A collection of stories on digital publishing and editorial software. And on Digital Asset Management.

Storified by Agile Creator · Thu, Jan 10 2013 03:47:39

Combine DAM benefits with strong publishing capabilities and you'll get PublishingNOW! - a report

Van Gennep, a Dutch developer of publishing systems, made a name and a reputation for itself with its editorial flat plans, which have been copied by others but never with the same feature richness. Flat plans are still an integral part of Van Gennep's current flagship product: PublishingNOW!, but the unique feature that sets PublishingNOW!

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 (review)

Our appetite for digital doesn't stop at magazines, newspapers, and books. We want to be able to digitise paper receipts, invoices, articles and everything else that's produced in paper format as well. Getting paper into a computer can be tedious or easy, depending on the scanner being used.

Linking to your site is copyright infringement?

In an article on paidContent, I read a group of Irish newspapers is trying to convince their government that links should be paid for. If I link to a page on your site, I should pay you for the link. Peculiar or not? To the publishing world the last decade has been a very difficult one.

When do you need a DAM system?

When exactly do you need to consider a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system? A file system allows for management too, but once you get past a couple of thousand files, it gets impractical managing digital assets such as images, drawings and texts, using only the OS's file system.

Combine DAM benefits with strong publishing capabilities and you'll get PublishingNOW! - a report

Van Gennep, a Dutch developer of publishing systems, made a name and a reputation for itself with its editorial flat plans, which have be...

Stories about video production/post-production products, best practices, etc.

Storified by Agile Creator · Thu, Mar 28 2013 07:17:49

HDR Projects Platin, the most complete HDR editor

A German developer with a long list of photo editing applications for Mac and PC has decided to start distributing its flagship HDR app to English speaking countries. HDR Projects Platin is the name and HDR controlled to a ridiculously granular level is its game.

Smooth camera motion with the Rhino Slider

It started as a highly successful Kickstarter project to create the best video camera slider. The developers, a small company of young people who are passionate about photography and video, found that no camera slider under 800.00 EUR was good enough. They decided to make their own.

BALLED Pro LED photo lights: the Rolls Royce of small lighting kits

The BALLED Pro lights are small LED lights with an output of 125 lumen. They're suitable for object and food photography, can help with portrait shooting and are great as a portable lighting kit when shooting video interviews. Due to their quality, I wouldn't hesitate to call these the Rolls-Royces or Hasselblads of LED photo lights.

Audirvana Plus audiophile music player (review)

Not all music players are good enough for audiophiles. iTunes is a disaster when you're a serious listener of classical music. Amarra is better, just like Fidelia. But in a league of its own is Audirvana Plus, a program that started life as an open source project.

Technicolor CineStyle Color Assist colour grading (review)

Technicolor created a Log Curve CineStyle LUT for the Canon 5D MkIII, to ensure cinematic quality from this camera. The company's latest venture in software driven solutions for the semi-pro cinematographer is CineStyle Color Assist and associated CineStyle Looks. A bit strange is Technicolor's choice of integration offerings: Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro 7.

Avid Symphony 6.5 colour grading overview and new features

Avid Media Composer 6.5 has a number of new features that it shares with Avid's step-up in terms of colour management, Symphony 6.5. The new features are mainly situated in the domain of audio support, better file relinking management, codec support, and advanced features.

Transcoding video for delivery, an overview and best practices

You are often required to transcode from one format to another. When shooting in consumer AVCHD or professional XDCAM you will need to transcode to a format your video editor (NLE) understands and can work with smoothly. But just as often you'll need to transcode from your NLE's format to another for optimised delivery.

ScreenFlow 4 (review) - IT Enquirer: photo & video

For education, software demos, iPhone app demos, promotional videos, and online training, there's Camtasia and ScreenFlow on the Mac. Camtasia is available for Windows PCs too, but ScreenFlow has more refinement and elegance, and is more user-friendly with better OS X integration.

Capture One Pro 7 review - IT Enquirer: photo & video

PhaseOne has upgraded Capture One Pro to a whole new application with an improved processing engine, an advanced Bayer Interpolation algorithm, and with integrated digital asset management. Further improvements include better noise reduction, a new lens setting for tilt-shift lenses, a new Clarity setting for adding punch to photos, new export formats, and more.

Carry Speed FS-PRO Camera Sling Strap - IT Enquirer: photo & video

Carry Speed is a Houston, Texas based company developing accessories for photographers. Among their first products are straps. Carry Speed asked me to review their FS-PRO Camera Sling Strap, a genuine camera strap system for heavier dSLRs. The FS-PRO came in a blunt cardboard box with a large sticker on the side that said it was made in China.

