Every once in awhile I like to shut off my brain (Yes, there's a rumour I have one) and surf the web looking to post news in prepress and throw links to other people's website. Anything to knock Wikipedia out of the first spot for the Google ranking of the word "prepress." Sure it's a bit of a hopeless mission but it doesn't stop me trying.
First thing I noticed, not much is happening in the world of commercial litho, except a fair bit of whining here and there, some of started by your truly. But let's not go there today, like I said, the brain switch is firmly in the off position. Oh sure, Canon bought out Ricoh but to a software guy like me, so what? Come on, what fun software packages have the digital print guys ever contributed to the industry? Name one.
But when it comes to packaging, ah that's a different story. Should have listened to Mom when she said "DJ - Packaging! That's the future!" But no, I went into making film for commercial litho. Hey, you should have seen my stock portfolio in 2001.
Anyhow, back to the news at hand: Check out this vendor: Astute Graphics. They make this neat (and cheap) little plug-in for Illustrator that allows you to edit bitmap images in Illustrator. It's called Phantasm, yours for maybe $50. Really, I'm not doing it justice, you should go to their web site and check it out.
Second of all, check out the packaging and essentials website. Now this is a wordpress site that essentially takes press releases and posts them up and doesn't allow any comments (boo!) but oh my, check the sidebars. Lots of interesting links to niche web sites (Look! Bison Gear & Engine has a Facebook page).
You could spend hours checking out the web sites listed there.
Need Supplies? Check out Brother DR-600 Drum Unit (Brother DR600)
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http://www.pr.com/press-release/203536
For release 1/20/10
Head: Stop the letterpresses
Sub: Innovative software numbers jobs with half the setup and impressions
BLOSSVALE, N.Y. – In a time when fund-raising, invoicing and accounting are absolutely critical, the digital age has finally caught up with demand for securely numbered printing.
Harvest American is announcing the release of “Number Machine Pro,” intuitive software that allows production and numbering of jobs in a single pass on any digital machine. This feature cuts setup time and impressions in half, making older methods of numbering archaic.
In the early days of printing, numbering machines were small mechanical cylinders with various quantities of raised, mirror-image numerals and prefixes. They were positioned on frames mounted to letterpresses. Rotating arms picked up printed materials, like invoices or NCR paper, and smashed the sheets into the numbering machines. Each impression placed a unique number on the paper and then advanced to the next number or repeated as necessary. The process was incredibly complicated and took years of training to master.
Now, “Number Machine Pro” – installed on a Windows-based computer connected to a digital printer – is all that’s needed to completely replace numbering letterpresses. This software is so intuitive that most users, even ones without numbering experience, can begin producing in just minutes. Even complex numbering jobs can be mastered quickly with the foolproof print preview functions.
Another unique feature of “Number Machine Pro” is its ability to print and number a job at the same time. Errors due to misalignment, incorrect loading and paper jams are eliminated, and expensive counter clicks are cut in half. Simply import any PDF, position the heads on the interactive display and set the numbering values. The job is ready to go in minutes.
Additional advantages of “Number Machine Pro” include:
• Works with all paper sizes.
• Places as many different numbers on a page as you wish.
• Gives full control over step, skip, repeat, position, rotation, preface, suffix, and zero pad.
• Unlimited variety of fonts, sizes, prefixes and colors.
• Individual numbers can be angled in any direction.
• Print preview shows how documents will be numbered, without wasting ink!
• Supports standard and metric measurements.
Harvest American has already made a name for itself with customers who have tried out its original “Number Machine” and “Raffle Ticket” software packages.
Dave Farnsworth, Harvest American’s CEO, said, “Stick with the original. We were the creators of the first commercially available Number Machine software a decade ago. Everyone else is just a copy.
“I’ve owned a print shop in upstate New York for more than 30 years, and believe me, I know numbering! I’m positive that ‘Number Machine Pro’ is the product you want to have running the numbering jobs in your shop!”
A free copy is available for download at http://www.number-it.com. To learn more, e-mail: service@number-it.com or call 1-800-944-9526 (USA, Canada & Puerto Rico), 0207-096-1969 (U.K.) or 315-245-1122 (all others); or fax: 315-245-7029.
Editors: Company CEO Dave Farnsworth is available for interview by calling 315-245-1122. E-mail lrowlands@harvestamerican.com to request high-resolution images.