GraphExpo - Booth 4748

Will you be at GraphExpo in Chicago ?

Stop by and see our new ganging product - QuickFit4Print in booth 4748 at McCormick Place South September 11-14. Compose QuickFit4Print is a unique solution to gang multiple jobs onto a designated plate size automatically, compensating for different print run and job sizes, bringing efficiency and productivity with hooks to set up jobs coming from the Web2Print our your custom front end into QuickFit.

- Jobs are packed for easy guillotine, front and back, customize color bars and marks.
- Easy to switch between sheet wise, work and turn, work and tumble imposition
- Provide print management reports for delivery and statistics.

Three Different versions

There are three versions of QuickFit available for customer’s to choose from:

• QuickFit4Print - a full version but limited to 2-up, 360x535mm sheet size only, quick submissions is standard

• QuickFit4Print Professional – a full version with no limit on plate size, quick submissions is standard

• QuickFit4Print online – a full version with online protocol for interfacing with web to Print front end or MIS front end, with submission is provided as standard.

Stop on by and say hello, or email us at sales@composeusa.com for more detail !

Star Proof and Star Plate are Roaring

last week Apple launched it's most successful OS ever. Over a million download in just one day. Compose was ready for the event and I'm very glad to tell you that Star Proof and Star Plate have been updated so they are compatible with Lion (MacOS X 10.7).



Star Plate uses the actual dots of the original RIPped 1-bit file and preserves its dot patterns, screening and dot gain calibration. With it's high quality dot formation engine, Star Plate can output film or plates at 150 lpi with a high quality hard dot with the density values similar to what's expected from traditional film or plate devices.

Star Proof is dot per dot proofing system capable of simulating line screens up to 220 lpi, Star Proof is well known for reproducing the sharpest dots possible on an Epson proofer. Star Proof will show the same dot produced by your RIP on your proofer, in just the way they will show once printed on your press.

This new update allows Star Plate to better and more precisely handle top and left margins. Up to four decimal places.

Previous versions of Star Proof and Star Plate where unable to save license the file on OS X Lion, this has now been fixed. Keep in mind that you will have to install Java Runtime as it's not installed by default with the standard Lion installation procedure.

For more information e-mail me at alvaro@composeusa.com

Star Plate & iCTF Calibration Results

Star Plate uses the actual dots of the original RIPped 1-bit file and preserves its dot patterns, screening and dot gain calibration. With it's high quality dot formation engine, Star Plate can output film or plates at 150 lpi with a high quality hard dot with the density values similar to what's expected from traditional film or plate devices.

On this video we check the film density and calibration. On an Epson Stylus Pro 7900 and using Compose's iCTF we can achieve densities that hover at 4.0.




For more information e-mail sales@composeusa.com

PaSharp Nested Step & Repeat

As you might have seen on my previous post, PaSharp offers a very powerful set of trapping tools. Now we'll talk about nested step and repeat for packaging. PaSharp offers a tool that does just that.

From within Adobe Illustrator, using PaSharp you can quickly step & repeat your jobs by coordinates or you can directly import a CAD layout file, PaSharp supports DXF and CFF2 formats. Its interactive step & repeat tools allow you to automatically add station numbers with specified sequences. Plus PaSharp provides modes for adjusting bleeds & overlaps.





On this video Michael Jahn shows us how to use the PaSharp nest feature to step & repeat a job in Adobe Illustrator.

PaSharp Trapping Tools

PaSharp has a powerful set of professional trapping tools designed to meet the expectation of packaging professionals.

On these videos Michael Jahn shows us how easy it is to use Adobe Illustrator® and PaSharp to trap from very simple elements to highly complicated ones. Including trapping of image and vectors.
















If you have any questions, please contact your local Compose dealer or e-mail us at sales@composeusa.com

InfoFlex 2011, see you there

May 2nd and 3rd I'll be at the InfoFlex show at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, IN. This is the #1 show for the packaging and converting industries. I'll be at the Anderson Vreeland booth showing the latest Compose products. Including Express Label Print. Anderson Vreeland recently became OKI 510 DW dealers and as you know this product uses the Compose Express Label Print.



If you're going to be at InfoFlex 2011, stop by.

pressSign's New Mobile App

In the past I've told you about pressSIGN and it's ability to tell in a very clever way if a job is within a determined color space. I've also told you about that with pressSign and a spectrophotometer you can scan a color bar and the software will tell you which ink keys need to go up and which ink keys need to go down. I've told you that pressSign provides very easy to understand job reports.
What I'm about to tell you makes this product ever more interesting. Imagine you are out of the office and would like to know how is your press room doing. How many jobs have been printed. How close have has your press been to your color standards on these jobs? Even chat with the press operator. This is all possible on the new version of pressSIGN-mobile for iOS. From your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or mobile web browser you can access information in real time from your pressroom.
Every production manager's dream, to be sitting by the pool sipping Mai Tais while he gets updates from work.
If you want to try it out for yourself, our friends at Bodoni have setup a live demo that you can access by clicking here.

pressSIGN Job Information

pressSIGN Job Measurements

pressSIGN Press Operator Chat

Live from Print China... Well Almost.

