http://americanprinter.com/mag/rgb_cmyk_0605/index.html

Don't know if this will help, FWIW.....

http://americanprinter.com/mag/hot_spots_cool_dots_0405/index.html

And another one....

KOB

http://americanprinter.com/mag/crease_of_mind_0106/

More scoring options

Quote from: beermonster on September 25, 2007, 01:22:08 AMhere you go

http://www.bob-weber.com/index.asp

its under the ctp faq section

the comp/fella has been in my favourites for ages - has some very good second hand deals

A second edition of this CTP  white paper covering Drupa 2008 news, a section on plates and sensitivity and an expanded productivity section has been posted.

KOB

Although it doesn't address the specific issue cited above, we did revisit the "Better PDFs" topics:


http://americanprinter.com/work-flow/designing-printable-files-0708/

All the best
KOB
AP

Hi, I don't have any direct knowledge of Greek printers, but I have two suggestions

George Kallas, founder of Metropolitan Fine printers in Canada, was born and raised in Greece. He might have some insights for you.

http://www.metprinters.com/#/the-company/people/george-kallas/
T» 604 254 4201
F» 604 254 5175
Toll free» 1 866 254 4201
E» info@metprinters.com

George Ventouris is the managing editor of a trade magazine for the Greek printing industry. (I met him at a pre Drupa event in 2004)
Magazine Typographia
Publishing house:
Address: Alkamenous Street 16
City: GR-10439 Athens
Country: Greece
Phone: +30 01 8 81 36 73
Fax: +30 01 8 81 48 53
E-mail: typogr1@otenet.gr

Hope this helps
KOB
American Printer Magazine

http://americanprinter.com/management/printing_board_games/index.html

FWIW, on the previous iteration of this board, I asked what people were using (see "Ask Dr. Schedule" in the above link).

All the best,
KOB

A reader sent this question:
"I'm currently using a MicroPress to drive two 85 ppm printers.  I love the MicroPress, but I use it primarily as a time saver – to repeatedly print jobs Post-RIP – and not for the additional tools it provides. With profit margins being what they are, I'm looking for a solution that will allow me to print Post-RIP while not charging me for additional functions that I don't use.  Do you know of any product like that?"

Any thoughts?
KOB

Don't overlook the cat question!

We used this cartoon:
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/001_300/292.html


With this article:
http://americanprinter.com/mag/lcd_vs_crt_0305_1/

(I don't have a cat, but the cat picketing with the "Cats against cold butts" sign cracked me up...)

KOB

   
Hi all,
I was writing this up for American Printer magazine, thought it might be of interest. (I don't have any connection to the company---I met the developer's father at a Dscoop Indigo user's meeting and he told me about this.) As noted, a Mac version is being developed. The hook for me was that the product was developed by a printer to address a specific need underserved by more expensive imposition programs.
The web site is www.presschecksoftware.com.
All the best
Katherine O'Brien
American Printer
www.americanprinter.com

PressCheck Software (Linden, UT) has developed Imposal, an Acrobat plug-in for imposing a wide variety of jobs. Priced at under $1,000, Imposal provides an economical, easy-to-use solution for imposing quick-turn jobs. No special math or printing skills are required.

   Company founder Dan Mortimer is a veteran HP Indigo user. He created the program to fill the void he found in high-end programs. "Our print shop had moved to an all PDF-workflow," he explains. "As a digital printer, we have a varied workflow—we're taking in hundreds of different products. We needed a tool that made it easy to open a PDF and rapidly set up the imposition. We couldn't find a good affordable option."

   A step-and-repeat feature takes any size document and places it multi-up on any size press sheet. In a few seconds, as the PDF is being created, Imposal accounts for bleeds, guide, gripper and other layout requirements.

   Acccording to Mortimer, Imposal can impose a simple step-and-repeat job in seconds in less than a minute vs. 10 minutes other programs might require. A user-friendly interface lets operators see the results immediately.

