Integration 2.0

 
News Drupa has shown the beginnings of where the prepress sector and networked production and process integration are heading. 
Drupa 2008 is over. Even after visiting the trade fair, it is difficult to say whether it was an "inkjet drupa". One thing is certain: Inkjet printing and digital printing as a whole have visibly consolidated their position in Düsseldorf and are now indispensable. It is therefore hardly surprising that the control of digital printing systems was an important topic. Post-Script was demystified at Drupa 2008. The Portable Document Format (PDF) redefined the significance of the page description language developed by Adobe in 1985, which subsequently changed the entire typesetting process as an important component - as well as the visualization and handling of documents. For many years, however, everything had remained more or less the same in terms of output and PostScript was the output channel of choice for the graphic arts industry until the release of the Adobe PDF Print Engine 1 (APPE 1). The new Adobe Print Engine 2, presented at Drupa, now combines the PDF and JDF standards as an important innovation. The Job Definition Format handles the transport of administrative data and imposition information and describes the key data of the print product (paper type, production colors, finishing, etc.) together with the characteristics for output/exposure (including trapping and imposition) or transports these parameters to the RIP or output device. Technically, the APPE 2 supports all "normal" PDF formats, as well as PDF/X-1, PDF/X-3, PDF/X-4, PDF/X-5 and the new PDF/VT format, which has been specially developed for the needs of variable data printing (V) and for the transactional printing segment (T). The APPE 2 is compatible with the Acrobat 9 software, which was also presented at Drupa, as well as with the JDF specifications 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 and the current ICC color profiles (v4).
Web-2-Print and JDFWeb-2-Print was not a new topic, but one that came to the fore at Drupa. This is no longer (just) about a print media service provider putting a solution on the web so that its customers can order business cards, for example. Rather, modern Web-2-Print models include so-called storefront systems, which enable the mapping of relevant processes on the Internet. This includes support for the production of print templates, including administrative and commercial processing (calculation, post-calculation), both in conventional printing and for the production of printed matter, documents, mailings and the like in digital printing. Another important topic, even if it was difficult to recognize or see as such, was the extended possibilities for process integration. Following the consolidation of the JDF hype at Drupa 2004, both exhibitors and users are taking a more differentiated approach to the subject: networking is taking place where it makes sense. And these are more and more areas. For example, the Job Definition Format also enables consistent networking with the corresponding downstream processes in Web-2-Print scenarios right from the start.
As previously announced, Agfa has reorganized its workflow solutions into four areas and combined them into the Apogee Suite. The new suite includes Apogee Publish (with Apogee Media and Securseal), Apogee Portal (Web Approval and Project Manager), Prepress (Render, Control, Manage, Automate, Platemaker) and Apogee Color (Proof, PDF&Proof, Colortune), covering all areas from the creative design process to output on proofing devices and platesetters as well as digital printing systems from Agfa or other supported systems. At the heart of the suite are Apogee Portal and Apogee Prepress, solutions for integrating the customer into the print process and for data processing and output control. The new Apogee Media is particularly interesting. "Apogee Media, part of Apogee Publish, contains two main elements: asset management based on an SQL server and a publication engine that works closely with Adobe InDesign," explains Thomas Häuptli from Agfa Graphics. An integrated J2EE server allows external employees to access content via the Internet (in addition to text and images, multimedia content is also managed). The Java applet provides users with web-based applications such as text and image editing programs with which the individual content components can be created, edited and changed. Apogee Media relies internally on the XML marking language. Group-specific access can be set up for photographers (image upload only) or editors (text access and/or layout access only).
Quick overviewIn practice, an editor or corporate publisher can enter a text using the integrated word processing program or in Word. Uploading is done by drag & drop into the Apogee Media Desktop. Texts are automatically converted into an XML file in the background and prepared for further processing in InDesign. The layout designer can use a plug-in to access the approved content directly from InDesign and insert it into the page. From this point on, the XML content and InDesign document are linked. Once the page has been completed, the layout artist/graphic designer can define the corresponding status of the page or document. These statuses can be defined and added to in advance by the administrator. For example, statuses for "Proofreading" or "Ready for print" are conceivable. As a special feature, the pages of publications can be displayed at any time as a PDF or in the form of a JPEG preview, without the need for a local InDesign. However, the functionality of Apogee Media goes far beyond a classic preview; the individual contents of a page, the so-called "XML containers", can be clicked on and edited via the WebClient. This allows text changes to be made or the cropping of images to be corrected, again without the need for a local InDesign. An extension to QuarkXPress, version 8 of which was released at Drupa, could apparently be realized; Agfa has not yet announced whether and when XPress will be supported. Agfa's Apogee Media is therefore a production management tool that not only organizes data management, but also the publication and correction process.
Softproof is a term that is unclear to many. Strictly speaking, one can only speak of a soft proof if the displaying monitor is calibrated; but this is known to be no simple undertaking. This is one of the reasons why Agfa has integrated the topic of color into the new Apogee Suite. "Apogee Color", as the integrated component is called, takes a particularly interesting approach. The user, who is to issue the good for printing, sees how "good" his monitor currently is by means of a percentage value and a corresponding icon (for this, however, the monitor must be defined with an appropriate measuring device and calibrated with the Agfa Color Tune Display software the first time it is used). Once this has been done, the software can read out the color profile used for the corresponding monitor and uses Color Management to calculate a soft proof that is designed for these viewing conditions.
Extended output optionsNew to Apogee Prepress 5.0, the classic prepress workflow, are the extended output options. In addition to computer-to-plate systems, digital printing systems from Canon and HP can now also be controlled. The advantage of this hybrid workflow is that Agfa can control the output systems in such a way that, for example, the digital print output takes place within the (smaller) offset printing color space. Companies benefit from not having to deal with multiple workflows for their different output and printing systems. Apogee Prepress 5.0 now also offers the option of transferring presets to post-press systems - such as Polar-Mohr machines - via JDF. Agfa offers an Inksave function within the Apogee Suite - more precisely in the Apogee Prepress area. At Agfa, the "color saving measure" takes place during the rendering process (rip process) within the Adobe PDF Print Engine. The specification of the printing press (i.e. dot gain and other technical machine characteristics) is taken into account. "Inksave primarily saves ink in web offset, while in sheetfed offset the focus is on the more stable grey balance that can be achieved," says Thomas Häuptli, summarizing the advantages. In the Platemaker module, formerly Print-Drive, Agfa has incorporated an interesting function called "versioning". This allows better account to be taken of the language versions/language changes that often occur in Switzerland in particular, as the print result can be simulated on the screen beforehand - and therefore before a printing plate has even been output.
Jürgen Franck
The article will be continued in the next issue of w&p.