Bill Peterson of RR Donnelley gave an informative presentation on the successful implementation of the new GRACoL and SWOP data sets. He also stressed that we will need verification system that rely upon standard color bars to ensure compliance.
The Expo: I should get more time to find new and updated technology stories from the Expo Tuesday, but I did find one to talk about today. EFI ColorProof is now providing a true client server architecture which allows some pretty cool implementations of remote proofing. Using a VPN a single server can drive multiple ink jet proofing devices in multiple physical locations. What makes this unique is that the VPN connection allows users utilizing the client software to not only send proofs to the printer which might be in their facility, bit also to printers that could be at a facility around the world. In addition with the new HP z series printers and their on-board spectros you can collect measurement data remotely for calibration, profiling and most importantly color verification of each proof.
G7 Curvelink software: I sat in briefly for the hands on lab of the new Curvelink software from IDEAlliance and Chromix. While I am not a user of this software some of the people I discussed it with after the presentation seem to think this new release addresses some “issues†(OK, as a fellow software developer let’s call em what they are BUGS!) have been fixed in this release and some nice new features added.
Variable Data Proofing issues: I caught a few minutes or Rick Littrell’s Data Driven Production session. I found this session interesting because proofing for the variable data market is quite different than we would expect in the conventions print world. One of the panelists spoke of a job with over 400 proofs. 400 proofs you say, why! Well, with all the elements being variable you have to try a whole lot of combinations of first name last name lengths, image swap outs, paragraph lengths, etc. So, are all these proofs color accurate? Could we maybe soft proof these combinations? Just a couple silly questions I thought I would ask.