At Nexpo show in Dallas, Cox Ohio Publishing executive tells how BluMunKee software smoothes its prepress operations.DALLAS—The discussion was 'colorful' and lively in the "Color My World" session on opening day of the Newspaper Association of America's Nexpo Newspapers '05 convention.
The conference, being held in Dallas, runs through Tuesday. The "Color My World" Saturday morning session focused on automatic color correction and its substantial benefits to prepress departments.
One of the more compelling software applications highlighted during the session was BluMunKee software. Chuck Matthews, panelist and quality assurance manager for Cox Ohio Publishing, opened the session.
Publisher discusses the challenge of staying ahead of the file-size curve. Click here to read more.
BluMunKee software is a product line of Morris Digital Works, owned by Morris Communications Company LLC, of Augusta, Ga., The software automates photo correction for print and Web publishing.
Matthews focused his presentation around the problems his company faced in image control and processing and how BluMunKee has enabled their publications to address a number of those issues.
Those issues included: how to increase consistency of toned images; how to minimize the number of operators toning images; increasing the speed of image processing; tracking problems with images; having the ability to pre-archive images for monitoring; having a viable quality check approval system for the images; and expandability of the system with add-ons.
Before implementing BluMunKee, Matthews said, Cox Ohio's publications relied on visual monitor calibration and established standard procedures for image handling. Matthews also noted that changes in Photoshop color settings were difficult to manage within their previous system.
Citing the ability of photographers or photo editors utilizing BluMunKee to input detailed comments with each image to direct what the image needs, Matthews said, "Our goal with this implementation was to give more of the image control to the image-makers. This system has not only done that, but it has significantly boosted our speed of image handling. We were able to see a boost in our quality control, because of this system," noted Matthews.
Another question facing Matthews and his staff was expandability of the system. "We felt expandability of our initial investment is what it's all about. We're now testing a PDF module add-on," he said.
PictoColor releases updated Photoshop plug-in. Click here to read more.
Some of the enabling features of the BluMunKee system, in Matthews' estimation, were in the color control areas. "We can reduce color, add color, if the image is really bad, we can click on manual and then work the image manually. All the Photoshop color settings can easily be changed in one place using this software."
"After this implementation we now process 14,000-plus images a month. It's more than we expected and we did not see a drop in the first quarter," said Matthews.
The IntelliTune Series 3, by Belgium-based Agfa-Gevaert Group, was also highlighted during the session by Wallace Wade, quality control coordinator for the Mobile Register. Norway-based FotoWare's Color Factory 5.0 was discussed by Canada's Jayson Taylor, assistant photo editor of The Globe and Mail.
