Graphix sat down with DigitalView’s Mark Minter to chat about developments within the company over the first seven months of this year. Since the beginning of 2011, DigitalView has announced: a partnership agreement with Konica Minolta South Africa; the addition of the FFEI workflow and CtP solutions to its portfolio; and the formation of a new company, CGS South Africa. That’s a lot of change for a relatively small company, with more announcements expected before the year is over, according to Minter.
Referring to the formation of the new company, Minter says, ‘We have always been a local dealer for CGS’s Oris range of colour management software. As CGS is based in Germany, we felt we could better serve our customers by establishing a direct channel in South Africa, hence our decision to form CGS South Africa.’
Mark Minter will run the CGS South Africa operation, while Laura Minter will continue to manage the DigitalView business. The two companies will complement one another’s offering in terms of solutions and service, and will between them offer a comprehensive front-end solution.
In line with this strategy of offering a total prepress solution, Digital View has also announced a new addition to its portfolio: the FFEI range of prepress workflow and CtP systems. FFEI provides prepress workflow and CtP systems. This new addition to DigitalView’s portfolio enables it to offer a full service solution to its customer and the market.
‘To offer imaging solutions has been in my blood since my days at Agfa where I helped put Agfa’s imagesetting systems into a market-leading position in South Africa. We have been involved with CtP products through our involvement with Fujifilm CtP systems, but the deal we have done with FFEI will really allow us to go to the market with solutions that offer an exceptional value proposition,’ says Minter.
The Alinte range of CtP systems include both 4-up and 8-up commercial units as well as a range of units designed for the newspaper environment. The range includes a host of variants starting with entry-level fully manual machines to systems that allow fully automated unattended operation – all producing printing plates at the highest quality.
Together with these hardware solutions, FFEI manufactures a number of software solutions. RealPro digital workflow is a PDF-based print production workflow combing the very latest in workflow technology with a powerful production feature set, allowing multiple users to control all aspects of job management from an automated central production solution.
Minter says, ‘Printers are finding value in 3D simulation tools to help them make improvements in their print production processes – saving time and money – RealVue3D makes this possible.’
This type of soft proofing is now also available to packaging professionals involved in design, client communication and production. Fold complex dielines and artwork into accurate 3D animated prototypes, simulating all aspects of the intended structural printed design.
Laura Minter says that the expertise within DigitalView, which includes all areas of print production, means that customers will receive excellent support for both the implementation as well as the after sales service of FFEI systems in South Africa.
Further expanding the company’s offering to the print industry, DigitalView is assisting Konica Minolta South Africa to provide a colour digital solution to the commercial printing industry. DigitalView’s ORIS colour management software, which will in future be distributed through CGS South Africa, enables DigitalView to set up a digital press to match ISO standards. Minter says, ‘The biggest challenge has been narrowing the gap between the digital printer’s perception of colour and that of the commercial printer.’
‘A lot of the people involved in the digital printing industry come from a copier environment and can have expectations of colour quality that are different from those of people who come from a conventional print background,’ he goes on. ‘Our job is to make sure that the digital print that the customer receives as a proof is identical to the final product that he is going to receive.
Leon Minnie, Konica Minolta South Africa’s product manager for production systems, adds, ‘We recognise that the printing industry is rapidly changing and that collaboration between traditional and digital printers – commonly seen as two separate industries – is needed to promote both the future and the sustainability of the printing industry.
‘Our collaboration with DigitalView addresses that by giving litho printers the confidence that they will be able to offer consistent reliable colour not only across a print run on a Konica Minolta press but also when it comes to digital proofing.’
The Konica Minolta South Africa stand at Africa Print will feature a colour production digital printer complete with ORIS colour management software.