History of Prepress
During the 1980s and 1990s, computer-aided prepress techniques began to supplant the traditional dark room and light table processes, and by the early 2000s the word prepress became, in some ways, synonymous with digital prepress. Immediately before the mainstream introduction of computers to the process, much of the industry was using large format cameras to make emulsion-based (film) copies of text and images. This film was then assembled (stripping) and used to expose another layer of emulsion on a plate, thus copying images from one emulsion to another. This method is still used; however, as digital prepress technology has become less costly, more efficient and reliable, and as the knowledge and skill required to use the new hardware and especially software have become more widespread within the labor force, digital automation has been introduced to almost every part of the process. Some topics related to digital but not analog prepress include preflighting (verifying the presence, quality and format of each digital component), color management, and RIPping. PDF workflows also became predominant. Vendors of Prepress systems embraced the PDF format, and submitted a subset of PDF as a standard to ANSI and OSI called PDF/X (PDF for eXchange).

Modern Prepress
With the aid of a platesetter, computers can now expose high-resolution (2400+ dpi) raster images of completed impositions directly to plates. A platesetter is similar in principle to a laser printer. Fed with information by a RIP, it uses lasers or thermal diodes to directly expose specific regions of emulsion on a plate, thus transferring images directly from the computer and sidestepping many issues traditionally associated with transferring an image from film to plate. The exposed (and possibly subsequently developed) plate is then mounted in the Printing Press and used to make impressions, or prints. Making plates in this manner is referred to as Computer to plate (CTP). With a CTP system labor is generally saved and the nature of prepress work is altered. Usually this results in a drop in the time and resources required to produce a print job, as well as an enhancement of safety and health (reduction in contact with chemical developers and other toxic substances, as well a decrease in interractions with potentially hazardous machinery and equipment) in the prepress environment. The development of CTP technology has coincided with advances in Information Technology, Material Technology and Laser Technology.
Recent moves within the Prepress market have meant that many publishers - particularly in the magazine sector - have begun looking at the possibility of handling many of the prepress services within their own companies and facilities. In response, many existing dedicated prepress companies have begun to build and develop "virtual in house production" systems or VIP systems. These allow publishers to take on as much or as little of the prepress process as they desire without the need for extra staff, or expensive hardware and software.

DAN SHEA, Planet PDF Associate Editor: How do you think the adoption of standards such as PDF/X has affected the use of PDF in prepress environments?
ROELOF JANSSEN, CEO, Independent System Integrators: I think it's vital to have some sort of standard because, in our view, PDF alone is not a complete solution. There are many ways of making PDF, and in prepress, people are always interested in precise reproduction. Because of this, you need more than standards -- you need guidelines on how to use the standards. That's what's necessary, and that will also promote the use of PDF, because if a bad PDF breaks the workflow, printers will not look upon the format favorably. In these cases, printers need to ask for native files as well in order to correct the problems. more info on this

A useful PDF plug-in to consider pitstop

With PitStop, a PDF file can be modified in ways similar to page modification in a layout package. Text and paragraphs can, within limits, be modified and repositioned; almost everything in the PDF file is editable. In many cases, it quickly becomes clear that complex changes are better done in the original layout application. However, making corrections to the file, such as after-the-fact font embedding, changing the color of objects, or font changes, are easily done with these tools. more info or purchase Pitstop

