GCIU members, shop managers, and students got a glimpse of things to come in the printing industry during the Technological Developments Conference in Vancouver.

Hosted by British Columbia 525M's Graphic Arts Training Institute (GATI) at Simon Fraser University, the participants were introduced to recent developments in electronic prepress, press and bindery and to the most recent trends in getting machines in the three printing processes to "talk" to each other for workflow, color management, and productivity increases.

Seeing into the future with Frank "Dr. Tomorrow" Ogden, center, are British Columbia 525M Pres. Robert J. Jennings, left, and Glenn Biech, director of Local 525M's Graphic Arts Training Institute.

The audience also looked farther into the future with cutting edge technology from futurist Frank Ogden. Ogden, who tours the world addressing technological and social change, said the "electric ink" associated with the Internet and new digital devices to display type and graphics will impact heavily on the printing industry. He warned workers – and management – in the printing industry to keep up with technology or be left behind in the global marketplace [see box].

Local 525M Pres. Robert J. Jennings urged participants to "follow the leads provided during the presentations" to keep pace with technology. He also praised GATI Director Glenn Biech's work in organizing the two-day conference.

Prepress: Faster and smarter

Frank Klassen and Jeff Booth of Apple Inc. demonstrated the company's new Power Mac G4 computer and its Velocity Engine, which can process data in 128-bit chunks, instead of the 32-bit or 64-bit chunks used by traditional processors. They noted that the G4 is twice as fast as the fastest Pentium III and is capable of one billion computations per second. What this means in the shop was demonstrated with a race that pitted the G4 against a G3 in a race to complete a complicated series of recorded actions in Adobe Photoshop. The G4 won handily with a time of 40 seconds.

Above from left at British Columbia 525M's Technological Developments Conference in Vancouver are: Bent Inge Bye, media director, and Pres. Finn Erik Thoresen of the Norwegian Graphic Union (NGF); GCIU Vice Pres. James J. Cowan; and Director Jorge Galveias of Toronto 500M's GraphComm Training Centre. Below from left discussing industry trends are: Rochester 503M Pres. Lynn R. Lanphear; Andre Berard of Xerox Canada; GCIU Secy.-Treas. Gerald H. Deneau; and Art Majoros, education director of St. Louis 505M's Graphic Arts Institute.
Above from left are: E.R. Chard, national officer of the British Graphical, Paper and Media Union; John Potts, education director of the Philadelphia [14M] Lithographic Institute; and British Columbia 525M Business Rep. Brian Cormier. Below from left are: Kansas City 235M Education Director Robert Welsh; Seattle 767M Pres. John Bachler; Washington 285M Education Director Edward Williams; and Owen North of Agfa.

Other features demonstrated for the G4 included the uncrashable "Fire Wire" plug-in for photo encryption with 36 gigabytes of memory and AirPort, a high-speed wireless local area network option.

Sebastian Distefano of Adobe Inc. demonstrated the company's Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.3, a cross-platform, cross-media program that converts documents for use in print and on the web. PDF holds CMYK color separation and RGB color, font, page layout, and graphics information, he said. He said that 65 percent of documents posted on the web are now in PDF format. "It's happening really fast," he said.

Distefano also discussed Adobe's Press Ready, which is designed to provide accurate proofing on low-cost printers and Portable Job Transfer Format (PJTF), a PDF file that is color-ready for the press.

Brad Wallans of Presource discussed the advantages of and strategies for media asset management. Adopting software to manage files can have "a major impact on business, workflow and productivity," he said. However, he warned that "no one box fits all" so careful analysis of the business, its needs and processes are crucial to implementing a successful asset management program.

Owen North of Agfa Canada reviewed Agfa's new lines workflow systems, digital proofers and computer-to-plate (CTP) equipment that speed up the work process. The Apogee workflow system is PDF-based and runs on a computer network system. Sherpa 2 combines a piezo-electric inkjet printer with RIP and color management software.

North said CTP means better quality because it provides "a first-generation dot," better control over dot gain and fewer calibrations.

Agfa's CTP platesetters include the Antares, Polaris and Galileo product groups, North said. The Galileo line is the company's "flagship" CTP system and is based on an innovative internal drum design with a doubled ND:YAG laser, he said. Agfa consulted printers around the world in designing the system. The Galileo, which won GATF and Seybold awards, can handle up to 400 plates in sizes ranging from small GTO plates to 8-up. Galileo accepts PDF files and last-minute editing and can carry job tickets to facilitate tracking.

North said future developments in CTP will probably adapt the violet laser diode that is now used in DVD technology for high resolution printing. "It's compelling because of the low cost," he said.

Dave Kaufman of British Columbia-based Creo calls himself a "PDF economist." He explained how Prinergy, a three-year joint project by Creo and Germany-based Heidelberg, uses Adobe's PDF and PJTF to create an integrated workflow, production tracking, and color management system between prepress and the press. The system includes the first PDF-to-PDF trapper on the market. The trapper takes in PDF files, applies vector traps, and exports a trapped PDF file that is editable.

One of Prinergy's major advantages, Kaufman said, is its bypass of RIPs of PostScript files. "The speed you get by not rasterizing is really amazing," he said. "It traps in seconds." He said PDF "is no longer a question of if" because it is being adapted and working for so many printing processes.

