ROCHESTER, N.Y. April 1 -- The KODAK NewsManager 1.1 workflow system introduces several new features to help newspapers improve uptime, maximize efficiency and better manage production issues across multiple printing sites. The NewsManager 1.1 system adds an enhanced web based user interface, delivering a new generation user experience, including dynamic thumbnail views, new scheduling options, soft proofing, improved security settings and personalized language options. “Newspapers rely on speed and quality in the plate room to drive success,” said Kevin Ward, Product Manager, Kodak. “The NewsManager 1.1 system is designed specifically for the newspaper environment and offers market specific solutions such as edition planning, load balancing and resource handling, and tracking and distribution of digital content across multiple print sites.” The NewsManager 1.1 system enables a flexible, automated workflow from edition plan to plate production. The NewsManager 1.1 system is scaleable to meet all needs, from contract printers to metropolitan, national and international newspapers with multiple print sites. The software features an enhanced web user interface for better scheduling and production control, advanced automation and flexibility within newspaper workflows, and enhanced soft proofing capabilities. The NewsManager system is installed in numerous locations around the world, ranging from small local papers to large national operations in the U.S., Australia, Italy, Canada, Indonesia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Africa, the Philippines, Chile and Russia. According to Glen Gilbert, Prepress Supervisor at the Ottawa Citizen, the KODAK NewsManager system transformed his paper’s prepress operation. “A major reason for choosing the NewsManager system was that I wanted the advantages of a PDF workflow. I want to be able to repurpose PDFs quickly. And I want the security of knowing that I can send my PDFs to another site if there’s any kind of catastrophe at our plant,” said Gilbert. “With the KODAK NewsManager system we can see the workflow—we can stop the workflow if we have to—we can map colors on the fly. If we want, we can monitor progress any time throughout the evening.” Based on open standards, the NewsManager 1.1 system consists of four principle components: the Edition Planner for defining all attributes of an upcoming edition; the Database Manager for reading edition plans and tracking processing activity; the Production Monitor for tracking the processing status against the edition plan as new content is prepared by the editorial department; and the Global Log Viewer, which allows an operator to view, search and filter the processing history across all sites. Important for newspapers running “lights out” plate rooms, or requiring page release and progress tracking by several departments, the NewsManager 1.1 system’s client/server architecture allows monitoring and control to be managed from several potentially remote workstations concurrently and in real time. In addition, the user interface features full language support (including 16 bit character sets), allowing easy modification for local needs, and enabling users to automatically experience the software in their own language. The NewsManager 1.1 system is a free upgrade for all existing NewsManager 1.0 system customers. The NewsManager 1.1 system will be demonstrated at NEXPO, April 1-4 in Chicago, at booth 1062.