Xitron, a developer of RIP and workflow products for commercial, digital, flexo and label printing operations, has announced the release of Xenith Sierra prepress workflow version 6.5. The latest software version includes an extensive list of new features as well as operability improvements.

“Sierra 6.5 has been highly anticipated due to the addition of APPE 3.6, Adobe’s next-generation rendering engine,” says Eric Nelsen, Xitron’s VP of Product Development. “The difference in speed and interpretive accuracy, especially with live transparency, is remarkable. Taking advantage of 64-bit processing and large addressable memory space, the performance gain is nearly 15% over previous versions.”

While the workflow offers functional improvements for a traditional CtP environment including built-in, dynamic imposition, the new architecture also provides the framework for driving any high-speed digital press at its full rated speed. This gives printers an outstanding option when considering a transition from commercial offset to digital. “It doesn’t have to be one or the other,” adds Nelsen. “Nor does the addition of a digital press mean two separate workflows. With Sierra 6.5, all jobs come through this central engine and are rendered appropriately.

Xitron has amassed over 300 Xenith installations across the US, Canada, Europe, and Latin America and continues to add to its customer base monthly. Stressing “Prepress Independence,” Sierra is capable of driving over 200 different output devices from Screen, Agfa, Heidelberg, FujiFilm, Presstek, Esko, and others.