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Print pros line up for Drupa 2000

The big German print show draws Apple and a host of third-party Mac developers.
Written by Joe LiPetri, Contributor
Digital technologies were in the limelight as Drupa 2000, the world's largest printing and graphics trade show, opened Thursday in Düsseldorf, Germany. Some 400,000 attendees are expected for the event, which runs for two weeks.

Apple Computer Inc.'s booth showcases the company's key graphics technologies: FireWire, USB, ColorSync, AppleScript, QuickTime and, of course, Mac OS X. Apple plans to demonstrate Mac applications for cross-media publishing, package design, proofing, color management, PDF workflows and prepress operations such as OPI, imposition and trapping.

Other leading Mac developers at the show include Quark Inc., which is touting QuarkXPress 5.0, which is scheduled to ship at the end of the year with new table and layer functions as well as HTML, XML and PDF export features.

Attendees can also see several yet-to-be-released programs, including eStage, a database-driven catalog publishing package, and QuarkWrapture, a 3D package-design program. In addition, Quark is demonstrating a media-independent publishing workflow that combines QuarkXPress with Quark DMS, a digital-asset management system, and avenue.quark, an XML-export utility.

Adobe Systems Inc., in addition to demonstrating InDesign 1.5 and other graphics packages, is inviting visitors to print customized four-page exhibitor booklets using the new Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML). Created by the Print On Demand Initiative (PODi), a nonprofit organization made up of leading digital print firms, PPML is an open standard designed to increase the use of variable-data digital printing.

The demonstration employs Adobe's imaging technology and PPML/PDF interpreter engine, Pageflex's Persona variable-content publishing software, EFI's Fiery EX2000 variable data server, and Xerox's DocuColor 2060 digital press.

Digital printing is a big theme this year. Benny Landa, president and CEO of digital press manufacturer Indigo, described Drupa 2000 as "the digital printing Olympics."

Indigo is showing the Ultrastream 2000, a 68-ppm digital press, and the Ultrastream 4000, which uses two print engines to print 136 color pages per minute. Indigo is also demonstrating the Ebony, a black-and-white model that offers 800-by-2400-dpi output, and a Web-based variable-data printing system that uses the MediaFlex.com e-commerce system.

A main attraction in Xerox's 66,000-square-foot exhibit space is the new DocuColor 2000 series of digital color presses. Expected to begin shipping late in the second quarter, the DocuColor 2060 and 2045 models (with respective speeds of 60 and 45 ppm) produce 600-dpi print quality and handle a broad range of light and heavy papers.

Xerox is also previewing its next-generation digital press, the "Futurecolor." The system is said to take a modular approach to system design and will be capable of producing offset-quality, full-color booklets, catalogs, magazines, brochures, manuals and newsletters.

NexPress Solutions (a joint venture of Heidelberg and Kodak) unveiled its widely anticipated NexPress 2100 digital color press. Expected to ship next year, the NexPress 2100 features 600-dpi "DryInk" (xerographic) imaging technology and prints on 13.8 x 18.5-inch sheets at a rated speed of 70 ppm. It includes variable-data features and is driven by Adobe's Extreme PostScript/PDF software.

Karat Digital Press announced the commercial launch of its four-up direct-imaging offset press, the 74 Karat. A joint development between press manufacturer KBA and prepress-systems maker CreoScitex, the $990,000 system uses a laser to image waterless plates at variable resolutions from 1,524 to 3,556 dpi.

Banta Integrated Media is demonstrating variable-data printing technology in Datamerge 4.0, which allows QuarkXPress users to use standard databases to create personalized printed pieces.

Markzware is highlighting two new preflight products. MarkzNet is a Web-based system that allows content creators to submit projects to production vendors via FTP sites with customizable preflight controls. MarkzScout 2.0, an upgrade of Markzware's automated preflighting/publishing-workflow, offers several new features, including the ability to create PDFs from native files, expanded FlightCheck and Photoshop action points, and a "Job Flattening" tool.

Imation is showing several digital-proofing and color-management technologies. The company's Matchprint digital-proofing software and media transform HP DesignJet ColorPro GA, Canon BJC-8500, Epson Stylus Pro 5000 and 7000, and large-format HP DesignJet 2000 printers into digital color-proofing systems. Imation is also showing Verifi, software that allows accurate colors to be displayed on Web sites.

X-Rite is demonstrating a system that allows files with measured color values to be transmitted across the Internet, ensuring accurate color calibration between remote locations. The company, best known as a manufacturer of color-measuring devices, has also devised a method of producing miniature color bars in the non-image area of a press sheet that include all of the color data needed to make ICC profiles.

PDF-related technologies are well-represented. Enfocus Software is previewing new features in its PitStop preflight and editing plug-in for Adobe Acrobat. These include new color conversion functions and the ability to repurpose PDF print documents for use on the Internet.

Farrukh Systems launched Imposition Publisher 4.1, but is also previewing forthcoming releases. Version 4.5, which will be available later this year, will offer automation and workflow-integration features, and Version 5 -- scheduled for release in early 2001 -- will impose native PDF pages.

Stay tuned to ZDNet News' Apple/Mac channel for coverage from the floor of Drupa 2000.

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