Brand designer chooses packaging production tools

Watt Gilchrist, the Leeds (UK) brand designer is making a major move away from high end repro systems with the purchase of a further 10 licenses of Deskpack, Esko-Graphics' desktop packaging toolset .

Watt Gilchrist, the Leeds (UK) brand designer is making a major move away from high end repro systems with the purchase of a further 10 licenses of Deskpack, Esko-Graphics' desktop packaging production toolset in addition to a previous five licenses.

Deskpack is part of Esko-Graphics' Scope workflow, which covers job and product specification, through to graphic and structural design and pre-production operations, platemaking for printing and toolmaking for converting.

Deskpack extends Adobe Illustrator's functions with a series of powerful plug-ins, including the trapX interactive trapping tool, which uses the Colorstitch object trapping technology that is used with the most recent versions of Esko-Graphics' Packedge and Backstage software.

It brings the ability to import CAD layouts into designs, to create dynamic barcodes, to view separations including plate preview, to control step and repeat operations and to view designs interactively in realistic 3D.

Fully completed files can now be sent directly to Esko-Graphics' Flexrip for output claimed the company.

"We have always invested significantly in our R and D, continually pushing the boundaries to deliver efficient solutions to our clients.

As international brand implementers, data integrity and ease of use are critical.

Esko-Graphics' strategy to integrate high end functionality to the Mac platform and Adobe suite were seen as a significant move away from proprietary systems and data format.

It is a key driver in supporting our clients from an R and D perspective.

We first saw DeskPack at IPEX and were invited to be an Alpha site.

Since then we've worked closely with Esko-Graphics during its development.

It sits in a 'grey' area between artwork and repro and allows us to do both processes on the same platform, working from GRS, PDF and Illustrator files," said Paul Bean, managing director of Watt Gilchrist.

James Mason, research and development technician at Watt Gilchrist added: "The big benefit of Deskpack is that it is an easy entry into repro using industry standard desktop software.

This removes the requirement for proprietary system skills and focuses our attention towards the Macintosh platform.

Early adoption of Esko's Macintosh tools has enabled Gilchrist to migrate many of its highly skilled operators to what we foresee as being the platform of choice for the coming years." Mason is particularly impressed with the interactive vector and CT trapping tool.

All the objects, text, special fills, vignettes and CTs are trapped with the original design on separate layers inside Illustrator, keeping the file the same size.

Once the plug-in trapX is launched, it defines all the trapping parameters for the job.

Inks are annotated to identify varnish, opaque or technical inks.

At the same time, the operator also selects the trapping ticket.

Colorstitch sends the jobs with its ticket to the server for trapping.

Only the layer with the traps, together with a list of butting colour pairs, is sent back to the workstation, thus reducing network traffic and guaranteeing the integrity of the original Illustrator job, which remains untouched said Esko.

Watt Gilchrist's Deskpack operators use dual screens, because they find it simpler to view separations on one screen and trapping on the other.

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