Agfa Delano
Agfa presented Delano at Drupa 2000, and at that point had taken over its development from the developers, Image Building, which had developed Delano for international printers Quebecor. Soon after this, Agfa realised that Delano had to be fully JDF compatible, and started a total rewrite. In a way the Delano of today is already the second generation, with a well tested and thought through user interface, and the structure and spirit of JDF shining through in the way things are organised. In the early days, Delano was supposed to handle all kinds of workflows, including creative production, photo and design. Today the main focus is on the processes starting with nearly finished and designed documents, to print and distribution of jobs.
The colour coding of processes is the same for all jobs and users of the system. Delano can work standalone or connected to an MIS system. By nature it’s supposed to be connected to a RIP system, either to Agfa Apogee X or another Postscript Extreme (i.e. PDF based) RIP system. Delano uses a standard web browser, so colour accuracy for the pages isn’t automatically assured, but there is an option to present high resolution PDF files with embedded ICC profiles. When viewed in Acrobat the user can then also approve the documents for colour accuracy.
Creo Insite
All workflow components from Creo are part of the Synapse family, so the full name for Creo’s collaborative proofing solution is Synapse Insite. It’s fully possible to integrate Insite to any RIP system, but a natural choice is to pair it with a Prinergy system, or possibly Brisque.
All incoming jobs are preflight checked and if the customer has already done an early preflight through Synapse Prepare, this second check is a quick verification that the correct preflight profile has been used. Creo Insite uses a standard web browser as the interface to the system, so here too perfect colour accuracy on screen isn’t guaranteed, although colour separation is done correctly according to the job order. The pages that are displayed are processed in the same RIP as will be used for plate making but for more accurate softproofing, the high resolution PDF files are opened in Acrobat. This function, called InSite Color, recently recieved SWOP certification. With Creo’s own streaming technology the user can zoom into the pages and add annotations and comments. A built-in densitometer shows the CMYK colour values.
Cyan Soft eProof
Cyan Soft has their own Postscript interpreter called Advanced Sampler, which is used in the OPI software named Opium. This system works in the background of eProof and what’s a little special about eProof is that it can open several types of native documents, such as MS Word and InDesign documents. This makes possible team work based collaborative proofing not only for images or pages, but also the copy. Another strong feature in eProof is the font support. It can preview Cyrillic, Arabic, and all far eastern language sets. The eProof system can display colours accurately as long as the user makes sure the monitor profile is updated in the system and the proofing parameters are correctly set up. This has to be done manually and here there is perhaps room for improvement. Streaming technology called RIV (Rapid Image View) makes sure the rendering of high resolution images is fast.
Dalim Dialogue
This proofing system can work standalone or connected to a RIP system, either a Dalim RIP such as Twist or Printempo, or any other modern RIP. Inside Dialogue resides the same Postscript interpreter as is used in Twist, making it possible for Dialogue to preflight and RIP incoming documents.
Dialogue renders the documents colour accurately, as long as you have specified the ICC profiles involved. This is a manual process, and possibly there is some room for improvements here. Dalim is a strong enforcer of JDF based impositioning and this is reflected also in Dialogue. The user is presented with the impositioning scheme and can move the pages around until they are all in the right order. After final approval the flats are immediately ready for platemaking.
Heidelberg Remote Access
All workflow systems from Heidelberg are part of the Prinect family, and the different components have Prinect as prefix in their full names. As of today when Heidelberg’s Printready RIP system is coupled with the Prinance MIS system, users are automatically notified via email when proofs are ready. Proofs can be attached as PDF files, and all correspondence is logged on the server. To complement this procedure Heidelberg has recently launched Remote Access, an add-on module to Printready. Documents are preflighted and when they are ready for approval, the client is notified by email that there are proofs to check. The user interface is through a standard web browser and Adobe Acrobat. Instead of sending out documents attached to emails, the files now reside on a server. Through the license from Kodak/KPG/Realtime (!!) the high resolution documents can be displayed fast on screen through streaming technology. In this case the pages are first rendered into pixel data through the Metadimension RIP, using the PDF files created by PrintReady. This Heidelberg calls post-RIP Approval. Annotations, correction instructions and finally approval can be made through the user interface.
