A printing firm’s workflow was determined by its equipment and the products it specialized in. Labels? Camera-ready art to separations, to film, to stripping, to step-and-repeat, to press, to die-cutting. Direct mail? Camera-ready to film, stripping, to plate (paper, plastic or metal, depending on the quantity), to press, to collator, folder, inserter, then address labeling. It was a complex, but mechanical process.
Back then, workflow problems mostly concerned speed bottlenecks, where the slower speed of one machine compared to the others could delay a whole job.
Today, however, jobs move through a printing operation in a digital format; print jobs remain in a digital, rather than a physical format for longer and longer. “Workflow” now means the movement of digital files from one file server to another, and from one digital processing application to another —layout to PDF rendering, colour separation, trapping, imposition. The workflow can vary from job to job, depending on the quantity to be printed, the type of output (offset press, wide-format printer, high-speed colour laser printer, for example), what kind of plate-making equipment the printer has, and the client’s preferences.
Bottlenecks no longer occur at particular machines, but rather within servers or networks. Managing the workflow is a critical part of ensuring that your shop remains productive. Software that shows the manager where bottlenecks are occurring in the digital production stream, and to do something about it, is a growing field.
According to printing industry analyst firm CAP Ventures, print production software, particularly workflow management software, is going to grow very fast. The company is predicting that this sector will achieve a compound annual growth rate of 8.3 percent per year between 2003 and 2008. The biggest category within this sector will be software that controls hybrid digital/offset workflows, which will grow by 98 percent—starting from almost nothing in 2003.
Workflow automation starts with PDF
If your shop doesn’t have a graphical computer application that allows you to set up automated workflows, moving PDF files through colour separation, page imposition, trapping and RIPping at the click of a single button, it soon will. The boost to productivity and the reduction in errors is just to great to ignore. But for the long term success of the business, the ability to track and monitor print jobs may prove more important.
There are several workflow management systems available on the market today. In this issue, we’ll look at a few of them.
Most of the graphic arts industry has adopted Adobe’s portable document format (PDF) as the standard. It makes sense. A PDF contains all the information that high-quality, high-resolution printing (or other output) requires: text, graphics, photographs, fonts, colours, resolution, page information—all the specifications that the printer needs to create the final film or printing plate. In a computer-to-plate workflow, the PDF file fills the same role that final film did in the older workflow. PDF files can be distributed electronically, through e-mail or posting onto a Web site, as well. Small wonder that PDF is the file format of choice for all workflow software, not just products from Adobe.
Adobe Acrobat family
Acrobat 7.0 can create PDF files with a single click from almost any file format—word processing, spreadsheet, slide-show, drawing, page layout and many more. Both Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect contain a Print To PDF command, making the creation of PDF files even easier.
Acrobat PDF Distiller converts PostScript files into PDFs using a file server, which means users or workgroups can do this conversion to remote files over a network, even the Internet.
Adobe has a real interest in creating efficient workflows that can process PDF files. However, it has taken somewhat of an arms-length stance. Its PDF JobReady application allows users to create and manage customized workflows based on PDF, even workflows that use the Internet. However, they sell the product as a software development kit, or SDK, which allows other companies to develop the actual workflow software. It’s a smart move: it gets many other companies, among them the biggest in the industry or the world, to do the work of creating workflow-creation systems; the more that do so, the greater the market for PDF and PostScript.
Heidelberg Prinect
Heidelberg’s Prinect workflow system brings together components that were developed over the years by various companies that Heidelberg has acquired or had deals with, including Hell, Linotype and even Creo. Heidelberg has done a remarkable job in integrating the components into a whole system.
The Prinect Printready System is based entirely on the Job Definition Format (JDF), a standard file format for describing printing job specifications and instructions, developed by the CIP4 Consortium.
The Prinergy system connects the various stages of the print production workflow, from prepress even to press controls and bindery systems. SignaStation, the imposition workstation that originated in the Linotype-Hell days, is not a key software application in the system. PrintReady Cockpit allows users to set up their own workflows to suit their particular operations, and then can start jobs moving through stages such as preflighting, trapping, imposition and colour-space conversions.
