April 5, 2004 -- Stating that no company offers more versatile solutions in the high-volume, digital black-and-white printing industry than Heidelberg, Reinhold Frech, executive director of the digital black-and-white business in Europe, highlighted some of those solutions today at a media briefing held in conjunction with Heidelberg Technology Days. Frech outlined a number of the digital black-and-white announcements the company will make at the drupa 2004 trade show, including: · New print-productivity tools, including Print Production Release 6.0 software, which will offer a number of new enhancements to increase the efficiency of the Digimaster print system for customers. · Engine improvements for the Digimaster print system that will provide versatile new configurations and increase device performance. · Partnerships that will enable new workflow solutions and even greater productivity for the Digimaster print system. “drupa is the venue to showcase the tremendous range of hardware, software and workflow solutions that Heidelberg customers are using with great success,” Frech said. “We’re highlighting some of these digital solutions here at Technology Days so that customers will know where they can see the future of print at work today — in our booth at drupa.” Print-productivity tools. Frech said that the Digimaster system will be even more efficient with Print Production Release 6.0 software, which — among other new features — offers improved paper handling; direct support of Adobe Acrobat PDF 1.5 format; and expanded job tracking capabilities through the system’s front end. He also noted that Heidelberg and its business partners recently announced the availability of SmartBoard 3.0 software, the next generation of digital pre-press software based on Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional, which provides one workflow solution for both digital color and digital black-and-white document assembly and print preparation. Engine improvements. Frech said: "We continue to provide Digimaster print system customers with versatile configurations to achieve exceptional performance, including a field upgrade for Digimaster 9150i developer stations that allows any Digimaster 9150i print system to be upgraded for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) printing." Other upgrades include an additional paper-supply module that allows up to nine paper drawers to be employed for printing — equal to 12,000 sheets. Another 4,000 post-process sheets can be added to that with a three-drawer inserter for automatic collation and assembly of a wide range of materials printed on other devices. Partnerships. Frech noted that from front-end software to third-party accessories, the work with leading companies to enable streamlined print production solutions will continue. Close alliances with third-party partners, such as Bindomatic, CSP, Emtex, Kern and Solimar, broaden the array of print applications and increase workflow efficiency for Digimaster print system customers. It was recently announced that the Digimaster print system combined with a new in-line binding solution, the Bindomatic 301 DFS, now enables print providers to produce book-quality bound documents much more productively. Frech also mentioned the availability of a customized in-line folding solution utilizing Heidelberg's Stahlfolder Ti40 Proline with the Digimaster print system — a more productive folding solution that operates at the rated speed of the printer.