Front end Material

摘要

Hints of increased attention to linking up-stream to back-end finishing seem to be the order of the day for drupa. Agfa notes that its newest Apogee workflow includes utilities that help plan and guide finishing (see p. 34). KBA's QualiTronic marks copies that deviate from an okayed sheet so subsequent finishing devices can read the mark and eject them. Polar-Mohr takes orders from upstream packaging programs to automate the finishing and conversion of sheet stock into stacks of labels for packaging lines. No doubt some of this stems from the movement into packaging by new players. This includes preme-dia systems suppliers, a number of whom also offer digital print engines that handle packaging stocks. Heidelberg's foray into packaging is leading it to offer integrated workflow from prepress through printing and diecutting. Kodak's movement into automating packaging workflow brings it to direct-to-flexo platemaking, all with a mind to holding tight register to offset as well.