Imposition software for short-run digital

Started by KOB, February 08, 2008, 02:20:07 PM

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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.

almaink

Do a search for Imposing using InDesign, and save some $.
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jimking

Quote from: almaink on February 08, 2008, 02:44:00 PMDo a search for Imposing using InDesign, and save some $.
I can say with all the different impo programs I've used in the past several years, Indy certainly can be a damn good impo program by itself. If you have Indy templates already made it can be just a matter of updating links and presto bango.

jimking

Quote from: jimking on February 08, 2008, 03:14:03 PM
Quote from: almaink on February 08, 2008, 02:44:00 PMDo a search for Imposing using InDesign, and save some $.
I can say with all the different impo programs I've used in the past several years, Indy certainly can be a damn good impo program by itself. If you have Indy templates already made it can be just a matter of updating links and presto bango. And if you have a limited workflow, hell, Indy will do a hell of trapping job at that.

doubting_thomas

Quote from: almaink on February 08, 2008, 02:44:00 PMDo a search for Imposing using InDesign, and save some $.

That's what I use for the most part. I have tons of templates already made.

elmo3

Quite Imposing was there long before Imposal.

In other words, just because someone printed it in a magazine, doesn't make it necessarily news or useful.

suzyb1078

It is true that Quite has been around for awhile, but that doesn't make it good either.  I am glad that there are options out there.  I use Imposal and it is much easier to use and more stable than Quite.  It is also more WYSIWYG with a preview screen so you don't waste your time imposing something wrong like can happen in Quite.  As for InDesign for imposition, this takes too much time.  True, if you already have the templates it might help with some, but you have to get the templates first and that can be very time consuming and not all encompassing.  The extra labor and money spent on making these templates would easily be saved by getting Imposal.  I would recommend it over any other imposition software.  Try it out: www.presschecksoftware.com

delooch

use inD for the most of the stuff. I also have the "crackerjack" plugin for acrobat, but dont like it much.  We have an EFI/Firey RIP and the built-in imposition works very well for most jobs.

Slappy

Quote from: suzyb1078 on July 17, 2009, 08:38:40 AM>blurb<
Are you a rep for this company? If so, it should be stated outright otherwise youe posts will be viewed as spam.
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Stiv

#9
Oh GOD! It is the Imposal girl again on PP and B4P?

Go away!

AAAAaaarrrrgggh.

Check it out 2 posts @ B4P both Imposal, 8 posts @ PP all Imposal.

jimking

Has anyone worked with Dyna strip before? The little I've worked with it it appears to be a turkey or overdone for sure.

gnubler

Is the post exactly the same on both sites?  :laugh:
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Quote from: pspdfppdfx on December 06, 2012, 05:03:51 PM
So,  :drunk3: i send the job to the rip with live transparecy (v 1.7 or whatever) and it craps out with a memory error.

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Joe

Quote from: jimking on September 25, 2009, 04:10:34 PMHas anyone worked with Dyna strip before? The little I've worked with it it appears to be a turkey or overdone for sure.

frailer would be the man to talk to. Personally I'd rather drop an anvil on my big toe than to use Dynastrip.
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frailer

#13
Quote from: jimking on September 25, 2009, 04:10:34 PMHas anyone worked with Dyna strip before? The little I've worked with it it appears to be a turkey or overdone for sure.

I seem to be the b4p 'expert' on DynaStrip, a laughable situatin for all concerned. First, I gotta ask, jk...you wanna know because you may have to use it? If not, here's my reading of it.
Adobe complain that they are not making the effort to remain 'Adobe-compliant'. Yeah, a whole whinge/discussion there; but it has consequences if you use it. We are/were on 4.6.2 and will not be upgrading, so it's gonna fade into the distance for me here. They are up to v6, just released. To be fair, v6 may well be 'fully-compliant'. Don't know, and now won't know.
Occasionally I'll resurrect it when I get tricky flatwork, (it's really good for that, and quick), but I'd have to reExport Source Files from Acr 7. It'll spit anything later back in your face.
If you find yourself having to use it, my training is free...   :laugh:    But I've left a shitload of stuff in the Dyna corner here, to view, as well. For light entertainment, you may follow my sad learning path through it, ably assisted by Santa, in the early days. If I need a good laugh, I occasionally peek in. Almost better than a Seinfeld script.

Let me know if you need input.

P.S. foozball has been a recent user. I think he picked it up pretty quickly. That could be a scary thing...for foozball, that is.   :cheesy:
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jimking

Dynastrip is the impo program the new place uses. The owner of the place is the only one imposing anything so she was the one who walked me through it on a gang impo job for the DI. I told her I'd like to meet the programmers who created this and she asked what do you mean, after a half hour of imposing a 8.5x11 and a 6x11 card, one out of each sheetwise, I replied I think the creators overdid their program and the logic of imposing seemed to alude the programmers. She didn't like my comment, the truth hurts I suppose.
Yesterday I posted a good customer supplied print ready pdf to their FTP sight. This was a 4 color 8.5x11 card that had a BW photo k/o of a 4/c graphic. When printing on the DI the BW photo was overprinting the 4/c instead of knocking out which is wrong. It only became wrong when it was imposed using Dynastrip. However, over the phone the epp person said the imposed pdf was ok in Acrobat but wrong when copied to the DI. Over the phone I walked a part timer through some steps to fix this and the fix was to save the pdf as a Certified pdf. The other option was to postcript to distill.
Frailer, have you ever had this experience before?