Adding Polish To Images From RGB Files

Screen Europe has started shipments of its new PDF Polisher-In module, an option for the Trueflow 3 pre-press workflow.

Screen Europe has started shipments of its new PDF Polisher-In module, an option for the Trueflow 3 pre-press workflow.

PDF Polisher-In is claimed to integrate expert Adobe Normalising and Enfocus pre-flighting technology with Screen's own new Image Quality Management.

PDF Polisher-In pre-flights PDFs entered in to a production workflow system, applies colour management capable of enhancing and separating RGB images and converts them to a PDF/X-1a format.

The RGB colour conversion and enhancement feature applies image control derived from Screen's Colorgenius scanning technology to enhance magnification, sharpness and tonal characteristics, said Screen.

Ritepolisher, an additional Adobe Acrobat plug-in, is also now available from Screen as an additional tool enabling users to fine tune image specific enhancement settings.

Woking-based commercial printer Optichrome is the first UK user of the Screen PDF Polisher-In module.

Optichrome's pre-press manager, Matthew Burford, explained: "The Ritepolisher component of PDF Polisher-In allows us to see all RGB images as a list of files and enables us to replace their profiles with the correct CMYK settings very easily." Optichrome is a sister company to Optichrome Computer Systems (OCSL), developer of the Optimus MIS system, which is sold to printers worldwide.

In the near future Optichrome plans to integrate Trueflow 3 with its in-house 2020 Optimus MIS to exchange production and administrative data via JDF.

The company installed the Trueflow 3 workflow late last year to accompany a new Screen Platerite 8600 B1 thermal platesetter.

At the same time Optichrome joined the Beta test programme for Polisher-In.

When processing PDF documents, the Optichrome operators use Ritepolisher to preview and specify individual image corrections for each RGB image, said Screen.

They can choose from a range of supplied image enhancement formulae for particular types of image such as faces, jewellery, deliberate colour casts etc, which apply different levels of contrast, sharpness and colour correction.

Individual images can be assigned different formula, or groups of images can be selected and all given the same treatment.

A new copy of the PDF is saved with embedded formula instructions, which are used together with the artificial intelligence enhancements of the PDF Polisher-In module when the PDF is sent to Trueflow 3.

CMYK files are not automatically enhanced but it is possible to replace tagged profiles if these are incorrect, added the company.

Screen believes that PDF Polisher-In not only solves the perennial problem of customers supplying RGB files, it makes a positive virtue of them because its results can be tuned to the final process and press much more closely.

Burford commented: "I'm happy to use RGBs now we have Trueflow 3, but I would not have been happy before.

With the use of digital cameras increasing we are supplied with more and more RGBs.

We also often receive files that customers have converted to CMYK in Photoshop with the default US SWOP profiles.

Prior to PDF Polisher-In we would open all PDF files in Enfocus Pitstop Professional to check whether they were CMYK and replace the profiles if they were wrong.

We had to do this one document at a time and it took time." He said that he particularly liked the logical user interface, and continued: "It's very simple to use.

You see a list of images in the PDFs and you can choose a formula for each and drag it on to them." PDF Polisher-In will also enlarge or reduce the image bitmaps to the correct size and then apply the appropriate level of sharpening.

Burford further added: "The images we get are mostly faces or landscapes.

We handle quite a lot of point of sale work for cosmetics customers where the flesh tones are very important - you don't want too much sharpening or you'll get scabbing." He said that PDF Polisher-In's ease of use leads to greater timesaving and productivity, and he added: "With Screen products the interfaces are generally very simple to use and very well thought out.

When we are training people on Trueflow 3 it is very logical.

It's the same with PDF Polisher-In and Ritepolisher, with menus and windows clearly defined according to what you need to do and when you need to do it at any time.

This is a major factor in what we wanted from Trueflow 3- because it's simple to use there are fewer errors.".

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