PrintWeek India's special Drupa poll

The choices are between HP with its PrintOS. The company says it is not an operating system but a set of cloud-based services for HP Indigo and other digital press users. Details of how it will work are still somewhat up in the air (appropriate for the cloud), but it seems that it will function like a cross between the Adobe Creative Cloud and a professional print version of the Apple Store, where you can access and run an increasing choice of applications, sometimes temporarily by only paying for them when you need them. It will include both HP’s own applications and approved third-party apps. Initially these will include data cleansing, web-to-print, marketing asset management, cross-media services, and workflow automation. 

 

Then there is the Ricoh with the TotalFlow Cloud Suite, which likewise will be a hosted portfolio of subscription software services comprising Ricoh’s own and approved third-party products. 

 

Also there is Enfocus, whose Switch technology allows users to build their own workflows, is introducing Appstore, which allows them to buy functions and components from other users. It’s also implementing HTML5 to allow web browser inspection and commenting on a Switch workflow.

 

Then there is Hybrid Software, a Belgian-based workflow integrations specialist, which has introduced its Cloudflow multi-vendor component workflow in 2013. At Drupa it’s being extended with Cloudflow Share, a web-based workflow that connects multiple local workflows and offers various pre-press functions. Also new will be MyCloudflow, which lets companies purchase cloud-based capacity rather than buying a licence and configuring their own system. 

 

Also there is Heidelberg with the Prinect Smart Automation Module which determines production paths based on job data and production information. This is being extended at Drupa to handle a wider range of jobs and to set up workflows in advance that are triggered when the artwork file is loaded. The company will promote the concept at Drupa as the ‘Smart Print Shop’.

 

EFI is also making a big thing about end-to-end automation and will showcase this at Drupa. It calls its concept EFI Connect, which is scalable and in some aspects cloud-based. It draws on the company’s experience with MIS (it has spent years buying up other developers, most recently the UK’s Shuttleworth Business Systems) and with its Fiery family of DFEs. 

 

And finally Xerox is offering its FreeFlow Print Server alongside these; while Global Graphics is introducing the Digital Print Optimizer, a screening technology it says gives a considerable quality boost to high-speed inkjet presses. Once optimised for a particular press model it can be built into a screening engine that will work with APPE-based front-ends as well as Harlequin.