Boxes Galore!
More and more commercial printers are turning to packaging
printing as a second pillar. After all, this segment is growing
almost twice as fast as the traditional market. Heidelberg's
Prinect Signa Station Packaging Pro makes the production of sheet
layouts in packaging printing fast and easy.
Be it pizza, pens or bicycle tubes: almost all products are packaged in boxes. Even during economically turbulent times, the packaging market ensures a stable volume of orders. Commercial printers want to profit from that as well. "Our customers include an increasing number of smaller commercial businesses that want to enter into packaging printing. Packaging Pro helps them do so," says Sabine Roob, Product Manager of Prinect Preprint Applications & Packaging.
Packaging Pro is an add-on option for the Prinect Signa Station, the impositioning software for commercial printing. To use the packaging-specific functions, all you have to do is activate them with a license key. "The option offers functions that make print production of folding cartons particularly cost-effective and efficient," emphasizes the field expert Roob. Thanks to these functions, the print sheet can be optimally calculated and utilized. Since cardboard is significantly more expensive than paper, every ounce of leftover waste counts.
From the second to the third dimension
Entry into packaging printing also means entry into three-dimensional products. This is reflected in the data formats. These usually stem from CAD systems, of which there are many. CFF2 is the standard format for packaging printing, but CAD systems from other industries such as engineering or DTP applications are also used, and they deliver other data formats. "For smaller operations, it is therefore very important to be flexible on data types," Roob emphasizes. "With Packaging Pro, you can import a wide variety of CAD formats and, if necessary, convert or export them, for example to the die maker."
Be it pizza, pens or bicycle tubes: almost all products are packaged in boxes. Even during economically turbulent times, the packaging market ensures a stable volume of orders. Commercial printers want to profit from that as well. "Our customers include an increasing number of smaller commercial businesses that want to enter into packaging printing. Packaging Pro helps them do so," says Sabine Roob, Product Manager of Prinect Preprint Applications & Packaging.
Packaging Pro is an add-on option for the Prinect Signa Station, the impositioning software for commercial printing. To use the packaging-specific functions, all you have to do is activate them with a license key. "The option offers functions that make print production of folding cartons particularly cost-effective and efficient," emphasizes the field expert Roob. Thanks to these functions, the print sheet can be optimally calculated and utilized. Since cardboard is significantly more expensive than paper, every ounce of leftover waste counts.
From the second to the third dimension
Entry into packaging printing also means entry into three-dimensional products. This is reflected in the data formats. These usually stem from CAD systems, of which there are many. CFF2 is the standard format for packaging printing, but CAD systems from other industries such as engineering or DTP applications are also used, and they deliver other data formats. "For smaller operations, it is therefore very important to be flexible on data types," Roob emphasizes. "With Packaging Pro, you can import a wide variety of CAD formats and, if necessary, convert or export them, for example to the die maker."
Soft proof: from film to carton
Once the sheet layout has been created, print shops can generate a three-dimensional soft proof of the carton. This takes place in the form of an interactive film that can be sent via email. That gives the client a comprehensive impression of the layout. Thanks to the software, the carton can be rotated, opened and closed on the computer screen. It can also be displayed with or without the image data as well as either opaque or transparent. "The three-dimensional soft proof is a fast and economic method of clarifying things with the customer because there is no need to produce a costly sample first," Roob says.
Intelligent use of space
Packaging Pro also saves print shops fiddling with clipping paths and trim amounts, because it makes minor punching inaccuracies invisible. In order not to waste any expensive material, the one-ups are laid out on the sheet as effectively as possible. Thus, the gaps between the one-ups become so small that the trim partly overlaps. "Packaging Pro highlights such conflicting areas and offers fast and easy solutions," explains Roob. The user can let the software solve such problems automatically by defining a minimum trim value for conflict areas or interactively by specifying the importance of a surface on the screen and deciding where the one-ups should overlap or be separated.
Packaging Pro also provides intelligent solutions for placing control marks and color control strips, which shorten make-ready times in press and postpress. Mini Spots, small color strips, can be placed in invisible flaps or in the waste areas for example, so they do not waste any space and can nevertheless be immediately recognized by the color measurement system and used for color control. The fast adjustment of the die cutter makes it easier to automatically identify the waste area: in case of punching inaccuracies the number immediately identifies the blade that has to be adjusted.
For beginners and professionals
"Packaging Pro is used by rather small commercial print shops with three employees as well as by industrial packaging companies with a large staff," reports Roob. Demand for the software is particularly high among Asian print shops, often in combination with the Sheet Optimizer, a tool for calculating the ideal sheet assignment in label printing. Many businesses initially use Packaging Pro as an independent solution and then expand their packaging workflow with Prinect, step by step - until all areas are fully integrated. "Prinect adapts to individual requirements and can grow with the customer. Even components from other manufacturers can be integrated," explains Roob.
Once the sheet layout has been created, print shops can generate a three-dimensional soft proof of the carton. This takes place in the form of an interactive film that can be sent via email. That gives the client a comprehensive impression of the layout. Thanks to the software, the carton can be rotated, opened and closed on the computer screen. It can also be displayed with or without the image data as well as either opaque or transparent. "The three-dimensional soft proof is a fast and economic method of clarifying things with the customer because there is no need to produce a costly sample first," Roob says.
Intelligent use of space
Packaging Pro also saves print shops fiddling with clipping paths and trim amounts, because it makes minor punching inaccuracies invisible. In order not to waste any expensive material, the one-ups are laid out on the sheet as effectively as possible. Thus, the gaps between the one-ups become so small that the trim partly overlaps. "Packaging Pro highlights such conflicting areas and offers fast and easy solutions," explains Roob. The user can let the software solve such problems automatically by defining a minimum trim value for conflict areas or interactively by specifying the importance of a surface on the screen and deciding where the one-ups should overlap or be separated.
Packaging Pro also provides intelligent solutions for placing control marks and color control strips, which shorten make-ready times in press and postpress. Mini Spots, small color strips, can be placed in invisible flaps or in the waste areas for example, so they do not waste any space and can nevertheless be immediately recognized by the color measurement system and used for color control. The fast adjustment of the die cutter makes it easier to automatically identify the waste area: in case of punching inaccuracies the number immediately identifies the blade that has to be adjusted.
For beginners and professionals
"Packaging Pro is used by rather small commercial print shops with three employees as well as by industrial packaging companies with a large staff," reports Roob. Demand for the software is particularly high among Asian print shops, often in combination with the Sheet Optimizer, a tool for calculating the ideal sheet assignment in label printing. Many businesses initially use Packaging Pro as an independent solution and then expand their packaging workflow with Prinect, step by step - until all areas are fully integrated. "Prinect adapts to individual requirements and can grow with the customer. Even components from other manufacturers can be integrated," explains Roob.
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