Ernie Bardocz of Heidelberg discussed Prinergy and other Heidelberg innovations in workflow from prepress to press. Heidelberg and 33 other companies developed CIP3 (Cooperation for Integration of Prepress, Press and Postpress) in an effort to open up communication and workflow between the three printing processes. He said the basis for the idea was to "be able to send any job to any machine without reprogramming."

Bardocz said Heidelberg's developments toward this goal include Delta Technology, a RIP system; CPC 32, which uses the CIP3 standard interface to send preset data to the printing press; and CP2000, a module preset link for ink settings on the press.

Color management

Prepress panel participants discussed the importance of color management for productivity and customer satisfaction. Panelists included Distephano of Adobe, Wallans of Presource, Booth of Apple, Michael Lee of Metaphor Computers Inc., Dan Millsip of IAPHC, and Helen Williams of Heidelberg. Klassen of Apple served as moderator.

Williams explained the international consortium development of the CIELab as a device independent color management bridge between scanners, monitors, proofers and press production. "All the pieces of the puzzle are available now" to provide a solution to color management problems, she said.

Lee, whose company provides color management solutions for ad agencies, including monitor calibration, said his company has had "excellent results" with Apple's ColorSync process. "Color management really does work," he said. "If you're not using it, you're missing out on a lot of profits. You can tie it into customers and say: 'Look, I can provide you with consistent results.' "

Millsip, a webmaster and founding member of Renaissance Web Creation Inc., addressed color management problems for web pages. "We can't control everyone's [home] monitors, and they're printing on different printers. We end up losing control over the final product that printers don't have," he said. The solution, he said, ultimately will lie in standardized color recognition and display between computer equipment.

Distephano noted that CIELab provides a solution for documents that are intended for use both on the web and for printing. "If you scan immediately into CMYK, you're robbing the opportunity for other uses. But if you scan for CIELab, you then have multiuse capability," including RGB color used in web applications, he said.

Integration is key

Joe Furman of Xerox said the company will introduce "major new products" at the next DRUPA in Germany. Noting that Docutech, Xerox's first digital "print engine," revolutionized the office copying business, he said the company is now focusing on speeding up and perfecting digital color printing. He suggested the Xerox equipment can help long-run printers compete with quick printers in turnaround time for short-run jobs, including one-of-a-kind billboards and posters.

Ron Bourne of Scitex discussed the company's VersaMark, introduced last February at BookTech '99. Versamark is a modular digital continuous inkjet color printing technology that can be used for products ranging from books to bills and statements.

With add-on finishing systems, the company says Versamark can produce a completely bound, 360-page book in less than eight seconds. It can print roll-to-roll or roll-to-sheet.

Bardocz of Heidelberg reviewed the company's Speedmaster 74 (SM74) direct imaging four-to-six color sheetfed press. Successor to the small-run, small-plate GTO DI introduced at Print '91, the SM74 can handle 29-inch-wide plates and prints at a speed of 15,000 sheets per hour. The press uses laser imaging heads developed by Heidelberg and Creo. He said the thermal plate developing technology allows more precise dot control and better resolution because exposure stops when the heat stops.

Bardocz noted that Heidelberg's investment in new technology proves that "traditional printing is not dead. Your jobs are safe until 2010." He predicted rapid growth in the print-on-demand sector.

Jeff Edwards of Cymbolic Sciences, a subsidiary of Zurich-based Gretag Imaging, discussed Cymbolic's PlateJet and Fire CTP digital platemaking technology. He said the Fire 9000, which uses an internal drum and laser, can produce high resolution images on visible light or thermal plates.

Edwards said some printing companies balk at investment costs related to CTP. However, he also predicted much reduced costs in the future as DVD-type violet lasers are adapted for digital platesetting operations.

Paul Burke of Omron Canada discussed developments in machine sensing and control devices and production system integration software. Omron, which invented ATM and vending machines, makes 80 percent of web scanning systems, he said. The scanners on the inside of webs reduce waste because they detect pin holes, dark spots, and other imperfections in the paper before they run on the press, he said.

Burke reviewed Omron sensing and labeling devices that involve small tags embedded in materials and holding programmable information. These tags can be used to store, locate and inventory materials, he said.

Burke also looked into the future of human machine interfaces (HMIs). Current HMIs, which run on networks, can integrate, compile and analyze data on production processes, materials, part numbers, machine alarms and clients. In the research stage are HMIs that use fuzzy logic and neural networks to "think" like humans and "learn" how to solve problems on machines from skilled human operators.

Press skills for the future

The press panel discussion included Bourne from Scitex, Furman from Xerox, North from Agfa, and Bardocz from Heidelberg. Moderating was Klassen from Apple.

Lauren Baker, director of Milwaukee-Madison 577M's Graphic Arts Institute, asked the panel, if their predictions about the trend toward eliminating prepress processes such as platemaking, stripping and other skilled work proves accurate, what skills will the press operator of the future need?

North said press operators will need to understand prepress workflow and color. Furman said the skills needed will range from pushing the green start button – no skill – level to production workers experienced in color management, calibration and database management.

Bardocz said direct imaging is lithography so DI press operators will need lithographic skills, including an understanding of trapping – how inks sit on top of each other and ink viscosities. "The skills are still there," he said, "but the tools are better. Today pressmen have a better understanding of color and color space than before."

Sponsors of the conference included Local 525M and its GATI; the governments of Canada and British Columbia; Apple Canada; Adobe Canada; Scitex; Heidelberg; Creo; 3M; Agfa; Digital Media; Frank Ogden; PreSource; Epson; and the Blue Horizon Hotel.