Esko brings raft of design, prepress and workflow solutions to Labelexpo Europe 2011

Productivity, quality and reliability gains delivered by comprehensive label portfolio

Gent (Belgium), July 2011 – EskoArtwork (www.esko.com) will showcase its latest range of innovative solutions at Labelexpo Europe 2011 on stand B30 in Hall 5. Taking center stage will be the company’s newest advances in digital flexo technologies including HD Flexo and the Digital Flexo Suite. Savvy visitors looking to streamline their end-to-end workflows should make a bee-line for the EskoArtwork stand to find out why the company has become the worldwide reference for label design, prepress and workflow solutions. Irrespective of whether converters produce labels digitally, in offset, flexo, letterpress, gravure or screen printing, EskoArtwork’s solutions can help them achieve significant productivity gains, reduce costs and deliver higher and more consistent levels of quality. Labelexpo Europe takes place at the

Brussels Expo, Belgium from 28 September to 1 October, 2011.
“We see a major trend towards both industrialization and digitalization in the label industry, and it’s one that continues to advance rapidly every day. Through our technological advances, we are proud to be one of the leading parties in this evolution," says Carsten Knudsen, CEO of EskoArtwork. "We are looking forward to coming to Labelexpo Europe again this year to meet with our customers – both existing and new – and to answer all of their questions on how to achieve the best possible results from their label prepress and production.”

Raising the bar yet again in digital flexo plate imaging
Placing the focus on ways to excel in digital flexo production will be EskoArtwork’s live demonstrations of its advanced digital flexo solutions. The highlight will be the latest HD Flexo version, the company's highly acclaimed flexo imaging technology. While the first release enabled label printers to obtain significantly sharper images, smoother tints and a greater color gamut, HD Flexo 2.0 improves the screening even further delivering exceptional printing quality throughout the entire tonal range including highlights with gradients down to zero, stable mid-tones, and higher ink density solids. In addition, the innovative development of creating flat top dots generates sharper definition for outstanding image results. This means end users can have a more striking and visually impressive product with the all-important shelf impact. A wide variety of excellent real-life HD Flexo samples from a wide variety of high level brands both for labels and flexible packaging will be presented on the stand. Installed at more than 250 customer sites, HD Flexo sets the standard for flexo plate quality since its release in 2009. As such, it will be found at work inside most of the flexo presses in action across the show floor at Labelexpo Europe.
EskoArtwork’s Cyrel Digital Imagers (CDI) which will be present on the stand with a state of the art equipped CDI 2530, the most popular digital flexo plate imager for the label industry.

Experience the Digital Flexo Suite
How to streamline and shorten the production of print-ready digital flexo plates will be highlighted by the Digital Flexo Suite. This set of platemaking tools offers quality improvements and cost savings through the automation of the flexo plate production. Digital Flexo Suite for labels works through the combination of using smart software and the EskoArtwork Kongsberg cutting tables. This setup will also be live demonstrated with a Kongsberg table and related software at EskoArtwork’s Labelexpo Europe stand.

Design, prepress and workflow automation - at the heart of label production
Visitors to the show will also have the opportunity to come up to speed with the host of new features included in the latest release of EskoArtwork’s software suite (version 10.1), with a focus on solutions for the label industry:
• Studio Toolkit for Labels, a unique set of design tools which enable artwork professionals to work in a 3D environment. It offers them a valuable quality assurance tool which can be used to identify errors and potential issues during the early stages of the design – saving considerable time and reducing waste down the track. Studio Visualizer, a powerful, virtual prototyping tool allows to share hyper realistic ideas and designs with clients early in the process to gain fast and effective feedback. One step further, Store Visualizer allows users to envision hyper realistic store shelves simulations, based on the same designs produced in Studio and Visualizer. This new tool adds a spectacular extension to the design and preproduction capabilities of EskoArtwork's design software.
• A raft of new features in EskoArtwork's prepress editors will also be presented. ArtPro 10.1 comes with significantly faster and higher quality trapping for easy preparation of print-ready packaging artwork production files. DeskPack 10.1 detects errors as early as possible, reducing the cost to a minimum and enabling prepress operators to produce higher quality jobs in a shorter time. PackEdge 10.1 uses quality control tools like Preflight, Viewer and Studio to identify problems in an early stage and reduce the risk of wasted proofs, plates, press stops and claims.
• Automation Engine, the powerful, yet scalable, workflow automation server which integrates all design and production components in to one workflow. When many of the repetitive and mundane tasks are automated, the risk of errors and costly rework are reduced. Automation Engine now also fully integrates with Nexus - the popular workflow solution for label print pre-production - combining the strengths of both workflow technologies.
• Color Engine, the color management tool including a central color database for all color critical data. It can be easily and effectively integrated into every step of the workflow and ensures brand integrity. Working with the Color Engine, label manufacturers can guarantee color consistency and accuracy from design through proofing to printing, in critical point for brand recognition.
• WebCenter, a powerful web-based platform that manages pre-production approval and project life cycle. The latest release includes a new and unique 3D viewer which enables users to upload, view and perform the full document approval cycle on 3D files (Collada and Zipped Collada files). Label converters will now be able use WebCenter as an online medium to share 3D mockups with their clients, make changes to the artwork immediately and gain approval quickly and efficiently.

