Chinese plate manufacturer Xing Graphics
introduced its new thermal processless
technology, as well as the FIT Series thermal
CTP plates to the North American market.
tos. Alternatively, Quark provides a full
selection of stock, royalty-free images to
choose from which are specifically appropriate for the selected template. The
templates are more than just pretty pictures, also containing professionally written marketing copy that users can modify
and customize to suit their unique businesses. To my knowledge, never before
has a print aggregation business model
included copy writing as a service.
When the creative phase of production
is complete, the SMB user then navigates
to the PRINT window of Promote where
they can choose between having their
product printed and shipped by mail, or
sent to a select local printer. While the net
end-user experience is similar to
VistaPrint, Quark has taken a completely
different approach to servicing the SMB
market. Instead of producing print work
in regional printing plants, Quark has
created an aggregation service bringing
together designers and printers (all
XPress users) to enable SMB customers to
produce highly customized marketing
collaterals such as business cards,
brochures, flyers, letterhead, envelopes
and postcards – with an option to use a
local commercial printer.
It’s all yours! l l a y
Quality or speed? Quality or profit? Guess what, you don’t
have to choose because now you can have it all!
Xeikon has set a new revolutionary reference for print quality:
1200 dpi at 4 bits per spot for the sharpest and crispest details,
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ultra-high definition and the smoothest tone transitions. And
Xeikon proves that speed doesn’t have to come at the expense
of image quality. Uncompromising quality and speed, these
are the must haves for any profitable business.
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The way in which Quark Promote works
is quite simple: Professional designers use
QuarkXPress to assemble tasteful collections of coordinated marketing materials.
Each collection is based on a theme and for
a specific type of customer – for example a
hair salon. The templates are loaded with
various colour themes, allowing the user
to differentiate their collaterals while ensuring visual harmony with predefined
colour palettes. Using the EDIT function
in the Promote application, the SMB customer then enters copy, changes pictures
and tweaks the design to suit their specific
requirements.
The user can choose from a variety of
fonts, themed royalty-free vector and raster
images or simply right click on any graphic
element and substitute their own images
from their local hard disk. When finished
customizing the templates, the user can save
the file locally for future use, or choose to
send a prepress-ready PDF to a commercial
printer. From the perspective of the SMB
customer, they are paying one price to
Quark for everything. In reality, the designer gets a royalty for their templates, the
printer gets a prepaid job and Quark keeps
a slice of the proceeds for hosting and aggregating the service.
In an apparent win/win/win/win scenario, Quark Promote promises to be all
things to all participants. Owners and
employees of small businesses get free
design software, access to professionally
designed templates with copy and an
online portal to competitively priced
printing. XPress designers get a marketplace for their templates while printers
get press-ready PDF files for pre-paid
print jobs. Not to be left out, Quark takes
a cut for bringing it all together.
Besides the obvious monetary motivation, Quark stands to be the big winner in
other ways. With a financial incentive to
promote QuarkXPress, designers and commercial printers might actually tip the page
layout software scale back in Quark’s
favour, especially considering Adobe’s perceived step back from the hardcopy graphic
arts world. Intelligently, Quark is moving
into new revenue streams as the market for
conventional DTP software continues to
stagnate.
In beta you say?
Quark Promote is by no means a fait
accompli – the site and software are currently functioning in beta mode meaning
there are only a few templates available. So,
if you own a day spa or hair salon you can
produce some attractive brochures. As Promote approaches its launch date, Quark
promises to introduce a broad selection
of templates designed for many vertical
markets as well as multi-purpose templates
for use by any business in any market.
During the beta phase of Promote, print
customers are limited to ordering their day
spa or hair salon marketing materials
through Quark, with delivery by U.S. Postal
Service. When the Promote service leaves
beta, users will also have the choice of keeping their money local by choosing a neighbourhood printer for their projects. Quark
Promote’s Neighbourhood Printing Program has the potential to connect millions
of small and medium businesses with
nearby printers to produce high-quality,
customized materials. Anyone that has paid
for a print job to be shipped by mail can
Quality, speed and profit
If you want it all too, look no further! www.xeikon.com/1200dpi
will show you what a huge difference true 1200 dpi will make.
The speed and profit you can take for granted!
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Come and see us. Be your own judge.
Xeikon 8000
Xeikon 6000
Punch Graphix AMERICAS;)NC;;s;T. +1 630 438 7900 ;s; WWw.xeikon.com
SALES, SERVICE AND SUPPLIES IN CANADA:
Toronto • Jonathan Rogers • 416-889-7756
