noelward
Well-known member
It can’t possibly be 4 years since the last time I spent two weeks in Dusseldorf, Germany. But calendars don’t lie and here we all are, ready to head off to that marvelous extravaganza of all things print in the drupa city.
I can’t wait!
I’m somehow going to cram the entire visit into just one week this time, but the amount of stuff to see just keeps building up. Every day I get more notices of things that absolutely must be looked at, discussed, photographed, and more. Vendors of all sizes are about to roll out some of the most compelling technology the print world has ever seen. Maybe I’ll have to stay longer.
Anyway, there’s too much for just one article, so my pre-show coverage will stretch over a few days. And we’ll begin with what I saw over a couple of days in Bruges, Belgium in early March. Here’s a very brief summary of things you really need to see first hand, and if you’re not going across the pond to the show, be sure to look for more details on these companies when the show news starts coming out the first week of June.
Software is a huge part of what drives our industry forward, and it was software that took center stage the first day in Bruges.
Chili Publish, which bills itself as the “hottest online document editor,” is sometimes thought of as being focused on production printing, but it is much more. In Belgium, Chili showed us many things we’d seen before, even as the company continues to raise the bar on its browser-based technology that uses an open architecture API for viewing in any browser supporting HTML 5.
What is cool about Chili–and why you should take a look at it whether or not you go to drupa– is how it puts many of the features of high-end page layout and design programs in a browser. If your resident graphic designer can use Quark or Adobe Creative Suite, they should be able to make the leap to Chili without much trouble. And your customers make like it too, because it opens the door for them to be more involved in the entire process (yes, I know there are two sides to that).
What is especially interesting is the scalability Chili offers for working with for documents ranging from the size of a postage stamp to something you can put on the side of a truck or wrap around a bottle or folding carton. Perhaps most important, it puts document owners and creators into the same loop, fostering real-time communication and collaboration to streamline workflows and approvals. This can range from a brochure to the cut and folding lines of a three-dimensional package–and how a shelf-full of those packages will look in a retail store.
We also got a quick look at Chil rendro, a new online PDF and 3D viewing SDK (software developer kit) which will roll out formally at drupa. According to Chili, rendro provides full relief, high resolution rendering to PDF formats. And because it is browser-based, a designers’ or print provider’s customer can view any size document in complete detail. It was hard to fully appreciate rendro in a meeting room, so I’m looking forward to a closer, hands-on look at drupa.
Enfocus is an established player that is working closely with a dozen household name technology providers as well as some of the best-known consumers and users of printed documents. At drupa, enfocus will be showing the next phase in the ongoing evolution of Switch, its software for automating and integrating repetitive tasks associated with receiving, processing, and sorting files. It can be implemented into many workflows and is intended as a labor and time-saving tool for document creators and producers.
Already available with 17 apps that add functionality, enfocus says some 50 apps will be available by the time drupa opens its doors on May 31. Users will be able to try out the new apps before buying to ensure they are getting ones that meet their needs.
Drupa will also be the rollout of a new Switch module for PDF reviewing will give internal and external stakeholders an accurate way to remotely view, inspect and approve jobs. And there’s more.
The Enfocus Cloud is intended to help ensure business continuity. Customers who experience a hardware failure–it happens to us all–can reinstall Switch on a new server, log in, and all their existing Switch workflows will be restored. The Enfocus Cloud will also connect job tickets, and enable access to Switch from anywhere with a web connection.
Those presentations and a couple others, plus some meetings all took up much of the first day in Belgium and gave a great look at some of the software that is really helping drive the print industry forward. Next up is some more software and a look at what Agfa and Xeikon will be rolling out.
I can’t wait!
I’m somehow going to cram the entire visit into just one week this time, but the amount of stuff to see just keeps building up. Every day I get more notices of things that absolutely must be looked at, discussed, photographed, and more. Vendors of all sizes are about to roll out some of the most compelling technology the print world has ever seen. Maybe I’ll have to stay longer.
Anyway, there’s too much for just one article, so my pre-show coverage will stretch over a few days. And we’ll begin with what I saw over a couple of days in Bruges, Belgium in early March. Here’s a very brief summary of things you really need to see first hand, and if you’re not going across the pond to the show, be sure to look for more details on these companies when the show news starts coming out the first week of June.
Software is a huge part of what drives our industry forward, and it was software that took center stage the first day in Bruges.
Chili Publish, which bills itself as the “hottest online document editor,” is sometimes thought of as being focused on production printing, but it is much more. In Belgium, Chili showed us many things we’d seen before, even as the company continues to raise the bar on its browser-based technology that uses an open architecture API for viewing in any browser supporting HTML 5.
What is cool about Chili–and why you should take a look at it whether or not you go to drupa– is how it puts many of the features of high-end page layout and design programs in a browser. If your resident graphic designer can use Quark or Adobe Creative Suite, they should be able to make the leap to Chili without much trouble. And your customers make like it too, because it opens the door for them to be more involved in the entire process (yes, I know there are two sides to that).
What is especially interesting is the scalability Chili offers for working with for documents ranging from the size of a postage stamp to something you can put on the side of a truck or wrap around a bottle or folding carton. Perhaps most important, it puts document owners and creators into the same loop, fostering real-time communication and collaboration to streamline workflows and approvals. This can range from a brochure to the cut and folding lines of a three-dimensional package–and how a shelf-full of those packages will look in a retail store.
We also got a quick look at Chil rendro, a new online PDF and 3D viewing SDK (software developer kit) which will roll out formally at drupa. According to Chili, rendro provides full relief, high resolution rendering to PDF formats. And because it is browser-based, a designers’ or print provider’s customer can view any size document in complete detail. It was hard to fully appreciate rendro in a meeting room, so I’m looking forward to a closer, hands-on look at drupa.
Enfocus is an established player that is working closely with a dozen household name technology providers as well as some of the best-known consumers and users of printed documents. At drupa, enfocus will be showing the next phase in the ongoing evolution of Switch, its software for automating and integrating repetitive tasks associated with receiving, processing, and sorting files. It can be implemented into many workflows and is intended as a labor and time-saving tool for document creators and producers.
Already available with 17 apps that add functionality, enfocus says some 50 apps will be available by the time drupa opens its doors on May 31. Users will be able to try out the new apps before buying to ensure they are getting ones that meet their needs.
Drupa will also be the rollout of a new Switch module for PDF reviewing will give internal and external stakeholders an accurate way to remotely view, inspect and approve jobs. And there’s more.
The Enfocus Cloud is intended to help ensure business continuity. Customers who experience a hardware failure–it happens to us all–can reinstall Switch on a new server, log in, and all their existing Switch workflows will be restored. The Enfocus Cloud will also connect job tickets, and enable access to Switch from anywhere with a web connection.
Those presentations and a couple others, plus some meetings all took up much of the first day in Belgium and gave a great look at some of the software that is really helping drive the print industry forward. Next up is some more software and a look at what Agfa and Xeikon will be rolling out.
Last edited:
