The Seybold Report on Publishing Systems articles from May 1999

The Seybold Report on Publishing Systems archives from May 1999

Color Management: What the Publisher Needs to Know.(Technology Information)(Technical)(Tutorial)
May 31, 1999... IF A PICTURE is worth a thousand words, then the color portrayed in the picture may be worth at least 900. Consider a catalog publisher, for example: If a customer buys the red cardigan that appears on the printed (or Web) page because she...

Books on Demand: Printing Vies With E-Books at BookExpo America.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 31, 1999... ALTHOUGH THE SHOW floor was inundated with stacks of printed books, alternatives to traditional book distribution methods was a key theme at the annual BookExpo America in Los Angeles April 30-May 2. The show, which is sponsored by the...

New firm offers fast CTP imaging low-cost plates.(Sonoran Scanners CactusSetter)(Product Announcement)
May 31, 1999... Sonoran flatbed images 250 plates/hour One of the most significant new CTP products for the newspaper industry is due for a formal introduction at the Nexpo show in Las Vegas, June 14-17. Called the CactusSetter, it comes from a new...

High-speed CTP sparks Newstec: Agfa, AII, K&F.(Agfa Corp,Autologic Information International Inc,)(Product Announcement)
May 31, 1999... New models feature speed, broaden range High-speed CTP imaging for the newspaper market highlighted the Newstec exhibition this year as Agfa and Autologic debuted faster models of existing lines and K&F readied its new system. We've...

Trenkamp out; Prepress Solutions in Chapter 11.(former CEO Bob Trenkamp)(Company Financial Information)
May 31, 1999... Quick emergence from bankruptcy seen Prepress Solutions, which was sold to an investment group in April, has removed its president, Bob Trenkamp, and filed for bankruptcy reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. It also has...

Live Picture goes bankrupt.(MGI Software acquires)(Company Business and Marketing)
May 31, 1999... Live Picture has filed for Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy protection in preparation for its purchase by MGI Software of Toronto. MGI, which develops Windows-based graphics software, said it would purchase all of Live Picture's international...

Creo announces initial public stock offering.(Creo Products Inc)(Company Financial Information)
May 31, 1999... 5 million shares at $13-$15/share Creo Products has announced plans for an initial public stock offering intended to generate about $51 million in exchange for slightly less than 16% of the company. Under the IPO, Creo will offer four...

Kodak Polychrome adds two-page Approval XP.(Kodak Polychrome Graphics Approval XP printer)(Product Announcement)
May 31, 1999... As Recipe Color Software nears release Kodak Polychrome Graphics, which introduced a new line of Approval halftone-dot proofers last fall, has launched the second model in the line: a two-up version. It outputs up to 12 A4 pages per hour...

ECRM adds 22-inch-wide Mako imagesetter.(ECRM Mako 5625)(Product Announcement)
May 31, 1999... Four-page flats from capstan device ECRM has added a 22-inch-wide model to its Mako imagesetter line, which already comprises 14- and 18-inch models. The new Mako 5625, at 22.1 inches, should be just wide enough to image and mask most...

On Demand showcases digital processes.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 31, 1999... Variable data and digital printers shine Although there were few surprises at this year's On Demand show in New York at the Javits Center, it was a good place to view state-of-the-art digital printing. New releases at the show...

Screen spins off Island Graphics software unit.(Island Graphics spun off from Dainippon Screen)(Company Operations)
May 31, 1999... Xippix to continue work under contract Island Graphics, one of the oldest software companies in this industry, has been spun off from its owners of the last ten years, Dainippon Screen. All employees are being transferred to a new...

X-Rite gets distribution rights to Acme reader.(CTP11 Acme Plate Dot Meter)(Company Business and Marketing)
May 31, 1999... X-Rite has obtained exclusive rights to distribute the new CTP11 Acme Plate Dot Meter worldwide. The portable reader, designed to enable fast measurement of printing plates, is available immediately via X-Rite's dealer network around the...

Purup-Eskofot updates, renames 1318 scanner.(EskoScan Vincent flatbed color scanner)(Product Announcement)
May 31, 1999... 'Vincent' has new features, lower price Purup-Eskofot has upgraded its A3-format 1318 flatbed color scanner and renamed it the EskoScan Vincent. One of the changes is to bundle it with a comprehensive set of software: * EskoColor...

MGI's Edox 99 handles spot-color matching.(Management Graphics' PostScript 3 RIP)(Product Announcement)
May 31, 1999... RIP offers dual-copier capability Management Graphics, maker of the Edox 99 Document Server, has added two features to its popular PostScript 3-, NT-based RIP. First, the RIP now supports non-Pantone spot-color matching. Second, it is now...

Buy and sell printing stock over the Web.(PaperDeals.com)(Company Business and Marketing)
May 31, 1999... Auction sales bring buyer to seller PaperDeals.com has launched an Internet auction site for buying and selling commercial printing paper. The site is intended to provide paper suppliers with an avenue for increasing sales and offloading...

Take 2.(Correction Notice)
May 31, 1999... DryView: seconds, not minutes In our update on the status of the DryView dry-processing film since its transfer from Imation to Kodak (see Vol. 28, No. 13, p. 28), we noted a key feature as its fast processing. Unfortunately, in...

GASC buys Gutenberg show.
May 31, 1999... The Graphic Arts Show Co., organizer of the annual Graph Expo and quadrennial Print shows, has acquired the Gutenberg Festival, a regional event in southern California. In conjunction with the deal, Chris Jacobson, a Gutenberg organizer, has...

Barco offers monitor proofing.(Barco Display Systems bundling its Reference Calibrator Plus color display with its CobraMatch Edit color management software)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
May 31, 1999... Barco Display Systems is bundling its Reference Calibrator Plus color display with its CobraMatch Edit color management software to produce a Digital Viewing Station for soft proofing. Barco is calling it the first such station based on ICC...

Cymbolic joins Gretag.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
May 31, 1999... Cymbolic Sciences officially became a wholly owned subsidiary of Gretag Imaging on May 12. The company will operate as an independent business unit of Gretag.

Sienna takes over Dicomed group.
May 31, 1999... Sienna Imaging has officially acquired part of Dicomed's digital camera technology through a licensing agreement. Under the deal, Sienna has hired Dicomed's product development team and plans to introduce a line of digital cameras later this...

DPI shows set for 2000, 2001.(Digital Printing and Imaging Association)(Industry Trend or Event)(Brief Article)
May 31, 1999... The Digital Printing & Imaging Association has booked its annual DPI conference and exhibit event for the next two years: * March 8-11, 2000, at the Wyndham Anatole in Dallas. * April 4-7, 2001, at the Merchandise Mart in Atlanta. ...

Canto version for Linux.(Canto Software's Cumulus Media Asset Management system)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
May 31, 1999... Canto Software's Cumulus Media Asset Management system will support the Linux operating system by the end of this year. Cumulus Network, based upon a client-server architecture, will run on a server under Linux. The server will support...

Xaar inks pact with Toyo.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
May 31, 1999... Xaar plc, the manufacturer of piezo ink-jet print heads, has signed a licensing agreement with Toyo Ink of Japan. Toyo will manufacture inks for Xaar print-head licensees and other users of Xaar's heads.

Clark invests in SoftQuad.(XML expert James Clark)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
May 31, 1999... Well-known XML expert and technology philanthropist James Clark has purchased an equity stake in SoftQuad, which recently went private. Clark, a leader of the W3C XML Working Group that recommended XML, and a programmer who has donated a...

IS&T plans symposium at PMA.(Society for Imaging Science and Technology, Photo Marketing Association)(Industry Trend or Event)(Brief Article)
May 31, 1999... The Society for Imaging Science and Technology has announced a symposium on developments in image processing technology, to be held Jan. 31-Feb. 1, 2000, immediately preceding the Photo Marketing Association convention in Las Vegas. The...

PEOPLE.
May 31, 1999... William E. McCracken has been named general manager of IBM Printing Systems, reporting to James Vanderslice, senior VP of the IBM Technology Group. He succeeds Tony Santelli, who is retiring. McCracken, who joined IBM in 1965, earlier...

Is the U.S. Waking Up to Newspaper CTP?(Industry Trend or Event)
May 31, 1999... Is the newspaper CTP revolution finally reaching the U.S.? Up to now, the switch by newspapers to CTP has been limited almost exclusively to mid-size European papers, where more than 230 CTP systems have been installed, led by Agfa's Polaris,...

Sienna takes over Dicomed group.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
May 31, 1999... Sienna Imaging has officially acquired part of Dicomed's digital camera technology through a licensing agreement. Under the deal, Sienna has hired Dicomed's product development team and plans to introduce a line of digital cameras later this...

Disruptive Technologies: Will You Be Ready for the Next One?(in the printing and publishing industry)(Industry Trend or Event)
May 17, 1999... THIS IS A FAST-MOVING industry. During the past three decades, computer-based technologies have caused wide-ranging changes in the printing and prepress businesses. Products have burst onto the scene in a blaze of glory, then disappeared....