ICS Remote Director
Although still best known in the US, ICS is about to distribute the Remote Director system in Europe as well. The system accepts any ICC profiles as the basis for colour accurate rendering on screen, so the system as such is not US-centric. Remote Director has a built in monitor profiling tool that works with any CRT or LCD monitor. ICS takes colour accuracy seriously – any member of the proofing team who tries to work with an uncalibrated monitor gets a red dot beside their user name in the team list as a warning for all to see! The ICS Remote Director is SWOP certified when used with a certain selection of monitors. Remote Director has a Jaws Postscript interpreter built in, which performs a basic preflight. The user interface has various annotation tools, including a freehand writing tool for those using a pen tablet instead of an ordinary mouse. All the colour settings are shared based on what the administrator sets up for the job, which makes this application easy to use even for people without in-depth knowledge of colour management.
Kodak/KPG Matchprint Virtual Proofing
Based on the former Realtime Image solution Realtime Proof Kodak/KPG has added a proper calibration module to the Matchprint Virtual Proofing system. To ensure accurate colour display as well as the streaming pixel capacity, the web browser needs some special plug-ins. Monitor calibration should be done with the KPG software which only accepts the latest Apple Cinema Displays and the Eizo CG-21 monitor. In this configuration the Matchprint Virtual Proofing is SWOP certified. If the monitor calibration is wrong or out of date, this is indicated in the lower corner of the user interface. Users can annotate the pages or images, and zoom in to have a closer look at the high resolution images, even at low bandwidth. There is no preflight check for incoming files and they are uploaded as is.
Rampage Remote
Rampage Remote is a Java based addition to the Rampage RIP for remote and collaborative proofing via the Internet. Rampage Remote has annotation and approval tools and logs all user activity on the server. The Rampage Remote system has built in streaming technology similar to that of RealtimeImage’s. Incoming files are prelighted and prepared for impositioning, and clients are notified by email that there are proofs ready for approval. They can choose between different views, for example a "Readers View" (2 pages up). Rampage Remote doesn't check whether the monitor is calibrated or not, but shows the pages colour accurately wherever possible. In many parts of Europe including the UK, the Rampage technology is distributed by Fujifilm as an alternative to Fujifilm’s homegrown Celebrant RIP system.
Screen Riteapprove
Screen’s RIP system is called Trueflow, and Riteapprove is a add-on module to it; the user interface is based on a standard web browser coupled with Java plugins. Incoming files are preflighted and colour managed and saved in the Trueflow internal format which is similar to a Postscript Display List. Clients are notified via email that there are proofs to approve. All members in the proofing team can view the annotations made and print out low resolutions versions of the pages, with annotations included. Although the pages are colour managed, the browser plug-in doesn't support colour accurate display at the moment. Screen has its own pixel streaming technology that allows fast zooming of the pages.
Web Proof
This Danish software vendor saw early on the need for an online proofing solution. Web Proof is already in version 4.0, so the user interface is well established and thought through. The focus is on collaborative PDF proofing, so functions for colour managed softproofing have to be made via Adobe Acrobat. There is no preflight as such in Web Proof, but incoming documents can be preflighted through third party solutions. Web Proof (the company) offers such ready to use packages within their workflow solutions products. The administrator sets up different levels of user rights depending on peoples’ roles. Some users can only read annotations, while others can write and edit annotations. It’s possible to set up rights for a sub contractor, for example the binder, so that they only see the status of the job and are notified when proofs or prints are approved. All changes to the documents are logged and it is possible to compare one version to another. Any changes are marked with a box around the area where there is a difference between the documents.
Websites of interest:
Delano – Agfa: www.agfa.com
Synapse InSite – Creo: www.creo.com
EProof - Cyan Soft: www.cyansoftware.com
Dialogue – Dalim: www.dalim.com
PrintReady Remote Proof – Heidelberg: www.heidelberg.com
Remote Director - ICS www.icscolor.com
Matchprint Virtual Proofing - KPG (Kodak Polychrome Graphics): www.kpgraphics.com
Rampage Remote – Rampage: www.rampageinc.com
Riteapprove – Screen: www.screen.com

Web Proof - Web Proof: www.webproof.com

For more infomation go to Digital Dots which is an independent graphic arts research company established in 1999. The company provides exclusive market research, testing and evaluation services for prepress and publishing applications. It also publishes Spindrift see www.digitaldots.org for further details.