The handling of the smart guide lines has been improved and extended in this version. For example, the design and the positioning have been changed and adjusted. Lines can now only be moved or positioned within the ruler area. Furthermore, a dialog for exact positioning by means of input has been implemented. Proceed as follows:

Create and move the guide line

1. Open the VDP Editor (Browser) in a Print Item or Article.
2. Create a new guide line by clicking and dragging in the ruler area.
3. Click in the horizontal area of the ruler to create a vertical guide line, which is positioned on the horizontal axis.
4. Click in the vertical area of the ruler to create a horizontal guide that is positioned on the vertical axis.
5. Click and drag the handle [1] in the ruler - a colored patch in the respective layer color - to move the existing guide line to the desired position.

Edit guide line

1. Double-click on the handle of a guide line to open the dialog for editing a guide line.
2. Determine the exact position of the guide in the dialog.
3. Confirm the dialog by pressing OK.

Delete guide line

1. Open the dialog for editing a guide line.
2. Confirm the dialog by pressing Delete to remove the current guide line. Alternatively, a guide line can also be deleted by moving the handle to the ruler origin.

Figure 1: The Edit Guideline dialog with the possibility to exactly determine the position and delete the guide line

VDP objects can already be "locked" in the VDP Editor, since some versions. Starting from this version, objects that are located on "locked" layers are marked as "locked" on the drawing area to improve user guidance.

Figure 2: Highlighting the "locked" objects in the VDP editor by a lock

When importing VDP settings containing variable images, the system checks whether the Image Directory specified in the settings can be reached by the Workflow. If the image directory cannot be reached from the Workflow, a warning is displayed when importing the VDP Settings. The user has to correct the paths manually.

Figure 3: The Import dialog of the VDP Editor with the warning that the image directory for variable imagines is not available

As of this version, Print Items of different sizes can be imposed in the Step & Repeat Imposition Mode for the first time. However, the current implementation requires that at least one side of all Print Items has the same length. In future versions, this functionality will be extended so that any differently sized Print Items can also be imposed with Step & Repeat. Proceed as follows:

1. Open the Impose Editor.
2. Switch to the Step & Repeat mode.
3. Select two Print Items or Articles for the Imposition. Make sure that both Print Items are of different sizes, but at least have one same side length.
4. Activate the Adjust [2] option in the Rotate settings.

Figure 4: The Impose Editor in Step & Repeat mode with two Print Items of different size but with one shared side length

For Shape Nesting, performance improvements have been implemented in version 1.14.2. The reason for this was that extreme calculation times occurred with clipping paths with countless path points. As a result, the variation possibilities increased exponentially.

In order to optimize the calculation time, three additional system-wide setting options are provided starting with version 1.14.2. With these options, the number of points can be limited according to the settings. Proceed as follows if you want to change the system settings:

1. Navigate to the Administration > Settings menu.
2. Activate the General tab and activate the Extended View option and save the setting in the action bar.
3. Activate the Impose Editor tab.
4. In the Shape Nesting Options area you will find the three new setting options:
   • Methods for Limiting - in this drop-down menu, select the desired method for reducing the number of path points for the Shape Nesting path. You can choose between "None", "Fraction" and "Reduce to".
   • Reduction Factor - If the "Fraction" method is selected for limiting, then the reduction factor can be determined. The value "0.6" reduces the number of path points to 60% of the original number. Example: 140 path points are reduced to 84 path points.
   • Maximum Number of Path Points - If the "Reduce to" method is selected for limiting, then the maximum number of path points can be determined. By limiting the number of path points to a maximum, the calculation time for Shape Nesting can be reduced. In practice, a value of maximally 80 path points represents a very good value between accuracy and calculation time.

Figure 5: The settings area Shape Nesting Options of the Impose Editor tab in Administration > Settings

In Custom Tiling, it has been possible for some versions to choose between the Position specification Relative (Tile Width) or Absolute (starting from the left). With version 1.14.2, only two values [3] are displayed for a tiling in three tracks when Absolute (starting from the left) is selected. This is because the absolute specifications tell the user where exactly the tiles are cut.

Figure 6: The Tiling Options setting area with the "Absolute (starting from left)" position selected for three tracks

In the G7 Verification environment, additional Color Bars and references were integrated with version 1.14.2. Improvements and extensions in the calculation methods were made for the Verification methods

• G7 Grayscale, Production Tolerance as well as
• G7 Targeted 2019, Production Tolerance was implemented.

To set up the system-wide settings for Lead In or Lead Out, proceed as follows:

1. Switch to the Administration > Settings menu.
2. Activate the Lead In/Out tab.
3. Define the desired settings for the Lead In/Out. These settings should be used by default:
   • Lead In/Out [4] - determine how many sheets are to be printed for the Lead In and/or for the Lead Out. The value "0" deactivates the creation of a Lead In or a Lead Out.
   • Presets for Process Colors and Spot Colors- the following settings have an effect only for Process and Spot Colors in Lead In and Lead Out:
     • Opacity [5] – determine with which opacity the activated Process Color and Spot Color (apart from Technical Spot Colors) should be output on the Lead In and Lead Out
     • Include all Process Colors from the Production Job [6] – ensure that all Process Colors of Print Items in the Production Job are printed with the defined Opacity.
     • Include all Spot Colors from the Production Job [7] – ensure that all Spot Colors (apart from Technical Spot Colors) of the Print Items in the Production Job are printed with the defined Opacity in the Lead In / Lead Out.
   • Presets for Technical Colors - the following settings only affect Technical Colors in the Lead In/Out:
     • Include all Technical Colors from the Production Job [8] – ensure that all Technical Colors of the Print Items in a Production Job are printed in the Lead In/Out. The determined "Opacity" has no effect on the Technical Colors in the print.
   • Spot Colors to be used [9] – alternatively to "Include all Spot Colors of a Production Job"  select only certain Spot Colors in the settings area. These Spot Colors should be printed in the Lead In / Lead Out with the defined Opacity. The list contains all system-wide defined Spot Colors.
   • Technical Colors to be used [10] – alternatively to "Include all Technical Colors of a Production Job"  select only certain Technical Colors which should be printed in the Lead In/Out. This list contains all defined Technical Colors. The "Opacity" has no effect on the Technical Colors.
4. Save the affected settings to process or create new Production Jobs with these settings

