The theme for this years' event was 'We Speak Image'.  "With Canon products the customer can really be part of something that sets itself apart from the rest" - or words to that effect went the opening statement.  Canon is probably still best known for the high quality of its cameras and so it's not surprising that for the Gx scanner range measuring up against these pioneers of world-beating CCD camera technology, has not always been an easy path. 

However following tests on the latest CopySmart 1.3 G4 product carried out at Canon's UK Crawley offices both Canon and Colortrac are confident that this system, for the majority of large format copying tasks produces very acceptable colour fidelity and sharpness.  The iPF710 and iPF610 machines running coated paper produced some of the best results seen so far.

The bonus for the Canon channel is that the Canon MFP (multi-function printer) solution effectively stops the customer looking outside of Canon for a large format copy solution while at the same time increasing inkjet consumables revenue beyond the normal level for a 'printer only' installation.
Canon invite Colortrac LFP event in Paris.
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OCTOBER 2007 EDITION
Colortrac were showing the Gx 25 copying to the Canon iPF610 in the CAD/ GIS area of the main hall.  CopySmart 1.3 G4 was copying a range of originals including artwork, technical drawings and very fine detail maps.  The paper used in the printer was 90 gsm coated paper.  Feedback from everyone who saw the system was very positive and the level of interest was very encouraging - a reflection on Canon's new-found awareness that 'big printers make big consumables business'.
CopySmart uses its own colour profiler to translate colours from the original through LAB colour space and out to the printer.  The idea is that once the system is profiled only the profiles of new medias introduced to the CopySmart system need to be profiled.  The question was asked, "Could CopySmart use a spectrophotometer instead of the scanner to improve copying performance still further?"

'Let's have a closer look at what's involved. . . . .'

The scanner itself is first profiled to obtain the scanner ICM characteristics using an IT8 target.  With a known colour response now established the scanner can be used to analyse how well the printer reproduces any given colour.  This then forms the basis of the printer profile.  This is how 99% of CopySmart users will continue to work.

The spectrophotometer option effectively replaces the scanner when reading the printer charts back into the computer.  (Colour chart design incidentally has been altered in this release to improve system performance.)  Using the spectrophotometer does improve the accuracy of the printer profiles but for the best results, users will need to print out more than the usual 200 patches to really see the benefits . 

For most CopySmart users however, the recent advances in linearisation and background colour control have produced a marked improvement in the copying colour performance of the product and only absolute perfectionists may regard use of the spectrophotometer as worth the extra effort.  Still more testing is needed, but we estimate that it will only be the multiple inkset colour printers capable of very subtle colour changes that will truly benefit from the new spectrophotometer based printer profiling. 

As with all business, in the end it all comes down to how much time is available and whether the customer is prepared to pay for this extra accuracy.   If you have an Eye One and you want to put it to the test please try it, and let us know what you think?
SmartLF Gx 25 / Canon iPF610
CopySmart latest 1.3 H1 release now supports media profiling with i1 spectrophotometer

HEADLINE NEWS
ABOVE:  CGI Inc. at Print Philippines in September 19th-21st

Well it didn't take them long!  CGI Inc. from the Philippines soon got it together and started taking SmartLF to the prospects.  These are some photos from the Print Philippines Show held back in September showing their line-up of large format inkjet printers and the CopySmart system copying to a Canon iPF600.
Well done to everyone.  Perhaps a poster of SmartLF up there  wouldn't go a miss though.
ABOVE:  The Eye One spectrophotometer being used to produce the linearisation characteristics for the printer - or how the amount of ink laid down by the printer deviates from the amount expected.

BELOW:  The new printer target developed for the spectrophotometer profling showing
NOTE: Of course for those who do not have access to a spectrophotometer the existing profiling system will always still be there and remember this has been improved in recent versions by adding ink linearisation so it's a lot better than it used to be.  Support for other spectrophotometers from different manufacturers may be added at a later date depending on how the Eye-One is received.
At the moment only the Eye One (Gretag Macbeth), or the same product from x-rite is supported.  Use of the Eye One interface is aimed at the CopySmart customer who already owns an ES-1000 spectrophotometer or equivalent.  Those wishing to purchase the Eye One device should contact their own specialist colour equipment supplier.
Colortrac continue to develop driver support for the Canon iPF range and will announce the availability of the 8000s and 9000s drivers around the time this newsletter is published (mid-October).
CopySmart gets Canon iPF8000s & iPF9000s drivers
ABOVE:  Ricardo Monteiro sent this picture of their excellent booth from the Infoimagem Show.   Infoimagem is a 4-day international event held in São Paulo, Brazil in mid-September
LEFT:  Sindo Computer (KOREA) at the EXPO Show
- Distributor Agraf (Poland) is participating in an Aplikom organised roadshow through 6 cities in Poland covering CAD, GIS and AEC.  The roadshow completes in Kraków on November 11th 2007.

