Over the summer, I spoke with a couple dozen companies who had recently purchased digital presses. In addition to how the DFE decision was made, I was also interested in understanding how operations are using (or not) the growing variety of capabilities these sophisticated systems include. Are they being used as “dumb” DFEs or do operators actually make use of all the stuff they can do? Does it make sense for DFE manufacturers to continue to add more features, or will they just be ignored?

Martin Bailey of Global Graphics, makers of the Harlequin RIP, made this insightful comment: “What people use in DFEs is very much the same kind of response you get to Microsoft Word. No one uses everything in Microsoft Word, but all features are used by someone. Maybe users don’t realize certain functionality is there, but if you remove it, they will miss it. They take it for granted. It really depends on the application they are printing and what else is in the workflow.” So Bailey’s verdict was let the features keep coming.

When promoting DFEs, manufacturers usually tout a core set of capabilities. These include: