Since the late 1985 Symposium by the late Dr. S. Thomas Dunn entitled "Laser Technology in the Printing Industry", people have been discussing digital proofing. Some of its advantages have not changed so far. Such as: fast, short cycle and low cost.
However, some of its limitations still exist, such as resolution, color fidelity, color management, and client signing. At the same time, users also proposed new requirements for remote negotiation and remote interpretation via the Internet.
Although as a new technology, there are some limitations and whether the user can accept the problem has constrained the progress of digital proofing for printing proofing. But now Sing Angels USA believes that they have a solution to these problems.
The Saturn-based company in Massachusetts, in partnership with an Israeli company that specializes in online graphics, Timage, provides a server-based remote digital proofing program called Render View designed to serve professional print production, prepress and digital photography / Digital image storage and other fields.
Render View made its debut at a technical demonstration at the Cyberport New York Convention in March 1998. Nowadays, Angels Worldwide has its own shadow, and its complete file format, server environment, and networking capabilities are no longer comparable. In addition, digital proofing has become increasingly accepted.
Zui Eintrach, president of Rtimage, immediately demonstrated the uninterrupted remote viewing at the Sebot conference. Image and print in TIFF, PDF, JPEG and CT/LW (contone/line drawing) formats. The browser he uses is just Netscape or Internet Explorer. For the average user, such an inspection only requires an additional plug-in software.
In order to meet the needs of customers, reviewing TIFF/IT and other file formats, Render View also added Postscript RIP. The TIFF/IT and PDF formats are used to integrate Render View with current Agfa and Creo workstations. Of course, other angel page formats such as the new "S" format have also been put into use.
Using Intergraph's Network File System (NFS) and TCP/IP-based protocol interfaces, Render View can also search external devices to browse the product's directory structure or resource management servers, as well as their internal files. The files in the folders in the server are allowed to be accessed by users. Therefore, a management tool is added in Render View to handle the password and directory channels, and to add time stamps and user entry data.
Through these functions, Render View successfully integrates with various production work environments. In addition to supporting the SaiJen Ripro server or Brisque workstation, it is currently supported by Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems (Applying the Cascade solution), DEC Alpha, and Compaq NT Server (Applying the Ranpage solution).
Render View's work performance is very prominent, using only a telephone line and a modem. Even if the modem is only 28.8k, it can quickly transmit high resolution images or page data as required on the Internet. More prominently, it allows users to discuss details with each other online, such as overprinting. In this way, it is wise for RenderView to preview the file as a refactoring tool for management and users.
In actual operation, customers use Render View to talk with the sales staff about the business. The customer can talk to the salesperson on his own laptop (90MHz, 120MHz Pentium chip). The time for sending documents and signing samples was shortened.
In addition, Render View is entering the field of digital photography. It can be used for remote shooting and sample selection. Pictures can be selected quickly. The next shot can be started again. Because Render View can view the fine-grained images of high-resolution images, image collections can sell high-quality works on the Internet.
Render View uses Compaq's NT server as a platform, which can continuously process different numbers of independent image groups depending on the configuration. At the same time, different numbers of current users are supported. There are currently two configurations: one for two dual-chip types, and the other for a single quad-chip type.
The powerful server configuration is to optimize their redundancy technology and functionality to meet Render View's application software. For example: A single four-chip configuration can simultaneously run up to 10 independent image groups or up to 10 current users to visit the same image at the same time. This configuration also includes dual SCSI III disk controllers and data stripping technology. The entire system chose Compaq's Reliant 5500 server as its operating platform, which was priced at $59,000.
Dual-chip configurations can be divided into several types depending on the system platform and scalability. The ProLiant 5500 platform technology, which can be upgraded to a four-chip configuration, allows five users to simultaneously visit or simultaneously run five independent streams of simultaneous data. Compaq's Xion technology is powerful and designed for high-end server applications. This configuration is priced at $45,000, while another non-upgrade version is the Compaq 1600 (Pentium II Technology) operating platform, priced at $39,000.