Giesbeek, The Netherlands, May 14, 2008 - Elpical, a leading specialist in automated image enhancement and image management solutions, announces the next generation of its Claro line of products. Claro's state-of-the-art image enhancement technology enables advanced automation for magazine, newspaper, catalog and digital print production.  Based on a thorough analysis, Claro dynamically optimizes the quality of images, individually or embedded in PDF files. As an Enfocus Crossroads partner, Elpical will show the latest version of its products in the Drupa Innovation Park, booth 7c.

Claro Premedia: Better images for editorial or catalog workflows
Elpical Claro Premedia is the solution for demanding environments with high volume image throughput. Its client/server architecture combines the advantages of server-based image optimization with the subtlety of operator interventions. Claro Premedia can easily be integrated in editorial or catalog production systems, taking into account scaling and cropping parameters when optimizing the image quality.

On top of a completely revamped user interface, version 5 of Claro Premedia introduces a host of new features that further increase image quality and expand automation capabilities. In order to repurpose images for different media, you can now define Dynamic DeviceLink processing channels, converting images from one CMYK color space to another and optimizing the printability of those images for specific printing processes and paper types. Claro will also recognize bitmap logos inside a PDF, leaving them untouched while only processing the actual photographs in the file. For automation and traceability, Claro Premedia 5 introduces support for XMP metadata. Besides routing files on IPTC information, you can now also route files based on XMP data. An image process log can be saved in XMP, making it easy for anyone to see the changes compared to the original image. 

Claro Single: Server based image enhancement, color- and file conversion
Elpical Claro Single is based on the same reliable image enhancement technology found in Claro Premedia. Specifically built to integrate into automation products like Enfocus SWITCH, Claro Single offers true automated image processing power. Where products like Adobe Photoshop can be used for basic batch processing tasks like color conversion, Elpical's image analysis adds dynamic quality improvement capabilities to a workflow that otherwise could only be performed by an operator. Industrial photo-studios, photo-labs, commercial digital printers or anyone else dealing with a large amount of pictures per day will quickly see the benefits of Claro Single.

The new version of Claro Single carries along many of the improvements made in Claro Premedia, such as its XMP capabilities. Also introduced: conversion to grayscale, the ability to save in different files formats, image resampling and other more basic image manipulation capabilities. Last but not least, Claro Single 5 allows you to route "bad" and corrupted images. Pictures are considered bad if the analysis shows that the desired quality can not be reached. The ability to route these images enables you to either manually deal with that image or simply decide not to use it.

"We have worked hard to bring image enhancement to a higher level," says John de Jong, Managing Director of ELPICAL, "through our collaboration with Enfocus and our improved metadata handling, our core technology can easily be implemented and become an integral part of any workflow."