Digital Ad Lab UK (DAL UK)

June 2008, Apple EBC

Firstly a big thanks to Apple, especially Richard West, for hosting our meeting!

Sponsor update – EFI

Danny Morris emphasised the fact that EFI have a bigger range of products available for this industry than most people think.  The products drive many of the major product developments unveiled at Drupa and EFI has just announced a partnership with FOGRA on a colour management system.  One underlying observation Danny made is that digital print is opening up to a wide range of organisations, small or large, using an example of a local church in his area who have a massive poster campaign running.

Apple – Richard West

Richard gave us an update as to all the recent Apple developments and how these fit with the industry.  He emphasised that they are very happy to take feedback on any product suggestions from current users.  Apple is organising Tech Series Day on Podcast Producer and Final Cut Server on 13th August, please click here for further information.

Paper Characterisation – Jonathan Moore, Conde Nast

The PPA are planning building guidelines about paper characterisation profiles.  They will be opening dialogue with the paper manufacturers and publishers, culminating in a meeting about how you can colour manage certain paper stocks.  DAL will join in so together we can provide a best practice document.  Any other interested parties should email Hannah@leafagency.com.

Colour Management Ad Test 

Andy Psarianos and John Charnock are spearheading a test to determine a process for following a colour managed ad workflow the correct way.  This is a very hot topic at the moment as many publishers and printers make little effort to tell people how to supply files.  We are now competing with many different mediums, so we have to get it right.  In this industry we seem to have inherited practices rather than developed them and now is the time to change that.  The test will take the following format:

Several images will be placed within two variants of PDF files...  The variants will have the same images

Version a  - colour managed data  (original RGB images, already colour corrected etc...)

Version b  - device CMYK data   (images using different methodologies and techniques of colour separation in order to simulate real world advertising material)

The test will be as follows:

    1. Create proofs of both file variants.

    2. Print both variants of files on a variety of printing presses.

Compare results and write report.  Any parties wanting to get involved should email Hannah@leafagency.com.

Drupa Highlights – Andy Knaggs

Andy, the editor of Print Media Management magazine gave us his take on highlights from Drupa, which had 391,000 visitors with 10billion euros of business placed at the show.  Andy felt it was the inkjet and workflow Drupa with highlights including:

• Inkjet printing quality is improving making it faster and more flexible.
• Digital print, a lot going on with the internet having a big influence on print buying.
• New Adobe pdf print engine
• Acrobat 9, richer media experience
• QuarkXPress 8
• New proofing systems from the likes of Epson
• GMG colour management tools
• Touch screen soft proofing solution

Andy also made reference to a Canon Insight Report on Digital Printing Directions, a copy of which can be downloaded by clicking here.

Quark Sponsor Update and QuarkXPress 8

Nick Martin gave an interesting presentation about the latest version of QuarkXPress and its increased features and functionality.  A copy of the presentation can be downloaded by clicking here.

Next meeting

The next DAL meeting will be on 15th October am at Total Print Expo, Earl's Court 2. More information will follow over the coming months.