Guildhall Press, has a new workflow solution in its pre-press department, the StudioRIP and Enfocus Pitstop Pro software.
The software packages were supplied and installed by Prepress UK, the pre-press specialists based in Cheltenham and Brighton.
Matt Course, production manager, said, ‘The Enfocus Pitstop Pro has been the first major plus. It allows us to pre-flight files that come in from our customers: an automatic check and fix regarding fonts, conversion of RGB images, and correcting page sizes – it examines the validity of the files in other words, and makes adjustments where needed. We used to spend an awful lot of time examining customer files manually – they can send you all sorts of interesting things these days! Pitstop has saved us a lot of time.
‘Then files go on to production, and StudioRIP takes over. The improved speed of production through StudioRIP has probably been the most obvious improvement: faster plate production and faster printing of proofs. Prepress UK also helped us sort out profiles for our presses. We are now producing plates for each specific press and getting significantly more consistent colour printing as a result.’
Guildhall Press runs a five colour Heidelberg Speedmaster 52, a two colour GTO, and a two colour Roland press, and prints a wide variety of general commercial work.
Prepress UK has created profiles for the presses based on ISO12647-2 colour standards. ‘This points us very much in the right direction for the future,’ added Mr Course. “Customers are not speaking to us right now about ISO12647-2, but I have a feeling that they will be doing in the not too distant future.
StudioRIP has been configured to drive the company’s existing Screen PT-R computer-to-plate device and an Epson proofer with clients on two studio Mac’s allowing seamless imposition, hard and soft proofing, interpretation, screening, and plate output from the studio. There is also a third client being run by the production manager on his laptop so he can monitor work progress, and even queue plates for output if needed, without interrupting work in the studio.
After installation Guildhall’s proofs are now certified as accurate emulations of ISO12647-2 (Fogra39) and plates are calibrated to produce ISO12647-2 dot gain on press, making it easy to match proof to press output using an industry standard.
