A few weeks ago, I reported on my initial impressions of FESPA 2022, held in May in Berlin.  This article will highlight some selected launches and company news. FESPA is the focal point of the wide-format printing industry and after a period of very limited trade show activity, it provided a springboard for many vendors to launch new products. Although there were no revolutionary announcements, several interesting products were shown to a larger audience for the first time. The nature of the launches shows that wide-format print is a relatively mature market—however, one with a great number of applications, niches, and ways to add value.

Adobe launched PDF print engine Version 6 at FESPA 2022, a technology that is at the heart of many rendering and print preparation processes. FESPA seems to be an odd place for presenting a technology used in many print application. However, when having a closer look at the new features, it starts to make more sense. Adobe originally launched the PDF Print Engine in 2006 with a strong focus on commercial print. With Version 6, Adobe is targeting specifically wide-format, packaging and labels, and digital textile printing markets—the markets where the company sees the biggest print volume growth. At the same time, Version 6 is set to improve control and automation and allow for full gamut rendering.

So far, the print industry has been slow to adopt enlarged, fixed gamut models, which would allow moving away from spot colors. Spot colors are cumbersome in changeover and very difficult to implement in digital print. Moreover, the overprint of two spot colors is very difficult to predict. With an increasing penetration of inkjet in all markets, expanded color gamut use is picking up now. Version 6 features Streamlining ECG Processing: Previously a two-stage process with a CMYK conversion stage in between, color data can now be transformed directly into an expanded (fixed) set of up to seven colors. Advantages are transparency blending and spot color mixing.