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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Technology & Products
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ONYX Thrive for Production Printing and Adobe Workflow Now Available

Print production workflow softwareONYX has introduced Thrive, an Adobe-based workflow product for production printing, and ONYX Advantage for Thrive. The big news here is the ability with Thrive to run on multiple computers with one license, and Thrive’s Adobe PDF Print Engine.

“One of our customers was trying to drive six printers with one ProductionHouse license, but now with Thrive they can spread it out to other computers without having to buy multiple licenses and they’ve been able to double their production,” explains Mark Maynard, ONYX general manager for the Americas. “With PDF files, sometimes you have to go into Illustrator and flatten the file or save it as a TIFF, so there’s an extra step involved in that case. Since Thrive is an Adobe-based workflow solution it RIPs the file the first time around without having to do additional work to the file.”

Maynard adds that Thrive offers print shops a cost-effective way to grow their business by spreading out the workflow across multiple computers and streamlining the Adobe print process. Therefore, Thrive is more easily scalable as the print shop adds more printers and grows their business.

Plus, you can drive production from a mobile device, like an iPad, with the new Thrive Production Manager. With Thrive Production Manager on a secure network you simply open a browser, point it to the RIP Queue, and away you go, wherever you are.

ONYX Thrive comes in three different configurations: 211 for $3,295 (two RIPs, one large-format or grand-format printer and one Job Editor, formerly known as Preflight), 642 for $6,995 (six RIPs, four printers, two Job Editors) and 862 for $8,995 (eight RIPs, six printers, two Job Editors).

With ONYX Thrive, you can also add ONYX Advantage, a service program that includes software maintenance and Live! Web-based training – where you choose any three of a variety of instructor-led online sessions for the training that best suits your needs – and personalized training – a  two-hour personalized and custom Web-based training session for your print shop that provides the confidence that operators are maximizing the performance and automation of your ONYX Thrive workflow.

For more information about ONYX Thrive and ONYX Advantage, and to help figure out which products will work best for your business, contact a LexJet customer specialist at 800-453-9538.

Posted on by Sean McGettigan Posted in Tips & Tricks
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How to Print from the New Photoshop CS6 to Canon iPF Printers

Printing from Photoshop CS6 to Canon printersToday, Adobe released its latest version of Photoshop, CS6. While there are many great new features that I am sure will be discussed all over the Web, the main things I wanted to make you aware of are some minor changes to the printing workflow.

While all of the selections that are made in CS6 are the same as version CS3 through CS5, the print window has had a cosmetic upgrade and things were moved around a bit.

Embedded below in the order shown are two videos: Learn how to print to a Canon iPF printer with Adobe Photoshop CS6 using a Mac and a PC. Keep an eye out tomorrow for the same videos for use with Epson Stylus Pro printers.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Prints that Win: Bridge over Water

Award winning photography and printing

Award-winning photography is often a fortuitous combination of skill and luck as was the first-place winner of the Commercial division and LexJet Sunset Award winner at the 2012 Professional Photographers of North Carolina print completion, Gregory Georges.

Georges co-owns Jonathan Penney Inc., a New York-based fine art print making business, with the company’s founder, Jonathan Penney. The skill is obvious in the presentation of the image, Bridge Over Water. The luck was in finding the scene at the right time.

Georges captured the image at the Conde B. McCullough Memorial Bridge over Coos Bay on US 101 in North Bend, Oregon, with a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III using an EF70-200 at 148mm set to 1/320 @f/8.0 and ISO 100.

“I was fascinated by this beautiful old bridge. It was near sunset with lots of clouds and not much color, so it was very monochromatic to begin with. I got very compulsive about locking-down my tripod, and using mirror lock-up to minimize vibrations to get the clearest image I could,” explains Georges.

Equally important, says Georges, was the combination of Adobe Camera RAW 7 RAW file conversion and black-and-white conversion done in Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro 2.0. “Silver Efex has absolutely amazing features that really bring out the best in a black and white image,” says Georges. “My vision was to make the print look like a mechanical pencil sketch without pure black tone and yet still show extremely fine detail.”

