BOSTON, April 16—The newest version of the KODAK PRINERGY Workflow System shares the power of PRINERGY Software from the pressroom to the front office. The KODAK PRINERGY Workflow System Version 4 is the new central hub for printers, storing and sharing up to the minute job information and creating a truly unified workflow. At AIIM ON DEMAND 2007, Kodak is announcing the launch of the KODAK PRINERGY Workflow System Version 4. The modular PRINERGY 4 system upgrade is available immediately for all markets, including commercial, packaging and newspaper printers. A new easy to use dashboard in the PRINERGY 4 system provides all key stakeholders with “at a glance” job information. The PRINERGY 4 system also offers support for transparencies, digital print automation to expand into the KODAK Web-to-print Solution, and new digital job notes and custom fields. These new features help printers build a long term digital foundation both in house and with customers. “We’re constantly looking to the future, and the notes field and dashboard benefit us greatly long term. Many of the job details and notes can now be stored digitally and archived with the jobs,” said Patrick Villeneuve, Prepress Manager and Workflow Specialist, Acuity Digital Imaging, a high end commercial printer in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. “Print service providers in all markets need to reduce costs and increase productivity, which is driving the need to automate production and leverage investment across both digital and conventional printing processes. The PRINERGY 4 system is unique in providing a unified, highly automated, production hub,” said Jon Bracken, Vice President, Marketing and Channels, Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. “As more work comes in, the new dashboard feature helps optimize capacity and improves communication with customers,” The dashboard lets customer service representatives inform customers immediately when their job will be ready and where it is in the print cycle. “The dashboard is very straightforward and easy to use. Our production coordinators learned dashboard in about 15 minutes. Before, they would have to call the prepress operators for details that can now be retrieved through the dashboard at anytime,” said Villeneuve. The PRINERGY 4 system also offers two major enhancements for transparencies to produce more predictable, high quality results while reducing errors and rework without flattening files. The Color Matcher and Trapper features have been upgraded to handle transparent objects natively. The PRINERGY 4 system also includes Adobe’s PDF Print Engine, with its full transparency support. Printers using any KODAK PRINERGY 4 Software configuration can preserve transparency throughout the workflow. Transparency design effects are widely used, particularly in the packaging industry. Tim Staut, Workflow/Production Manager at Southern Graphics Systems (SGS)/Midwest Region, a graphics and packaging solutions company in Plymouth, Minn, said approximately 85 percent to 95 percent of packaging files SGS receives contain some transparency elements to make packages stand out on the shelf, such as drop shadows, spot color glows and dodging blurs. “Dealing with transparency in electronic files has been a challenge in prepress since transparency was introduced. This is especially true in our packaging work where the designs tend to be more complex, and where a vast majority of design files we work with contain some form of transparency in the design—ghosting, drop shadows, spot color glows, gaussian blurs. The process of properly flattening the transparency out of a file can be very time consuming and can, at times, possibly compromise the quality of the job,” said Staut. “With native transparency support in the PRINERGY 4 system, our workflow immediately becomes more efficient. We can now process more files in less time, with more accuracy, due to the fact that files can come straight from the front end applications and can be refined and trapped without flattening, saving approximately 35 to 40 percent of the time from the process.” For digital and conventional production environments, the PRINERGY 4 system can include Digital Print Automation capabilities. It also supports variable print data file submission to KODAK NEXPRESS Digital Production Color Presses. The system can automatically read job intent, select a manufacturing plan, and route jobs to the appropriate press. The PRINERGY 4 system enables users to easily expand their solutions to offer customers a complete KODAK Web-to-print Solution. KODAK Web-to-print Solutions will be available in June 2007. New job notes and custom fields, combined with enhanced Rules-Based Automation, provide users with more control and customization over how the PRINERGY 4 system runs. “The combination of Rules-Based Automation and custom fields is extremely powerful,” said Rick Riegger, Prepress Manager, Japs-Olson Company, a $133 million direct mail and commercial printing company in Minneapolis, Minn. Using these new features has enabled Japs-Olson to automate plate numbering, dramatically reducing the margin for error. Previously, plates were numbered by hand, increasing the margin for error. Job notes can be shared among PRINERGY workshop, dashboard and KODAK INSITE Software, enabling customer service representatives, prepress operators, and customers to share job information digitally. Enhanced Rules-Based Automation expands the range of production activities supported, including imposition, layout and digital print events. The improvements result in greater JDF support, more flexibility and control in production at a job, customers and system level. Users can better customize, track, control and automate activities in prepress with new user defined custom fields. KODAK products are backed by KODAK Service and Support. Named Best Support Organization at the 2006 International Business Awards, KODAK Service and Support includes more than 3,000 professionals in 120 countries. These professionals are fully qualified to help customers control costs, maximize productivity, and minimize business risk.