   "It might take 8 to 10 minutes to define bleeds [with existing programs] and sometimes you'd have to do it twice because the software wasn't visual," says Mortimer. "You'd have to do it, see the ouput and if it wasn't what you expected, go back, change the settings and do it again."

   For saddlestitched booklets, Imposal automatically reorders pages and adjusts for creep. Users can select the last page as the back cover, single-sided pages and so on. The booklet maker feature also can provide multiple-up paper savings, even for a single quanity book. Imposal can divide the book in half to be printed side by side, cut and recombined into a single book.

Another feature, N-up Pages, can handle multiple orders of different business cards and automatically gang jobs to minimize waste. Ordered sets, such as pre-sorted postcards, can be imposed in cut-and-stack order, eliminating collating while maintaining sort order. Multi-page documents can be imposed to run multiple-up on a sheet--finished documents are properly backed-up and fully collated for one-step cutting and finishing.

Imposal lets printers easily convert reader spreads with multiple crossovers into printer spreads. Individual pages are properly ordered for printing but multi-page graphics are preserved.

Imposal is currently available for PCs; a Mac version is being developed.

See www.presschecksoftware.com.

RealVue PDF from FFEI is an Acrobat Plug-in that lets users create PDF documents to 3D simulations. (I should stress that I don't have any connection in any way to them.)
It's for content only. I saw it at Graph Expo and could envision different uses for it, for example a low-cost way to provide certain clients with a digital version of a print project. See what you think:


www.realvue3D.com

KOB

Pazazz Printing's rant on the joys of printing has been going around for the past couple weeks. Sorry if it was already posted. It's funny, but the f-bombs fly, so beware....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpAuDrs5ocg


The company is based in Montreal:
www.pazazz.com/

Cheers,
KOB

Hi all
The magazine I work for, American Printer, will be 125 years old in 2008. As I flipped through the magazine's 100th anniversary issue, there are many printers, vendors and magazine departments that no longer exist. (Such as the Offset Stripping section and the Photomechanical Section.)

That made me reflect on the changes in technology I've seen in almost a dozen years on the magazine.

Film essentially vanished with the advent of CTP. Digital presses improved. DI presses matured. The dot com boom went bust. DTP technology got more sophisicated.

My question is, what's the most signficant change you've seen in the industry (good or bad)? Is there any "old" technology you wish hadn't gone away?

Katherine O'Brien
KOB
Editor
American Printer
www.americanprinter.com

http://americanprinter.com/digital-presses/printing_designing_digital_print/

the above doesn't get into the same level of detail, but FWIW....

Hi everyone,
Thanks for your insights, generally the people I spoke with agreed with the comments here.

Here is an excerpt from the feature, the link to full article follows:

While some printing companies still refer to trade customs, this term is a relic of print's letterpress period. In the days when hot metal was the dominant print process, printers sold ink on paper. "The printer owned the type and you didn't," explains Bob Lindgren, president of the Printing Industry of Southern California (PIASC) (Los Angeles). "That extended to the litho era: You didn't own the film; the printer did."

Prior to the advent of desktop publishing, printers had the upper hand in the buyer-seller relationship. "Photos required a lot of retouching and [only the printer] could do it," says Linda Bishop, principal of graphic arts sales consultancy Thought Transformation (www.thoughttransformation.com). "Film was used and it was expensive to reproduce. Prep costs were high, so people did a lot of reprints. Printers had the power because they could refuse to give the clients their expensive and corrected scanned images if the bill didn't get paid. But as soon as electronic files began to replace film, printers lost their leverage."

Lindgren concurs: "A glorious war ensued as printers debated who owned the electronic files. But the file is worthless to a printer. A printer that told customers 'All you bought was the printing' offended buyers' sense of fairness. They might have won the battle, but by alienating the customer, they lost the war."

http://americanprinter.com/pmbuyer/mag/deal_2/