Caldera celebrates anniversary with new version
Caldera celebrates its 25th anniversary with a landmark edition that introduces a variety of improvements for wide-format print houses. V11 incorporates the latest version of Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE 4), as well as practical advances in image and business control options. Compliant with macOS Sierra, V11 will be available in multiple languages from September this year.
The manufacturer responds to user demand with the addition of a new feature, True Bleed. Operators can clone pixels around the edge of an image regardless of its shape, to create better edge finishing for applications such as print-and-cut, textile and, particularly, canvas. Selected easily within the Caldera interface, True Bleed can also be combined with Contour Nesting and other popular media optimisation options in all RIP packages, such as GrandRIP+, VisualRIP+ and TextilePRO.
APPE 4 is the first version of Adobe's processing technology to improve performance specifically for wide-format production through advances in the management of cacheing, memory and technical settings. Caldera V11 draws on this and other features, including expanding the spot colour management to 127 spots simultaneously. This they say, greatly improves selective colour for sign and display producers. Patterns and masks are processed with greater precision thanks to this latest version of APPE, which also promotes advanced compatibility and compliance with the Adobe CC/DC suite.
The new version of APPE has been expanded to include Tile Parallel Processing, or TPP. This technology speeds up system performance by splitting the components of larger image files into manageable pieces, or 'tiles'. These graphics elements are assigned to a separate instance of APPE, each of which runs on a separate CPU core. By breaking these tiles up and processing them in parallel before reassembling them, rendering times are reduced and jobs are RIPed more quickly.
Sync & Deploy is a feature new to Caldera V11 that provides the ability to run the same RIP settings across different printers, locations and environments. This reduces installation times for V11 users by sending the configuration to multiple stations. Critical data, such as drivers, ICC profiles and presets for colour and data management can be shared in a user-friendly way, so owners can scale their businesses with additional printers. Caldera will also provide an app that calculates the hardware resources needed to address the production environment correctly.
Joseph Mergui, Chief Executive Officer, Caldera, said: "Version 11 represents the totality of our knowledge of today's wide-format production environment. It gives us all a sense of pride to know that this translates into a number of forward-thinking and powerful opportunities for our growing global user base."