As a part of SII's continuing change to a slimmer, more competitive, true systems integrator, Scoop II Version 1.1 takes PDF input and converts it into EPS format with a preview, facilitating the placement of PDFs on pages being paginated with the usual OPI technology.

Scoop II needs a Sun server running Solaris 2.5.1 or higher. It comes with a built-in SQL database, and is bundled with Adobe Acrobat 3.0. Auto-detection and conversion of PDF, TIFF, DCS 1 and 2 and JPEGs worked well in the demo, and Scoop works fine with PostScript levels 1 and 2.

With this product, SII at least has a seat aboard the PDF workflow bus as it cruises toward the millennium.

With a PDF file of the entire ad layout of a publication done in Managing Editor's Ad Layout System 2.1, anyone with a browser can take a look at the ad layout. The manager doesn't even have to be in the office -- at the 19th hole, he or she can just jump on the Web and see if everything looks satisfactory.

Now, PDF workflow can be almost anywhere there is a computer with a connection to the Web.

At last, Quark has recognized PDF as a trackable database asset, bringing with it better and more robust integration of the database into Quark and the Quark Publishing System (QPS). The database will definitely be hunky, Oracle 8-style.

By keeping better track of a variety of digital assets, including PDF files, Quark seems to have assured itself of a place in the digital publishing millennium. Precisely how all this will fit into Quark's suite of products could be more evident in the next several months, when QuarkDMS will be released "as early as the end of 1998," Quark said.

By taking advantage of the true multiprocessing ability of the NT platform, as many as 99 processing channels may be set up for the most complex file processing requirements. Cross-platform capability is enhanced by MediaFactory's ability to automatically convert Macintosh-specific characters such as curly quotes into a readable form on both Mac and Windows platforms. On an NT Server, this requires Macintosh services to be enabled.

PDF files are no problem in this "factory" environment, which amounts to a mini-version of a wire service for any organization's digital assets, with maximum capabilities.

OneVision is actually a German company that set up shop in the United States to make a marketing push with tools for the control of pre-press workflow. And these tools are cool. Developed in NextStep, the quite viable remnant of Steve Jobs' job before his Apple comeback, one could say that DigiServer and DigiScript go hand-in-glove to whip that PDF workflow into a frenzy of correctness so jobs just sail through the RIP.

DigiServer looks at the incoming data for correctness and completeness. The good files are passed on for RIPing, the bad files go into a folder for correction with DigiScript. Find that bad PostScript command, or that sour blend or wrong spot color, then DigiScript's three modules -- Image, Type or Art -- can be used for on-the-spot corrections.

And here's the really good part: In a continuation of a trend toward eliminating old divisions between pre-press and press, a super last-minute change to an ad, photo or headline can be done right in DigiScript, just before the press runs. Think of the ability to make changes on a negative without having to go back and recreate the file that created that negative.

In tomorrow's computer-to-plate production paradigm, the person with DigiScript will be the final pair of eyes, making those last corrections and changes.

This automation doesn't come cheap, but by yesterday's pricing standards it's actually quite reasonable. The DigiServer software for automatic checking, repairing and conversion is $15,500. The DigiScript application to handle the manual fixing is $13,000.

They run on Intel, Sun SPARC and Hewlett-Packard computers, and support network clients from Novell, UNIX, AppleTalk and Windows NT and 95 -- in other words, the gamut of today's newspaper systems. The operator doesn't need to know PostScript, just production. Set up production parameters for your system, and let the PC do the heavy lifting.

Europe doesn't have a monopoly in this arena:

Output Manager NT now supports PDF as a part of the integration and driving of various RIPs and imagers. It will convert PostScript to PDF for archiving and web-based display as well as a PDF output option that permits OPI replacement of PDF images.

PDF images are becoming an increasingly large presence in publication workflow because of the scalability and transportability of PDF files. As long as PostScript retains its lock on modern newspaper output, preflight applications will be needed to check and fix errors before risking an output device lockup at deadline time. The ability to fine-tune these PostScript and PDF files right up to deadline is where the most interesting developments are happening.

As the digital age in newspapers finally reduces everything to ones and zeroes, so it blurs the distinctions between those old divisions, editorial and back shop. PDF workflow aids are another big step into that developing gray area.

Output issues

Now in version 3.3, Flightcheck can scan the file, then provide you with a description of problems it detected, then go right to the problem in the native application to correct it, with the aid of the suggestions from Flightcheck.

