Illustrator vs. Packedge/Artpro

[marc3llo]

Exactly, Esko killed the traditional repro houses with this plug-in available for more and more people everyday. They opened the market to a lot new players, so, prices are down or even free fee if you get the whole business.
But still repro houses have to get the files from the Design studio (with the trapX later in Illustrator) and correct them in order to get a good printed result, but without getting any money at all for this, because the file is has been "repro"....

[Julia D]

Ah, it was all about Managing Public Parameters. There are so many different places to change various settings. Between Pilot and the various Illustrator and Acrobat plugins, you can spend all day trying to find stuff. (We have some Esko components and some Prinergy components.)

[Talking Tech]

The problem (one of many) Esko has is selling new "seats" of ArtPro or PackEdge to new users. DeskPack is fairly affordable compared to the $25k+ that a seat of ArtPro or PackEdge costs. The people purchasing these apps are those that already own it and need more, or a new customer being driven by their customer by requiring ArtPro files back.

DeskPack offers some decent add-on capabilities to Illustrator, though limited in some cases. The TrapX plugin will provide an overall trap to the file and the results are usually pretty good, but on some complex files they may not be entirely what you want. At that point, you have limited choices. One is to try to alter the TrapX settings and re-trap again. If that doesn't work, you might be SOL. Esko also sells an interactive trapper CS plug-in at a hefty add-on price. It allows you to trap/re-trap specific elements without re-doing the entire file. By the time you are done buying all the CS plugins (there are PhotoShop plugins too), the cost of a ArtPro or DeskPack seat doesn't look so bad.

Obvious benefits to staying in Illustrator is that the file is still a Illustrator file, not some proprietary file you can't do much with unless you own ArtPro or PackEdge. Most repro houses want it that way, but most design shops and converters often prefer to have files back that are accessible in standard applications. Hope this long-winded diatribe makes sense.

[wesley]

Silence from Esko PDL.
We're still waiting for a reply.

[WI-Flexo]

As a user of ALL the discussed options I also would love to hear EskoPDl's take on the discussion!

[Chief_1975]

Well I will give EskoPDI the benefit of the doubt for now as he or she hasn't posted anything since last year, however if I was a betting man I wouldn't be betting on getting a response anytime soon!

I have never understood why either Esko / Artwork systems never slashed the prices of Package / ArtPro years ago before they merged to get a dominate foothold in the market over one another. If either was more affordable there wouldn't be such a appetite for the cheaper Illustrator add ons that when added all together aren't that cheap!

[Talking Tech]

I have never understood why either Esko / Artwork systems never slashed the prices of Package / ArtPro years ago before they merged to get a dominate foothold in the market over one another. If either was more affordable there wouldn't be such a appetite for the cheaper Illustrator add ons that when added all together aren't that cheap!

Esko considers PackEdge, and now ArtPro too, to be their high-end editors. Within the next couple of years, they expect a new replacement for them. Reason is, they are not entirely the same application on the PC (PackEdge) and Mac (ArtPro). The new app, whatever it will be called, will have high-end functionality like the two programs mentioned, but will be precisely the same on both platforms.

The PDF editor the company has, Neo, could potentially become the new high-end editing application, and like all Esko products, basically be a Chinese menu of options, ie Neo Basic with various add-ons for packaging functionality -- trapping, step-and-repeat, ink mix, etc. This all remains to be seen what the customer will be offered, but you can be assured it won't come cheaply.

EskoPDL may be a Esko employee, although I don't think they employ anyone other than a sales rep in Canada. But who knows. Guaranteed the person is not highly knowledgable.

Regarding pricing, they had to distinguish between the "low-end" solution and "high-end" solution. I agree the price of ArtPro and DeskPack should come down but I don't think that will happen. There are a lot of unused ArtPro seats out there today, but since the licensing is now well controlled, there is little chance of getting a seat at a bargain-basement price.

[yojimbo5]

I work hard in flexo. And now I work about 95% in ADOBE CS4 and 5 but mostly 4 now due to problems with AE 10. I used to work in, PCC, Barco,and ARTPRO, but in reality most of our work starts in AI, so who really needs these high end systems anymore. The deskpack plug ins enhance AI but really, besides the Dynamic Barcodes, you can work any job thru with
Illustrator and Photoshop. Yes instant trapper is "sexy", but that just makes trapping easier for novices.