News: Agfa nears Apogee for PDF production

MacWeek, March 9, 1998 by David Morgenstern

Bayer Corp.'s Agfa division expects it has just the ticket for prepress rapid

transit. The company next week will demonstrate its Apogee Publishing

Production System at Seybold Seminars New York 98.

The forthcoming modular, high-end Apogee system will provide a full-featured

Portable Document Format (PDF) work flow, Agfa said.

The architecture, which uses both in-house and third-party technologies,

comprises three levels: Apogee Pilot, a server providing job ticketing, PDF

processing, imposition, trapping and Open Prepress Interface support; Apogee

PDF RIP, a PostScript 3 interpreter; and Apogee PrintDrive, a file manager and

archive server. The company has not set pricing.

The Pilot server will run on Windows NT and is due by the end of June, Agfa

said.

The server will normalize PDF documents and convert PostScript files to PDF;

it will also optionally convert TIFF, CEPS (color electronic prepress system)

and Crossfield formats. The company said Pilot will support a variety of image

settings, including bleeds and in-RIP trapping.

Pilot's ticketing function will manage the entire print job, Agfa said. Users

will be able to assign settings for imposition and control an optional OPI

server, as well as set output options for Agfa's new PostScript 3 RIP. The

server will also be able to output Level 2 to support existing PostScript work

flows.

The PDF work flow offers publishers several advantages, according to John

Harrison, Agfa director of marketing for image-processing systems. Calling the

scheme a "digital master," he said sites can quickly repurpose entire

documents for electronic distribution, or users can select pages for another

output job.

"Last-minute changes such as pricing or schedules can't easily be reflected

back upstream in current work flows," Harrison said. "But with PDF and

just-in-time rasterizing, we have one that lets people create a CD-ROM without

worrying about missing or wrong information."

Apogee's PDF RIP will run on Agfa's Intel Pentium-based Taipan and high-end,

multiprocessing Taipan AX RIP servers (see 08.18.97, Page 11). It will also

run on the company's Mac-based Viper line. At Seybold, Agfa will unveil a new

PostScript 3 Viper RIP, which is expected to cost about $12,000.

The Apogee RIP will support 16-bit screening and ICC color profiles, Agfa

said. The company said processed files can be held on the RIP server pending

client approval and proofing.

Finally, the job will be handled by Agfa's existing PrintDrive server. The

Windows NT software costs about $7,500, and a dual-processor Pentium system is

$25,000. In addition to its printer server functions, the system manages and

archives rasterized files.

The server can handle input from multiple RIP servers, the company said. It

can also handle jobs from older Level 2 RIPs on the network. The TCP/IP system

can be managed remotely with both Mac and Windows clients.

Aimed at helping last-minute changes for computer-to-plate output, PrintDrive

offers several capabilities associated with older film-based work flows. For

example, users can view and edit the screened dots of the RIPed file, check

trapping, or double-burn images before printing.

"PrintDrive gives the flexibility to do what needs to be done in production,"

Harrison said. "The creative environment can handle most changes in PDF, but

there's also a need for production-oriented changes. Operators can use the

same tricks [digitally] as they did with film."

Agfa, a division of Bayer Corp. of Ridgefield Park, N.J., can be reached at

(978) 658-5600 or (800) 879-2432; fax (978) 658-8982; http://www.agfahome.com.