New Dry back feature
Many
printers ignore dryback. They assume that what they print on the day is what is
important. Whereas the customer is concerned with the Color when they receive
the job.pressSIGN 7 introduces a faster and easier way to produce the right Color
for the customer. The new dry back in 7 provides a much easier way of applying
dry back calculations in pressSIGN.
What is dry back?
Dry back is the change the Color
shift takes place from the time that the ink is first laid on the press sheet
to the time that it is received by the customer. Different print processes
produce more or less of a Color shift.
Dry back for Spot colors
For the first time pressSIGN will include spot Colors as
well as process Colors in the dry back calculations. pressSIGN’s Dynamic
Density Adjustments (DDA) technology will show the operator how to adjust the
ink density to get the best performance for when the ink has fully dried back
for all Colors.
pressSIGN 7 shows you the visual
difference between Wet and Dry measurements as well as the target. You can
select the Ink & Paper and you’ll see a list of the appropriate measured
jobs, both wet and dry. Select the jobs for which you want to apply dry back.
You can see whether the Color bar matches and decide whether to merge the data
from existing data, add new wet and dry data or ignore specific Colors from the
dryback calculation. pressSIGN 7 takes into account the volume of ink that was
used in the DDA calculation, because the degree of dryback varies depending on
the volume of ink laid down.
Ink Substitution
pressSIGN is used by many large
packaging companies that are constantly changing spot Colors from one job to
the next. They want to run with the same Color bar all the time. In the latest
version of pressSIGN they will be able to swap out the CMYK Colors for spots
and pressSIGN will happily measure and report. This new feature will save many
companies a significant amount of time not having to swap out multiple Color
bars.
Job Templates
The new template feature is another
time saving feature, saving users the need to type in the same information
repeatedly.
In the new job window create a job
with all the features you want and save this as a template that you can use
over and over again. No more duplication of typing, just add the new job name.
Job templates can be edited so they can be refreshed with updated settings.
The new job Templates make Automode
that much more effectively and will be used more extensively in later releases
of pressSIGN. See below on how Templates are used with automode functionality.
Automode
The new Automode feature enables
pressSIGN to monitor a hot folder and automatically pick up the file and
populate pressSIGN. The first introduction of Automode is for SVF files only.
That is files coming
from Intellitrax, EasyTrax and Komori PDCS. Working with
Templates pressSIGN Automode can pick up the project name in the SVF file and
this is associated with a pressSIGN Template. pressSIGN then complete all the
job details.
Using pressSIGN Automode operators
don’t need to duplicate job set ups in both their closed loop systems and in
pressSIGN making for a faster and easier set up and working environment.
The Automode defaults window allows
for a default Template to be used if none is specified within the SVF file. If
a Job has the same name as a previous job it allows users to either Append the
new measurements to the old job or Create a new Job with an additional number.
From the client select the hot folder to monitor. Jobs can come in from
multiple presses to this one hot folder and pressSIGN will swap between jobs.
If there is an error in the process of importing the job
into pressSIGN a chat message can be sent to a logged in user.
Hot Folder aliasing with wild
cards
To
ensure the most efficient processing of files via Automode aliasing has been
created for spot Color and templates. In other words if the file contains a
Project Name entitled ISOCoated and we have a template entitled Coated then
pressSIGN can select the appropriate Template. This enables users to stick to
their original Project names and apply the appropriate Template in pressSIGN.
Aliasing
is even more important when converting the spot Color names that maybe used in
the SVF configuration into spot colors that can be recognised in pressSIGN.
For example the SVF file may call Pantone + 346 C pms 346. Using standard
wildcard formatting it is easy to make this kind of conversion for the whole
Pantone library. When set up, all Colors with a pms prefix will be converted to
the correct Pantone numbers.
Sitegroups
Users
who manage multiple sites either in the capacity of a print or brand manager
can now group sites together in order to better manage the data they are
receiving or delivering to these sites.
Sites
can be in many different sitegroups. For example, the administrator may want
someone to organise all the printers in a particular region and all the digital
printers across multiple regions. The administrator can then assign management
rights to different people to be responsible for these various sitegroups.
