FLEXIBLE PACKAGING Design and prepress solutions

Transcription

1 FLEXIBLE PACKAGING Design and prepress solutions

2 Contents 3 Introduction 6 Brand Management 8 Structural Design 10 Prepress 18 Digital Flexo 20 Digital Print 22 Services 23 Financing 2

3 Design and prepress solutions for flexible packaging production Stretched by today s challenging deadlines? Pressured to produce more environmental friendly packaging? Searching higher added value and margins? Operating under cost pressure? We know such questions keep you busy. You should know we also have the answers. Whether you produce stand up pouches, shrink foil for multipacks or food bags; whether print digital or flexo; whether you are a prepress service bureau or a flexible packaging converter: don t worry. EskoArtwork solutions help optimize cost, streamline workflow and communication, and improve quality and consistency. We master flexible packaging pre-production from design over prepress and workflow automation, proofing and plate making, color management up to the printing press. Talk to us and you will find out how we can help to design, produce and manage outstanding packaging. 3

4 Flexible packaging Operating under cost pressure and challenging deadlines? Run lengths in flexible packaging have shown a constant decrease over the past years. Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) manufacturers introduce more and more product variants and packaging buyers are pushing the cost of inventory upstream the supply chain. The quality and service requirements are high. The finished pack must meet several performance criteria: run smoothly on the filling lines, effectively and consistently communicate the brand equity message, seduce the consumer to buy and protect the product during transportation from factory to fridge. With EskoArtwork solutions for flexible packaging, you master the entire production workflow. We offer a wide range of solutions and professional services all the way from design to print. Learn how EskoArtwork provides a competitive advantage you can t do without. Searching for higher added value and margins? Are you considering going into digital printing? It s good to know that the EskoArtwork workflow integrates seamlessly as a digital front end to most of the digital press manufacturers out on the market today. A single prepress workflow provides the assurance of a smooth and easy-going process with immediate results. And, this is supported by an integrated color management that serves both conventional and digital presses. 4

5 Pressured to produce more environmental friendly packaging? Environmental sustainability has become a worldwide priority for business, governments and consumers. Flexible Packaging converters are not an exception. Today, stakeholders in the packaging and print supply chain are trying to minimize environmental and social impacts of their processes and products. EskoArtwork offers integrated solutions software, hardware and services that enable environment-friendlier design and production of packaging and print: Design for efficient use of materials, layout, logistics and end of life considerations such as light weighting, right sizing and cube utilization. Produce for minimum impact on the environment, such as prepress and print process automation, virtual on-screen proofing, optimization of the flexo platemaking process in function of reducing substrate and energy waste. 5

6 Brand management Remember the last time you had to stop a press because of a typo? EskoArtwork tools establish dynamic links between the brand owner s content management system and your prepress workflow. And, if your customer has no text management system, why wouldn t you offer this as a new service? With Dynamic Content you significantly boost the efficiency of content management. Text is no longer entered by the operator, but generated automatically using data captured directly from a secure content database. This process excludes text errors and establishes crystal clear responsibilities in the supply chain, ultimately reducing cost in the package production process. Challenged to reproduce brand colors accurately on your inkjet proofer? Color consistency, predictability and repeatability demand a well integrated color management solution. The Color Engine embeds color management functionality in the entire workflow. It combines CMYK profiles with profiles for individually profiled spot colors. Don t spend production capacity and resources to fingerprint spot inks yourself. The SunChemical SmartColour database of over spot inks, organized per printing process and per substrate, is directly accessible from within the Color Engine. 6

7 Want to speed up the design approval process? Are your production deadlines challenged by your global packaging buyers? Use the internet to shorten the lead time of packaging. WebCenter is our answer to online collaboration. WebCenter is your face on the internet for your global customers. WebCenter provides a 24/7 global communication and approval platform. Information is stored centrally and shared globally. It lets users evaluate, review and approve documents, reduce and eliminate development cycles and organize their packaging projects and assets. 7

8 Structural design Want to test design ideas and design variations much quicker? Studio Designer brings 3D packaging design to Adobe Illustrator. Studio is the 3D toolset for packaging designers. Your packaging is not flat, why would you continue working in 2D only? With Studio s ability to output a 3D PDF of the design, communication between designer and customer greatly improves. 3D PDF files can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat Reader. Do you want faster 3D previews of your work? Studio Designer works directly with structural data from the Studio Toolkit for Flexibles or from Shapes, an online repository of primary packaging shapes. Shapes. You need to design a shrink label but you don t have access to the CAD data of the bottle or can it has to fit on. Why don t you search it at Shapes? Shapes is EskoArtwork s online repository of 3D packaging shapes: metal can, plastic bottles, other liquid food containers, bags, stand up pouches Import a shape in the Collada file format and directly create a shrink sleeve or label on the imported data. 8