Other modules in the Prinect PrintReady System communicate JDF job ticket data to help set up presses and bindery equipment, and even to the management information system (MIS) to help automate at least part of the billing and accounting system.
Kodak Prinergy
Prinergy workflow suite also contains components from companies that Kodak has acquired over the years. It begins with the Prinergy Digital Master, which is an electronic equivalent of the original film from the pre-digital days. A Digital Master is a PDF file in CMYK colour format, ready for offset printing. Along with the PDF of the content is an electronic job ticket that contains all the information needed to print the job—customer, quantity, number of pages and so on.
Prinergy Connect allows users to set up an automatic flow of print jobs from one station or application to the next, and to add components as you need them.
EFI OneFlow
OneFlow is also a PDF-based workflow automation system. A graphical interface allows users to build their own prepress workflows, right up to platesetting. Drop job files, in a variety of creation formats, into “hot folders,” and OneFlow converts them to PDF, PDF/X, Postscript, EPS or TIFF/IT, then starts preflighting, trapping, imposing and proofing.
One advantage of OneFlow is that you also get EFI’s ColorWise software to keep colour within specifications. There is also a Job Tracker application that allows you to check on job status or total workload from anywhere with an Internet connection.
Dalim Twist
With relatively little market share in North America, Dalim’s Twist “intelligent workflow automation” software offers more than 150 different software tools to allow users to create exactly the workflow configuration they need. It allows for automatic conversion of files to PDF (for instance), applying ICC colour profiles, trapping, imposition, and even very complex, rules-based workflows needed for publications. Branching and filter tools help users to develop more sophisticated workflows.
Twist even allows users to combine several different file formats, such as PDF and CT/LW in one workflow.
Agfa :ApogeeX
Agfa’s :ApogeeX software, like its competitors, integrates well into a complete prepress production suite. Agfa stands apart from most of the other major prepress players in workflow, however. Rather than buying smaller companies, it has signed deals with them to integrate their technology into Agfa systems. For example, the :Apogee system uses Adobe’s CPSI RIP (raster image processor) and EnFocus’s PitStop Preflight Engine, among other third-party components.
:ApogeeX 2.5 also comes with an In-Render Trapper, a PDF Trapper and PDF Flattener components. The software supports smooth blends from QuarkXPress 6, duotones, spot colours and various proofing choices, including remote proofing.
Like most other workflow applications, :ApogeeX allows you to create your own workflow configuration and to edit it as you need. You can add tasks or processes, monitor job status and save settings and even imposition templates from Creo’s Preps imposition software.
PrintSoft M-PReS Workflow
M-PReS Workflow is designed for busy production shops with shifting teams working on several documents or production jobs at one time. A central file repository for text, layouts, PDFs, images and other files allows not only sharing of digital resources but also easier communications between production team members.
Users can set up and coordinate production processes as series of tasks in particular orders. Authorized people can perform the steps in the right order. The software tracks processes, changes and approvals.
Xitron Xenith Extreme
Xitron’s Xenith Extreme software allows users to create workflows for either PDF or PostScript files. Based on job tickets, Xenith Extreme is compatible with CIP4’s latest version of JDF for standardized control right to the press. It can automate imposition, late page replacement, colour separation, trapping, RIPping and preflighting.
RIP-It OpenRIP Symphony
OpenRIP Symphony is, as you probably guessed, a RIP, and RIP-It has added a number of features that automatically take care of a number of the tasks required for offset printing: scanning, trapping, screening and imposition.
Your choice
Your choice of which workflow system will probably be determined by the other equipment: Heidelberg shops will use Prinect, while those with Agfa platesetters will probably go with :Apogee. But don’t forget that there are several other choices available, more than the few we managed to cover in these pages.
Look for systems that give you the amount of flexibility that you need, but also have some “standard” workflows built in —something that you can customize. Test it to make sure it’s compatible with your equipment and the way you like to work. And look for the ability to automate as much as possible.
