PDF workflow upgrade

[RickS]

Hello all. We looking at upgrading our EskoArtwork Raster workflow to their PDF workflow. I know, we should have done this a while ago. Questions for anybody that has done this. Are you happy with your choice of EskoArtwork as opposed to a different company? Did it do for you what you were told it would? Was the install and training very painful? Anything else that stands out that I should know?

Thanks in advance for any advice you may have.
Rick

[t.hack]

We switched from a Brisque shop to a Nexus shop about a year and a half ago we looked hard at Prinergy, Rampage and Nexus.

We purchased Nexus with the Raster workflow and the PDF workflow. We never used the Raster workflow once for a live job, the PDF workflow has been extremely reliable and productive. Once you get your workflows setup and are working properly it is extremely robust. Install and training went well... far better than any experience I have ever had with Kodak, same goes with support. You will definitely want Neo which is absolutely the most powerful PDF editor available.

Only complaint is it seems Esko is making more of the decisions than Artwork Systems since the merger. I would talk to your sales rep and try to get some information on the future of Nexus and the integration with their soon to be released Suite 10 which is the merging of Odystar, Nexus and BackStage. Esko side of the company seems to be anti Mac and is love with windows... most of their products require you to run their software in Parallels if your on a Mac???

Tim

[disbellj]

Well, even if they love WIndows, if they will allow you to run virtualization on a Mac and support it, then what's the problem? I run Windows on my Mac and really wouldn't want it any other way. When not using, I can suspend it if going to shut down my Mac, or pause it if I just want to minimize it and keep it open but yet give most resources back to my Mac. Nice really. Nothing nicer really, for a Mac user. Edit: I'm jeaolus you got PDF trapping and Neo and I don't yet. Still stuck with raster workflow, which still is able to work with my PDF/X-1a's at least. (Thank God!)

Regards,

Don

We switched from a Brisque shop to a Nexus shop about a year and a half ago we looked hard at Prinergy, Rampage and Nexus.

We purchased Nexus with the Raster workflow and the PDF workflow. We never used the Raster workflow once for a live job, the PDF workflow has been extremely reliable and productive. Once you get your workflows setup and are working properly it is extremely robust. Install and training went well... far better than any experience I have ever had with Kodak, same goes with support. You will definitely want Neo which is absolutely the most powerful PDF editor available.

Only complaint is it seems Esko is making more of the decisions than Artwork Systems since the merger. I would talk to your sales rep and try to get some information on the future of Nexus and the integration with their soon to be released Suite 10 which is the merging of Odystar, Nexus and BackStage. Esko side of the company seems to be anti Mac and is love with windows... most of their products require you to run their software in Parallels if your on a Mac???

Tim

[t.hack]

I too am running Windows on my Mac and appreciate that I can. My problem is that when I am paying thousands of dollars for professional software, I prefer running it natively on my operating system of choice rather than in virtualization for obvious reasons.

Just my opinion.

[disbellj]

Obvious reasons?

Is it slower in virtualization? Not for me. Maybe it's cause I have a Mac Pro 8-core. I like the portability of it myself (run the system, including virtualization off of an external drive if you'd like). As long as I have the dongle, I don't need the physical Windows machine. If you understand and use virtualization and not emulation, you'll understand that virtualization is basically native speed. Windows is actually using the hardware. Mac is not "emulating" the Windows processor, for they both use Intel now.

I too am running Windows on my Mac and appreciate that I can. My problem is that when I am paying thousands of dollars for professional software, I prefer running it natively on my operating system of choice rather than in virtualization for obvious reasons.

Just my opinion.

[t.hack]

The point was to offer my view for Rick on the philosophy's of two different company's that recently merged and their approach to their software strategies.

As far as virtulization...

Comparison of VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[RickS]

Thanks Tim. Your input was great. It is of course the least expensive option. We have loved the Artwork Nexus raster workflow up till now. But see the many advantages of a PDF workflow, soft proofing being high on the list. I believe we will upgrade to this and I am wondering if I am missing anything before we commit.

[t.hack]

Rick

If you loved the Raster workflow you will definitely love the PDF workflow and will never look back. It is a workhorse...the Trapper is excellent and you can do amazing things automatically with Pitstop Profiles and Action Lists within the Pitstop Module.

If you are using Preps I believe you need at least version 5.2.3 for the JDF to PDF module to function properly. I would definitely confirm that with EskoArtwork.

As far of the future roadmap of Nexus I am a little unclear how that is going be handled, perhaps more information will be available soon since EskoWorld was this week.

Here is a link for their future workflow, I would definitely inquire how that transition will be handled.

EskoArtwork News Overview

[eskopdl]

. . . . Esko side of the company seems to be anti Mac and is love with windows... most of their products require you to run their software in Parallels if your on a Mac???

Tim

While it's true that the Automation 10 server components (once know as BackStage) and Flexrips (which once configured require very little interaction) run in Windows, I can only think of 3 Esko applications a prepress operator may use on a daily basis that are only WinTel based, and I have never seen a prepress environment that required all 3. But they do run quite well in Windows on a Mac. A majority of the productivity and workfow tools can run on Mac, and many Mac or PC, your choice.

Esko is so "anti-Mac" that the hundreds laptops issued to it's own employees for company use, running Esko applications, doing demo's, and testing, are Intel-Macs. I think if you look a bit closer there are solutions for you no matter what your platform of choice is.

[FKarlone]

We have been using the Nexus PDF Workflow for a while now. It works great!

I agree you have to have Neo, Acrobat will do some basic edits. Neo will work with the PDFs as a vector file similar to opening in Illustrator except without all the artifacts.

As far as all that Windows garbage, buy a PC.