The company got its start as a Quark XTension provider, but has broadened its product line to become a pre-press workflow solutions company. Flightcheck runs on Macintoshes and Windows-based machines as well, and will now check documents created in Quark 4.0.

If your production workflow includes both Quark and PDF documents, Flightcheck can quickly provide an extra, electronic set of eyes to examine these documents before they are sent off to be RIPed.

Purifire can be added to PowerGate OPI, the company's Windows NT Server-based OPI application. Wizards, those Microsoft installation assistants that know where everything goes, are used extensively to aid installation, setup and system configuration. Point-and-click on-line help is available at all times.

The strengths of Purifire are in its ability to generate device-neutral PostScript, its Macintosh-like drag-and-drop interface with hot folders that can hold various job queues, and its flexibility to convert PDF on-the-fly to PostScript, EPS, TIFF or DCS.

PowerGate OPI requires a PC with Windows NT Server pre-loaded. A 166 megahertz Pentium with 32 megabytes of Dram and a one-gigabyte disk drive is the minimum recommended configuration, which is an inexpensive hardware setup in 1998.

Opinions may vary as to whether PostStrip is the "ultimate assembly tool" in the full pagination of a newspaper, but it does use PDF technology to allow advertising, editorial and production departments to work separately, without holding up RIPing the page until the final item has been received.

In the PostStrip workflow, the ad department builds and places ads on a publication's pages, which are then pre-RIPed to a PostScript file, leaving the editorial spaces to be filled in.

The same thing happens in editorial, with a PostScript file being generated. After both partial pages are processed into a PDF, PostStrip goes to work, sensing that the ad and editorial versions of the pages are present and creating a composite PDF of the page, as well as properly handling and separating the color images (ad and news) for those pages.

Entire pages don't have to wait on one last item, and PostStrip handles the dirty work of melding ad and editorial space. To use PostStrip you need to have a system that can use PDF technology, print with PostScript and communicate via TCP/IP.

Lazer-Fare asserts that PostStrip can be tailored to incorporate most front-end editorial and ad tracking systems. This could be a PDF workflow workhorse from a company that serves as the exclusive Canadian dealer for Baseview Products Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich.

PDF workflow is nothing new for Monotype, which has been an Adobe Systems developer since the introduction of PostScript. It's no surprise then that its Adobe-based RIPs support PostScript 3. RIP Express gives PostScript 3 capability to Sun and NT-based workstations and servers. A PDF file dropped into a folder on a Macintosh or PC client is rapidly RIPed.

MSG3 is a complete OPI and database solution for graphics which handles the usual functions. It includes the ability to convert a completed PostScript page to PDF, which can be easily printed, or transmitted and stored at a remote site.

These people know their PostScript.

Delivery issues
What PostStrip does for overall workflow, AdXChange from Cascade Systems Inc. of Andover, Mass., does for digital ad delivery.

An extension to Cascade's DataFlow advertising system, AdXChange serves as a collection and checking area for digitally delivered ads, in PDF, Epfs, TIF or several other formats. AdXChange then generates OPI files for use in pagination programs, and makes PDF proofs for distribution on the Web and e-mail or fax.

Corrections are uploaded and then automatically linked to the original ad, and both advertisers and production staff are notified. A web browser is all that's needed to approve ads in this system.

-- George Powell

Adobe Systems Inc.,
(408) 536-6000,
e-mail: cosimini@adobe.com;
Autologic Information International,
(805) 498-9611,
e-mail: rmedina@autoiii.com;
Cascade Systems Inc.,
(978) 749-7000,
e-mail: jan@cascadenet.com;
Lazer-fare Media Services Ltd.,
(204) 452-5023,
e-mail: m_burt@lazerfare.mb.ca;
Managing Editor Inc.,
(215) 886-5662,
e-mail: mleister@maned.com;
Markzware Software,
(949) 756-5100,
e-mail: pr@markzware.com;
Monotype Systems Inc.,
(847) 427-8800,
e-mail: jlally@monoexpress.com;
One Vision Inc.,
(412) 741-4811,
e-mail: thomas@one-vision.com;
Pre-Press Image Technologies Inc.,
(603) 226-3660,
e-mail: johnc@prepressimage.com;
Quark Inc.,
(303) 894-8888,
e-mail: info@quark.com;
The Software Construction Company,
(770) 457-7661,
e-mail: leef@swcc.com;
System Integrators Inc.,
(916) 929-9481,
e-mail: norlin@sii.com.

From THE COLE PAPERS, July 1998, Copyright © 1998, All Rights Reserved.