Before joining Bestcolor U.S.A., the US subsidiary of Best GmbH, in 2000 as President, Mark Geeves worked at X-Rite and Color Savvy. He has over 18 years of experience with regard to instrumentation and color measurement in the graphic arts, digital imaging, medical, photographic, plastic, paints and automotive industries. During Geeves’18 years in the graphic arts industry, he has worked extensively to establish and develop dealer distribution channels. When he joined Bestcolor USA, his goal was to mirror in North America the success the Best RIPs were finding in Europe. The Best technology and Geeves’ experience with the graphic arts market was a perfect combination to enable the Best RIPs to prosper in a market that was just starting to adopt inkjet printers as proofing devices. Thorsten Breiding, Rainer Esters and Hans-Gerd Sträter founded Best GmbH in Germany in 1994. The initials of their names form the company’s name. The first products, BESTLink and BESTScript, were interface solutions that enabled users to control Hell scanners digitally and to use Hell imagesetters as PostScript exposure machines. In 1997, Best GmbH developed Bestcolor, a RIP specifically designed for inkjet proofing applications. In September of 1998, the US office opened in New York and then moved to Ohio in November of 2000. In September of 2001, Best introduced Best Screenproof for half tone inkjet proofing and Best Colorproof (formerly Bestcolor) for continuous tone inkjet proofing. The company’s new strategy is to develop products specifically for all inkjet market segments. Mark, how has your RIP technology advanced in relation to demands from your customer base? Bestcolor’s mission is to be the leader in RIP technology for Digital inkjet Proofing applications. The printing and publishing markets are demanding faster turn around and reduction of costs, but still must meet their customer’s expectations with regard to color match to press. Bestcolor’s RIP technology enables inkjet printers to meet those market demands. At first, the Bestcolor RIP was being used with inkjet printers for positional proofs only. With the recent advancements in inkjet media and inks, color management software and the inkjet printers themselves, inkjet proofs are now being used for final color approval. Give us the big picture of your penetration into the graphic arts market and explain the reason for your success in a very competitive market. Our success in penetrating into the publishing marketplace comes from a background of printing and publishing. As a company we understand the needs of the publishing professional and we know the issues related a customer’s workflow. The core of our RIP technology is our ability to match the color off an inkjet printer to another proofing system or the printed sheet itself. Our ability to provide a color-matched inkjet proof without the user having to alter their existing workflow is a key component into our success. We have over 28,000 users worldwide (80% are using our RIP for proofing applications) and we educate and train them, though our Certified Dealers, on how to implement our RIP into their current workflow. Another key in our penetration into the publishing market has been our Dealer Certification program. We have a 3 or 5 day training course for our dealers. Classes consist of training on installing our RIP, color management issues (Calibration, Profiling, Process Control), different workflows and issues specific to ink technology. Best worldwide is not a huge company (currently 115 people worldwide) with a modest marketing budget compared to some of the traditional proofing companies in the industry. Our penetration into the marketplace is strongly due to the fact that our product does what we say it will do. It has always amazed me how quickly information travels in this industry. How does Best ScreenProof predict quality and screen resolution on press? Best Screenproof was developed with our intent of covering all segments of the inkjet proofing markets. The goal of a proof is to predict what is going to happen on press. Most front-end systems generate a one-bit Tiff file that is sent to the platesetter, film recorder or digital press. Best Screenproof accepts that one-bit Tiff and sends that exact file to the inkjet printer. This allows Best Screenproof to replicate what is going to be printed on press with the same file that generated the films or the plate. Our patent pending technology color manages the one-bit Tiff file without altering it. The latest advancements in inkjet printers with variable droplet technology were key aspects in our ability to bring this product to market. Best Screenproof allows printers to predict image quality, color accuracy, screen angle, screen resolution, traps and moiré if it exists. Best Ink Key Assistant is a feature of the Screenproof product. Is it primarily for the newspaper segment? We specifically designed it for the newspaper market. We noticed that several thousand of the newspaper presses did not have automatic ink setting. Best Ink Key Assistant prints a chart on the bottom of the proof for each of the 4 colors of an ink key zone of the press. The chart tells the press operator the ink coverage from 0 to 100% for the respective ink key. Now the pressman can use a proof for visual color match and at the same time use the graph to come up to color quicker by knowing the inking coverage. The return on investment of this feature is huge. The partnership with HKS: How does Best ensure color accuracy with their swatches? HKS and Best have worked together and the colorimetric (L*a*b*) values for the HKS colors are in a library in our software. If customers are using the HKS colors then our software automatically recognizes the color inside our RIP. Customers can also create their own color libraries by inserting the colorimetric values for spot colors. Your partnership with HP was well-timed. HP appears to be entering the graphic arts market aggressively with their planned purchase of Indigo. Tell us about your current relationship with them and what you envision going forward with HP? HP is committed to the graphic arts marketplace as we all have seen by their recent announcements. Best is currently a strategic partner of HP and they are recommending our technology to their distribution channels. HP wants to offer the correct solutions to the marketplace and feel our RIPs meet the current needs for inkjet proofing. The fact that our two companies are communicating will mean that as we both develop new products in various markets we can provide solutions to our distribution partners. Overall, what changes do you think will take place in our industry next year and specifically, what trends do you see for customers in the inkjet market? The association of the word "traditional" to anything in our industry is dramatically changing every year and sometimes every month. I expect 2002 to be no different. The word I would associate with our industry is "Change. " In the past we have seen the mergers of printing companies and now we are seeing the mergers with distributors and manufacturers. The digital environment with its open architecture has done wonders to create the demand for new products. Every day new technology is being developed that speeds up production, reduces cost and allows printing professionals to meet their customers expectations. Customers today are seeking solutions that they can implement and distributors and manufacturers are trying to develop those solutions by tactical and strategic alliances. The one trend I feel we will see in the year 2002 is the increased demand for organizations or people who can assist in the implementation of these new products and technologies. Very few companies have the luxury to learn or implement new technology on the fly. One change I would recommend for customers is to have added to the quotation of any purchase not only cost of the product, but who is going to do the installation and training. It is only great to have the technology if you know how to use it. How many of us really know how to program our VCR? Oh, I guess I mean DVD player.