DxO Optics Pro 8 Elite review - IT Enquirer: photo & video

Hot on the heels of PhaseOne's new Capture One Pro 7, DxO Labs released version 8 of DxO Optics Pro, their RAW converter and image editing app. DxO Optics Pro 8 is not as radically new as Capture One Pro 7, but it sure has enough new features and improvements to keep even the most demanding photographer happy.

WooWave Sync Pro versus PluralEyes 3: speed comparison and overview - IT Enquirer: photo & video

After my review of WooWave Sync Pro, the WooWave Sync Pro team decided it was necessary to send me an email threatening to "expose" IT Enquirer as being inaccurate and biased. The major complaint was that I did not focus at all on synchronization performance, but instead on the GUI.

How to get the best quality YouTube or Vimeo movie (step-by-step) - IT Enquirer

Uploading a video to YouTube is easy. If you just upload your clip and let YouTube take care of the rest, the results will often give your viewers a headache. For best quality YouTube or Vimeo movies, take this step-by-step tutorial starting with importing the clip in iMovie or Final Cut Pro X and ending with the best settings for encoding.

Sony debuts SLT-A99, the first 35mm full-frame TMT camera with Dual AF

Sony, after two years of planning, finally has unveiled its full frame DSLR. It's a re-invention of sorts. With its SLT-A99, Sony has popped a full-frame sensor in an 800 gram light magnesium alloy translucent mirror technology camera body. And the SLT-A99 is the first full-frame camera with a Dual Auto-Focus (AF) System.

Windows 8 Preview: What to Expect |

Windows 8 will be out before you know it. Microsoft will start selling it to the masses on October 26, 2012, but I've been testing it out for months now and examining all its nooks and crannies.

Sony debuts SLT-A99, the first 35mm full-frame TMT camera with Dual AF

Sony, after two years of planning, finally has unveiled its full frames DSLR. It's a re-invention of sorts. In its SLT-A99, Sony has popped a full-frame sensor in an 800 gram light magnesium alloy translucent mirror technology camera body. And the SLT-A99 is the first full-frame camera with a Dual Auto-Focus (AF) System.

Atomos Ninja 2 review

An average quality video camera is a high-performance system with the right field monitor/recorder. Just in time for IBC 2012, Australian firm Atomos releases its inexpensive video monitor and recorder. Here's my Atomos Ninja 2 review. The Ninja2 is a 10-bit 4:2:2 field monitor/recorder and it's a huge step forward from the original Ninja.

Synchronizing audio and video from multiple devices: PluralEyes 3

Many people use a dSLR camera to record video, and while most dSLRs capture great quality video they produce terrible sound. To get everything right, you'll need a separate audio recorder and then synchronize audio and video in post-production. There are several ways of doing this, but the one you'll definitely get a kick out of using is PluralEyes 3.

Sorenson Media launches Sorenson Squeeze Premium - IT Enquirer

Sorenson Media announced the immediate availability of Sorenson Squeeze Premium, a user-friendly, high-powered version of the gold-standard Squeeze video encoding software optimized to run in a server environment. The launch of Squeeze Premium was made in conjunction with the 2012 IBC (International Broadcasting Convention) Exhibition in Amsterdam.

Atomos Ninja 2 (review) - IT Enquirer on image & video production

Just in time for IBC, Australian Atomos released its inexpensive monitor/recorder Ninja 2, which records directly to 2.5 inch disks using Apple's ProRes codecs. Atomos worked with Apple on supporting its three ProRes 422 codecs in the Ninja and Samurai monitor/recorders. In September it will also offer the option to record to DNxHD.

Paper book publishing is on the way down, but some types of printing are actually on the way up. Niche printing, such as wide format printing of anything from display images to waterproof instruction leaflets. And high-quality short runs are increasingly depending on inkjet. Preferably eco-friendly.

Storified by Agile Creator · Tue, May 07 2013 23:53:49

Fiery XF 5 workflow RIP delivers

Fiery XF Version 5 is a flexible and scalable high-speed RIP and colour management workflow for wide- to superwide-format production, with customizable automated workflows from job creation to printing and verification. It didn't merit a "Perfect" label, but it's powerful and highly performing nevertheless. Accurate colour management demands measurement and advanced spot- and process-colour optimisation.

EFI Fiery wins "Perfect" label from VIGC

PDF/X-4 is the next big step in prepress, but until VIGC (Vlaams Instituut voor Grafische Communicatie - Flemish Innovation Center for Graphic Communication) actually set up a test for looking into...

