Gent (Belgium) - EskoArtwork announces the launch of DeskPack Instant Trapper for Adobe Illustrator, a real time, smart interactive trapping tool to produce high quality, predictable trapping. Based on EskoArtwork's renowned trapping technology and built to work within the world's most popular design application, Instant Trapper offers a powerful, easy to use trapping engine for prepress professionals who need to prepare print-ready packaging artwork production files.

"Preparing artwork for conventional printing processes is still a labor-intensive process requiring prepress operators to keep an eye on where and how graphic objects trap into each other. They have the professional competence, but need a fast and easy tool to generate quality trapping objects without losing the ability to edit the artwork," comments  Frank Adegeest, Director Tools Software Product Group. "That's where Instant Trapper has tremendous impact."

Professional quality trapping tool for Adobe Illustrator CS
DeskPack Instant Trapper is based on EskoArtwork's core trapping technology, considered the best in the industry. The complexity of artwork, special requirements and shared printing plates or cylinders can prevent the use of an automatic trapping solution. Instant Trapper's complete array of trapping tools is essential to the preparation of artwork for top-quality printing by professionals with an understanding of printing sequence, knowledge of the opacity levels of inks, and insight into advanced techniques like reverse printing and reverse trapping.

Trap objects are generated in real time and can be modified with any of the provided editing tools. Instant Trapper traps all vector art, vignettes, editable text, placed objects, special fills, transparency, gradients, and process and spot color images together to assure a perfect printability, independent of the printing process to be used. With support for technical inks, special inks, varnish areas-everything necessary to complete a packaging design for print is provided by Instant Trapper.

Because Instant Trapper creates traps in a separate layer, trapping is a non-destructive process, as the original artwork is never touched or altered.

Power to the user
No printer can assure a job will be printed well without the right trapping, but trapping artwork according to defined specifications can be time-consuming. Instant Trapper allows prepress professionals to judge and trap color scenarios independently, offering a new level of flexibility. Users only need to click on different areas in the artwork to define the required trapping. Because trapping is performed without leaving Adobe Illustrator, Instant Trapper is intuitive and easy to use. An operator with Adobe Illustrator skills can be up to speed almost immediately with Instant Trapper.

Cost effective
Trapping software for packaging prepress, with a special focus on spot color jobs, is an EskoArtwork core competence, resulting in a solid foundation of trapping expertise that is put to work in different ways in the workflow. At the highest level of interactivity, the new DeskPack Instant Trapper enables trapping of selected butting objects with different colors. Operators will use DeskPack Instant Trapper to trap an entire job or they will use it as a companion editing module for automatic trapping solutions like DeskPack trapX or BackStage trapping. Using DeskPack Instant Trapper in combination with automated trapping can accelerate the trapping process by 50% and at the same time decrease the cost of these prepress functions significantly.

"Instant Trapper is the result of a perfect synergy of proven EskoArtwork trapping technology with Adobe Illustrator's intuitive, easy to use interface and offers the highest productivity," comments Adegeest. "Because Instant Trapper works within Adobe Illustrator, it requires no training, has a low cost of ownership and quick ROI; characteristics that are important under current economic conditions."

Instant Trapper works with both Adobe Illustrator CS3 and CS4, for both Mac and PC. Instant Trapper will be demonstrated during Labelexpo Europe, on EskoArtwork stands 5B30 and 9F100.