He printed on a fine art watercolor paper at competition size – 16″ x 20″ – on an Epson Stylus Pro 3880. Georges says that those who saw the print at competition were amazed by the amount of detail in the image, especially the individual cars crossing the bridge and fine line detail of the wires on the bridge.

“Monitors, color calibration tools, media, ink technologies and printers are so awesome now that if you edit it well on your computer you will get an amazing print. I also use ColorByte Software’s ImagePrint RIP, because it’s giving me extraordinary paper profiles,” adds Georges.

For more information about Jonathan Penney Inc., go to www.jonathanpenney.com.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Promotions & Rebates
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Free Eye-One Pro and Monitor Calibration Software with Onyx ProductionHouse

Bundled promotional software and color calibration dealOnyx Graphics is offering a free X-Rite Eye-One Pro color management device with Monitor Calibration Software, a $995 value, when you order Onyx ProductionHouse.

This special promotion ends on April 30 and cannot be ordered online, so contact a LexJet customer specialist at 800-453-9538 for more information and to take advantage of the offer.

This custom promotional bundle includes ProductionHouse, the Eye-One color management spectrophotometer – with a case and tray – and X-Rite’s monitor calibration software tool. In Onyx’s software you can build your own spot color libraries, calibrate existing media, build your own custom media profiles, and more.

Click here to go to the product page for ProductionHouse Version X10, which also includes a number of how-to educational videos that show ProductionHouse in action.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in News & Trends, Technology & Products
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Corel Introduces Workflow Software, AfterShot Pro, for Photographers

Corel AfterShot Pro workflow software for photographyCorel has recently expanded its digital photography portfolio with the introduction of Corel® AfterShot™ Pro. Corel says AfterShot Pro is based on technology from Corel’s acquisition of Bibble Labs and provides complete RAW workflow, flexible photo management and advanced, non-destructive editing.

“Today’s photographers, whether they’re professional or enthusiast, are coming from shoots with hundreds, if not thousands of photos,” said Chad Kinzelberg, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Digital Media at Corel. “They want to be able to bring in their photos and get right to work finding their best shots and making them better. With AfterShot Pro we are delivering a powerful RAW workflow solution to help photographers power through their photo workflow and get back to doing what they love – taking great pictures.”

Fully multithreaded and optimized for multi-core and multi-CPU computers, Corel AfterShot Pro delivers fast RAW processing and color-accurate images with regular support for an ever-increasing number of major camera manufacturers and models. AfterShot Pro offers workflow capabilities that enable you to work with photos virtually any way you want, such as quickly accessing images from existing file folders or memory cards or importing them into searchable catalogs.

Corel AfterShot Pro key features include:

  • Multithreaded and optimized workflow: Corel AfterShot Pro is designed for speed and allows those with and without the latest hardware to process their images fast. AfterShot Pro is fully multithreaded and optimized for multi-core computers by taking advantage of every CPU at its disposal to maximize the speed of onscreen preview, adjustment and output generation.
  • RAW tools: Corel AfterShot Pro is designed to help you make the most of the extra detail and data in your RAW images by offering fast RAW processing and incredibly color-accurate images.
  • Flexible photo management: Create custom or even portable catalogues that can be moved to another computer, or if you already organize your photos in folders on your computer, you aren’t required to catalogue them at all. Work with photos wherever they are, whether they are in folders on your hard drive or on a memory card.
  • Metadata tools: Browse and search your photos using the metadata features in Corel AfterShot Pro. Find your images with automatically imported EXIF data such as camera settings, lenses and dates. Add your own keywords, ratings, labels and tags or use industry-standard IPTC Metadata, such as captions and copyright. Tailor metadata sets to display only the information you want to see or use AfterShot Pro Presets to attach information to your photos for easy searching.
  • Advanced, non-destructive editing: With the non-destructive editing tools in Corel AfterShot Pro, refine and enhance your photos without ever altering your original image. Apply intelligent automatic or manual adjustments — including complete exposure and tone control, color correction, white balance, noise reduction, curves and levels, lens correction and many more — knowing you can always revert to an earlier version of the image at any time.
  • Selective editing: The Regions and Layers capabilities in Corel AfterShot Pro give you control over image adjustments by letting you apply them exactly where you want them.
  • Easy photo-editing software integration: When you’re ready to get into deeper photo editing and advanced image manipulation, Corel AfterShot Pro lets you to bring your image into Corel PaintShop Pro, Adobe Photoshop or the image editor of your choice from directly within the application.
  • Batch processing: Corel AfterShot Pro offers advanced and flexible batch processing tools that can be used to rename multiple files, apply adjustments to groups of similar files with the same settings, or convert and export files to one or more pre-defined image formats and sizes.
  • Speed to output: When you’re ready to create image files to print, share online or access in other applications, Corel AfterShot Pro offers fast output generation. Plus, use Batch Output to quickly process images according to predefined output settings like JPEG and PDF, create contact sheets or standard print sizes, and more. It’s easy to modify Batch settings or create a custom Batch process that suits your workflow.

