Proofing Software Launched

From Gimlé Ltd, Christchurch

A computer-based pre-press proofing system that can cut costs for commercial printers and their customers was launched at the Canterbury Development Centre in Christchurch today by pre-press specialist Hugo Kristinsson.

The AbsoluteProof process runs digital files for printing through an image-processor in a computer. “The software program ‘captures’ the files, which when printed out show exactly how the final product – including photographs, artwork and text look on a page,” Mr Kristinsson says.

To get the same result at present requires a printed copy of the page after expensive film has been produced.

Mr Kristinsson’s program enables any corrections to be made before the page goes to film. The page-proof step in the process – which is to print out a page to a film prior to proofing – has been removed because it has now become redundant, he says.

The process he devised, with funding assistance from Technology New Zealand – part of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology – could reduce proofing costs from as much as $350 a page to as little as $30.

“Proofing can be one of the most expensive parts of the printing process,” Mr Kristinsson says. “Correcting mistakes that show up can cost clients a lot of money in materials and time. Up to 35 per cent of digital files need correction because of errors made by printers or designers.

“Analogue, or non-computerised, proofing/printing requires the film to be produced in the darkroom and then a proof is produced from that film. Corrections mean the film has to be changed – replaced – which adds up in materials, time and so on, particularly when you’re using several films for colour.

“Since the photographic process has been replaced by a digital workflow, producing a proof showing how a file will look when printed has been difficult and costly, and colour-matching has been unreliable. The benefit of digital proofing is that it matches exactly the colours that can be produced on the printing press, while analogue proofing can reproduce more than 2000 colours that simply cannot be matched on the press. “This process reproduces colours exactly as they will appear on printed page.”

He says he has been testing AbsoluteProof since April 1999. In May he took CDs of the software to the world's biggest printing exhibition, in the German city of Duesseldorf. “It has more than 400,000 visitors, and we’re looking at 60,000 potential clients world-wide.”

Mr Kristinsson, originally from Iceland, has set up his own business, Gimlé Ltd, to market the product. He says that Gimlé comes from Viking mythology. “It means ‘a mythical place at the end of the southern sky’.”

He is particularly interested in selling it in New Zealand, Australia, USA and Europe. “The recent appointment of CPI Graphics as the New Zealand and South Pacific distributor for AbsoluteProof is a major achievement,” Mr Kristinsson says. CPI Graphics is the leading supplier of electronic imaging technology, printing and finishing machinery and on-press consumables in the Australasian market.

Exclusive agencies such as Fujifilm plates and film, Komori, G&K and Wohlenberg are just some of the stable of products marketed and distributed by CPI. Mr Kristinsson says a major element in selecting CPI Graphics to market and distribute AbsoluteProof is its commitment to excellence in training and technical support.

CPI plans to offer a free, 30-day no obligation trial of the software to all printers and service bureaux in New Zealand.

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Contact: · Hugo Kristinsson, Gimlé Ltd, 82 Blake St, South Brighton, Christchurch. Ph: 021 296 2134. Email: info@absolute-proof.com. Website: www.absolute-proof.com · CPI Graphics, Auckland Ph: (09) 259 2070, Wellington Ph: (04) 568 3774, Email: akgraphicscustomerservice@cpigroup.co.nz

Prepared on behalf of Gimlé Ltd by ID Media Ltd. Contact: Ian Carson (04) 477-2525. E-mail: ian@idmedia.co.nz

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