Consumables-General - Plates

New digital proofing technologies streamline a critical process in the prepress workflow. by Marie Alonso, Prepress Editor ALL THE BUZZ in proofing is soft proofing, color calibration, and digital proofing for the packaging environment. And it has been for several years, but with increasing fervor, collaborations, and software enhancements. Companies aspiring to take leading positions in their respective specialties are joining the progressive package-printing leaders in deploying the latest, most sophisticated digital proofing technologies available. Electronics for Imaging (EFI) has truly redefined itself, acquiring Best Color in order to gain a strong hold on the digital proofing market. Today, it is strongly marketing its

Open-systems workflow solutions are redefining prepress operations for today's package printers. by: Marie Alonso, Prepress editor PACKAGING SERVES THE dual purpose of holding and protecting a product, while effectively presenting and selling the brand. Accordingly, the expectations placed on package printers are very high. Putting today's creative design ideas into practice calls for innovative, flexible solutions. As Heidelberg phrases it, the production process is characterized by seamless workflows, automated handling systems, in-line and off-line coating and finishing, and flexible formats. As workflow solutions move beyond commercial printing into the packaging environment, many companies are jumping on the JDF bandwagon with their automated, integrated

Pushing the limits of packaging graphics to help sell products on the store shelf has resulted in a new prepress art form. Today's package printers are, more often than not, required to be true creative design advisors, offering guidance and suggestions for crafting artwork out of packaging materials and pushing the limits of prepress delivery to enhance point-of-purchase appeal. The result: a new art of prepress, driven to deliver extravagant designs. Inland Paperboard and Packaging foresaw this renaissance—a change in the way its customers were expecting services such as mockups, design enhancements, and new ideas for delivering packaging. In the early '90s, these

Innovative screening technologies are providing package printers with new tools to improve graphic quality. CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING is a beautiful thing. When technical process limitations are overcome resulting in tangible quality and productivity improvements, it truly is rewarding for both the developers of the solutions and the people that use them. In the case of packaging screening technologies, suppliers have been hard at work improving and developing innovative techniques and technologies that provide real improvements for package printers and their customers. These solutions have made positive impacts in both offset and flexographic printing applications. And for the most part, the solutions are applicable

Press fingerprinting for color matching lays the groundwork for a collective color vision. WHEN YOU MAKE most of your living writing about technology, you have the privilege of picking the brains of some very well versed subject-matter experts. Opinions vary of course, but I've found that the most impassioned, most expressive leaders all have one thing in common: Vision. A motivational speaker once told me that it was vision with a capital "V" that made it possible for U.S.-born Gertrude Ederle to become the first woman to swim across the English Channel in the 1920s. She described how each time

Using knowledge of how humans see color, along with data from instruments such as densitometers and spectrophotometers, color can be mapped just like DNA. THE CONCEPT OF color management is fascinating, and more than a little controversial. To those of you that took exception to the suggestion in last month's story (Proofing By the Numbers, August 2003) that color management was easy enough for a college student, I humbly concede. There is a wider body of knowledge, and more tools available for controlling color than ever before. Even so, that does not make the theory of color any easier to understand. Color management can

Dunwoody College of Technology proves that matching a color proof to the press isn't purely academic. LAST FALL, DUNWOODY College of Technology instructor Pete Rivard and his students set out on a mission. Armed with a new color halftone proofer, spectrophotometers, and color management (CM) software Rivard set out to prove just how close a proof can match a press—in this case a narrow-web flexo press, running UV inks on pressure-sensitive label and paper stocks. Rivard's experiment is meaningful for a number of reasons. First, he showed that yes, it is possible to define a set of conditions under which a proof can match

As Adobe celebrates 10 years of Acrobat, pP takes a look at how PDF is used in packaging. TEN YEARS AGO on June 16, Adobe Systems launched the first commercial release of Acrobat, and with it delivered the Portable Document Format (PDF). For years before, the company had used the program internally for mundane things like annotating memos and printing corporate phonebooks. Today, you can't be in the graphic communications business without touching something PDF every day. Just how did this software—originally designed as an office tool—become so ubiquitous in the graphic arts industry? You might call it a brand loyalty thing. Because, according

VALIDATION OF AN idea comes with commitment. Creo (Bedford, Mass.) and Esko-Graphics (Vandalia, Ohio) are only two of the companies that demonstrated their commitment to packaging and flexo digital plating at CMM in April. Both announced enhancements to their flexo CTP devices. With several hundred machines out there now, and the assumption that CTP technology is here to stay, each company has focused on speed, automation, and improved sleeve, or in-the-round, imaging capabilities. I had the opportunity to get a close-up as Creo unveiled its next generation ThermoFlex. The result of more than 18 months of engineering, the machine design seems to consider every

Input J Agfa Packaging Solutions The AgfaScan XY-15 Plus is an oversized A3 format CCD flatbed scanner designed for high-productivity scanning. A hand-selected, premium 8,000-element CCD allows the system to achieve a maximum density of 4.1 and resolution of up to 15,000 pixels per inch. Visit www.agfa.com Artwork Systems ArtPro®, PackFlow™, LabelFlow™, FlexoCal™, and Hybrid Screening. System platforms include Macintosh and Windows NT. Support multiple output devices. Visit www.artwork-systems.com J Creo Creo offers everything you need to deliver high-impact packaging: from creative software tools, superior scanners, and scalable production workflow solutions, to proofing options and proven, reliable output devices. Now you can go