From Concept to Completion - packaging software
Paper, Film, & Foil Converter

Byline: Jan De Roeck Esko-Graphics

Harnessing the improved processing power of today's Macs and PCs, packaging software developers now are offering high-performance plug-ins for the industry's most popular desktop illustration and layout programs. These plug-ins provide the packaging-specific functionality needed to extend the practical limits of programs such as Adobe Illustrator. They also make it possible to design standardized workflows where packaging data can be shared and saved in a single, common file format all the way from concept to completion.

The Evolution of Prepress Workflows

From the advent of the very first electronic film output device, the printing industry has been undergoing a remarkable transformation from an esthetic human craft to a highly automated, computer-dependent manufacturing system.

Some applications have evolved faster than others. As in the natural world, where entities with the greatest environmental pressures change the fastest, so too in the printing world. Content-intensive applications such as newspaper, magazine, and catalog publishing are stressed by demands to deliver print information faster and cheaper. Not surprisingly commercial printers were among the first to adapt to all-electronic production, and as a result of their longevity in the digital domain, they boast the most progressive and elegant workflows for reproducing print media.

The packaging industry has followed close behind our commercial printing relatives, but at certain junctures we've taken a different evolutionary path. For one reason, packaging production has an order of magnitude more variables (substrates, inks, print processes, finishing, etc.) that make it fundamentally more difficult for us to standardize production methods.