I write from to you from our offices in Hong Kong. Over the weekend we visited Print China 2011 in Dongguan, China. I was blown away by the sheer size of the show and the quality of the Chinese products being offered. From consumables and presses, to software and services. If it had to do with printing it was there. Traditionally these shows have been dominated by companies around the world. And the Chinese products were second to products from other countries. However, things are changing. I'm not saying there's no room for improvement, this trip has changed my mind on what made in China means.

Another thing that surprised me was how warm people were. Not many spoke English. But everyone made a true effort to try to understand me. When I told them I lived in America, they all had good things to say.

At 6'7", I towered over most people at the show. Specially the locals. People kept taking pictures of me everywhere. On the first day of the show, it seemed I kept running into a police officer everywhere I turned. Then he pulled out his camera. That's when I called him and told him we should take our picture together.

Something else that I found very interesting is how much people were talking about G7. Obviously, all the booth that had to do with printing were printing G7 targets. What was surprising was to see manufacturers of digital and conventional presses do the same thing.

Now that I'm back in Hong Kong and with access to blogger I'm able to post my experiences.

Color Management in Express Label Print

As you probably know, Compose Label Print is the software behind the OKI 510DW Color Web Press. Express Label Print makes it very easy for users to select and organize their label runs.
Because of the diversity of media and simulation profiles available, our customers have been asking us to create a video showing how to install an ICC profile on the Express RIP. And once installed, how to configure ColorPro inside of the RIP.

On this video, Michael Jahn walks us through the necessary steps to install an ICC profile, how to create a ColorPro setup and finally how to implement this setup in your Page Setup.




If you have any questions about this video, please email us at support@composeusa.com

How to Backup and restore your Compose Harlequin Express RIP

One of the most common support calls we get is from customers who for one reason or another, need to re-install their RIP. 99.9% of the time they do not have a backup of their settings. Meaning that to restore their RIP, we need to configure it from scratch. This often means doing film and press calibrations all over again.

Wanting to help you be prepared in case of you have to go through this, Michael Jahn walks us through the necessary steps of backing up and restoring your Compose Express RIP.



We love to hear from you, please leave your comments below and If you have any questions, please drop our support department a line at support@composeusa.com

Composeusa.com has a new look, plus we're on Facebook too

We're very happy to announce that our corporate webpage has a new look http://www.composeusa.com . Not only is our new website more modern, but it is easier to use and nformation is easier to find. Plus, for us Facebook fans, it has a Facebook Like button.



On our new page you'll find links to our Express RIP supported device list, like imagesetters, CTPs, plotters and laser printers. Plus in depth information about our workflow solutions including Big Ice Box and Express Workflow.

We also launched a Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/composesystems. There you can find out what we're up to, plus see pictures of our customer's and coworkers at work.

We invite you to take a look and click on the like button. And don't forget to tell your friends about us.

Compose signed distribution agreement with Founder International to market Founder PaSharp on a worldwide basis

Compose System Ltd is pleased to announce a new partnership with Founder International to launch their most successful packaging solution - PaSharp, ideally for packaging, Flexo and Label printing work.



PaSharp offers professional trapping tools, specialized step & repeat functions for packaging as well as a wide array of editing tools enabling prepress operators to boost efficiency and produce higher quality work.
Mr. Tom Sit, founder and CEO of Compose System, which is headquartered in Hong Kong and with an extensive customer base in USA, Europe, Asia and Latin America, says, "We are excited with the opportunity to work closely with Beijing Founder International, as we think the solution will provide a new dimension to the way people work in the packaging market. PaSharp is already well received in Asia Pacific region; it will bring value and cost benefit to our customers and their respective clients. Tie together with Compose Workflow, it will offer users a complete workflow approach to packaging with trapping, color management, pre-flight and accurate dot proofing all in one System. We plan to develop further workflow enhancement around PaSharp to provide web-based job submission and end-to-end production automation."




Mr. Philip Liu, General Manger of Packaging& Printing Business Division of Founder International says, "We also feel excited with this co-operative agreement with Compose System, as they will not only speed up our market rollout, they are also bringing their color, proofing and print publishing expertise to the partnership. Compose's systems already enabled many print and prepress companies to tie all production processes into one functional workflow system; working with PaSharp, Compose workflow will further streamline the tedious production process and improve productivity between designers, clients and printers.

Compose Releases Star Plate 1.6

We're glad to announce the release of Star Plate 1.6 This new version of Star Plate brings compatibility with the new Epson Stylus Pro 4900, 7890 and 9890 wide format printers. Star Plate is an ideal tool for making screened film or plate output out of an Epson Stylus Pro plotter.

Star Plate uses the actual dots of the original RIPped 1-bit file and preserves its dot patterns, screening and dot gain calibration. With it's high quality dot formation engine, Star Plate can output film or plates at 150 lpi with a high quality hard dot with the density values similar to what's expected from traditional film or plate devices.



Star Plate software runs on any Intel MacOS computer, the most popular platform in graphic art industry. Easy to use, powerful, compatible, stable, secure, easy for installation and configuration. With simple operation features, operators able to manage without pressure.

If you have any questions, please contact us or your local Compose Dealer.