New Prinect Functions at Print 05

• New Prinect Printready package for entry-level users
• Prinect Signa Station with new impositioning functions
• Higher levels of automation and greater ease of use

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) is presenting new Prinect functions for its Prinect Management Solutions and Prinect Production Solutions at Print 05, which takes place from September 9 to 15 in Chicago.

"In the current economic climate, three issues are particularly important for printshops. The Prinect Center at Print05 will be highlighting solutions to these with the aid of example workflow configurations," says Jörg Bauer, Vice President of Product Management Prinect at Heidelberg.

"1. How can presses and postpress machines be optimally preset and overall throughput times - from the time data is supplied by the customer to the time the finished print products are shipped - be reduced? Suitable solutions from Prinect Production Solutions will be on show.

2. How can consistently good quality be produced while still minimizing waste and how can printed results be guaranteed to match the proof at all times? Prinect Color Solutions supplies the answers.

3. Finally, the Prinect Management Solutions presentation will provide answers to the question of how the current status of any order can be viewed at any time and actual costing data be recorded in real time by integrating the production workflow into the management workflow."

Prinect Production Solutions:

Prinect Printready P
The new Prinect Printready P package for entry-level users is an easy-to-use, page-oriented system for producing PDF pages that are optimized for printing. Prinect Printready P automates everyday routine processes - normalization, preflighting, color space transformations, spot color handling, and optional trapping - to optimize Postscript or PDF data for printing. An existing prepress workflow can then impose or output the PDF pages. Prinect Printready P can be expanded at any time into a complete Prinect Printready System with integrated MetaDimension and interactive Signa Station.

Prinect Printready System 2.1
The new, JDF-based Version 2.1 of the Prinect Printready System prepress workflow operates with the new Prinect Signa Station 1.5 and Prinect MetaDimension 5.1 versions. All the work produced in the prepress stage, from capturing the data right through to output, can be controlled centrally by the Windows- or Mac OS 10.4-based Prinect Printready Cockpit. The new Printready version makes it possible to work interactively with Acrobat 7 from the cockpit and offers innovations in PDF 1.6 handling and linking up management information systems. Packages with Enfocus software now contain the latest PitStop Professional 6.5 and Instant PDF 3.0 versions.

Prinect Remote Access 1.0
Prinect Remote Access 1.0 is a bidirectional web gateway, fully integrated with Prinect Printready 2.1, between the customers' desktops and prepress production. Prinect Remote Access adds secure multifunctional Internet functions to the Prinect workflow and opens up further automation potential. Fast file uploads and downloads to and from the Prinect Printready System, automated, web-based soft proof, correction, and approval functions mean both printshops and their customers benefit from shorter throughput times and longer deadlines. Costs for courier services and material can be cut significantly and two-way communication via a central, easy-to-handle portal helps to reduce errors.

Prinect Signa Station 1.5
The new Prinect Signa Station Version 1.5 boasts some additional and easy-to-use functions. Templates greatly facilitate work processes, enabling key job-related data such as customer or machine data, types of paper, imposition layouts, page sizes, output parameters, marks or plate positioning sheets to be created for individual print sheets, specific parts or the complete job. This data can then be used later without having to re-enter information each time. Customer-specific control marks can be generated directly in the software using the integrated mark editor. These can also contain variable information such as the job or plate number.

A job assistant guides the user through the entire job creation process. The assistant starts with each new job and systematically interrogates the job data, so that all downstream process operations are able to run on a defined, standardized database. This tool also successfully guides less experienced operators through the impositioning process, thereby minimizing the error rate from the outset and significantly cutting the overall time required until the job is finished.

To maximize use of the printed medium, the new version offers an optional sheet optimizer that is able to arrange multiple individual repeats on the sheet automatically, a function that is of particular benefit in packaging and label printing. Consequently, several repeats in various formats can be positioned on a sheet in a customized run. The software calculates the number of repeats on the sheet and arranges them. It then uses this to calculate the run and, where necessary, the excess and thereby minimizes the number of printing plates and print runs.

The new version also supports fully automatic impositioning for web printing and barcode printing, which can help prevent missing copies when collating pages in postpress.

Prinect Data Control 6.1
The Prinect Data Control 6.1 production management system offers an improved and expanded JDF/JMF interface to link management information systems to the press and postpress production workflow.

Job data is fed along with ink presetting data to production via this open and standardized interface and production data for actual costing and job tracking is relayed to JMF-compatible management information systems. This results in faster job preparation and greater transparency in production.

Enhanced job archiving functions for packaging printers in particular simplify repeat order handling and reduce makeready times for presses.

The optional production planning module for better, more flexible usage of production capacity completes the range of functions supported by Prinect Data Control 6.1.

Prinect Management Solutions:

Prinect Prinance 4.51
Version 4.51 of the Prinect Prinance management information system was rolled out on the market in July 2005. The key new features include expanded statistical evaluation options for printshop sales processes. Extensive online options for linking up to the production workflow facilitate more accurate job preparation and tracking and ensure greater cost transparency. Prinance is thereby becoming even more important in the context of automation in Prinect Management Solutions. To link end customers to a printshop and optimize communication processes, the Web Connect add-on module can be connected to Prinect Prinance 4.51. This web-based option allows end customers to send queries to a printshop, view the status of open orders, trace the history of a job, requisition goods from the warehouse, or check their own customer data.

For further information:
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Corporate Communications
Matthias Hartung
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 92 50 77
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 50 46
E-mail: matthias.hartung@heidelberg.com