Xitron, a subsidiary of Hybrid Software and the developer of Harlequin-based Navigator RIP and workflow products for commercial, flexo, screen, digital, and high-speed inkjet printing, has released its next generation trapping solution – IntelliTrap – for its base of offset printing customers.

In prepress, trapping compensates for misregistration on press by creating overlaps of ink where different colors touch in printed designs. Prepress operators typically rely on in-RIP trapping solutions that provide insufficient control (especially with print jobs containing transparent layers) or manipulate the artwork manually in applications like Adobe Illustrator. Neither process is efficient, especially when dealing with large or multipage projects.

According to Xitron product manager, Paul Napolitano, IntelliTrap is the perfect platform for effectively applying trap settings in prepress. “IntelliTrap is fully configurable for all offset printing conditions. Trapping is applied to the incoming PDF within the Navigator Workflow, which is much faster than trapping in the RIP,” he says. 

Napolitano reports seeing job throughput increase by as much as 70%, especially with complex artwork.

Moving from in-RIP trapping to PDF-based interactive trapping, Xitron engineers leveraged expertise from sister company Hybrid Software. “By integrating Hybrid’s proven PDF trapping technology, we were able to go from functional specification to shippable product in record time,” Napolitano continued. “The end result is a fast, easy-to-use trapping module that gives our customers a practical, productive solution to a complicated problem.”

The IntelliTrap workflow module can be used in a fully automated mode or set to allow operators to inspect traps and apply changes on the fly, before committing the job to RIP and plate. Users can even enter misregistration values in the viewer to be sure the trap settings properly compensate for press issues.

Navigator RIP and workflow customers currently using in-RIP trapping will have an opportunity to upgrade to IntelliTrap at a special price. For new customers, IntelliTrap is available as an option to the Navigator Workflow.