This document is to be used as a sales aid. It should be used as an aid-memoir for training Dealers, and by Dealer Salesmen to help progress VersoProof sales. This is and international distributor document, and should be translated for the local language. Any corrections or updates will be sent out by Troika as they evolve. We are always interested in comments and feedback that will help improve sales knowledge regarding VersoProof.

VersoProof for the Epson Range of large format Colour printers. VP-E is used to capture a front and back impositions that have been processed through the CtP RIP, thus ensuring data integrity, align them and centralise them on a sheet of approved dual coated inkjet paper.

VP-E consists of two parts: the application and the dual coated paper. The Application VP-E 44 is suitable for all recent large format Epson printers: Epson 10600, Epson 10000, Epson VP-E 24 is a size limited version for the Epson There is no functional difference between the two versions, VP-E 24 is just size limited to just over 610 mm (24”). The Paper The paper comes in two stocks: Satin and Matt. Satin is the most popular giving a finish that represents how the job will look like after printing and finishing. Matt is used most often for in-house positional and contents checks.

Dual Coated Paper Stocks Considerable time and effort has gone into finding suitable dual coated paper that: will absorb full ink weight on both sides, i.e., 400% to 700% ink weight on each side, (i.e., 4, 6 or 7 colour printer). has Quality Fibres for minimal stretch, distortion or cockling. has the ability to fold suitably for making dummies can print a full process colour gamut The process to make dual coated paper is complex and costly, refer to the dual coated paper section on the website for further details. It is a condition of the Dealer agreement that only Troika duplexing paper will be sold to VersoProof users, failure to do so will result in immediate termination of the agreement and loss of protection to current customer sites.

Benefits to customers 1.Reduction in cost of errors. –Highworth Press, Wilts: stated that at least 1 job per month was inadvertently printed with the second side upside down, VersoProof identified and resolved that issue. –Blenhiem Colour, Oxford: found VersoProof identified issues where impositions were not correct, pages did not line up correctly, saving time and costs equating to around 1% of turnover. For a £3M company that is £30,000 per annum. 2.Cost savings in production in making up duplexed proof. –Star Litho, London: 6 x 8-up proofs per week taking up to 7 hours per week to produce and make mock-ups of the jobs; they were cutting the single sided impositions into 4 x 2 up page pairs, then sticking them together with the complementary back pages and making up a dummy of the job. This is now done in 1 1/3 hours and the jobs are a saleable item.

Benefits to customers 3. Using VersoProofs as Contract Quality Proofs: VersoProof is capable of applying colour correction and linearise to the Epson printer, alternatively this can be done in the host RIP. The resultant prints are contract quality when the Troika Satin paper is used. This gives the user an additional benefit when using VersoProof: – a major selling tool, giving an advantage over competitors. – Typically a B1 (8 backed 8 job) will sell for between £65 to £85, the cost of the B1 satin sheet and ink at 25% ink coverage is £ – Profit per job is typically £60; just 15 jobs per week will generate £900 gross profit per week. How much is that per month or year? – Users often describe how they sell with the dummy as part of the job, generating incremental sales.

How does it work?  VP-E captures the data from industry standard RIPs in a variety of formats.  Having captured the front and back impositions as a pair, it processes them together to ensure they are centralised on the paper size selected and are accurately aligned front to back, then sent to the Epson for printing.  The user will then either use the duplexed sheet in-house for production purposes or fold the sample, guillotine it, and staple it, to produce a dummy of the job to check how the job has come together for sign off, or for use as a selling tool. (Italicised items are discussed further on the next sheets)

data Data is received from the host system: –This is therefore POST RIP information, and assures data integrity. In production there are two methods used to capture the data: –Hot Folders: where the out put from the printer driver, which normally sends the data to the printer, is diverted and “printed to file” which is the input to a VersoProof Hot Folder. –TCP/IP: if the host system cannot print to a hot folder but prints directly to a networked printer, VersoProof act as the “virtual” printer capturing the data for processing prior to being released to the Epson.