Corel AfterShot Pro is available in English, German, French, Dutch, Italian and Japanese immediately as an electronic download (ESD) from www.corel.com. Box versions will be available from Corel’s global resellers later in January 2012. North American pricing is $99.99 (US and CDN). The upgrade version is available for $79.99 (US and CDN). To be eligible for the upgrade you must own a previous licensed version of: Bibble Pro or Lite 5, Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 or higher, Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture.

To download a free fully-functional trial version or for more information about AfterShot Pro, visit www.corel.com/aftershotpro

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in News & Trends
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Take Advantage of Tax Incentives before the End of the Year

Tax incentives for capital equipment purchasesThe Small Business Jobs Act, which was signed into law on Sept. 27, 2010, included several provisions designed to provide tax incentives and relief to businesses. There are several other provisions in the law designed to encourage lending to small businesses.

It is uncertain if these provisions, at least at their current levels, will carry over into 2012 and beyond. Therefore, since 2011 will end quicker than we think (where did the rest of the year go?), now is a good time to think about adding capital equipment – like printers, laminators and software – to ensure you can take full advantage of the current incentives.

Some of the key tax-saving provisions of the law include an increase in the Section 179 deduction and an extension of bonus depreciation.

Section 179 Expensing: The law increases the maximum amount that may be expensed under Code Section 179 to $500,000 and raises the phase-out threshold to $2 million. This means that business owners who purchase capital equipment for use in their business may be able to deduct the total cost of the equipment in a single tax year rather than depreciating it over a number of years. The enhanced provisions apply to tax years beginning in 2010 and 2011.

For instance, assuming a 34% tax rate, if you were to purchase a $30,000 printer, the tax savings on the Section 179 deduction would be $10,200. The cost of the equipment, net of tax savings is $19,800.

The new law also allows taxpayers to expense qualified leasehold investment property, qualified restaurant property and qualified retail improvement property. The maximum amount with respect to real property that may be expensed, however, is limited to $250,000 of the $500,000 overall limit.

This is a significant increase to the amounts that were previously available to expense. Prior to the enactment of the Small Business Jobs Act, the limit was $250,000 for 2010 and $25,000 for 2011 and real property improvements did not qualify for Section 179.

Bonus Depreciation: This provision originally allowed for an additional first-year depreciation deduction equal to 50 percent of the adjusted basis of the qualified property. However, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 provides a 100 percent depreciation bonus for capital investments placed in service after Sept. 8, 2010 through Dec. 31, 2011.

For equipment placed in service after Dec. 31, 2011 and through Dec. 31, 2012, the bill provides for a 50 percent depreciation bonus. It’s simply another good reason to think capital purchases before the end of this year.

Be sure to consult your tax advisor to determine which of these tax-planning tips can provide the best benefit for you and your business.