Uxbridge, UK – The printing industry’s most productive high-speed digital colour press has just taken its image quality, productivity and profitability to a whole new level.

Xerox today introduced the Automated Colour Quality Suite Press Matching System, for its Xerox iGen3 90 and 110 Digital Production Presses, offering high performance plus quality that matches offset printing. The new Automated Colour Quality Suite enables faster press set up, quicker time to production, greater colour stability and automated Pantone-colour matching.

Routine colour maintenance and adjustments associated with running a high-speed digital colour press now can be done with greater automation. The Automated Colour Quality Suite reduces operator tasks – such as calibration and colour matching – traditionally done manually. With greater uptime and faster time to press, operators can expect to gain hours of extra productivity each week, which can translate into thousands of pages and additional revenue.

Xerox iGen3 presses with the new Automated Colour Quality Suite capabilities will be on display in Xerox’s stand in Hall 8b at drupa, May 29 until June 11, in Dsseldorf, Germany.

“Eight years ago, the iGen3 press started a revolution in graphic communications, helping print providers take on new kinds of work that brought in new revenue streams,” said Quincy Allen, president, Xerox Production Systems Group. “With the introduction of the Automated Colour Quality Suite, the best is getting even better. Print providers can now offer superior colour to their customers, while achieving even more uptime, boosting their own profitability.”

The new capabilities are made possible by integrating an in-line spectrophotometer, a device that measures the colour of sample prints, in the Xerox iGen3’s paper path. Breakthrough improvements in profile creation technology yield accurate saturated colour, even and balanced neutrals, outstanding shadow detail and smooth highlight sweeps. Operators can accept a file designed for offset printing, send it to an iGen3 press and achieve the desired output with ease. By limiting human subjectivity through automation, accurate and consistent colour matching is achieved across multiple presses.

Other components of the Automated Colour Quality Suite include:
  • Advanced Profiling – Enables greater colour consistency and realism in familiar objects like faces and skies and will automatically adjust colours to closely match offset printing standards in minutes. It can accurately match the popular GRACoL (General Requirements for Applications in Commercial Offset Lithography) standard, and takes advantage of ICC (International Color Consortium) DeviceLink profiling for higher performance. A colour matching industry benchmark, GRACoL offers a new source profile option for the most demanding jobs. The ICC DeviceLink Profiling allows for faster processing and improved colour rendering.
  • Automated Colour Check – Keeps the press production-ready by verifying colour quality through a quick check of the system to ensure colours are being reproduced correctly and eliminating unnecessary maintenance.
  • Automated Calibration – Eliminates the need for manual calibration and returns the print engine to a standard expected state – reducing inconsistencies in colour caused by temperature fluctuations, humidity changes and day-to-day use.
  • Automated Spot Colour Calibration – Ensures accuracy of Pantone-licensed colours across print engines and reduces the need for manual adjustments of colours by automatically reading colour values of printed patches, comparing them to reference values and modifying the CMYK formula for each spot colour.
With these elevated high performance and image-quality enhancements, the industry-leading iGen3 press is a perfect match for printing profitable full-colour applications that range from personalised direct mail and catalogues to marketing collaterals and photo books.

Availability

New and existing Xerox iGen3 press users operating Xerox FreeFlow Print Server 6.0 in all geographies can purchase the Automated Colour Quality Suite Press Matching System immediately.

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About Xerox Europe

Xerox Europe, the European operations of Xerox Corporation, markets a comprehensive range of Xerox products, solutions and services, as well as associated supplies and software. Its offerings are focused on three main areas: offices from small to large, production print and graphic arts environments, and services that include consulting, systems design and management, and document outsourcing.

Xerox Europe also has manufacturing and logistics operations in Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands, and a research and development facility (Xerox Research Centre Europe) in Grenoble, France. For more information visit, www.xerox.com

Xerox Graphic Arts Premier Partners is an exclusive global community of innovative digital printing, graphic arts and communication companies that is defining the future of the print industry. Together they are shaping The New Business of Printing to give their clients a competitive edge. For more information on the Xerox Premier Partner network, please visit www.xerox.com/xpp

Xerox, the Xerox wordmark and the spherical connection symbol are trademarks of Xerox Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Prices, features, specifications, capabilities, appearance and availability of Xerox products and services are subject to change without notice.

Media Contact

Robert Corbishley, Xerox Europe, +44 (0) 1895 843 239, robert.corbishley@xerox.com

Note: See the full range of Xerox digital production technology and services in Hall 8b / A78, May 29 – June 11 at drupa 2008, Messe Dsseldorf, Germany. For more information about Xerox and the show, visit http://www.xerox.com/news or http://www.xerox.com/drupa. For open commentary and industry perspectives, visit http://www.xerox.com/blogs or http://www.xerox.com/podcasts.

Xerox, iGen3, FreeFlow, the Xerox wordmark and the spherical connection symbol are trademarks of Xerox Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.