The controller represents the engine behind the printing device, controlling the workflow environment and colour management. The IC-304, powered by CREO Color Server technology, sports new productivity and automation features, integration with workflows, and support for variable data printing.
"It is designed to streamline the entire print production workflow, and to enable C6500 customers to significantly increase their productivity," says Nick Constantinou, production printing manager at Itec.
The controller is available from any Itec dealer. The IC-304 ships with optimised hardware and software, including the Intel Core2 Duo processor, three 80GB hard-drives and Windows XP. The CREO printing software is also shipped.
Constantinou says the company will target the commercial market with the product. "It complements the C6500, giving customers a digital colour press that comes in at a far better price performance ratio than competitive products."
According to Itec, the IC-304 connects into existing commercial print workflows, resulting in "integration of offset and digital printing operations, faster turnaround times and reduced labour costs".
Constantinou says the IC-304 achieves excellent image and colour quality results. "Its colour management tools provide a range of operations that save production resources on the one hand, and increase image quality on the other. You can use them to easily carry out colour calibration, last minute colour corrections, spot-colour editing, and gradation corrections."
The company says the automation systems that integrate with existing JDF-based, Web-to-print or other workflow systems, allow the controller to deliver better unattended printing and finishing.
With the IC-304 Print Controller, Itec customers can incorporate digital printing into their existing JDF-based, Web-to-print - or any other workflow configuration.
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