This guide will take you through the various stages needed to de-impose a job using a signature. The job used in this example will be in Serendipity Blackmagic Image format with sigantures generated in Dynastrip. A Xante CL30 printer will be set up for use.
It is expected that the Server and Client are installed and running. A basic understanding of the software is required.
Configuration
The first stage is to configure the Media, Output and Pagesetup in the Workbench.
Media Configuration
- Select Media from the datatypes list in the Workbench and create a new one. Give it a name you will remember.
- Select the Output Driver as Hewlett Packard PCL5 Colour.
- Select the resolution and colourspace is set to CMYK.
- Allocate an Output ICC profile, ensuring this is a CMYK one.
- Save the Media configuration settings.
Output Configuration
- Select Output from the datatypes list in the Workbench and create a new one. Give it a name you will remember.
- Select the same output driver as done with the Media and configure the destination driver settings.
- Select Duplexing under Collation Method and save the Output.
Pagesetup Configuration
- Select Pagesetup from the datatypes list in the Workbench and create a new one. Give it a name you will remember.
- Click the Change Output button and allocate the Output created above to the Pagesetup. Do the same for the Change Media option.
- Set up your ICC profiles as required and save the Pagesetup.
Once the above has been done the next stage is to configure a RIP to poll the files. This is optional as you are able to submit the Serendipity Blackmagic Image files via the Submit menu > Files for Deimposition option. A RIP will be required for any jobs using a dedicated input filter.
RIP Configuration
- Select RIP from the datatypes list in the Workbench and create a new one. Give it a name you will remember (e.g. BMImage Local).
- Select Serendipity Blackmagic Image from the list of available RIP drivers.
- Enable Polling, select the method as Localhose and set the Poll Interval to 1000h (hrs). We do not need to continually look for new files so a long poll time is fine.
- Create a new path to the folder where the RIPped image files are located.
- Click the Test button and Save and Test when prompted. Make sure the test returns a result of “Polling OK”. If not, correct any errors until the test is successful.
Once the RIP has been configured use the RIPMonitor to see the polled pages and make sure they view correctly.
- Select your RIPMonitor from the Monitor window or launch a new one.
- Choose the RIP BMImage Local and make sure polling is enabled/on.
- Click on the Poll button three times consecutively.
Any jobs should appear in the RIPMonitor after the three polls have completed. If they do not appear you will need to review your configuration and try again.
The jobs will only show a single black plate as the input filter does not parse the job looking for plates. Once the jobs appear you are ready to move to the next stage.
Importing the Signature
The next stage is to import the signatures used to de-impose the job. The Signature Group has a number of import filters for the various imposition packages supported. To import your own signature, choose the filter that matches. For this example, we are importing Dynastrip signatures.
- Select the Signature Group datatype from the list in the Workbench and create a new one. Give it a name you will remember.
- Make sure that the Selective Import option is not enabled and click on the Dynastrip button.
- Browse to the location of the signature file, select it and click Open.
- This should import two (2) signatures for this example. Each signature will be an 8UP – one for the front (marked with a +) and one for the back (marked with a -).
- Save the Signature Group.
You are now ready to de-impose RIPped files.
Submitting for De-Imposition
Now the jobs are in the RIPMonitor and the signature has been imported, we are ready to submit the first job.
- Select the RIP BMImage Local in the RIPMonitor.
- Highlight the two jobs called calguide-16pS0001B and calguide-16pS0001F in the list.
- Click on the Submit for Deimposition button.
- Select the Pagesetup and Media for processing (created earlier).
- Give the publication a name. Set the first page to 1. Enable Hold After Imaging and click Next.
- Select the jobs in the list and click the Signature Group button.
- Allocate the Signature Group to the files. The pages should display in green and be complete from page 1 to page 16 when correctly assigned. The pages will appear purple/red if the same signature has been assigned to each page. Adjust via the dropdown accordingly to ensure the correct signatures are assigned to the pages.
- Once the signatures are correct submit the files for processing.
The progress of the job can be viewed in the QueueManager.
Checking the Imaged File
Once the two jobs have passed through the imaging process they will be held in a “Held (Rendering)” state in the QueueManager as we ticked the Hold After Imaging box. This gives you the opportunity to view the Imaged/Original file against the signatures to see if they fit and make any adjustments if required before rendering takes place.
- Select both jobs in the QueueManager list and click the View Original button. This will open a SoftProof window with both images displayed.
- Resize the images so they both fit within the screen (zoom out).
- Select the Tools menu > Publications or click on the Book icon on the left sidebar in SoftProof to pop out the Publications widget.
- Enable the Show Signature option under Imposition to display the signature overlay on the Imaged files in SoftProof. This will allow you to see if any rotation is required. The image for this example displays the signatures with incorrect orientation and they will require rotation.
- Within the Publications widget, click the Edit button under Imposition. This will allow you to edit the Signature Group properties. For this example, both signatures will require rotation.
- Select both signatures in the list and click the 90 degree Clockwise button.
- Select each signature in turn and check they have been rotated.
- Click Apply to save the changes and OK to close the window.
- Check the SoftProof display to confirm the rotation change has applied and now looks correct.
- Close the SoftProof window after confirmation.
The Rendering Process
The rendering phase has two stages. In the first stage, the complete job (each 8-page imposition) is rendered. Once rendered, each page is split according to the signature and is passed through the rendering queue. The second stage is the rendering of the individual pages into the configured output format.
- Select the jobs in the QueueManager and Release them for rendering.
- Once the pages have been rendered they will appear in a “Waiting to Duplex” state.
- Double-clicking on a job will show the Job Info and Imaging/Rendering previews.