- Agraf also plan to be at GEA 2007 alongside Oce, Contex and HP for this yearly GIS exhibition
Other news
There is some good news out there for SmartLF dealers and users interested in extending the scanning operation to produce raster edited and labelled scan files with drawing information coming straight from the drawing's own title block using intelligent raster processing and OCR (Optical Character Recognition).

VPIndex from raster experts softelec in Munich Germany, does just this and now supports SmartLF Cx 40 and Gx Range scanners via the PC's own USB2 port.  Connected Colortrac SmartLF scanners are first recognised and configured by the program Select Scanner Device option.  Then the scanners can be operated directly from within the VPIndex software without the need for other scan-to-file software.  The main advantage of VPIndex is its ability to turn time intensive tasks into relatively simple batch processes.  Drawings that need to be deskewed, rotated and identified can all be processed in seconds.  VPIndex automatically zooms to the title area of the newly Colortrac scanned drawing and a pop-up function presents a simple confirm or edit interface.  Use of the optional Power OCR module greatly improves user productivity and is well worth the extra cost.
Technical and Training Matters - News from our software partners

FOCUS on
VPIndex supports the display of AutoCAD .dwg drawing files although it doesn't allow this format to be re-saved.  Basic raster editing operations and the techniques for re-drawing raster lines and arcs are all very easy to learn.

A word of advice though.  VPIndex is a great tool but it does not produce a database.  VPIndex should be regarded as a pre-processor to drawing index creation. 

For more information on VPIndex: www.softelec.com
LEFT: Screenshot from VPIndex showing OCR in action. 
RIGHT:  The ESRI show in San Diego California in June.  Left to right:  Peter de Winter-Brown (Colortrac),  Tod Robinson (GEI),  Michael Brigner (GEI), Roger Ilgen (GEI),  Jim Miller(GEI), Robert Johnson (GEI), Ken Bach (GEI), Ashley Buss (Colortrac) and Lee Paolini (GEI)
ABOVE: Marina Rudenko (Russian Industrial Company Marketing Director for RIC).

Marina assisted with the translation and written communications back and forth between Colortrac and the Russian Industrial Company.
RIC are performing exceptionally well and are hugely successful with both the Cx40 and Gx42 scanner models.  Using a highly developed internet marketing strategy alongside traditional methods their main markets are CAD and the oil and gas markets.  Apparently the SmartLF scanner is particularly useful when it comes to scanning drawings mounted on board and even on aluminium.  This is something our competition continue to struggle with according to RIC.  Long may it continue!
"The Russian market is different than the Western European in many ways. One difference is that there are not many copy shops. The tradition is that each company have the necessary equipment in-house for the work they need to do.  This works very well with Colortrac's strategy of providing LF scanners that are easy to install; easy to use and easy to maintain", says Marina Rudenko, Russian Industrial Company Marketing Director.

Marina added, "Colortrac scanners are very important for Russian Industrial Company. The earnings we get from selling scanners are of course important, but the side-benefits that Colortrac bring to our company  and the company's status in the market are also very important."
Colin White (Colortrac) with Chukiat (Technical Intelligent, Thailiand)
The sales department from CGI Inc.Philippines
Colortrac are proud to announce the signing of Vietnam company Le Bao Minh. Le Bao Minh are a highly successful distributor and carry the entire Canon range from cameras right up to heavy duty copiers and most importantly for Colortrac, the iPF large format printer range.

Le Bao Minh have offices in four major regions up and down the country including Hanoi in the North where all of the big government accounts are located and are extremely well connected in this sector. 

