Workflow with brains
Fujifilm’s XMF cross-media workflow is the brains behind the company’s production management offering for the coming years. We look at the benefits that version 2.0 brings to both offset and digital printers.
Officially launched in the UK at Total Print! Expo in October, XMF 2.0 has a wide range of new features that make it ideal for driving multiple output devices at sites where maximum productivity and efficiency are key.
XMF is unique in being built from the ground up around JDF and the Adobe PDF Print Engine and so is able to exploit the flexibility and performance enabled by these industry-standard technologies to the full, rather than having to attempt to accommodate them within an outdated architecture. With Fujifilm's image processing, imposition and intelligent automation technologies also built-in, XMF 2.0 improves quality control across multiple output devices and print processes, increasing efficiency and productivity while giving printers a simple way to ensure colour consistency between digital and litho print.
XMF 2.0 boasts an array of new features for advanced performance. A new version of XMF C-Fit, Fujifilm's automated intelligent image enhancement module, allows images - including those embedded within PDF documents - to be analysed and processed without requiring operator intervention. XMF C-Fit can correct a wide range of common image problems, including incorrect exposure and high-contrast images with poor shadow or highlight detail. White balance errors can be remedied through light source recognition, and skin tones are automatically detected and improved.
XMF C-Fit has a unique method of performing RGB-to-CMYK colour conversion that retains more of the feel of RGB originals than standard ICC-based conversions, achieved by maximising the available gamut of the output device using non-linear colour mapping. XMF C-Fit allows printers to enhance their service to customers by improving supplied images and thus printing results that are of higher quality than expected.
PDF goes variable
Another new technology incorporated in XMF 2.0 is version 2 of the Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE), announced at drupa. With this development, Fujifilm continues to lead the way with the adoption of APPE, having also been the first company to release a workflow implementation of APPE v1 in 2006. Version 2 of APPE is particularly relevant to short-run print as it includes a number of features aimed at optimising variable data within a native PDF-based workflow, but is able to combine these with conventional ‘static' pages in a single workflow.
APPE 2 uses the same underlying technology to render pages as Acrobat and the Creative Suite applications (including the recently introduced CS4), ensuring integrity between the designer's intention and what is actually printed, whether on a digital or offset press. The technology also allows for late-stage PDF editing, accurate previewing and content corrections made at the prepress stage for maximum flexibility and productivity. Rasterised PDF capability in conjunction with XMF 2.0's JDF support allows colour managed RIPped files to be produced and previewed for digital press output, improving colour matching between digital and offset print.
Support in XMF 2.0 for layered PDF files via the new PDF/VT format enables variable data to be used not only for personalisation but also for production of multiple language/ content versions of jobs from a single PDF file.
Online options
Online job submission, review, approval and soft-proofing are supported by XMF Remote, a new communications module which provides a client Web portal that is fully integrated into the XMF production workflow. Compatible with standard Web browsers, the portal can be branded to reflect the printer's identity.
Once uploaded, complete or partial jobs can be immediately pre-flighted with summary or detailed results available. RIPped pages can be viewed - at full resolution, if desired - for approval. Annotation facilities are included, allowing both client and printer to make and review comments. Customer-approved jobs can be moved automatically into output queues or flagged for operators' attention.
Under new management
Job and template management are improved in XMF 2.0, with powerful parameter-based search capabilities for imposition templates so that operators are not dependent on remembering complex naming schemes to find the correct one for a given job. Detailed job information allows components of each job to be tracked via unique job ID numbers, simplifying repeat work or production of replacement plates in the event of plate damage, for example.
Integration with Hiflex MIS and Web2Print systems brings improved cost tracking and greater visibility of overall profit and loss within the print workflow, facilitating accurate job estimating and charging. Live changes in job specification, such as a different page size, for example, can be passed from the MIS to XMF, which updates impositions and related parameters automatically via JDF. Further MIS integration is planned for subsequent releases of XMF.
The best of both worlds
Printers looking to maximise the opportunities afforded by both digital and offset presses will find that XMF offers the flexibility, performance and integration to achieve this, in an easy-to-use and efficient package. The core technologies and new features in XMF 2.0 make it an ideal solution for both short-run and long-run print.
