Digital Resource Management (I)

Some well-managed printing and prepress companies in China have built product archives for use by some of their regular customers for reprinting. This will not only save labor, material, money, but also ensure product quality. The consistency of product color, thus retaining the product and retaining the customer. In the past, such product files were mostly proofs or printed proofs and color separation films, and the preservation of them often required a lot of space. As digital technology enters prepress and printing, some companies have begun copying digital files of good images onto optical discs to make backup copies.
Over the past five years, foreign countries have started to establish digital file archives. They call it DAM. This is the first letter of three English words in DEGITAL ASSETS MANAGEMENT. How to establish a successful digital resource management system has become a hot topic in the printing and prepress industry of digital technology.
The following section gives a rough introduction to some issues concerning digital resource management.
First, what is digital resource management? Simply put, this technology that is still in its midst but is maturing is also called media resource management or content management. It is to build a large database for archiving and retrieving "digital resources." The so-called number resource is any graphic, text, or multimedia file expressed in digital form.
It can also be said that digital resource management is the general term for various methods for each company to manage its own data, that is, all digital files used by each customer, including images, text, and formatted pages and their organization, storage, and retrieval.
The key part of the DAM system is a large database that can be searched and explored. It can even store the means customers use to search for data inventory, and can convert digital files into different file formats for user calls or downloads.
Second, the role of digital resource management system Digital resource management system has two aspects: First, to improve the company's internal work efficiency; Second, to provide customers with convenience.
By safely storing and organizing digital media (MEDIA), it eliminates the hassle of finding or recreating lost images so that departments and customers within the company can easily reuse them. At the same time, it also improves the efficiency of workflows such as online job tracking and file format conversion, and it greatly saves time, materials, and production costs.
With the digital resource management system, users in different regions of the world can be searched through the network to retrieve the new number of documents they need, and the material can be repeatedly used to add elemental operations for new assignments. An image can be revisited again and again. Use without the need to re-scan, correction or revision. The consistency and speed of documentation are all components of this.
Third, some examples of foreign DAM system applications
In foreign countries, research and provide DAM services are digital network companies and an old lady's prepress companies and printing companies.
1. WAM! NET Networks developed WAM! Base database. This is a total solution for print shops and their “partners” (advertising agents, clients, service bureaus), including through their high-speed WAM! NET network cataloging, access, transmission and security. The printer pays for the number of megabytes they have stored and does not need to purchase additional equipment. WAM! Base is open. Any person who needs to extract data from this database can extract it himself without contacting the network company.
2. Heidelberg Prepress launched a LINOSERVER MANAGER database. A medium-sized prepress company developed a DAM system based on this database of Heidelberg Prepress, with the main purpose of internal production management. The system's solution is based on the DATA GENERAL hardware WINDOWS NT or UNIX platform.
The DETTAbase MANAGER software from HEIDELBERG AMERICA provides a modular, open architecture solution for prepress and prepress companies. Users can access their digital resources through THUMBNAILS, VIEWFILES, and detailed element information.
3. STING, an optimized software for digital storage and production launched by TERENCE SYSTEMS of Atlanta, Atlanta, USA, based on a patented FRACTAL TRANSFORM TECHNOLOGY, can create scale-independent and scalable images. Image. For printouts, there is no loss of print quality after zooming. Their most attractive selling point is "no loss of compression."
A prepress production company that produces advertisements for Coca-Cola, Nike and Microsoft, Color Technology Company applied ITINGATED's STING and another new REXPRESS digital imaging software to rationalize its prepress workflow, which not only improved work efficiency, And improved image quality. Now the image only needs to be scanned and edited once and it can be used repeatedly. Save a lot of time for artists and production staff.
4. The MENASH printing plant in Wisconsin developed the application software CENTRUS for use by their customers. Among their customers are catalog publishers, company publishers, specialty stores and retailers. As an example of their personalized DAM system, catalog customers can now directly print online product purchase and sales information (with order entry and inventory information) directly to the factory's automatic BANTA catalog production system for direct printing. (To be continued)