Preps vs HLine (the workflow speed comparison)

The speed comparison of the manual workflow.The task is to impose two covers and spot varnishing with different trimbox in 2×2 page imposition. Same imposition is made with Kodak Preps and HLine.

Presentation of HLine utility for Kodak Prinergy Workflow

Here is the summary of my works in the last years.

How Enfocus PitStop saved my business trip

The last time when I was preparing for a business trip the agent sent me the email with attached pdf with flight tickets. She asked me to check if I can open the pdf and if all info are clear and readable.

I opened the pdf, went through pages by looking for something suspicious, but found nothing bad.

Label layout making automation

Several times a month I would get a job to make a barcode labels layout. These labels are needed in the case when we deliver books packed to a batch containing 3-5 books. Each packet have to be marked by a label containing  publisher’s name, author’s name, the book title, ISBN barcode and a quantity number of books in the packet.

Every time you were up to 10 different book titles and this job took about 30-45 minutes even having the InDesign template job and using the advanced InDesign DataMerge feature.

The new softcover books automation compatible with Preps 6 and 7

The new release of the softcover book automation HLine 2.1 is available.

What is new:

Compatibility with Preps 6 and 7;

There is no need to keep prepared Preps jobs. The system is self-sufficient and generates complete Preps jobs.

Added columns for press sheet size in the jobs table.

Enables to save properties and clear the log in the application.

Kodak Preps ‘$autoselect’ feature enables to bypass the user interface

When I was thinking about moving the imposition process from Kodak Preps 5 to Preps 6, I was concerned about how easy I would remake my automation system, I’d developed before, to the new Preps job specification.
The Kodak’s idea to merge Preps job and template data together into an one file shocked me a little bit and absolutely didn’t meet the concept of my system. It threatened to a lot of coding, much more than it was before.

Modifying of Asir barcode PostScript. Part 2

The significantly complicated case was to make the color of Asir barcode in a spot color.

The document from Adobe Color Separation Conventions for PostScript Language Programs  helped me again. The example 7 (Monochrome Image Example) directed me to the right way.

Modifying of Asir barcode PostScript. Part 1

During the work for the books printing company, I’ve encountered a few situations when it was needed to modify manually the special printing mark. Book printers use equipment for signatures collection and binding them. Our binding machines are equipped with the Asir barcode reading system.

Asir barcodes are used by Muller Martini collators to make sure books are correctly assembled. The barcodes make sure that the correct sections are assembled in the correct order.

Dealing with Adobe Acrobat Professional in AppleScript

Manipulations with pdf files can be done by scripting automated workflows. Thanks to Adobe for support of Acrobat Professional scripting.
Open Library window under Window menu of AppleScript Editor, press Plus sign to add an application to the library and choose Adobe Acrobat Professional application.

Softcover books printing automation (the particular case)

 

Prerequisite

The printer produces softcover books. Its customer service representative provides periodically the prepress department the Excel worksheet containing the list of books are intended to print. The files from the customer comes along.

The client assigns its internal book code, a count of pages, print run, a kind of paper, finishing parameters and other job parameters. The printer on its side assigns its internal JobID, a printing press on which a book is intended to print. The file name of a book contains the internal customer code. The code has no fixed length and there is no way to guess where it would start or stop.