Hamillroad Software Releases FirstPROOF 3

2nd August, 2005

FirstPROOF CAN NOW ‘PRINT’!

Hamillroad Software, the world leader in Virtual-Dot Soft-Proofing Systems for Harlequin RIPs and TIFF based workflows, is pleased to announce the release of FirstPROOF Standard / Professional v3.0, its powerful soft-proofing and approval system. With over forty new tools and features, including the ability to Print what is being viewed, version 3.0 is the most significant release of FirstPROOF since it was first launched.

FirstPROOF Professional is Hamillroad Software’s high-end soft-proofing system with a substantial tool set that allows users of Harlequin and Adobe RIPs to view and approve output prior to imaging. With over thirty additional tools and features compared to FirstPROOF Standard, FirstPROOF Professional is an upgrade which provides a significantly extended set of capabilities to proof jobs prior to output, to ensure that what is printed is right first time.

The release of version 3.0 adds a substantial number of powerful new tools and features4 to previous versions. Amongst these are the ability to create site and user accounts (to control what can be viewed, output, deleted, etc…), the ability to Approve or Reject jobs (as well as outputting or deleting), substantially improved viewing and down-sampling speeds, a Full Screen mode, a Hold Manager for the Harlequin RIP (which allows for selective Hold Mode on Page Setups), a View Selection tool (for easier viewing of pages in a flat) and a Cylinder Seam tool.

Furthermore, FirstPROOF Professional contains the ability to ‘Print’ what is being viewed, to any printer accessible by the computer. This allows for production of a hard-copy content proof which can be signed off and provided to the pressman for printing the job. As well as printing separations, progressives and composites, all the enabled tools are printed too, so one can produce a print showing areas that have max ink limit issues for example. Additionally, use of the Selection and View Selection tools allows for printing of imposed pages in a flat to any small format printer.

“We are extremely excited about this new release of FirstPROOF .” comments Robert Miller, Hamillroad Software’s Product Director. “With all the tools and features we’ve added, especially the ability to print what is being viewed, this release not only maintains, but increases FirstPROOF’s position as the premier virtual-dot soft-proofing system for professional printers.”

But don’t listen to us; this is what some of the users of the new 3.0 release had to say:

“As a long-time FirstPROOF user I am amazed at the features of the newest version. It has incorporated all of our wish list items and some even we hadn’t thought of. This version truly is a complete prepress tool.” said Scott Vaughan of Kase Printing (USA). “My prepress department now has all of the tools necessary to have complete confidence in the files they send to plate. A few of the features even help us with our pressroom now that we can see ink coverage, total ink densities and dot gain. Kudos to Hamillroad!”

“With FirstPROOF Pro we have been able to implement a no-nonsense ROOM workflow at a fraction of the cost of other mainstream solutions.” said Andrew Kinner of York City Printers (UK). “Its preview of separations is far superior to other big name systems we have looked at in terms of smoothness, visual quality and ease of use. Being able to print these separations to any of our network printers now gives us absolute data-integrity, cutting down on time, wasted plates and make-readies.”

FirstPROOF v3.0 has been in Beta test since early July and will be available on 8th August through Hamillroad Software’s sales partners, which include a number of dealers and distributors. For further details, please see our web site at: http://www.hamillroad.com/main/sales/general.htm.

FirstPROOF v3.0 has also been made available to Hamillroad Software’s OEM sales partners. Specific information on their release plans can be obtained direct from the individual OEMs (see our web site at: http://www.hamillroad.com/main/sales/general.htm ).