When I started planning to write this article, I knew that it would benefit greatly with input from leading experts on the PDF/VT specification. In my opinion, Adobe has played a very key role in initiating, evangelizing and supporting PDF/VT, most likely driven by the demand for use of the Adobe PDF Print Engine to drive digital presses.

Thanks to big advancements in monitor technology, software development, Internet connectivity speeds and customer interest, soft proofing has celebrated a significant uptake in the last few years as an extension and/or alternative to traditional paper-based proofing methods. One doesn't have to look too hard to find articles and literature heralding the colour accuracy and competency of soft proofing systems.

Premedia (or prepress, if you prefer) has evolved quite significantly from the days of film stripping, vertical cameras and contact frames. Premedia, as we know it today, has been shaped by the advancement of digital technology. It can be a challenge to keep up with the pace of technological change sometimes, especially when technologies that we need to cooperate with one another don’t always change in symbiotic ways, or at the same rate.

You don’t have to look too far past your own computer to realize we are living in an age of large volume electronic data distribution. A quick look at some of the statistics floating around on the Internet can be mind boggling: over nine billion emails are said to be sent around the world everyday, and it is estimated that over 90 per cent of business documents today are created electronically, 70 per cent of which are never printed.

The current global economic situation makes an article on workflow flexibility both timely and relevant. We have all heard, feared and lived through some tough times lately, and there seems to be no shortage of bleak stories affecting everyone in some capacity or another.

In a recent presentation entitled “Profiling the Economy and Print 2009-2010,” Dr. Ronnie Davis, vice-president and chief economist for the Printing Industries of America, reported that the annual rate of change for ink-on-paper in the U.S. was down by 6% in 2008, while total printing shipments declined 4.5%. While Dr. Davis predicts a small increase in the latter half of 2009 and through 2010, the growth is likely to be slower than we have seen previously, and Dr. Davis suggests that recovery for the printing industry will be somewhat slower than the overall economic recovery. With predictions like this, the necessity to become more efficient, leaner and profitable is paramount.