Why UV LED curing printers are the better investment

Mercury vapour lamp technology has been around since 1880. Today, mercury lamps are inside most UV curable wide format inkjet printers. One of the major disadvantages of mercury lamp technology is the broad range of wavelengths they emit, including a lot of infrared - and therefore: heat.

EFI's Technique Print MIS thrives

In November of last year, EFI acquired Technique, the British company that developed the print MIS with the same name. While EFI did acquire all of Technique's print MIS tools, it has left the products more or less as they are, only taking care of an integrated workflow with their Fiery digital front-end and inkjet portfolio including VUTEk, Jetrion and wide format devices.

Increase your printing business potential: UV LED curing

Ranging from 365 to 405 nm, UV LED lamps are all set to replace mercury vapour lamps in UV curing printers. The evolution may gain momentum in 2014 when Europe is rumoured to sort of banning mercury vapour lamps altogether.

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 (review)

Our appetite for digital doesn't stop at magazines, newspapers, and books. We want to be able to digitise paper receipts, invoices, articles and everything else that's produced in paper format as well. Getting paper into a computer can be tedious or easy, depending on the scanner being used.

Spundge, a news feed grouping site - IT Enquirer: publishing

Spundge has already been called " a tool all journalists should try". And Spundge PRO is being used by the team that just launched qz.com, a new global business news outlet from Atlantic Media. It sounded like this new breaking news feed grouping or curation site could be a real gem, but is it?

EFI teams up with Online Print Solutions - IT Enquirer: printing

OPS is active in the areas of web-to-print, dynamic publishing and cross-media marketing solutions. OPS brings a decade of experience developing and deploying applications developed specifically to manage the unique needs of corporate storefronts, retail sites and online design to variable data and cross-media solutions.

New 3D chip to reduce cloud computing power requirements - IT Enquirer

Saving power is high on the agenda of most organisations, not in the least because power costs a lot of money but also because of the environment. At the same time, data centres are growing exponentially. Driven by cloud computing, ever more data spits out of ever more sources.

EFI Cretaprint C3 for ceramic printing - IT Enquirer

The just announced EFI Cretaprint C3 printer comes with the Fiery proServer for Cretaprint. It's the world's first digital front-end for the growing ceramic imaging market. Representing a new generation of inkjet presses for ceramics, the Cretaprint C3 multipurpose digital ceramic decoration printer leverages five years of research and development work and combines the knowledge and customer feedback of 15 years in the market space.

Microsoft Crimes Unit: Stubbornly On Hacker Trail, Announces Win Today

Microsoft has for years been pursuing hackers dogging it with malware, but this week a Microsoft lawyer from the giant's Digital Crimes Unit announced on a blog post that supply chains and middle men are vulnerable to malware-equipped criminals, too. And it's doing something about it.

Web Apps Publishing: PressRun HTML5 vss Adobe DPS .folio?

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) recently found a way to present its content to mobile users who don't have an Apple iTunes account. Instead of developing with Adobe's Digital Publishing Suite (DPS), the BMJ created a web app with Mobile IQ's PressRun - now Quark-owned.

Amazon Kindle Fire 2 HD Tablets: Coyote and Hollywood Unveiled

Late last summer, inside Amazon sources quietly divulged a secret to two of our reporters. Expect a whole line of Amazon Kindle Fire tablets and readers, it said. Not just one. The three unrelated sources had details and lots of them.

Mobile Printers: Ball of Confusion

Some ideas look better on paper than they do in the real world. That's a truism - but mobile printing tech takes that idea to the limit. The market's a mess. But why? I set out to find out just why mobile printers have yet to take off in earnest.

EFI: integration of a job with management and production systems - Printing business and technologies

EFI provides the seamless integration of a customer's job information with management and production systems. EFI's Digital StoreFront an...

EFI Fiery RIP used in products of... the competition - Printing business and technologies

EFI has its own range of superwide inkjets, industrial label printers, and now even ceramic tile printers. It used to have but one produc...

New Xerox EX Print Server powered by EFI's Fiery - for the new Xerox iGen 150 Press - Printing business and technologies

The new Xerox EX Print Server, which is powered by Fiery, for the new Xerox iGen 150 Press, is said to be a break-through combination in ...

Resolution: what does it mean? - Printing business and technologies

Resolution can mean a lot of things, but I'd like to discuss the meaning that designers and photographers are all too familiar with: imag...

HP Exec: Cloud (and Paper) Printing Alive and Well

I can't tell you how many times I've walked through a bookstore, and discovered, despite well-intentioned predictions that print will soo...