9 Studio Visualizer creates and shares ultra-realistic on-screen mock-ups and soft proofs of designs. Studio Visualizer renders high-value finishing effects. Visualizing is believing! Working your way around the limitations of multipack shrink sleeves? Get shrink sleeves right the first time with Studio Toolkit for Shrink Sleeves. This Studio Toolkit highly improves the design and prepress of multipack shrink sleeves. The software calculates a shrinkage grid based on material characteristics of the shrink film, shape, size and structure of the packages to be combined. Users can preview the artwork on the screen as it is shrunk on the packaging and share this with their clients. Now anticipate and pre-distort the artwork for stunning results. 9

10 Prepress Are your prepress mistakes in fact communication errors? Industry initiatives like CIP4 ( JDF and the Ghent PDF Workgroup ( are aimed at integrating systems into an end-to-end production workflow. The reason is simple: integrating various processes in a packaging production environment has a great savings potential through error reduction. When you are using an MIS system for order tracking, integrating it with your prepress system will do exactly that. 10

11 Is your company too small for workflow automation? No matter the size of your company, there is always a workflow automation solution that suits your needs. Your print production staff loses a lot of time doing mundane tasks that can easily be automated. Let your staff focus on the tasks where it makes the difference, leaving the repetitive tasks to the Automation Engine. Automation Engine is a powerful and scaleable yet easy to use workflow automation server integrating all design and production components in one workflow. Its client-server architecture provides data management, offloads operator workstations, centralizes operator expertise and automates the entire production process. 11

12 Challenged to deliver consistent high quality prepress results? Flexo Tools and Ink Tools for Adobe Photoshop. Add our flexo expertise to Adobe Photoshop. Flexo Tools resolve flexo specific printing issues and allow Photoshop users to visualize changes. Novice flexo operators will develop images ready for flexo, while experienced retouchers will appreciate how the flexo tools improve the quality and productivity of work. With Display Inks you can show your special ink separations in full color overprint. The colors will match the printed result a lot closer as they would when using the standard Photoshop spot channels. And unlike spot channels, with Display Inks you don t have to give up any Photoshop feature like layering. The InkSwitch filter automatically calculates special ink separations to match the appearance of a CMYK target. Patented EskoArtwork technology is used to create totally new separations for any combination of two, three or four spotcolors. 12

13 DeskPack, a packaging prepress solution for Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and Acrobat, turns the worlds most favorite desktop applications into a full-fledged packaging production workstation. Share the same tools for trapping, barcode generation, ink management and 3D quality assurance between Adobe Illustrator and ArtPro and PackEdge. ArtPro is the most successful editor for packaging preproduction. With dedicated and efficient tools for flexible packaging production, ArtPro turns your design into print-ready files instantly. ArtPro and PackEdge launch workflow automation tasks directly from the editing environment using Shuttle, the link with the Automation Engine. 13

14 Has the barcode disappeared in the back seal? When operators struggle with 2D to 3D translation and back, Studio Designer is the solution. With Studio Designer, you get immediate feedback in a 3D preview window of any changes you make to the graphic design. It s a great way to notice and correct design errors immediately. Design elements placed too close to a seal, text that becomes invisible because it s too close to an edge Studio Designer is your ultimate 3D Quality Assurance. It is available for Adobe Illustrator, ArtPro and PackEdge. How do I convince my customer to add luxury to the packaging? Producing hardcopy proofs for your concepts is very expensive. A better idea is to create ultra-realistic virtual 3D mock-ups with Studio Visualizer. Studio Visualizer creates and shares on-screen mock-ups and soft proofs of high value finishing effects. Visualize what your flexible package will look like when handled and moved in a realistic in-store lighting environment against a 360 background. Save money by making fewer comps. And because 3D comps can be shared instantly by or web, you can move through the design and production cycle significantly faster. 14

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16 Do you want to get your press up to color faster? FlexProof maximizes prepress productivity, quality and consistency regardless of the type of print technology. A color managed proofing solution integrated in the prepress workflow is the unique approach EskoArtwork delivers. FlexProof and Color Engine together guarantee consistency in color and geometry between proof and flexo plate or digital print. Get to color on press up to 20% faster than the industry benchmark today. 16