At the heart of the Digital Print Workshops
EskoArtwork has been an enthusiastic driver of the Digital Print Workshops since its first edition during Labelexpo Chicago last year. The ultimate challenge continues at this year’s edition in Brussels with three competing digital printing technologies (Xeikon dry toner, HP liquid toner and EFI inkjet) lined up alongside each other to run the same label job. The prepress workflow and color management on all three presses will be managed again by the EskoArtwork Automation Engine that integrates all MIS and job information on the highest level. Visitors will be able to assess the advantages and limitations of each technology with regard to substrates, consumables, preparation times and running costs.
“We really enjoy being part of these Technology Workshops. It’s a great opportunity for potential buyers to evaluate the pros and cons of the respective technologies,” comments Jan De Roeck, Director Solutions Management at EskoArtwork. “From an EskoArtwork perspective, our solutions automate the prepress workflow of all three presses. Because of our strong partnership with all the leading vendors, our software is already fully integrated into their presses and has been in full use around the globe for many years. This certainly helps to ensure the smooth running of the Workshops.”

EskoArtwork will be presenting on stand B30, Hall 5 where its key product specialists are around to demonstrate and explain the entire range of solutions for the label making. In addition to its own stand, the EskoArtwork solutions are also demonstrated on the stands of the leading digital press vendors that are working with EskoArtwork software to drive their presses, such as HP and Durst. Also EskoArtwork's HD Flexo plates are used by a range of flexo press vendors across the show floor.

About EskoArtwork (www.esko.com)
EskoArtwork is a global supplier of integrated solutions for packaging, sign and display finishing, commercial printing and professional publishing. Its products and services help customers raise productivity, reduce time-to-market, lower costs and expand business.

Portfolio
EskoArtwork is the worldwide market leader with software for artwork creation, pre-production, automation, quality assurance and collaboration targeted at brand owners, retailers, designers and packaging manufacturers.
The CDI flexo computer-to-plate imagers, Kongsberg short-run converting and signage finishing systems complete the portfolio for the packaging, label, signage and display industries.
The company provides a range of workflow, automation and quality assurance solutions for the commercial printing and publishing market. For graphic designers and print production professionals there’s also the Enfocus suite of PDF tools.

Facts & numbers
EskoArtwork employs around 1050 people worldwide. Its global sales and support organization covers Europe, the Americas and the Asia Pacific and is completed by a network of distribution partners in more than 45 countries.
EskoArtwork is headquartered in Gent, Belgium, and has R&D and manufacturing facilities in five European countries, the United States, China and India. The consolidated full year financials ended for 2010 with revenue of EUR 184.1 million.

For more information, visit www.esko.com or contact:

P.R. agencies
Europe, Asia, Africa
Nancy Vermeulen
Duomedia Public Relations
Tel: +32 2 454 85 50
nancy.v@duomedia.com

North America
Irvin Press
Press+
Tel: +1 508 384 0608
irv@press-plus.com

EskoArtwork
Corporate and EMEALA
Jef Stoffels
Director of Corporate Marketing
Tel: +32 9 216 90 32 jef.stoffels@esko.com

Americas
Tim Zula
Director, Mktg. Communications
Tel: +1 937 535 6060
timothy.zula@esko.com

Asia-Pacific
Antony Conway
Marketing Manager
Tel: + 65 624 12 126
antony.conway@esko.com

Japan
Takeshi Munakata
Marketing Manager
Tel: +81 3 5909 7631
takeshi.munakata@esko.com

All press releases, as well as corresponding product pictures, are available at the press section
at www.esko.com.