Hamillroad Software Releases Free FirstPROOF Lite

1st September, 2006

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 Lite, an entry level version of its powerful soft-proofing and approval system. FirstPROOF Lite is completely ‘FREE’ and is intended to serve as an introduction to Hamillroad Software’s powerful FirstPROOF product line and the fast emerging technology that is virtual-dot soft-proofing.

FirstPROOF 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.

FirstPROOF Lite contains a basic set of soft-proofing capabilities, allowing users to remotely view either native Harlequin PGBs or TIFF files. The software allows the user to view both the original film/plate pixel data (that gets output), as well as a smaller fit-to-screen view. A navigator window provides an overview of the job being viewed, and allows for fast movement around the image. In addition, one-click controls are provided to rotate, mirror and negate jobs for ease of viewing.

With it’s Automatic Refresh capabilities and Job/Page/Separation status reporting, FirstPROOF Lite also provides a means to remotely track the status of jobs on the Harlequin RIP. Users can remotely tell whether a given job, page or separation is being held for Media Saving, waiting to be output, or has been output. This alone provides useful feedback to a user and can save a lot of legwork when waiting for a job to complete.

“We are really pleased to make FirstPROOF Lite available to the Harlequin RIP community and indeed to any printer whose RIP or workflow uses TIFF files.” comments Andy Cave, Hamillroad Software’s CEO. “We hope that it is a tool that those who download find useful, as well as providing them with an introduction to the fast emerging technology that is virtual-dot soft-proofing, as well as the premier ‘virtual-dot soft-proofing system for the professional printer’ that is FirstPROOF.”

FirstPROOF Lite is available immediately for both Mac and PC and can be downloaded from Hamillroad Software’s web site. There are no forms to fill in and no registration is required, so it really is easily available for anyone to download and use. For further details, please see our web site at: www.hamillroad.com.