What’s key, says EFI’s Kerry
Moloney, is “having the
equipment that
does the broad
variety of work
the market needs,” as well
as the ability to challenge
their equipment, pushing
the boundaries of the
conventional to attempt
new and different kinds
of printing. “We try to
increase performance
with every release, and we are
keeping up on printer speed, to allow people
to maximize their investment.”
Th e shop desire for greater automation
is being experienced elsewhere as well.
“We see automation and integration
as being the primary trends,” says Kerry
Moloney, product marketing manager
for Fiery wide-format products with
EFI. “People do calculate media and ink
usage today, but do it more manually.
We see people wanting to automate that
process. If you have a system that can
place a print job in a folder and have
it come out the other side in a fully
automated way, that’s very important to
print providers. So automation is something
we see more and more interest in
every day.”
Intriguingly, she adds, automation is
much more advanced in Europe than
in North America. Th ese trends oft en
have much to do with the level of profi t
in jobs and the degree of competition in
the market.
Automation ensures a job goes
through the system automatically,
and to accomplish that there must be
information attached to the job. Th at information
might include what paper the
job is being printed upon and how much
ink is being expended, Moloney says.
“Integration is really about the job
fl owing through the system, and
information about the attributes of that
job going through with it,” she adds. “In
web-to-print, if a job is submitted online,
the person submitting the job chooses
the paper, the copies and the fi nishing
options. What’s happening behind the
scenes is integration. Th e next level
of that is do we want to take that data
about how much ink and how much
paper was used and do we want to
report back on that, or analyze that
data?”
“Integration is about using that data
in other places to give us business
analytics – trends, usage, and operator
data. Th is is the only place this data
resides. If a RIP is running multiple
devices, people are looking at the RIPs
as repositories of business information
data, in addition to garner information
about how the job should be run.”
Greater automation is also seen as
a trend by Ashley Wanlass, senior
marketing specialist with Wasatch
Computer Technology, Achieving superior
color and consistent output will
always be a priority, says Wanlass, “But
currently the hottest trend is automation.
Today’s marketplace demands
increased customization and quick
order turnaround, which can be eased
through automation through the RIP,”
she says.
“RIP software now provides
efficient methods to automatically
process and print jobs. Barcode-driven
workflows, advanced hot folder
features, email status reporting, and
customer HTML interfaces help give
control and transparency throughout
the production process.”
In addition to the need for greater
speed, automation and information,
another trend impacting the industry
centers on new opportunities to print
Digital inkjet printing is now opening up new possibilities focused on textiles – not only for soft
signage and point-of-sale, but also fashion, home decoration, and more, notes Caldera’s Arnaud
Fabre. Caldera has responded to these developments through such products as TextilePro, a RIP
dedicated to textile and fabric printing for functional, long-run decorative, or fast prototyping
applications.
18 Wide-Format & Signage June 2017
products once beyond the reach of
PSPs, says Arnaud Fabre, product manager
with Caldera.
Digital inkjet printing is now opening
up new possibilities focused on textiles
and carton-based media – not only for
soft signage and point-of-sale, but also
fashion, home decoration and corrugated
packaging. Caldera is one RIP maker
responding to these developments
through such products as Textile Pro, a
RIP dedicated to textile printing, he says.
Textile Pro has an intuitive interface
that gives PSPs the assurance designs
and colors will be matched during production.
It enables creation of patterns,
variations and repeats while eliminating
error and waste. Th e resulting workfl
ow is stable, accurate and prepared for
everything from full-bleed decoration,
functional textiles, prototypes or highspeed
runs, due to the incorporation
of swatch and pattern tools, standards
ready color management, and
advanced machine control. Plus, with
its new Caldera V11 core architecture,
Textile Pro is compatible with all major
textile printers, making it a fast choice
for new textile applications.
Finding value-add
Th ere are a number of variables shops
may weigh when considering the
purchase of a RIP. According to Manwaring,
it’s critical that print providers
consider their entire production and
what is needed across the entire range