- Now that the jobs have been de-imposed and are in the “Waiting to Duplex” state, you can view the completed publication and export it in various formats (if required).
Viewing and Exporting
The FlipBook is a viewing tool that assembles the pages into a virtual book based on the page numbers extracted from the signature.
- Select one of the pages in the publication and click on the View FlipBook button. This will open the application with the publication loaded.
When FlipBook is first launched, publications will appear in 2D mode (unless previously used in 3D mode). You can change this to 3D mode via the right-click menu or the View menu > View 3D option.
The Page Index pane at the bottom shows the pages making up the publication. These appear green if all pages are present. Dark green indicates the currently selected pages.
Exporting as PDF
Once the publication is loaded in FlipBook various export options become available. Exporting as a PDF file is one option. This allows you to view the book in a PDF reader and makes it easily transportable.
There are two options when exporting as PDF:
- Export as Single Pages
- Export as Spreads
Exporting as single pages produces a PDF for each page from the publication. You can select a single page or a range of pages.
Exporting as spreads produces a PDF for every two adjoining pages from the publication. You can select either the whole publication or a range of pages.
Exporting as a Movie
Another option for exporting the publication is to export as a QuickTime movie file. This requires you to be in 3D mode. A virtual FlipBook with animation of the pages turning as you flip through the publication will be produced. It is recommended you resize the window to an appropriate viewing size before exporting as the size of the screen is taken into account.
- Select View menu > View 3D to change the mode if you are viewing in 2D.
- Right-clicking on the publication page within FlipBook will allow you to select the Export as Movie option, or you can access it via the File menu > Export as Movie.
- A window will appear with QuickTime format selected. Click the Accept button to continue.
- The next window will display various format options for the Codec Type, Quality and Keyframe spacing.
- Once your selections have been made click the Accept button to generate the movie file.
- Browse to the location for saving the file and click Save. The FlipBook will run through the animation on screen while it is exporting the file. You will not receive confirmation when it is done.
- Close FlipBook when you are finished.
Printing the Job
The next stage is to send the job to the printer. The jobs are currently held in the print queue in a “Waiting to Duplex” state. This was due to the criteria specified for the Output under the Collating section to require manual duplexing of the jobs.
Duplexing a job manually occurs on a publication basis. By selecting one page within a publication and clicking the “Duplex Now” button, any pages from that publication in a “Waiting to Duplex” state will be duplexed.
It is best to duplex a few pages first as a test to check the printer is setup in the correct duplexing mode.
For this example we will duplex the first four pages only:
- Select the QueueManager containing the pages of the publication.
- Enable the header information for Page and Publication to appear by right-clicking in the header and enabling the option (if not already shown).
- Sort the list by the Publication column and select the two publications relating to the 8UPs. Right-click and select Hold. This will prevent these from duplexing.
- Sort the list by the Page column. Select the pages 5 through to 16, right-click and select Hold for these jobs. As we are only testing the setup, holding these pages will prevent them from duplexing.
- You will now see Pages 1-4 are the only ones listed with a “Waiting to Duplex” state. All others are listed as “Held (Duplexing)”.
- Select one of the first four pages and click the Duplex Now button. This will duplex the four remaining pages for printing. Double-clicking the job will display the pages making up the print job.
Printers will vary their settings depending on the setup of the individual components of the printer. For example, how the duplexing works, what trays are available and the paper loaded. Most common problems relate to the duplexing side and paper tray selection.
This can all be controlled in the Custom settings of the Media datatype in the Workbench.
If the paper size is correctly configured the input tray should automatically select the correct tray, unless you have two different types of media loaded that are the same size. If that is the case you will need to explicitly set the input tray.
The other common mistake is having the incorrect binding listed for the duplexing mode. For single page de-imposition, the correct one is usually Long Edge Binding.
Once the pages are duplexing correctly the only other thing to check is the page positioning. Different printers will have different print margins. These may differ from left side to right so we must accommodate for these differences by utilising the centering option in the Sheet panel of the Pagesetup datatype.
Finding the Printable Page Area
- Create a job with the same page size as the duplexed job. In this example it is an A4 job 210mm x 297mm.
- Draw a cross from edge to edge through the middle in both the horizontal and vertical direction. For this example we have used a file called A4-cross.tif.
- Print the job twice to the Duplexing queue used previously. For the first print assign it a publication name and enter a first page of 1.
- For the second print select the same publication name but enter a first page of 2.
- Once the jobs have passed to the printing queue they will be in a “Waiting to Duplex” state.
- Select the pages for the two page size jobs and click Duplex Now.
- When the job has printed, measure the length of both lines. This indicates the printable area of the page.
- Open the Pagesetup in the Workbench and go to the Sheet panel. The easiest option for updating the Pagesetup is to right-click, select Configure > Edit Pagesetup > Sheet attributes.
- Enter the width and height of the printable area.
- Enable both of the centering options for Vertical and Horizontal.
- Save/Apply the changes, render both jobs again and duplex to see the results.
Accuracy will depend on the printer itself and this may vary. There is no setting available to accommodate skew. This is purely down to the paper loading and feeding. If the position is slightly out try increasing the dimension that is out by 1mm and re-test.
Once the positioning has been corrected the whole job can be printed.
- Cancel the jobs currently waiting to be duplexed in the queue.
- Select one of the pages from the job, right-click and choose “Select Publication” from the menu. All pages from the publication will be automatically selected.
- Click the Render Again button. All pages will be moved to the render queue and processed with the new sheet attributes.
- Once complete, the pages will be in the “Waiting to Duplex” state. Select one and Duplex Now.
- Check the job printed correctly in page sequence order.
You have now completed the first de-imposed job.