Server Monitor application
pressSIGN
7 comes with an additional application that allows users to check that the
server is running correctly. This application can monitor the server locally or
across the internet to ensure that the remote server is available to synch
jobs.
The Server Monitor is also there to
automatically backup the database. The server monitor is set to back up a
Daily, Weekly and Yearly basis. This means that after 1 year you will have 7
daily backups, 12 monthly backups and 1 yearly backup. If for any reason the
database gets corrupted your backups will be there so that you can restore the
data quickly and easily.
We have many clients that have hundreds of thousands of
jobs in their database. When you have a database with this many jobs it becomes
unwieldy. The server monitor offers an option to delete jobs older than a
defined date. Managing this If your database is getting too large then the
server monitor can be set to delete files older than a defined date. It’s easy
to set up and will work in the background with no further human intervention.
Auto open jobs with
URL links
pressSIGN 7 allows external
systems to generate a URL link that will open a specific job.
A typical example of a link
would look like presssign://command=openjob&job=xxxxx. Auto open job is
designed for MIS or similar database systems to be able to link to pressSIGN.
Database managers would find the creation of this type of URL link very easy
to set up.
We have introduced this URL feature
into the web browser reports that are available with pressSIGN Mobile. For
example, from the web browser reports create a Graph, select a job and then
click on the pressSIGN icon (see arrow on the image). When you click the icon
it will directly open the job.
New search and filtering in pressSIGN Mobile
Open pressSIGN Mobile or the Web Browser Reports directly from Pro or Trends Client and pressSIGN 7 offers a new ability to search and filter all your pressSIGN Jobs.
The new searching facility allows for the most sophisticated filtering facilities. Have a look at the example below:
In this example we have a created and saved a search filter called France
and Leicester (Abbott). The first filter is for the Country, France and all jobs that have the target ISO
12647-2 Coated Black Backing v5.
We have then added a new set of conditions,
The site is Leicester, and the client is Abbott, and the press is K6-2. These
two sets or filters are connected by the OR statement.
This will result in the filter delivering all jobs that
have either condition one or condition two. Having this level of filtering
allows users to access all data in their database quickly and easily.
Customer Reference field
Version
7 of pressSIGN offers the uses an additional field for users to fill in. They
may receive a customer reference number that their client wants to see when the
job is uploaded to their web site. The new customer reference field is where
such an option should be input. See screen image below.
GRACol, Japan Color and ISO
installation.
Users
have the option of installing different international targets when they
initially launch pressSIGN. Instead of only one configuration users can pick
from GRACol, ISO 12647 or Japan Color. Choosing these one or more of these
options will also effect the set up of default color bars that are in the
system. For example selecting GRACol will mean the default color bars installed
will have 50, 40 40 for the 50% gray balance etc.
Selecting
GRACol will install GRACol 2006 as well as the 7 CRPCs of ISO 15339. CRPC 6 is
the same as GRACol 2013.
If you
are an exisiting pressSIGN user then you will have to install these new target
standards manually.
For Mac users go to Applications and right click on
the pressSIGN 7 Icon, go to ‘Show Package Contents’, Resources, G7 Charts,
select the icv files that you require and copy them to a location like the
Desktop. From pressSIGN go to New Job or Job Settings and import the icv files
(press targets you require) and then make any adjustments to tolerances and
scoring that you might want to make.
For Windows Users life is much simpler. Go to
pressSIGN Job Settings or New Job and import a new standard from your
pressSIGN folder/Resources/Charts/G7 Charts.
Manage Clients, Users, Clients,
Color Bars
Many
users find that after using pressSIGN for a number of years they may end up
with a long list of press targets or clients that are no longer appropriate.
pressSIGN 7 has resolved this issue.
Go to
Edit -> Manage Lists and select either Standard (press targets), Ink &
Paper, Press, Color Bar, User or Client. When you select any of the above you
can untick the item and it will not appear in the Open Job or Job Settings
Window.
Managing the lists like this enables you to recover the
selection should you need it in the future. Please see the screen shot below.
