Unlocking Printer Performance: The Key Role of a DFE in Driving Efficiency

In this article, sponsored by Fiery, we take an in-depth look at factors to consider when choosing a digital front end (DFE) for a new or existing digital printer. It emphasizes the importance of a robust DFE for efficient and high-speed print operations. Not all DFEs are created equal, and simply comparing hardware specifications does not tell the whole story; that approach can actually be quite misleading. You can also download an in-depth white paper for additional information.

By John Henze

High-speed printing, colorants beyond CMYK, personalization, larger media sizes, and other needs demand a digital front end (DFE) that processes data efficiently to drive digital cut-sheet print engines at rated speeds. In an in-plant or commercial printing business, this is critical to success. The more efficient the DFE is, the more work can be produced per day, week, month. And with time to market a critical factor for printing customers, this speed is a vital competitive advantage.

When printing operations are performing due diligence when acquiring a new cut-sheet digital printer that offers different front-end solutions, they often measure their relative effectiveness by their hardware specifications, such as memory (RAM), hard disk space, rated processing speed and more. However, this presents an incomplete picture of the overall productivity of a digital front end and the resulting printer throughput. It can also be quite misleading and lead to a costly decision in the long run.

In this article, we explain why these factors are only part of the story. Only by taking a holistic view can a printing operation make the best choice of digital front end when various options are available. It should also be noted that not all print engine manufacturers have partnered with Fiery. This can also be a factor to consider when choosing a new digital printer, especially if your operation is already using and familiar with a Fiery workflow. You can also download an in-depth white paper for more information on factors to consider when selecting a DFE and the issues often encountered when using a generic solution.

Why Consider Fiery?

A Fiery® digital front end (DFE) is a high-performance appliance designed to drive print engines and provide industry-leading performance; accurate, consistent color; plus unmatched usability and integration that enable the quality and efficiency necessary for high production print environments. It is the industry’s only DFE that is scalable across the entire range of cut-sheet printers, from office MFPs to high speed sheetfed inkjet. Because of the holistic approach to memory management and resource utilization, Fiery DFEs have always been able to achieve a higher performance level using less hardware and competing resources than other competitive DFEs.

Fiery DFEs, widely accepted as the fastest in the industry, are powered by proprietary application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) which help produce industry-leading performance. As a result of these unequalled processing speeds, engines are less likely to move into cycle-down and warm-up modes—saving valuable press time. For a printing operation, this means that, for example, a job can be processed 10 or 15 minutes faster, or perhaps even faster than that. Consider a print shop running 50 smaller jobs per day on average. Saving even 10 minutes per job, from preparation through finishing, can save the equivalent of two full-time employees (83 hours) per day. Multiply that out over a month or year, and the time savings—translated to improved throughput—is quite stunning. Take a look at your shop. What is the average number of jobs you run per day, week, month? What would it mean to your productivity if you could process each job 10 minutes faster? For most Fiery users, this kind of time savings is not unusual, and it means they produce more work with the same staffing level. We hear this from Fiery users all the time; enough to validate for us that it is not just an anomaly in one or two companies!

When evaluating DFEs, always take into account that DFEs should be purpose-built devices, customized for specific print engine brands and models, enabling them to take full advantage of the print engine capabilities.

Let’s take a brief look at several characteristics, which for Fiery, have continuously evolved over the company’s more than 30 years in the industry. These characteristics are what makes Fiery the fastest DFE in the industry, and we are not stopping here. The Why Fiery whitepaper will also explain these characteristics in more depth.

Why ASICs Are Important

ASICs employed in Fiery servers enable dynamic load-based memory management, which reduces the need to add additional RAM modules. Other competitive DFEs require two or more times the amount of RAM for processing complex data files. Fiery ASICs take full advantage of custom-designed microprocessors, proprietary file-compression algorithms, and efficient memory management to produce industry-leading performance. Thus, simply comparing how much RAM different DFEs have is not an effective means of understanding what the actual performance of the DFE/printer combination will be.

Scalability

For more than three decades, Fiery DFEs have spanned the A3+ commercial cut-sheet printing industry, from office MFPs to the highest speed production printers—comprising a range of hardware platforms that feature the same efficient software design at the core. The Fiery DFE’s scalable design enables support for new print engine technologies, including support for higher print speeds, higher resolutions, and multiple colorants in addition to CMYK.

No other DFE on the market can demonstrate this level of scalability using the same core technology, a consistent user interface, and ability to handle complex files regardless of the size and/or speed of the cut-sheet engine.

Print Description Language Interpreters

While many jobs come to print shops in the form of PDF files, there can also be a need to handle other print description languages (PDLs). For Fiery, these span almost all of the PDLs in use today. Fiery can handle just about any PDL thrown at it, with ease.

It’s also important to take into consideration the long-time, in-depth relationship Fiery has had with Adobe, enabling Fiery DFEs to integrate the latest Adobe interpreters for both PDF (with the Adobe PDF Print Engine) and PostScript (with Adobe PostScript 3), as well as to take job processing beyond the capabilities of other RIPs using Adobe interpreters. Thus, designers using the highly popular Adobe Creative Suite applications can be assured that their designs will print correctly the first time, every time.

Compression Technology

Fiery advanced compression technology (FACT) maximizes the DFE’s available memory (RAM) to accelerate overall system throughput. FACT provides an effective way to increase scalability, performance, color, and imaging features while maintaining a cost-effective solution, compared to competitive DFEs and generic RIP offerings. DFEs that use uncompressed data approaches incur the cost of adding additional RAM modules to handle complex files.

Dynamic Memory Management

As systems grow larger and more complex, there is a tendency to have each module manage its own memory without knowledge of other memory allocations in the system. Fiery uses a dynamic system that monitors the need for system resources against their availability. This prevents disk thrashing, an issue that occurs when the hard drive works excessively during information transfer with the system memory.

Parallel Processing: The Need for Speed

Finally, Fiery DFEs achieve additional performance improvements by processing many functions in parallel, ranging from RIP while receiving a job to maintaining connections with third-party press workflows with JDF, IPP, etc., all the while monitoring and optimizing system resources and much more.

Fiery HyperRIP, available in selected DFE configurations, speeds up processing by automatically choosing the best mode – single job or multiple job – based on jobs in the print queue. Fiery SmartRIP technology yields dramatically faster page processing by recognizing file characteristics and using adaptive techniques to accelerate color, data compression, and rendering processes.

In Summary…

This article provides a peek into the inner workings of a Fiery DFE and compares its capabilities to other more generic DFEs available in the marketplace. It lays out the reasons that simply comparing hardware specifications when choosing a DFE do not provide a complete picture.

As you look to acquire your next cut-sheet printer, take the time to conduct a full review of your current printing operation:

Where are the bottlenecks?
How much time is consumed with processing files without the engine being able to print, including warm-up times, down cycling, disk thrashing and more?
Which jobs give you the most headaches in production, and how could those headaches be treated by selecting a more flexible, more highly functional DFE?
Is there work you are turning away because it simply seems too complicated for your current configuration?
What would it mean for your business to be able to process jobs 10, 15, or even 30 minutes faster on a regular basis?

Once you understand your current situation and overlay the benefits of choosing a Fiery DFE, you will likely find that the choice is an easy one to make.

Fiery experts are always available to answer questions, make recommendations and otherwise help you as you make these important decisions for your business. For a deeper dive into the details of Fiery, don’t forget to download our informative white paper here.