News Article Business Solutions

Langenhagen, Germany, October 2009

Konica Minolta and EFI have announced the launch of the latest controller technology for managing on-demand production printing – the new MicroPress Version 8. Designed for commercial printers, graphic arts and central reprographic departments (CRDs), this new sophisticated software package offers a large variety of applications for the digital production market. Three MicroPress Version 8 models enhance the connectivity of the Konica Minolta bizhub PRO range – including the bizhub PRO 1200/P and the bizhub PRO 1051 – depending on how many engines the user wants to link.

 

"By implementing the new version of MicroPress, users will experience a remarkable enhancement in the performance and reliability of their production printing engines," says Karl-Friedrich Edenhuizen, Product Manager Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe. "With its ample versatility, this mighty solution package advances cost-effective workflow management and document production. Connected systems thus support users’ business development optimally. In a nutshell, MicroPress Version 8 simply maximises our customers’ return on investment."

Three models of the controller technology are now available: the MicroPress Plus, Solo and Max. The MicroPress Plus configuration connects up to four engines with a maximum of two colour printing systems. For example, customers can operate one job using four bizhub PRO 1200/P monochrome systems to get a maximum print speed of 480 ppm – or two bizhub PRO C6501e/eP colour systems with a maximum print speed of 130 ppm. Another MicroPress model, the MicroPress Solo, provides uncomplicated single monochrome or colour engine connection, while MicroPress Max has the capacity to link up to twelve print systems including up to five colour devices. Unlike its predecessor, MicroPress V8 now also enhances the connectivity of the Konica Minolta production printing systems bizhub PRO 1200/P and bizhub PRO 1051.

The new controller technology includes different applications to best organize print jobs. For example, colour splitting automatically separates colour and monochrome pages for processing by the most cost-effective device. The different pages will then be brought together in the correct order as one document. MicroPress also includes cluster printing that groups all connected devices and thus decreases downtimes and multiply-printed pages to a minimum. Both colour splitting and cluster printing help dealing with mission-critical jobs more rapidly and efficiently.

MicroPress V8 offers a variety of new features. Its extensive and improved suites of document make-ready and editing facilities, combined with Konica Minolta’s print technology, assure outstanding print and colour quality. Capacities include expanded Optical Character Recognition (OCR) functionality and enhanced colour management with new colour setups. The controller technology even features PANTONE Goe library support ensuring PANTONE colour matching by being easy to use, fast and flexible. It seamlessly integrates PANTONE colours into the MicroPress colour workflow and creates accurate colours with minimal user interaction.

In addition to XPS files, MicroPress V8 supports native PDF 1.7 and PDF/X4 files to match today’s requirements in production and office printing. Furthermore, the software package’s user-friendly and uniform graphical user interface (GUI) communicates in an identical way with all connected systems of the bizhub PRO production range. This ensures that customers can easily handle all applications, thereby making modern workflow management straightforward and effective. The GUI’s new page tree interface TrueEdit allows the user to quickly change media type and paper size and leads to higher productivity of the linked engines.

"Virtually eliminating downtime and delivering unmatched productivity means true reliability. Combined with consistent and accurate output quality, this is what the new Version of MicroPress stands for," Karl-Friedrich Edenhuizen sums up. "MicroPress Plus especially offers users the technology of the future today. It is the cornerstone for quality, flexibility, adaptability, speed and cost-effectiveness – and a very powerful package too."

 

Product images are available at www.konicaminolta-images.eu

 

Terms and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and are hereby acknowledged.

 

Contact:

 

Karl-Friedrich Edenhuizen

Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe GmbH

Phone: +49 (0)511 7404-377

Karl.Edenhuizen(at)konicaminolta.eu

 

Heiko Willrett

Pleon GmbH

Phone: +49 (0)711 21099-425

KonicaMinoltaTeam(at)pleon.com