Scitex, Nur and Summa Pick Up the Pace In High-Durability, Wide-Format Printing.(Product Announcement)
May 17, 1999... GRAND-FORMAT PRINTING continues to be an area of intense activity, both from a business standpoint and from a competitive one. On the business front, as Scitex notes below, growth rates of 20% for sales of equipment and 40% for consumables...

Clustered Servers: The Heart of New Big Systems?(Technology Information)
May 17, 1999... MICROSOFT HAS TAKEN AIM at the mainframe market with NT and SQL Server, using clustering to generate the required horsepower. Current versions of NT servers will now support up to eight CPUs. If you build a server with eight CPUs-say, with...

Take 2.(Correction Notice)
May 17, 1999... Editing in Acrobat It's been brought to our attention that, contrary to what we said in our March 2 issue, the ability to edit text in Adobe Acrobat isn't new with Acrobat 4. It was available in version 3. Our thanks to Keith Dodson of...

Toray, Hamada advance with waterless system.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 17, 1999... Commercial product planned for Sept. At the On Demand show in New York on May 4, Toray and Hamada demonstrated a working prototype of the printing system they had previewed at Ipex last fall (see Vol. 28, No. 4). It matches a...

Variable-Data Printing Highlights On Demand.(On Demand show)(Industry Trend or Event)
May 17, 1999... Besides the Toray-Hamada printing system (above), highlights of the On Demand show May 4-6 centered on variable-data printing. We'll have details in our next issue. Meanwhile, the highlights: * Varis introduced its variable-data RIP for...

Scitex adds imagers for flexo CTP, 24-page film.(Product Announcement)
May 17, 1999... Lotem Flex and Rimon debut at CMM Scitex has added two lines of imaging devices to its already-extensive stable: the Lotem Flex CTP system to produce plates for flexographic printing and the Rimon imagesetter for handling imposed films...

Barco zeroes in on packaging functions.(Product Announcement)
May 17, 1999... Critical introductions made at CMM Barco has observed that packaging trade shops, which traditionally have handled mostly prepress work, are refocusing and expanding their activities to include the structural CAD function. In addition, to...

Cumulus to support Linux.(Canto Software's image management software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 17, 1999... Canto Software has announced plans to offer a version of its Cumulus image management software for the Linux operating system by the end of the year. The server running Linux will support Mac and Windows clients and will offer remote...

K&F to ship novel CTP system for newspapers.(Product Announcement)
May 17, 1999... Speed now called fastest for its market One of the most interesting new items shown at Nexpo last year was an innovative CTP imager from K&F Printing Systems International (see Vol. 27, No. 18). Called the LaserXpress, it is a high-speed,...

Xante software scans to polyester plates.(STP)(Product Announcement)
May 17, 1999... Xante is offering a software product to simplify the production of polyester plates directly from hard-copy originals. Called STP (Scan- to-Plate), it enables scanned data to be output on Xante's PlateMaker 3, Accel-a-Writer 3G or...

Compose-Harlequin RIP for DocuColor 40 Pro.(Compose Systems' agreements with Compaq and Xerox)(Company Business and Marketing)
May 17, 1999... Compose Systems has signed agreements with Compaq Computer and Xerox under which it will provide the first Harlequin RIP for the DocuColor 40 Pro. The agreements enable Compose to provide resellers and end users with an integrated product...

DiamondPlate LT-G now ready for sales in U.S.(Western Lithograph's thermal plate)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
May 17, 1999... Testing with Barco Crescent complete Mitsubishi Chemical, which owns Western Lithograph and its line of Diamond products, has completed beta testing of its DiamondPlate LT-G thermal plate for 1,064nm lasers. The testing was done in...

Xerox Announces 10-Year Strategy.
May 17, 1999... Focusing on Serving Users Xerox has announced a ten-year strategy, called the Global Industry Solutions Portfolio, that focuses on addressing customers' problems, improving their work processes and dealing with other customer concerns....

Purup-Eskofot offers modular imaging units.(Product Announcement)
May 17, 1999... Film and plate, 4- and 8-page flats Purup-Eskofot is launching a new model of its ImageMaker imaging device that is completely and freely configurable to any of four capabilities: imaging either film or metal plates and either four- or...

Purup-Eskofot seeks to boost American results.(Company Business and Marketing)
May 17, 1999... Atlanta office to play greater role Purup-Eskofot has embarked on a new group-wide strategy under which it will attempt to achieve more from its operation in North and South America. As part of the effort, it will give its office in...