industry standard RIPs AgfaApogee series 3 ArtworksPCC & Nexus BASYSPRINT Black Magic Creo Brisque 3 & 4, Prinergy FujiRampage, Celebra HeidelbergDelta, Prinergy Harlequin: Compose,ECRM, Highwater, Monotype, Xitron PSM 7 Scangraphic ScreenTiaga & Trueflow Information on how to interface each Host System to VersoProof is available on the Troika Systems website This is a continually evolving list, check with Troika or your Distributor for up-to-date information

variety of formats Epson language: ESC/P2 Pros: Quality Proofs (Colour profiling and linearising typically done on host system) Fast processing time Low network Traffic Cons: Not many Host Systems output Epson Language (ESC/P2)

variety of formats Hewlett Packard Raster translation language: HP RTL Pros: Quality Proofs (Colour profiling and linearising typically done on host system) Available from most host systems Fast processing time Low network Traffic Cons: HP/RTL is not supported by Epson Printers, however VersoProof translates HP/RTL into ESC/P2 language for the Epson  VersoProof for the Epson is unique in that it has a HP/RTL to Epson ESC/P2 language converter.  As an example a 600dpi HP file can now be printed onto an Epson printer at 720 dpi. A customer who wishes to upgrade his old Form-Proofer (i.e. HP DesignJet 2000) will already have a driver for the HP. If he wishes to upgrade to an Epson Printer he may do so, when using VersoProof, without having the additional cost of buying extra drivers from the host systems manufacturer. Quality is dependant on the HP DesignJet driver used.

variety of formats Contone TIFF (24 or 32 bit) Pros: Quality Proofs (Accurate colour not Contract Proof) Automatic resolution change to that of printer (re-res’d) Cons: Very large files High network traffic Longer processing time Single bit tiffs. (4 colours x 1 bit) Pros: Single files recombined to composite TIF file Quality Proofs (Accurate colour not Contract Proof) Automatic resolution change to that of printer (re-res’d) Cons: Very large files High network traffic Longer processing time When working with TIF files, VersoProof can use internal ICC profiles and work with SWOP, Euro- standard and other input colour profiles. It also Includes the capability to linearise (Calibrate) the Epson.

centralised VersoProof places the imposition in the centre of the sheet. This give the added advantage of checking for folding in the Bindery and Finishing department. “We trim and stitch the jobs in bindery, they are accurate enough to show creapage. The duplexed proofs are used in production and for sign off by our customers, it is quick, efficient and reliable.” Bob Bragg MD, BBH colour, Leicester. Nov 2001

accurately aligned During installation an alignment chart is printed from VersoProof to ensure the front and back impositions will align. Stated accuracy is 1 mm, but the Epson's are known to be far more accurate than this, with no Skew between jobs if the paper is loaded correctly. The alignment compensates for minor changes in paper size, and slight variations that occur between printers, for example mechanical differences that occur in manufacturing, and in software revisions within the printers, typically in the margins. Additional alignment capabilities are given by viewing backed up files as if through a transparent foil, with slider control between the front and back impositions for easy viewing of the processed jobs.  Very fast Scroll and Zoom for text reading.  Printers view or Originators View,  Reduced size prints to any small printer connected to the PC.

printing The sheet paper is placed into the input slot on the printer, using the optical alignment system in the Epson no left/right alignment is necessary. The advanced alignment system from VersoProof aligns the data front to back and then to the sheet positioned in the Epson. The “Pause” button on the printer is pressed and the first side of the proof is printed at the standard Epson print speed. Once the first side is printed, the sheet is removed from the bottom of the Epson and is reloaded into the printer, but reversed. The “Pause” button is pressed again to print the second side. The duplexed imposition proof is now ready to be folded to make a mock-up or section of the final job.