Mortsel, Belgium - April 2001 -Agfa announced the release of Digital QuickStrip, a powerful new feature of its Apogee Series2 workflow management system. A plug-in to the Apogee Pilot and PrintDrive components, Digital QuickStrip adds the benefits of a post-RIP assembly workflow, productively processing and assigning files for output, and flexibly handling late-stage job changes. Printers and packaging converters seek the benefits of a post-RIP assembly workflow because it offers a productive and flexible means of creating fully imposed flats close to the press. Prior to this workflow option, they were faced with a bottleneck, as all page files had to complete before the full flat could be RIPed, trapped and assembled for output to a specific device. This resulted in files that were large and cumbersome to transmit and RIP, and printers lost valuable time waiting for a final page or late-stage correction before they could proceed with the processing step. With Digital QuickStrip, pages are RIPed and trapped individually, and assembled into user-defined templates on the fly at output time. The page files remain independent, offering unprecedented flexibility to make late-stage changes in the choice of imposition and press configurations. Because the files are pre-RIPed, no additional file processing is required at the output stage, saving precious minutes when it is time to plate the job. Users can also take advantage of the option to perform automatic proofing and/or high-resolution imaging. "Digital QuickStrip combines the flexibility of a page-based workflow with the productivity of a flat-based workflow," says Donna Bloomquist, Agfa product line manager for Apogee PrintDrive. "For customers working in hybrid production environments, Digital QuickStrip provides the opportunity to augment an existing workflow with newer, more highly productive features. For those already using Apogee, we've provided an easy-to-implement way to improve overall system performance when faced with the inevitable last minute content and press changes."