Signa station Training

Started by prepressure, July 19, 2009, 11:50:23 AM

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prepressure

Hello I'm wondering where to find training for signa station
becouse its very complicated software and i need  to learn it :azn:

Mephysto

I have the exact same problem...
PDF or video training is good help
Tanks in advanced..

frailer

Not sure that such resources would be readily available online. Have PM'd a Heidelberg guy who drops in here occasionally. He may be able to comment, if he picks up the PM.
I have no direct experience of Signstation. Perhaps someone who's not using it any more, and who actually haven't sold it on, may have some stuff they can make available.
Forgotten good guys: Dennis Ritchie, Burrell Smith, Bill Atkinson, Richard Stallman
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gtrev

I've usually done all my Signa training one on one with the Heidelberg prepress staff - sometimes flown interstate for extra training when it's been a major revision - nothing comes for free from Heidelberg - but usually they will go the extra mile if there's some goodwill built - maybe you could do it online as a web session?
What proof?

DigiCorn

#4
I don't envy you. SignaStation is a lousy piece of imposing software that does require at least minimal training. I hope to God you're using a RIP and not imposing fat pdfs; Signa will totally foul them up. Also, if you do have to use fat pdfs, I highly recommend trapping (as Signa (alone) does not trap to my knowledge) them first (if you aren't doing so already), and be sure to check your overprints AFTER imposition. Signa will usually screw up overprints. I'd also highly recommend converting fonts to outline also, as Signa is notorious for font substitution and/or misdisplaying them. And on the iteration of Signa I was using many years ago, forget about transparencies - Signa just plain can't do them, unless they originated in PhotoShop. Other issues - the Acrobat plug ins conflict with PitStop and Fusion Pro, so you basically need a Signa dedicated machine. It can do a flood varnish, but not a spot varnish (unless you create it outside of Signa). Trapping is suspect (if you buy the optional trapping software) - you need to check Signa's Acrobat trapping plug in's work.

Heidelberg likes to tell you that it can do all this stuff, but after multiple complaints they sent out reps to my old shop and we had a "sit down." After an hour of arguing and showing them issues, the reps admitting there were "flaws" and they assured me that they would be resolved in future releases. We didn't wait around and went to Preps and Rampage and never looked back. Heidelberg also likes to make their resources almost unobtainable. I know you have to create an account on the Heidelberg website and thn poke around a long time to find the few nuggets there. I think they also have a basically unlisted 800 number to call in on also (they may charge you per incident, though).
 [added]
I poked around for about 15 minutes this morning and all I came up with was this: I couldn't find any recent references to the product on their site. The PR releases I read end about 2005. I didn't see a version above 8, which I think is what I was using back in '03. Most of the reference links on their site were broken or just took you to basic information about the product, but no training. You could try filling out this form: https://www.heidelberg.com/www/h/en/content/products/prinect/prepress/prinect_signa_station,email and see if anything happens. Good Luck!

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frailer

I think these are probably re-sales offshore. In which case, these guys will be struggling, without adequate support. Any info is good, though, even warnings about the deficits these apps/programs may have.
I don't envy them, for a moment.
Forgotten good guys: Dennis Ritchie, Burrell Smith, Bill Atkinson, Richard Stallman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now just an honorary member.

gtrev

It would be quite a mission to learn from scratch without anyone to help set up all your resources - having said that - I'd say this is similar for most workflows.

I've been a Signa/Meta user for about 10 years and have not experienced any major problems - been thru 3 revisions of the software - everything seems to work - sure there's been minor issues - I've trained about a half a dozen workers and they all pick it up pretty quickly.

In my humble opinion it's like any purchase - take the sales talk with a grain of salt - go talk to people working with it in a production situation - to Heidelberg's credit they've always been open with taking me out to production sites for most major purchases.
What proof?

frailer

Just seen a new opening for you, gtrev; doing some Flash training vids for Signa. Your comments may be reassuring for them, though.
Forgotten good guys: Dennis Ritchie, Burrell Smith, Bill Atkinson, Richard Stallman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now just an honorary member.

gtrev

I feel sorry for folk who have to do this kinda stuff on the cheap - management trying to pinch a few pennies - ends up a sack of woe - then staff leave and the next schmuk has to start again from scratch....

I had a conversation with a poor chap yesterday who was asking me to supply a pdf for him to create a foil block - he's running an old Agfa Selectset imagesetter and has not had any training  - He asked if i could resupply the pdf as a negative? - I give him a call back and ask why just doesn't run the film as a postive or negative out of his imagesetter - turned out that he'd been asking all his customers for negative pdf's for the last 2 years without knowing it was a simple selection out of a dinosaur version of Apogee he was running.

Cripes!
What proof?

frailer

Yep, people turning up each day to needless nightmares.  Now if he'd discovered b4p back then....  :undecided:  Some people have little nous/initiative, I reckon.  :shrug:
Forgotten good guys: Dennis Ritchie, Burrell Smith, Bill Atkinson, Richard Stallman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now just an honorary member.

Marktonk

Typically Signa Station is two days training. I would recommend you contact your local Heidelberg office on what they can offer.

One other statement, I think Signa Station has come a long way. Signastation version 8 was mentioned...funny, do not remember many things handling transparency back then, I am getting old, was transparency out then? As a point, Prinect Trap Editor has been handling transparency for over 4 years now and we do use the Adobe PDF Print Engine to handle the rest since it launch about 3 years or so. One thing about software is it will change over time. Signastation code was completely rewritten to be JDF certified back in 2003 or 2004 and was renamed Signa Station 1.0 in that it was an entirely new program.  I would think, like any other software, many improvements can be made in 8 or is it 9 years....remember when Indesign ver 1.0 came out? Now look at it.

Regards,

Mark
Mark Tonkovich
Heidelberg USA

frailer

Even 6 months is a long time in this biz now. When I look back on Fujifilm Celebra PostScript RIP, 2~3 years ago, seems ancient.
Forgotten good guys: Dennis Ritchie, Burrell Smith, Bill Atkinson, Richard Stallman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now just an honorary member.