Pre-drupa press conference in Belgium

The second pre-drupa press conference was held from March 16-18, 2016 at Bruges, Belgium by Duo media. Sonal Khurana, managing editor, Print & Publishing, brings a report.
Attendees to drupa are always eager to know what to expect at this biggest show of the printing and allied industries. Here’s a glimpse into a few more offerings at the show:

Esko, X-Rite Pantone, Enfocus and
MediaBeacon: Inspiration zones for better
packaging and print (Hall 8b/A23)

At drupa, Esko will be showcasing a wide range of innovations together with sister company X-Rite Pantone and subsidiaries Enfocus and MediaBeacon. The main part of their 900sq m stand will consist of six Inspiration Zones that will take visitors through each step of a typical packaging production workflow. Each zone features solutions and key innovations from exhibiting companies. The zones are: Brands, Specification & Briefing; Design; Artwork & Repro; Flexo Platemaking; Printing & Ink Management; and Finishing. Each Inspiration Zone features solutions and key innovations from exhibiting companies. In addition to these Inspiration Zones, Enfocus offerings will be present in the booth and Pantone will occupy a dedicated zone to display and sell its well-known Pantone guides and tools for colour inspiration and design.

Brands, Specification & Briefing Zone will focus on the holistic packaging production process from idea to shelf, connecting stakeholders such as brands, designers, premedia and converters; and At drupa, Esko will be showcasing a wide range of innovations together with sister company X-Rite Pantone and subsidiaries Enfocus and MediaBeacon. The main part of their 900sq m stand will consist of six Inspiration Zones that will take visitors through each step of a typical packaging production workflow. Each zone features solutions and key innovations from exhibiting companies. The zones are: Brands, Specification & Briefing; Design; Artwork & Repro; Flexo Platemaking; Printing & Ink Management; and Finishing. Each Inspiration Zone features solutions and key innovations from exhibiting companies. In addition to these Inspiration Zones, Enfocus offerings will be present in the booth and Pantone will occupy a dedicated zone to display and sell its well-known Pantone guides and tools for colour inspiration and design.

Brands, Specification & Briefing Zone will focus on the holistic packaging production process from idea to shelf, connecting stakeholders such as brands, designers, premedia and converters; and integrating with business systems such as MIS, ERP, PIM, MRM and Content Management. X-Rite will showcase new tools that allow brand owners to select and communicate colour so that it can be consistently achieved across multiple substrates, printing processes, and locations. Featured solutions include X-Rite’s PantoneLIVE digital colour management; Esko WebCenter for project management; and MediaBeacon, the digital asset management company acquired by Esko in 2015.

Design Zone will focus on creating designs that meet event the strictest brand owner’s specifications, quickly and accurately. Featured solutions include Pantone Color Guides (including the new Extended Gamut Guide), X-Rite CAPSURE, X-Rite i1Pro Solutions. ArtiosCAD structural design for packaging and displays, Cape Pack palletization software, Studio Visualizer for graphical packaging design in 3D and Studio Store Visualizer for hyper-realistic retail environment visualization.

Artwork & Repro Zone will focus on ways to produce print-ready artwork efficiently and avoid rework. The solutions showcased in this zone demonstrate how operations can address the larger number of smaller jobs running through prepress by better controlling and streamlining workflows. Among the showcased solutions in the Artwork & Repro Zone will be Esko WebCenter for online collaboration and approval on artwork, WebCenter Content Management, ArtPro+, the new native PDF prepress editor linked to Automation Engine workflow automation software.

Flexo Platemaking Zone will showcase how customers can take control of flexo plate production and achieve faster plate production turnaround times while delivering more consistent flexo plates. On display will be the most exciting innovation in flexo platemaking since the introduction of the CDI (Cyrel Digital Imager): a brand-new integrated flexo imaging and exposing solution, the CDI CRYSTAL 5080 XPS.

Printing and Ink Management Zone will present methods of dealing with the increased complexity of mixed printing environments (digital, flexo, gravure, offset) as well as achieving colour consistency across an ever-growing number of substrates and production locations. Featured solutions will include Esko Equinox software for Extended Gamut printing, X-Rite InkFormulation Software, PantoneLIVE Private Cloud, PantoneLIVE Rationalization Service, ColorCert, eXact Xp and IntelliTrax2.

Finishing Zone will focus on how companies can achieve increased throughput using digital finishing for packaging, sign and display applications. Kongsberg digital cutting solutions address a tangible throughput increase by integrating cutting tables with workflow software for production control.

Enfocus will have its own zone featuring its highly rated software solutions for PDF preflighting and editing and modular workflow automation, including the latest developments with Switch and PitStop and Connect. Enfocus will also show a number of Cloud integrations for their current integrations including PitStop Server subscriptions, Asset Syncing for Switch and a move towards HTML based user interfaces, in order to maximize flexibility and user experience for users. Enfocus experts will be on hand to explain how these solutions can deliver additional efficiencies to new as well as to its existing customers.

