FUJIFILM Corporation (President and CEO: Shigetaka Komori) today announces major updates to its entire XMF Workflow and Production Management Suite, making it one of the most fully featured and comprehensive systems for managing print production on the market.  These include the launch at drupa 2012 (Dusseldorf, Germany May 3rd - 16th) of a new cloud-based colour management system called XMF ColorPath, designed to help printers manage colour consistency across multiple print processes, and the launch of XMF Workflow V5 and XMF Remote V9, both with a host of new features and capabilities.  These major enhancements to the XMF product range take advantage of new cloud-based technologies to extend the reach of the system into new areas of print production, and are the result of significant continued investment at Fujifilm’s headquarters in the XMF portfolio.

XMF ColorPath

XMF ColorPath is a new cloud-based colour management system that is designed to help printers calibrate and maintain compliance to printing standards, for instance ISO 12647-2.  The system can work across multiple print processes, including offset, digital and screen, helping printers maintain colour consistency across these processes.  

This comprehensive new colour management system is made up of two main components:

1. XMF ColorPath Organizer - a new set of colour management configuration tools that are included as standard in a new module within XMF Workflow V5. This module manages the application of colour profiles within the print production process.

2. XMF ColorPath Sync – a cloud-based colour management system for managing colour to the ISO 12647-2 standard across many different print devices. XMF ColorPath Sync creates device link ICC profiles and ISO TVI curves so that printers can quickly achieve ISO 12647-2 conformance across a wide range of print devices. The solution is all managed via a web browser, with even the spectrophotometers plugged directly into the web browser, so there is no software client to install. In addition to creating device link profiles to match ISO 12647-2, XMF ColorPath Sync will also check compliance to the standard and when conditions such as variations in humidity or media stock cause devices to drift out of compliance, XMF ColorPath Sync will create on the fly colour corrections to re-align the colour output to the standard.

When colour charts are measured by XMF ColorPath, delivery of colour measurements to the cloud is automatic, so too is the delivery of ISO TVI curves directly into the RIPs used to drive the various printing devices. So not only are savings made by reducing colour errors and hence ink usage, but XMF ColorPath also improves the automation and efficiency with which colour is managed across in-house print devices, or across multiple print locations.

The XMF ColorPath system can be enhanced by a range of value added professional colour management services offered by Fujifilm to help printers set up and manage the system, called XMF ColorPath Services.   The combination of the XMF ColorPath system and XMF ColorPath Services will allow print companies to reduce downtime and waste, and ultimately increase revenues.  The XMF ColorPath system is available as part of a full XMF workflow suite, but is also available as a standalone solution that can colour manage any offset or digital printing environment.

XMF Workflow V5

Fujifilm is launching V5 of its core XMF Workflow system at drupa 2012, with this new version including major new features.

The core colour capabilities of XMF ColorPath have been incorporated into a new colour module within V5 of XMF Workflow, called XMF ColorPath Organizer.  This module provides the user with the ability to manage what colour management is applied to different types of work and now acts as the master colour controller for the whole XMF Workflow system. When used in conjunction with the new XMF ColorPath Sync cloud-based colour tools, a newly developed interface gateway connects XMF Workflow to the cloud to provide seamless integration between the cloud-based services and on site print production.

Some of the other enhancements in V5 include: new job versioning tools, further integration with MIS systems to feed back more information and improve automation, enhancements to our 3D proofing module in order to support more complex folding patterns, and further speed improvements to job rendering times.

XMF Workflow V5 also includes a new user interface. The workflow has continuously evolved since its introduction in 2006 and as such has outgrown the current user interface.  Also, changes to working practices and the evolution of pre-press and customer service roles within print companies are just some of the factors that influenced the redesign of the user interface to keep XMF at the cutting edge in terms of automation, efficiency and ultimately profitability.  Existing XMF users will see that much of the methodology of how XMF works has been retained, but with improvements to the speed and simplicity of the user experience.

XMF Remote V9

XMF Remote, an online job submission and approval workflow has become the main tool that printers and their clients use to manage the supply of print work into production. Fujifilm is launching XMF Remote Version 9 at drupa 2012, which contains many refinements that have been based on customer feedback. In particular, it now gives system administrators more control and a more open approach to providing a printer’s clients with a mobile device interface to XMF Remote.

For some time now, printers have been able to offer their clients the ability to approve print jobs via the XMF Remote iPad app. Fujifilm has now taken this a stage further and developed an HTML5 web interface for XMF Remote in V9. This means that mobile device support is no longer only available to Apple iPad users, but also to Android based tablets and any other mobile devices that support HTML5.

To reflect these major enhancements, Fujifilm has created a new brand logo for XMF and the suite of products which make up the XMF family.  The following summarises the current product line-up:

XMF Workflow: Core print production management workflow

XMF Remote: Client-facing online job submission and approval system

XMF PrintCentre: A fully featured web-to-print e-commerce system

XMF ColorPath: A new cloud-based colour management system

John Davies, business strategy manager, workflow, FUJIFILM Europe comments: “XMF has rapidly expanded from being a fully featured print production workflow solution to a comprehensive suite of products that address selling, submitting and approving print through to managing the creation of printed products.  With the launch of XMF Workflow V5, Fujifilm is able to offer a very mature, advanced hybrid workflow, which includes the impressive XMF Impose imposition system at its heart, with XMF Remote and XMF PrintCentre recently extending its functionality. With the addition of a new cloud-based system designed to ensure consistent colour management, XMF now represents one of the most comprehensive and advanced production management systems on the market, addressing many of the issues faced by today’s print service providers.”