17 You need the best step and repeat solution? Plato and PowerStepper are tools for the creation of print-ready layouts for wide web flexographic printing. For narrow web flexo and digital print, DeskPack PowerLayout provides all the tools you need in Adobe Illustrator. When endless and seamless printing is your core competence, you need DeskPack Seamless Repeat for Adobe Illustrator. Seamless Repeat for Illustrator calculates the correct spacing and repeat numbers to properly wrap any design around the particular cylinder. Typical use cases are wallpaper, laminates, upholstery, vinyl flooring How much prepress time goes into legends and control strips? SmartMarks automatically create print production controls such as color bars, microdots, cut and trim marks. SmartMarks also use for example XMP data. They are dynamic and adapt automatically to changes in your job. SmartMarks can pull data from 3rd party SQL databases in order to populate certain fields without operator intervention. 17

18 Digital flexo How can we help you run your presses more efficiently? The Cyrel Digital Imager (CDI) is the worlds leading solution for imaging digital flexo plate and sleeves. Simplify production every step of the way. EskoArtwork is the undisputed industry leader in digital flexo plate room solutions. Our solutions combine all the printing advantages of flexo with the latest digital technologies. With Inline UV, main exposure becomes a highly controlled digital process. With less human intervention, plate waste due to scratches and dents become issues of the past. The CDI computer-to-plate imagers and HD Flexo combine high resolution optics with advanced screening technology. The result is a digital flexo plate for superior printing quality and stability. Flexo has never been this close to offset or gravure printing. HD Flexo provides an astounding tonal range in images and smooth vignettes. With HD Flexo, retouching of images to achieve high quality prints is no longer a necessity. It is a very strong benefit to use the same images regardless of the printing technique used, be it flexo, offset or digital. F L E X O R E A D Y 18 F L E X O R E A D Y

19 Want to reduce plate waste by 5%? The Digital Flexo Suite boosts the productivity of your plate mounting process, leading to a tangible reduction of plate wastage. With the Staggered Cut feature executed with a Kongsberg cutting table, drafting a staggered cut line for continues print becomes child s play. Draw the staggered cutting line to your needs in the interactive applications and the software will automatically repeat the cutting line on all separations, even driving the Kongsberg table for efficient and error-free plate cutting and mounting. 19

20 Digital print Ready for digital printing? Narrow web flexible packaging on film is the next application to embrace digital printing. The EskoArtwork Digital Front End (DFE) is used by many of the industry leading digital presses. This means that both the digital and conventional workflows are supported by the same software. Use the same software tools to serve any printing technique you choose for the job. The result is guaranteed consistency in geometry and color, and flexibility to switch from one system to the other. The HP SmartStream Labels and Packaging Print Server provides digital printers with the most advanced tools in the industry for streamlining prepress. It was designed exclusively for HP Indigo by EskoArtwork. 20

21 Do you use your press to make color proofs? FlexProof is the EskoArtwork color managed digital proofing solution, driving any inkjet printer with the same data and RIP architecture as used for final print output. With FlexProof, color match between an inkjet proof and a digital press is guaranteed. The benefits are stunning: reduce color matching waste by up to 33% and improve press uptime by 8%. Looking into variable data printing? You are constantly looking for new categories of added value for your customers. Featuring a new level of automation and accuracy, the Variable Data prepress tool lets creative professionals produce jobs with simple or complex variable elements. This includes barcodes, numbers, text and images in the Adobe Illustrator environment. Optimized specifically for flexible packaging design needs, it quickly produces print-ready layouts with robust, automated tools, including Step & Repeat specifications for single or multiple jobs. 21

22 Services EskoArtwork understands that even the best solutions cannot maximize their impact if they re not backed by outstanding support. How will I get started? The EskoArtwork Academy offers on-site training, class room training and start up services. In the hardware training program, experienced engineers help your technicians to familiarize themselves with EskoArtwork equipment. What if something goes wrong? Your business really depends on reliable customer services. To maximize uptime, it is essential that you can rely on fast and continuous support. Our experienced support staff helps you to resolve technical issues in fastest possible way. Need tailor made expertise? EskoArtwork shares its valuable expertise to help you find ways to work smarter, quicker, and better. They will help you to implement and start up color or screening solutions. Also we deliver the systems integration services to link your EskoArtwork workflow system. 22

23 Financing In need of a partner all the way? Investing in your future is not something you go about lightly. We stand by your side with all-in financial solutions for your hardware and software investments. EskoArtwork Finance offers a wide range of flexible financing solutions and allows freedom to choose which financing model fits you best. 23

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