August 12, 2002 -- German print group Vignold in Ratingen uses a 74 Karat to deliver proofs and prints that match 100 per cent every time, from one print to the next and from one run to the next. The key to this reliability is the group’s standardised production workflow, in which the 74 Karat fits like a glove. The Vignold group, a media service provider with more than 350 staff at diverse locations, offers a complete pre-press package for ad agencies, publishing houses, business and industry. Its core enterprise is Creativ Consulting, which functions within the group as an independent service provider for information technology. Creativ Consulting offers its clients a service spectrum which, at present, is unique in the marketplace. Its competence spans the optimisation of processes and workflows with innovative, customised communications platforms in the form of Internet-based database systems for procurement, production, organisation and knowledge management, and including data and document management with technical pre-press requirements an integral feature. Proofs plus Data A short while ago the print department was expanded with a 74 Karat, which joined four mono presses. Four offset printers were trained on the Karat so that the press could be run in multiple shifts. One of Vignold’s specialities, and much in demand among its clientele, is proof-printing in runs of between 5 and 50 copies, as a simulation of the final image that is to be printed on either sheetfed or web offset presses. Vignold is currently running tests with the aim of delivering newspaper proofs on original newsprint, and will soon be adding this to its many other capabilities. Proof Repeatability and Fidelity As an all-in service provider Vignold furnishes the pre-press data along with the proof. Using the same data ensures that the production run is geared to the highest quality and that the proof faithfully and repeatedly simulates the final printed image, satisfying the highest quality specifications. In order to deliver proofs that will meet these quality specs the entire proof production process must comply with rigorous standards for predictability and repeatability. Since corrections are often made to part of a job, or even the whole of it, and sometimes at intervals of several days, all the corrections must be verifiable in subsequent phases.