the years. Last year X-Rite introduced a brand new program, i1Profiler, which has drawn on all the past technologies for creating and editing ICC profiles. It features a new colour engine, i1Prism, which is said to create much smoother profiles than previous programs.
Caldera has recently upgraded its RIP to v9, with the emphasis firmly on better colour management. This is now based on v2.5 of Adobe’s PDF Print Engine which has led to faster Ripping, particularly with repeating objects, plus better font management and better support for transparent objects. Caldera has also integrated X-Rite’s i1Prism engine which should lead to smoother curves, better support for ICC profiles and easier colour correction.

In the Cloud
Cloud computing is starting to impact on everybody’s every day life so it should be no surprise that its also starting to make its mark in the wide-format arena. Essentially, cloud computing means delivering services over the Internet from a centrally-managed server. It’s the principle behind Google Docs, a cloud-based word processing program, and it’s also the basis for Amazon’s Kindle books which lets you read books on different devices and remembers which page you were on if you switch from, say, your computer to an iPad.
The most obvious use for cloud computing in the wide-format world is to allow customers to submit jobs, order reprints and to keep track of their orders. Fujifilm, for example, has launched a cloud-based Web-to-print system called XMF Print Centre. It offers print bureaux an easy way to market and sell their services online and includes full e-commerce capability to make it easy for one-off payments as well as regular customers. Its largely been developed from Fujifilm’s online photo ordering systems and will work with large format as well as other forms of print. It can be integrated with Fujifilm’s XMF workflow, but will also work as a separate system.
HP has also said that it would like to see greater use of cloud computing. It already has cloud support for its CAD wide-format printers though this is mainly to allow for remote printing of documents such as architects plans at building sites.

Management information
HP has just bought HiFlex, a German company that has pioneered the use of cloud computing for MIS. In theory this could significantly reduce the costs associated with running such a system. Users can host it from their own servers, giving them complete control over the system and its security. But it can also be run from any commercial cloud service with Hiflex also offering its own cloud hosting option. This gives smaller companies all the data security and back-up that one associates with large data centres, without any need to invest in the server hardware. It also means that the MIS can be accessed from anywhere, and from virtually any device via a browser. The cloud computing also extends to the Hiflex Web-to-print solution, Webshop.
Optimus has also embraced the cloud, unveiling its new Optimus Cloud service at Fespa. There’s a variable data module which integrates with Adobe’s InDesign to let customers order jobs online, complete with the ability to edit designs before sending a PDF direct to the bureaux. Customers can also use it to order pre-defined jobs and to keep track of jobs.
It will work with Optimus’s main 2020 MIS, as well as its newer Dash, which in many ways can be seen as a more flexible front end to the older 2020 MIS. Dash is all about mapping processes so it can cope with different substrates, sizes and shapes and is well suited to the demands of wide format users. It relies on templates to quickly step users through different processes and is said to be a more streamlined system than Optimus 2020.
Leaving aside the cloud, other MIS vendors are also looking at the wide-format sector. EFI, which owns Vutek, has a number of MIS including the entry-level PrintSmith, which is aimed at smaller print shops including digital bureaux. Later this year EFI will be updating this with a new browser-based version bringing it inline with some of its bigger MIS offerings. Using a browser means that business owners can access data on company’s performance from anywhere, including an iPad.
EFI also recently introduced the Fiery XF ProServer line-up for its Vutek printers. As well as speeding up Rip times this will integrate with EFI’s other workflow tools including its Digital StoreFront Web-to-print platform.

In conclusion
What we are seeing here is not so much a natural evolution of these software programs, but a fundamental shift in how wide-format print producers are expected to operate these days. There’s a much greater emphasis on productivity and workflow and on using the Internet, both for customers to submit jobs, and also to communicate with those customers. There’s a greater use of automation to speed up throughput and cut down on human error and that also means a more standards-based approach to colour management. This all adds up to a move away from a craft-based business to a more industrialised approach.