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IoFlex is highly specialized in makeready software for the bookmaking trade, including Acrobat-based editing tools, book-scanning/post-processing workflows, and soft-proofing. IoFlex product designs allow the merging of the digital and ink makeready departments, bridge TIFF and PDF-based workflows, and unify color and greyscale makeready operations. IoFlex products are known for the wide breadth of bookprinter's problems that they address, for their scalability over large files and high resolutions, and for significant processing efficiencies and speedy return on investment. The IoFlex customer reference list includes some of the world's highest volume book printing operations.
IoFlex's flagship product is the Bookmaker suite of Adobe plug-ins which allows the book engineer to build and manipulate compound documents from any combination of TIFF, PDF, and JPEG sources, all the while maintaining a completely PDF-based workflow. Complementary products offered by IoFlex include a high-volume scan-acquisition/post-processing server called Blackbox, which automates many scan post-processing functions in its own ticket-driven workflow, and IoFlex's Proofer software which builds PDFs from channelized TIFFs and provides the ability to inspect, share, and print proofs that have been captured as close as possible to the printhead.
IoFlex products are Windows-based and can run on virtually any Windows box that is capable of hosting Adobe Acrobat. IoFlex Plug-ins are presently supported in Acrobat versions 5 through 8.
The Bookmaker Suite of Acrobat Plug-ins
Files originating from scans or customer-provided PDF's and destined for either digital or ink presses can all be made-ready with Bookmaker. Compound documents can be built from multiple sources into a unified PDF, with importation options including page ordering, overlays, insertions and deletions. Being a true PDF-based workflow, the importation into Bookmaker and many subsequent manipulations are non-destructive through implementation as translate directives or layered objects. By comparison, competitor bookmaking makeready toolsets typically "rastorize" incoming PDFs, losing the original translations, downgrading resolutions, and performing many operations via pixel interpolations at a loss to image integrity.
Within Bookmaker the basic unit of manipulation is the object, be it text, image, or page. Within a page, images can be cut into multiple objects, for instance allowing on a scan-originated page the separation of text and graphic elements, which can then be subjected to separate manipulations, such as flattening the text to sharp one bit black, and the descreening of the graphic according to one of a number of provided descreening algorithms. Objects can be moved, deleted, masked, added, joined, colorized, rotated or subjected to any of scores of other manipulations. An extensive image editor allows color conversion, scaling, descreening, exporting/importing, and many other operations. Many object manipulations can be performed in batch functions across a user-specified subset of pages.
Once all objects within a page are made "book ready," the page objects themselves can be manipulated to make the overall work conform to the desired book specifications. Backed up pages can be viewed and moved if necessary. Rulers and guides can be superimposed on pages to check for conformance to specifications. Pages that are slanted or dirty or aged can be deskewed, depeckled, and de-colored. Besides a general automated page alignment function, there is a unique zone alignment capability for aligning pages according to the position of page numbers, running heads, etc. Book canvassing allows for page positioning relative to specified paper dimensions. Finally, a calibration curve specific to the destination printer can be applied in preparation for release to the print queue.
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