HELIOS Workflow Processes

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List of Suppliers:
- Equilibrium
- HELIOS
  : Future of DTP
  : HELIOS Suite
  : PDF Server
  : HELIOS Workflow
  : Remote Proofing
  : macademy addons
  : UGSoft addons

- Canto Cumulus
- Dynagram
- Farrukh
- Adstream
- SeeFile
- Printable

Business Solutions:
- Digital Asset Mgmt
- Creative Solutions
- PDF Workflow
- Digital Distribution
- Prepress & Printing
- Document/Image Mgmt

GASAA Major Sponsor

PODi Member 2008-9

Adobe Bronze Partner

How HELIOS products work together:

A powerhouse for production

People who work in the graphics industry make great demands on the technology they use. At the heart of any system, it's the server that plays the most important role.
Speed is vital, as even small companies with just a few Macs or PCs regularly work with very large files.
Good organisation is equally important. Every day in the industry an estimated 30 per cent of each person's time is wasted on searching for files. An efficient server, linked to all your workstations can eliminate this type of problem for good.
Reliability is essential. A good server must also be able to integrate with existing equipment and applications.
Ethershare and sister product PCShare meet all of these demands, and more.

Go to detailed information on EtherShare and/or PCShare.

How to Get Organised (managing your files)

Like a cross between a draught-horse and a thoroughbred, EtherShare combines strength with speed. It is designed to be used by anything from five people up to several hundreds at the same time, so it's extremely fast. The server is remarkably stable based on a tried and tested platform that reduces the risk of costly breaks in production.
Even better, EtherShare is an open system that cuts out compatability problems and saves time and money. This means it can handle all your customary input and output, adding value all the way in terms of the speed and quality of your work.

Handling the Printing - EtherShare takes care of printing by spooling from the desktop all the files waiting to be printed and managing the print queue. This allows people to move quickly on to other tasks, leaving the server to do all the hard work.

Organising your Fonts - Unlike any other server, EtherShare provides a central storage and access point for fonts. This will greatly simplify the workflow as users will be able to find every available font instantly - and be sure it's the correct version.

Go to detailed information on PCShare

Faster Image Handling (great colour management)

Once EtherShare has streamlined the flow of information through your company, you may want to consider other ways of inmproving the speed and quality of your output.

One of these is Open Prepress Interface or OPI.
With EtherShare ImageServer you can expect the server to run up to six times faster - moving files around like wildfire!
That's because ImageServer substitutes lo-res files for hi-res images in each document on the server. This speeds up the workflow siginificantly as the smaller files can be moved around, edited and printed much more quickly.
Unlike any other OPI product, ImageServer is designed specifically to work with its server, the EtherShare file, print and font server. This tight integration means that image substitutions can be handled automatically - and consequently at extra-high speed - every time a file containing images is placed on the server.

Giving Colour a free reign - ImageServer does more than increase the speed of your workflow; it probably offers the best colour management capabilities on the market today.

Firstly, all the work is done on the server. This means that:

Secondly, colour management on EtherShare ImageServer is flexible and comprehensive. It will accept as input, then process and colour separate:

Thirdly, ImageServer automatically adjusts the colours in a file during input (scanning) and output (proofing or printing), according to the characteristics of each device. This means that whatever differences exist between scannersm proffing printers or presses, all the colours will be instantly - and accurately - matched against the original.
This allows you to offer your customers new and more flexible services:

Perfect co-ordination - EtherShare uses the two key industry standards for its colour management:

ImageServer contains a number of of built-in ICC profiles that will adjust colour for certain widely-held devices, such as the Epson Stylus Photo.
It also allows you to create ICC colour profiles for each individual device in your company. ImageServer can then store the profiles centrally so that any files that are scanned or printed on the server will be automatically and accurately colour-matched for your devices.
This will dramatically reduce costs and transform the results you achieve, even on low-cost proofing devices.

Go to detailed information on ImageServer.

Working with PDFs

If your company takes in files from a wide range of customers - and their advertisers - an increasing number of them are likely to be in Adobe's Portable Document Format, or PDF, this can cause problems for your business.

Do you need to colour separate a layout sent by a customer as a PDF?
Very few RIPs will even recognise the format, and even fewer can print it as anything but a colour composite.

Do you need to incorporate customers' PDFs into other layouts? - for instance if you work on publications that contain advertising. More advertisers are supplying artwork as PDFs, yet you have no means of working with them!

An EtherShare add-on called PDF HandShake solves both these problems.

PDF HandShake creates a more versatile workflow because it can accept and output files without the fonts or software used to create them. It allows you to work flexibly with PDFs and respond to customer demand - without investing in expensive new hardware.

Something of an imposition - Anyone who works with magazines or other multiple page documents probably uses an imposition program. PDF HandShake now allows you to use PDFs in the imposition process for the first time. This is much faster than using hi-res Postscript for imposition and it cuts down the margin for error, as PDF is a locked and secure format.
PDF HandShake is compatible with all leading imposition programs, including Imation's Press Wsie, ScenicSoft's Preps, DK&A's INposition, and Heidelberg's Signa.

Go to detailed information on PDF HandShake.

Final Output - Proofs to Print Preview

As everyone in prepress knows to their cost, it's easy for mistakes such as colour or font miscues to creep in at the last minute - no matter how good your quality control.
Now you can save time and money by using PrintPreview to create accurate, colour-matched 'soft proofs' on screen just before a file is sent for output. This add-on for EtherShare will help eliminate costly mistakes and can even be used instead of printed proofs where customers need a particularly rapid turnaround.
Use it as a final in-house check or build it into your customer approvals process - either way, PrintPreview will reduce your expenses while improving the speed and accuracy of your service.

Go to detailed information on PrintPreview.

Refer HELIOS product index