Label Traxx introduced several new features for digital label printers at DcoopX. The event, which took place March 5-7 in Washington DC, is the annual HP Indigo users group meeting, conference and exhibition. At DscoopX, Label Traxx unveiled an enhancement to the integration between Label Traxx and the prepress software Automation Engine by EskoArtwork.

Label Traxx will now be able to pass lead-in and lead-out specifications to Automation Engine, and these can be automatically printed at the beginning and end of a job. The product and job details and a company’s logo can be added to the technical color for the die line. The die line technical color/separation will then print on the lead-in and lead-out frames for the job. Label Traxx will also specify the number of lead-in and out frames required for that product.


The lead-in and lead-out frames are used to register the labels on the finishing equipment. Enabling Label Traxx and Automation Engine to automatically generate the lead-in/out frames saves time in prepress. According to Label Traxx, just printing the die line can also result in ink cost savings as the full artwork is not printed more than required. The number of frames will also be communicated directly, eliminating the risk of mistakes due to manual data entry.

“For companies that were adding this information manually at prepress, this feature will save an inordinate amount of time,” explained Label Traxx president Ken Meinhardt. “Passing lead-in/out data from Label Traxx to Automation Engine makes the set-up of digital label jobs even more streamlined – something that’s key when you are dealing with high volumes of smaller jobs.”

Product status information is now sent from Label Traxx to Automation Engine, which specifies whether a product is new or a re-run with or without changes. Every time a Label Traxx ticket is saved, relevant updated information is automatically sent over to Automation Engine to ensure that the most recent, updated information is always available to prepress. Additional fields are now being sent from Label Traxx to Automation Engine, including the ticket priority, ticket type and tool number around.

Label Traxx has also released a new model of click charges for the HP 20000. Additionally, there is a new feature that enables users to store associated documentation within different records in Label Traxx.