Blackmagic is a complete colour management system, designed to produce precision colour-matched proofs from a huge gamut of hi-res bitmap and postscript CTP RIPs, composite and separated postscript files.

Suited to even the most demanding print and press environments, Blackmagic is made to plug into and play alongside your existing workflow. Proofs are processed using the same post-RIP data that goes to press, maintaining data integrity and accuracy.

 

Blackmagic input filters are able to read the native file format, directory structure, plate assembly and imposition data of all major manufacturer proprietary RIPs. Integrated RDT (Real Dot Technology) ensures proofs retain their original halftone screening, while features including press ICC matching, dot gain compensation, unlimited spot colours and colour verification guarantee proofing fidelity.

 

Access to advanced features like paper profiling, colour replacement and digital blue line, combined with the flexibility to output to a vast array of large format inkjet printers means maximum productivity with virtually unlimited proofing options.

 

 

Colour Management and Spot Colour Handling

Blackmagic's colour management system is ICC v4.2 compliant and is adept at reproducing spot colours within the gamut of CMYK proofers. Unlimited spot colours can be easily imported or created, assigned a paint mode (overprint, knockout, primer, transparent, opaque), a tint level within each mode and a unique dot gain curve.

Special colours are handled in an L*a*b* colourspace for maximum accuracy. Advanced spot merging algorithms simulate how the spot will react with spot and process press inks, making true spot colour proofing a reality.

 

Multicolour Support

Blackmagic features full multicolour support and can proof any multicolour printing process, be it hexachrome, heptachrome or any custom process. Support for unlimited spot colours means precise proofing for any job, regardless of the complexity.

 

Colour Verification

Digital proofing is about colour fidelity. As the print industry moves towards accepted press standards, the ability to accurately reproduce and verify colour output has never been more important. Blackmagic features a system for creating colour verification charts generated from press ICC profiles or imported from text or CGATS files.

Users can define the number of patches making up the chart; process colour, paper and gray balance patch types; and set maximum, average and standard Δe (CIE76, CIE94 or CIE2000), ΔH and ΔC tolerances. Charts can be printed individually or attached to jobs and are auto-formatted to be read by a supported Spectrophotometer. Measurements are compared to target press standard values and the resulting pass or fail for the print is displayed on screen. Detailed Calcheck summaries are stored within Blackmagic and can be printed to a detailed report at any time.

 

The 16-bit Advantage

Blackmagic is built on a full 16-bit engine. 16-bit processing provides over 250 times the colour depth of 8-bit processing, giving the engine finer colour control and allows it to calculate the differences between black and white with greater accuracy. The result is more precise image reproduction, smoother transitions into shadows and highlights, and the elimination of visual banding in gradients and vignettes. This improved render quality aids in identifying plate artifacts, allowing them to be corrected before jobs are sent to press.

 

Total Printer Control

Blackmagic uses a paper profiling system that individually characterises proofing media based on colourspace, output resolution, printer ink set and paper being used for proofing. Users can assess and select which dots will be fired by the print head for each ink channel, choose from a number of intelligent ink limiting methods and linearise the printer based on a customisable set of gradation curve points. Paper profiling maximises the gamut available to the printer, providing accurate reproduction of process CMYK and spot colours.

 

Unlimited Printers

Blackmagic supports all major brands of large format printers used for CTP proofing. Printer drivers are licensed on a per manufacturer basis. A driver suite of choice comes included with Blackmagic and allows output to any supported printer model made by the selected manufacturer. Extra printer licenses are available separately. In addition, Blackmagic can drive as many local or remote printers as are available on your network. This means if your business, like many others, uses a single brand of proofer, the software will install ready to run a room full of printers.

 

De-Imposition

Blackmagic features a built-in de-imposition engine, allowing imposed press files to be virtually cut and proofed at published size, as singles, 2UPs, or duplexed using any supported printer. Users can build custom signature groups or import them from jobs directly in a number of industry formats, such as Dynastrip, Preps and JDF. The user interface features the ability to multi-select individual signatures within a group, allowing mass-changes to parameters, such as plate offset or page size - invaluable when working with large publications.

 

Nesting

Blackmagic allows users to make the most of available print media with its Nesting feature. Using automatic nesting, print queues are able to collect, intelligently arrange and auto-rotate incoming jobs to best use the space available on your print media, minimising waste. Nesting can be configured according to percentage of sheet coverage, number of jobs, minimum or maximum media length, idle wait time, or can be initiated manually at any time. The Studio application allows images to be nested manually. Jobs are submitted to a queue, waiting to be printed. Studio's visual interface enables the jobs to be placed and arranged on a defined media space. Positioning jobs is as easy as a drag and drop. Images can be spun, sized, shuffled around, placed in a grid or tiled. Users can even create and store libraries of standard nesting templates into which images can be placed. When the layout is ready, the nest is printed, exactly as it appears on screen.

 

Load Balancing

If your site has multiple printers, Blackmagic keeps them all printing continuously and efficiently. Blackmagic constantly tracks the number of jobs assigned to each output device, their total print area, progress status and print time. Using load balancing, print queues can be grouped and incoming jobs automatically allocated to the printer able to print them first. The same function can also assign a job to be output simultaneously by all available printers, without the need to resubmit.

 

Custom User Interface

Blackmagic's user interface can be customised to suit your workflow. With a choice of job management applications - Jobs or Monitor - you can track the progress of a job before, during and after processing. Jobs, the default management application, allows users to access pre-configured layouts for monitoring job progress through the system. Monitor, a legacy job management utility, is a more customisable version of the Jobs application, with Modules available for users to create their own individual layouts. All modules available in either Jobs or Monitor can be opened in a standalone window if preferred.

 

Archiving

Blackmagic user configurations and calibrated printer setups can be backed up using the Archives utility. Individual items or the complete database can be stored to prevent data loss in the event of a system failure, or copied for use on another Blackmagic or remote site. The Archives application can be set to automatically backup settings on a regular basis.

 

Account Management

Secure account management prevents unauthorised access to Blackmagic applications and functions. Administrators can create groups and user login accounts with permissions suited to specific roles within your environment. This system allows remote users to login securely and can notify users of system critical events via email.

 

Multi-core CPU Support and Clustering

Blackmagic is leading edge proofing software, built on cutting edge code. What does that mean for the user? One word - Speed.

 

Blackmagic has the fastest clocked image and render times of any comparable product on the market. Integral multi-core CPU support allows multiple jobs to be processed simultaneously and multi-threading keeps all CPU cores at work - even on single jobs. The result is proofing output as fast as your printers can print.

 

Multicore processing isn't the only feature of Blackmagic able to speed up your proofing workflow. Clustering, or distributed processing, uses multiple computers to share processing workload. Cluster nodes, running on additional computers, can be seamlessly added to the cluster and managed centrally via the Blackmagic Server. Each node can be configured to process jobs for specific printers or auto-scheduled, ensuring faster nodes receive and process jobs before slower ones. Blackmagic grows with your business. As production volume increases, so does your processing power.

 

Multi-Platform

At Serendipity Software, we recognise there are as many computer, network and operating system solutions as there are workflows. That's why Blackmagic Servers, Cluster Nodes and Clients are made to run on any combination of Linux, Windows or Intel-based Mac OS X systems, straight out of the box.

 

In the press room or the studio, on your network or working remotely - there's a Serendipity Blackmagic proofing solution ready to create contract proofs from any RIP to any printer, alongside any workflow.

 

 

 

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