Figure 7: The tab Lead In/Lead Out of the menu Administration > Settings

After the desired options have been set in the Workflow settings, they are assigned by default when a Production Job is created. The currently activated options can be viewed in the Send to Printer dialog of the Production Job, and can also be changed. The following options are available in the Send to Printer dialog for changing the preselection:

• Lead In/Out [11] - by default, the values set in the system-wide settings (Figure 7) are used here. The values can still be changed for the Production Job in the Send to Printer dialog.
• Opacity [12] – by default, the value set in the system-wide settings (Figure 7) is used here. The value can still be changed for the Production Job in the Send to Printer dialog. The value only affects the Process Colors and the Spot Colors used for the Print Item.
• Include all process Colors from the Production Job [13] – by activating the option, all Process Colors are printed with defined opacity in the Lead In or the Lead Out. The option is activated by default if it has also been selected in the system-wide settings (Figure 7).
• Used Spot Colors [14] – All Spot Colors that are used in the Print Items of the Production Job are listed in this area. If the Include all Spot Colors from the Production Job option has been activated in the system-wide settings (Figure 7), then all Spot Colors will also be selected in this list. However, if individual system-wide Spot Colors to be used have been selected in the system-wide settings, then only these Spot Colors - if they are present in the Print Items at all - will be selected in this list. The Spot Colors are also printed with defined opacity.
• Used Technical Colors [15] – All Technical Colors which are used in the Print Items of a Production Job and in their Imposition, are listed in this area. If the Include all Technical Colors from Production Job option has been activated in the system-wide settings (Figure 7), then all Technical Colors will also be selected in this list. If, however, in the system-wide settings individual system-wide Technical Colors to be used have been selected, then only these Technical Colors will be selected in this list. Note, however, that these colors have to be present on the Print Items and must have been used in the Imposition in order to be displayed. The defined opacity has no effect on Technical Colors.

Figure 8: The Lead In/Out tab of the Send to Printer dialog

The changeover of Fixups to Fixups with variable input fields, which started with version 1.13.1, was continued in version 1.14.2. The list of affected Fixups is very long. All Fixups are listed below with the corresponding note about the new features.

In the following Fixups, the range of functions was expanded or the handling was greatly simplified.

With version 1.14.2 one Fixup was added:

The following new Checks can be applied in a Check-in Preflight and Fixup Template as of version 1.14.2:

The following new Fixups can be applied in a Check-in Preflight and Fixup Template as of version 1.14.2:

As of version 1.14.2, when uploading a new Article or Print Item, the Check-in Template which was used for the check is saved. As soon as an internal Check-in is performed again later in the process - for example after applying Data Preparation - the same Check-in Template is applied again.

Until now, the Check-in Template which was defined as the default was always used for internal check-ins. In some cases, the result was that different warnings or errors than before were displayed for the Print Item.

Tonal Value/Overprint Grid Charts can be created on the one hand in the Color > Color Books & Grid Charts and on the other hand in the detail view of Articles or Print Items. If Tonal value/Overprinting Grid Charts are created in the Article or Print Item context, the current output configuration is already automatically used or pre-selected from this version. This output configuration is also used for the respective Print Item or for the respective Article.

Up to now, when deleting Production Jobs from the Workflow, it sometimes happened that empty folders and files remained in the file system. This seldomly led to problems, but in some cases, the occurrence took plenty of disk space.

Starting from this version, all linked folders and files are removed from the file system when deleting Production Jobs.

The list of print runs in the Print Statistics tab of a Production Job can be sorted according to the following criteria from this version:

• Operator
• Duration
• End
• Status
• X Resolution
• Y Resolution

Numerous translations in all languages have been added, supplemented, and improved. Especially the areas of Cut Info, Import VDP Settings, Verification, Check-in Preflight and Fixup Templates have therefore been taken into account. There will be further updates in future versions.

In the Send to Printer dialog within the Advanced tab, a dropdown menu with the possibility to Render Multipage Documents is available. As of this version, the EHVD option is only available or usable if...

• the document is multipage and no Imposition exists
• a multipage Imposition exists
• it is a VDP job, but it is not rendered as DCF

Accordingly, the option is not available or usable if...

• it is a Single Page document and there is no Imposition
• there is a Single Page Imposition
• it is a VDP Job that is rendered as DCF

In this version, the M3 measurement condition for the i1Pro3 Plus Measuring Device from X--Rite has been integrated. The measuring condition can be activated in the menu Administration > Measuring Devices in the configuration of the measuring device.

In this version in Automation > Force Print, the possibility to select an Impose Template for Step & Repeat within the Mode Create Production Job with several Print Items was enabled.

This was possible because, as of version 1.14.2, Step & Repeat is no longer bound to Print Items of the same size. However, it must still be pointed out that the Print Items in this version must have at least one side edge of the same length.