RealProof uses specially designed UV curable inks to print directly onto films and foils. The UV ink also has a wider colour gamut of warm colours, which abound in the packaging sector.
Ian Claire, managing director of DES, described Real Prof as a ‘new concept in visual proofing’, as it can proof directly onto foils and films, with Claire saying that brand owners would welcome the opportunity to see their graphics on the actual substrate to be used in their packaging, and would be equally interested in its ability to provide direct mock-ups.
DES has driven the development of RealProof, which uses a Mimaki print engine with EFI software. Claire says the project has been 12 months in the making, and has been a co-operative partnership with Mimaki, EFI, various Australian packaging companies, and DES itself.
RealProof will be aimed squarely at packaging repro houses and agencies that currently use Kodak’s Approval proofing solution. Approval has dominated the high end packaging proofing market for more than a decade. DES claims RealProof not only prints directly onto the substrate used but will be cheaper to run than Approval.
Russell Cavenagh, sales director at DES says, “The packaging industry has had a black hole waiting for a solution that can print directly onto the final package substrate, for both proofing and mock-ups. DES has designed RealProof to site directly in this space.”
With a typical Coles or Woolworths having some 30,000 different products on its shelves at any one time, and most major brands revamping their image at least every two years, Cavenagh believes RealProof will provide a boon to the packaging industry.
Resolution is up to 2400dpi, output speed for a typical A2 proof is around 12 minutes, although not at the high resolution, and double that if a white is printed first. RealProof supports standard layout software such as Adobe InDesign and Illustrator and EskoArtworks System. RealProof can handle both screen and contone proofs.
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