Last month, Enfocus announced the availability of the Enfocus Appstore, a co-creation platform where users and developers of EnfocusSwitch could share their knowledge and work. At drupa 2016, Enfocus will be demonstrating the range of flows that can be created using apps from this community-created resource (Hall 08b, A23). The Switch Community is comprised of Switch specialists – including users, integrators and Channel Partners – from around the globe. At the Enfocus Appstore, users can access applications that were developed by this vital community. Users can view information for each available app, including details about the app, compatibility and version information, the name of the creator, screenshots and a link to the support offered by the creator. If a user is interested in an app, he or she can download it and try it free for one month. If he or she likes the application, it can be purchased on a subscription basis. At drupa, Enfocus will provide demonstrations of solutions that are based entirely on the apps that have come from the Enfocus Appstore. In the Pantone store in the booth, designers, prepress and print professionals will be able to explore and purchase the latest Pantone Color Guides and other tools and publications for colour inspiration and design.

Next generation CHILI publish solutions
to debut at drupa 2016 (Hall 7a/F40)

At drupa, CHILI publish will demonstrate how its innovation and market development efforts have resulted in two significant advances for the company: CHILI publisher 5.0 and revolutionary PDF rendering solution called CHILI rendro. On top of showcasing the latest technology, CHILI publish will also share new details on expanded partnerships and provide real-world stories of how their solutions have enabled customer success. Kevin Goeminne, CEO, CHILI publish, says, “When we came to drupa in 2012, we were a young, entrepreneurial company with an innovative solution that we believed would be revolutionary.

Since then, we have grown in every way possible. While we enter drupa 2016 as a larger, more successful organization, we still hold the same commitment to innovation and growth as we did in 2012.”

CHILI rendro fundamentally improves how PDFs are rendered, giving users the most meticulous rendering, streaming and 3D viewing of PDF’s onto any platform that supports the HTML5 canvas. When files require urgent approval, consultation or editing, CHILI rendro ensures there are no barriers to fast, accurate communication and collaboration.

The company will also showcase CHILI publisher 5.0, the next generation of its online editor. This release includes a range of new features, including a new user interface that aligns with the way users are editing documents today. CHILI publisher 5.0 also includes support for Asian languages, reflecting the company’s expansion into the Asian marketplace.

Moreover, CHILI publish will be kicking off a “Spicy Stars” campaign that highlights stories of customers who have used CHILI publisher to grow their operations.

CHILI publish is a company that was founded on innovation. Its ongoing investment in research and development – combined with indepth market knowledge – has resulted in the creation of the cutting edge solutions that will be on display at drupa, where the company will debut CHILI rendro.

Omni-presence of Cerm at
partner booths (Hall 17)

At drupa, Cerm will demonstrate that their solution is more than MIS and drives the complete automation for narrow web printing. During the event Cerm will show its community engagement through partnerships with exhibiting industry leaders like Chili Publish, ESKO, Heidelberg – Gallus, HP, Xeikon and many others.

Cerm will release an important new versions of its digital shopfront Web4Labels. Based upon the remarks of the W4L user group, Cerm decided to entirely re-engineer the existing tool from scratch. Responsive Web Design will enable the use of any device: mobile phone, tablet, portable or desktop computers. Flexible information grids will give the printer the possibility to customize the information for every individual customer. These features will lower the threshold for customers to participate in the printers’ workflow via the Web.

Since Heidelberg acquired Cerm in 2011, they rebranded the Cerm software as Prinect Business Manager to make it an integrated part of the Prinect Software Suite for the offset market. This intensive collaboration has lead to two new products, shown at drupa. Next to the interface to the LabelFire 340 DFE, including a 1-up workflow, there is a new automated ganging functionality where both MIS and Prinect Prepress are communicating intensively to obtain the best possible ‘ganged’ imposition for Wet Glue Labels, printed on sheets. Brussels, Belgium-based Asahi Photoproducts, a pioneer in flexographic photopolymer plate development, will showcase a full range of flexographic printing plate solutions to Drupa 2016.

Asahi Photo products focuse on
quality flexo printing (Hall 11/A60)

Asahi will be showing their full portfolio of flexo plate solutions as well as some exciting new products. Asahi offers a full range of flexographic plates featuring pinning technology for clean transfer. This has been engineered to transfer all remaining ink to the print substrate due to the photopolymer plates having a lower surface energy than other plates on the market. Not only does this deliver stunning graphic quality, but it also improves overall production efficiencies due to reduced makeready waste and fewer press wash-ups.

Some of the new products at drupa will include a new AFP-DCV digital flexo plate, designed to produce Deep ColourVibrance prints for water- and solvent-based inks in flexible packaging applications. Deep ColourVibrance is delivered by using a unique polymer solution, giving the best balance between highlight dots and deep vibrant colours within one plate.

There will also be a new AWP-DEW plate solution, incorporating the renowned quality properties of AWP DEF plates with the addition of a faster plate processing speed, making this plate ideal for larger format flexible packaging operations with higher plate throughput. It has the same consistent plate dimensional stability vital for fixed colour palette printing, delivering significant quality and benefits of overall equipment effectiveness.