anyone had try different workflow before?
how about comparing trueflow 3,prinergy,nexus,artpro,apogee......
any suggestion/opinion on these workflows?

Hi Color Prepress,

Sorry took so long to reply, I got bogged down on new installs lately and allot going on at the plant. I had to add Scitex Brisque onto this list because it's got such a huge base that it's hard to leave it out. There are several thousand Brisque Licenses out there, for good reason.

I saw the TrueFlow at the EFI Connect 2004 show in Vegas last year. It looked very nice from what I saw there. They had a true PDF 1.5 workflow without a behind the scenes postscript conversion. Most features looked frankly allot like other solutions but there was one feature that I thought was pretty cool. They had taken Dainippon Screen's AI (artificial intelligence) color engine and embedded that at the rip. Optionally allowing a user to make that part of the workflow steps. So, one could have highlights, shadows, ink limit, gray balance, etc all corrected on the fly as pages go through. Now, if you have ever used the DS Scanners with that AI technology, you know that's some great color technology that is really a hands free color improvement on images it analyses. That was cool.

What workflow are you using?
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JoePostscript -- support administrator

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Still in CTF and no any workflow.
Currently got use pitstop and distiller, flightcheck 5.12 to help in production.
Looking in workflow and CTP solution.
Agfa-apogee
Screen-Trueflow
Creo-Prinergy Evo
............

Welcome color_prepress, what rip and filmsetter do you use for CTF? Are you using a trapping rip, or application trapping? Pitstop, and FlightCheck 5.5 is good for sure. FlightCheck 5.5.2, uh oh, they did it again, I need to get that one. I had just recently updated to FlightCheck 5.51. I hope they fixed the ability to list PMS colors in an illustrator CS eps file placed into Adobe InDesign CS. With an illustrator CS eps file placed into Adobe InDesign CS you can have like 20 PMS colors and FlightCheck 5.5.1 says you are OK, lists nothing but the ones in the InDesign document itself. Which prompts another question? Why can't InDesign list those colors like a Quark Xpress document will, iff placed, Quark automatically adds those colors into the Quark Express color pallette. I guess it's that great integration of Adobe products...

Althogh I am not running TF3 I am running TF2.1 I have been running it for 2 years, and before that was a total digital virgin, all jobs were supplied to me in film. I viewed the other system, Creo,Agfa Screen, and Screen was bottom of my list, had 4 dems on it, seemed very complicated for a digital virgin, all the others seemed a lot more straight forward. But here I am running TF. I have seen TF3 at a couple of exhibitions, and it looks great! Trying to get my boss to invest in an upgrade. Would be interested to hear if anyone is running TF3 though.
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I am a Trueflow convert! I Love my job.

FREE PreFlight, 500+ users since 10 days released

Hello, just letting you know that FreeFlight is relesed and you can download it on the FreeFlight Download forum. Must be ( member + 1 post ) to get the download. We are at over 500 users since 10 days released and the software is doing well. I have been using it for a few months before release.
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JoePostscript -- support administrator

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Wind Turbine Buyer's Guide


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I have had the experience of many Trueflow installations and Creo.

Trueflow is an excellent overall system. You can add many options. The system is quite easy to use overall. It does take several weeks to master. The Platewriter is a superb unit, quite fast. I felt the problems occurred mainly with my customers inability to understand the PDF world as a whole, led us to manage the PDF workflow differently.

Creo has a different approach to the way the plate is handled. The software is simpler to setup and is a user friendly interface. But the machine is not as quick and seems to require closer maintainance and service. Tech support is a issue with both. Creo tends to nickle and dime you, but is much friendlier than Screen, with Screen talking down to you. Kodak has bought Creo and the downsizing of Kodak has changed the way Creo deals with customers. Screen doesn't charge differently for amounts of jobs queued, or speed of ripping. Creo does to the tune of $5 grand for each change. After the sale of course. Sales has a way of cheapening the unit, but at a cost later.....

But, both do a great job at the end of the day. But the differences are quite apparent.