More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call  +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

Emtex releases Version 8.5

Emtex is pleased to announce that VIP / VDE Version 8.5 has been officially released.  Version 8.5 now consolidates all previous updates together into one comprehensive release and includes over 170 new enhancements focused on meeting customers’ evolving market requirements.

VIP / VDE Version 8.5 offers broader capabilities to address more requirements of graphic arts and digital on-publishing operations.  Outline font support is included for AFPDS, PCL, PostScript and PDF applications.  This gives users more flexibility in sizing and quality of fonts for a variety of applications.

VIP / VDE Version 8.5 now provides support for colour management in VDE using RGB or CMYK definitions, as well as enhanced ICC profile support.  VDE and VIP users are now better able to achieve colour consistency and meet output expectations on their printing devices.  With more capabilities, users are better able to match colour output requirements through ICC definitions.  In applications where colour is already defined, ICC profile support ensures colour matching across both print stream and output.

Other enhancements include:

• Multi-TAB VDE Programmers’ Editor – being able to have two or more files open in the Emtex environment allows you to easily cut and paste between windows.

• VDE INCLUDE file usage – this allows you to INCLUDE a standard library of routines which can be called by the calling program.  This reduces replication of code and allows global changes at one central point.

• Messages Database – Every single Emtex message is listed here with a detailed explanation of its meaning.  This information is available via a special Utility and can be extracted to an external file if desired.

• Graphics are cleaner and crisper.

• Mouse-wheel support for scrolling within windows and editor sessions.

• Support for Font thickening/thinning.

With the release of VIP and VDE Version 8.5, Emtex continues its market leadership in providing the industry’s most comprehensive “vendor neutral” output management solution, offering unsurpassed functionality, performance and return on investments.

Introducing Barr Stream Tracer

Print applications created by composition tools represent a significant investment.  When they are upgraded or otherwise changed, you make sure that these changes do not affect the quality and content of documents.  Regression testing is the only reliable way to ensure that modifications do not introduce unexpected changes, and this process is time and resource intensive.

When the content, images, or graphics in a document change, you need a fast application that can ensure that predictable changes have occurred and that can identify deviations.  You therefore need a software application that can:

• Compare large print data streams

• Isolate differences between a Control file and a Test file

• Recognize different types of changes

• Display differences between a Control file and a Test file

• Display visual clues that determine the type of difference (e.g. a change in the font)

• Allow acceptance of differences that are excluded from additional comparison runs

StreamTracer detects, analyses, and resolves differences between two print data streams: the original file (Control) and the modified file (Test).

StreamTracer:

• Compares two print data streams for visual differences

• Identifies pages that differ visually

• Provides multiple and selectable visual clues that identify the type of difference – text, graphic or image.

• Provides textual information that explains the causes of each difference

• Allows the user to analyse detected differences

• Allows the user to accept selected differences

• Gives the user the information needed to correct differences

StreamTracer does all the above and more in an easy to understand GUI, with side-by-side WYSIWIG comparisons of the Control and Test files.

Contact Atac to discuss your print regression testing methodology today.

Barr SPOOL Filters

The Barr Spool and Retain windows can both display so many files that sometimes it’s hard to locate one amongst so many.  If you know only a few things about the file for which you are looking, then you can use the Barr FILTERs to narrow down your list.  Right-click in the column holding the information on which you wish to filter, such as FORM, CLASS, PRIORITY etc. and choose either FILTER ON VALUE or CUSTOM FILTER.

FILTER ON VALUE – use this option when you can clearly see another file on-screen which matches the value for which you’re searching.  For example, suppose you’re looking for a CLASS “P” job, and there is one on screen already.  You’d right-click on the “P” in the CLASS column and choose FILTER ON VALUE.  Immediately, the list of jobs displayed will shrink to those which match CLASS “P” only.  You can repeat this for as many fields as you know until the list becomes small enough.

CUSTOM FILTER – Use this when you can’t see the value on-screen for which you’re searching.  Right-click the column on which you wish to filter and choose CUSTOM FILTER.  You can create multiple filter choices here in a friendly dialogue and apply all choices at once.

Taking the above one step further, if you find that you’re using the same searches over and over again, then simply choose VIEW | SAVE SETTINGS AS to save your filter choices.  It is possible to then switch quickly between different VIEWs, each incorporating different SORT and FILTER criteria.  This methodology applies to both the RETAIN and SPOOL windows.

When ANY non-standard SORT or FILTER condition is active, the right-most button on the button bar becomes active.  If this button is not greyed out therefore, you are not seeing all the files in their native order.  Simply click this button any time to revert to seeing ALL files in the default sort order.

Many customers keep huge archives of RETAIN files, sometimes running into 20,000+ files.  By judicious use of FILTER and SORT criteria, from ad-hoc and saved VIEWs, large numbers of files can be quickly searched.

Experiment yourself with this powerful feature, and tame your huge Spool and Retain file list today!

Q & A

Q.  In Emtex VIP, when I simply want to extract information without actually producing any print output, I direct the output to the Viewer.  Is this the best way?

A.  If you don't actually need to produce any print output, you can simply omit the OUTPUT=profile option completely.  Emtex simply won't run an output client.  You might run this way to extract mail run data file (MRDF) information from a print job, for example.

Q.  What are the Emtex VIP SIM output clients? (IPDS-OUT-SIM, PCL-OUT-SIM and PS-OUT-SIM)

A.  The SIMulator output clients can be used as output clients to ensure that your output has no issues with the intended output PDL.  All output PDL processing is done as normal by the simulator output clients, but the output is simply discarded.  This allows you to have confidence that you won't run into a hitch if a particular job is run to a different output client.

Q.  When I run a Barr Diagnostic, I always have trouble finding the directory where the snapshot is placed.  Why is it done this way?

A.  Barr actually places the BarrDiag.BCT file wherever your TEMP environment variable is pointing.  This is something normally managed by Windows and is the target location for all temporary files from Windows applications.  You can see this value by opening a CMD window and typing SET.  A huge list of settings scrolls up and the TEMP directory will be in the list.

However, you don't need to record or type this info in; just choose START | RUN and type in %TEMP% and press Enter.  (That's a percent sign, the word "temp" in upper or lower case and another percent sign.)  The percent signs tell Windows to substitute the full pathname for the TEMP variable.  Windows will open an Explorer window pointing right at that dir.  The BarrDiag.BCT file will always be found in the TEMP location.  Too easy!

Q.  Who is/are Atac?

A.  Atac is the Barr and Emtex Distributor for Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia.  With over fourteen years experience in the market, we support systems running 24x7x365 from Christchurch to Tokyo and Perth to Mumbai, in most of the largest print shops in the region.

Our customers include banks, print bureaux, financial institutions and petro-chemical companies as well as printer and mainframe vendors.  Outsourcing organisations and facilities management companies make extensive use of Atac's expertise.

Atac is privately owned, with an extensive technical background stretching back over forty years of continuously profitable operation.  Our website is at www.atac.com.au.

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