Auraia Increases Print Quality & Reduces Costs For Canadian Newspapers
HAMILLROAD SOFTWARE’S AURAIA SCREENING SOLD TO NEWSPAPER PRINTERS IN CANADA – ENABLES PRINTERS TO IMPROVE PRINT QUALITY, ACCESS NEW BUSINESS AND SAVE MONEY (6-12 MONTH ROI)
5th March, 2014
CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM — Hamillroad Software, a leading RIP and screening innovator, today announced that through Polkadots (it’s official reseller for Canada), it has successfully sold and installed Auraia into new newspaper printers in Canada. Customers are seeing significant improvements in print quality, along with noticeable decreases in monthly ink and paper costs that produce an incredibly short ROI of between 6-12 months.
Star Press – Alberta, Contract Newspaper Printer
Star Press, located in Wainwright, Alberta recently started feeding their existing Kodak Trendsetters digitally modulated screening (DMS) with the aim of increasing their print quality. The change from a 100 lpi conventional AM round dot, to the latest in DM screening technology has enabled them to not only improve quality, but also reduce costs and expand their product offerings to include printing on glossy paper.
Commenting on the change from their old AM screen to the new Auraia DM screen, President Roger Holmes said, “One of the advantages of running UV on our newspaper press is that we are able to print on glossy paper, as well as newsprint, and we wanted to expand our product offering into that field. We knew we would have to do better than a 100 line conventional [AM] dot to get acceptance on glossy paper. The [Auraia] DM screening has allowed us to produce much better quality from our older newspaper press than we had expected. For us, Auraia – DMS was the final piece of the puzzle to allow us entry into this new market”.
The sale, installation and press calibration of Auraia was undertaken by Polkadots following their recommendation (and testing) of the advantages that Auraia DM screening offers over both AM and FM screening. Sylvain Audet, Vice President of Polkadots said about their first installation in Canada ”We are proud to say that our first customer who has Auraia – DMS installed and working has given us awesome feedback: screened pictures that look contone, great flat tints, great reverse text, and stunning overall image quality. We are now looking forward to expanding this product offering to our customer base across Canada, the United States and beyond”.
Times Colonist, Vancouver – Newspaper Printer
The Times Colonist is the oldest daily newspaper in Western Canada, serving Victoria and Vancouver Island for more than 150 years. Following extensive tests of FM (HDS) and DM (Auraia) on their Kodak Trendsetters, Times Colonist chose the latest in DM screening technology as it produced the highest quality on press.
Commenting on their experience, Production Manager Kurt Kudor said “Like many newspaper publishers we strive to improve the value of our product to our readership and advertisers while reducing production costs. To that end we did a test of Auraia II DM screening in one low risk newspaper section in December of 2013 – just ahead of all the upcoming Christmas advertising. The test lasted just one day. The results were so impressive that we completely switched the entire paper over to Auraia and haven’t looked back”.
Kurt went on to say “Our advertisers and advertising sales people love the photographic quality we’re getting on press. Our press people are amazed that they can deliver this level of quality so easily on a daily basis. Auraia has also been a big help in reducing mis-registration on the light-weight newsprint that we have to run. Even if mis-registration happens the images still look as if they’re in register so wastage has also been reduced.” In conclusion, he noted, “Overall it’s been a great transition for us and has really opened a lot of eyes here as to what the capabilities of an ‘old’ press really are”.
Ink Savings / ROI
The latest Auraia DM screening technology, sometimes (incorrectly) referred to as 3rd generation FM screening, gives users significantly reduced ink consumption compared to both conventional AM screening and 1st / 2nd generation FM screening, together with higher print quality. These ink savings are achieved over and above any savings from ink saving (GCR) software.
In several controlled tests using the same jobs, users have independently measured 8-18% ink savings when using Auraia DM screening over conventional AM screening. In comparison, the same jobs printed using FM screening produced a mere 3-4% ink saving. The significant reduction in annual ink spend produces a typical ROI of between 6-12 months, with customers pocketing ongoing annual cost savings thereafter.
Commenting on what they have seen over the last 6 months, Roger Holmes from Star Press said “although we find it difficult to measure ink consumption because of our increase in workload, we have noticed that since we started using the DM screening our monthly ink costs have decreased noticeably while our sales and production have increased. Given the higher cost of UV inks and the increased workload, this decrease in ink consumption is significant for us. Overall, the ROI on this product has been swift — in less than 6 months it has already paid for itself!”
Availability
The Auraia 6 screening module is available immediately through Hamillroad Software’s reseller network.
For a list of resellers, go to www.hamillroad.com/auraia-resellers.
For more details about Auraia screening, go to www.hamillroad.com/products/auraia/.
About Auraia-6
The Auraia 6 screening technology, is a revolutionary new type of screening that enables both violet and thermal platesetters to produce images that emulate the quality of a traditional 200-400 lpi screen for newspaper printers (depending on CtP), whilst also producing rosette-free, moiré-free and noise-free flat tints that equal or better the smoothness of conventional screening, along with reduced ink consumption of between 10-20% on typical newspaper pages. For more information, go to www.hamillroad.com
About Polkadots Software
Polkadots Software Inc. is a newspaper workflow specialist based in LaSalle, Quebec, Canada, with a large install base of newspaper printers across Canada, the United States and beyond. With a mission to create and deliver the best products and solutions at the best price, Polkadots aims to provide innovative products with all the functionality that customers need, improves productivity whilst saving money. For more information on Polkadots Software and its products please visit their web site at www.polkadots.ca.
About Hamillroad Software
Hamillroad Software is an independent software group, with offices in Cambridge, UK and Cape-Town, South Africa. The company specialises in the development and sale of software products relating to Harlequin and other RIPs in the prepress industry. Currently offering three high performance RIP related products, FirstPROOF, Lightning TIFF and Auraia, Hamillroad constantly seeks to develop and sell products that will dramatically change the way users work, making them more productive. For more information on Hamillroad Software and its products please visit their web site at www.hamillroad.com.