As a company already very tuned into imaging technology, Le Bao Minh understand the SmartLF technology well and were immediately on to the unique benefits of our CIS and CCD ranges.  Le Bao Minh's A4 scanner and copier background is a definite advantage for Colortrac and we anticipate great things from this alliance.
ABOVE from left: Colin White (Colortrac), Mike Teo (Canon Regional Marketing Manager, Billy Ea (owner of Le Bao Minh), Pearlene Tan (Canon Regional PR, LFP, Hideki Yamamoto (Canon Asst Director, Business Imaging Systems, South and South East Asia and last but not least Mike Asao (Canon Director, Vietnam Project)
VIETNAM
Customer meetings
PHILIPPINES
HONG KONG
Back in July Colortrac detoured to Hong Kong to train KODAK's Hong Kong distributor GSL Technology Ltd.  The main emphasis was on best practice when demonstrating and training the customer in the use of the SmartLF scan and copy systems. 

GSL, a very switched-on company with many highly technical and motivated personnel had no trouble at all in picking up the demo essentials which can make all the difference between success and failure in front of potential customers.

ABOVE LEFT: Robert Siu - Territory Sales Manager for KODAK with Declan Tyler (Sales & Applications Specialist Worldwide) for Colortrac.

RIGHT: Robert with Lawrence Wong (GSL), Alfred Law(GSL), Polly Ng(KODAK), Declan Tyler (Colortrac), Calvin Lam (GSL),  Dick  Wong (GSL) and Wallace Kong(GSL).
Also in July Computer Graphics Inc. received their first training sessions from Colortrac at their HQ in Quezon City in the Philippines.  Computer Graphics Inc. headed up by Josephine Gortega were provided with full scanner hardware and software training and a demonstration workshop session for the Colortrac SmartFL Cx40 and Gx42 scanners.  CGI are a very successful reseller of large format inkjet printers in the Philippines and see Colortrac as a means of leveraging extra revenue from the existing user base as well as an opportunity to break into new markets by offering fully integrated colour copying systems based around the SmartLF and Universal Repro Stand.

ABOVE: The conference room at CGI showing the technical  and sales team on 'full receive'.  Ricky Ong, Technical Specialist from PT Asaba Indonesia also sat in on this training   "The group were an absolute pleasure to train!", remarked Declan Tyler.

"We could not help but be impressed by the sheer enthusiasm that these guys showed and the willingness to participate and get involved was really refreshing to witness", said Colin White (Business Development for the ASEA region).  We certainly wish CGI the very best in their partnership with Colortrac and look forward to great things from them.
RUSSIA
We could say the recent surge of orders coming from the Russian Industrial Company (RIC) reminds us of the famous James Bond title  - 'Russia with Love', especially when they sent us a picture of their lovely Marina Rudenko to include in this report.  Here's our Graham Vaughan (Service Support) looking very pleased with himself at the recent training meeting and workshop at RIC's offices.
Training the Distributors around the world
SmartLF UPDATE  - keeping you updated
Published by the Sales & Marketing Department, Colortrac Ltd, England UK E&OE, all rights reserved  17/10/2007  Tel: 00 44 (0)1480 464618 Web: www.colortrac.com  News or comment / items for inclusion?  Send to newsletter@colortrac.com
40 MILLION SCANS in 3 years
Vassil Vassilev, Head of Large Format Solutions Department at Atlascom Ltd in Bulgaria takes up the story . . .

"You reported in your previous newsletter about the order we received for the supply of 13 x Cx 40 SmartLF scanners to the Ministry for Social Welfare in Bulgaria.   We won the order because Contex, Graphtec and their distributors in Bulgaria didn’t manage to offer any other competitive solutions.  This project involves scanning 40,000,000 salary books of the entire Bulgarian state enterprise from 1945 to 1989 and they are not in good condition.  Perhaps 40% of these are large format documents between A2 and A1 in size.  It is expected that the whole job will take 3 years!

Vassil continued, "I'm very happy to inform you that the contractors with the first 3 x Cx 40 have now scanned over 80,000 documents in just 3 short weeks using the foot-pedal scan system developed here by Atlascom.  The Colortrac scanners work great, they are extremely reliable (they don't have any downtime) and our barcode naming software has made it very easy to use."

NOTE: This production level approximates to a scan rate of almost 4 documents per minute per SmartLF which is very acceptable.  It will be interesting to see how the toughened scan glass used in the SmartLF stands up to this schedule and the very likely dirty and dusty originals.   "Vassil, please let us know!"
ABOVE: SmartLF Gx 25 with iPF610 Canon printer
------------------------------------News from the Exhibitions---------------------------------------
Graham Vaughan (Colortrac) with the CGI technicians
Josephine Gortega (CGI Inc) Colin White (Colortrac) and Declan Tyler (Colortrac) with staff from CGI Inc.
ABOVE: Canon's Paris LFP Event