IDEAL Newsletter - Volume 2 Issue 2

IDEAL has been named North American distributor of the year again. Number one companies become number one because they bring to the table several number one combinations: the right solution sets that provide customers value through automation, the right services, and the right people. It has really been about staying ahead of the learning curve, dealer relations, and listening to the customer.

Jay Magenheim (L), Henrik Vestermark (C), Steen Borg (R)

"It's about staying ahead of the learning curve," said Jay Magenheim, IDEAL's President. "Our customers always bring us their wish list. So we were an early adapter to technology to be able to properly respond. We brought on digital imaging when many people were wondering what it meant and were on the web before most companies."

Staying ahead of the learning curve also means that Magenheim hits the trade shows, both as an exhibitor and as an attendee to scope out emerging technologies and applications. Comdex and CeBIT are among Magenheim's annual rituals to either promote digital imaging solutions or acquire new ideas.

If he is pressed to answer, he may admit that IDEAL is developing a new product for an early-June release at the AEC Systems 2000 show at the Washington Convention Center. In fact, recent Focus Groups were overwhelmed with surprise by the sophisticated level of the solution that IDEAL was developing, and by its ease of use. What is it? A plug and play, secure information management solution that takes the network to the Intranet or the Web, and allows workgroups easy, garden variety, browser-based access to any document of any kind, from any place, and at any time. Work groups can quickly view documents because there is no file downloading or time lag due to bandwidth limits - the images are viewed from the server. To put it simply, 100% of the application and image generation is executed and managed at the remote server. Only the screen image is transmitted to the user. The user effectively controls the remote server by transmitting only the appropriate keystrokes and mouse clicks over the network. The server responds only by sending screen updates. Stored documents can easily be searched and retrieved through a convenient Web interface based on content, date, drawing number, author, project, or other references specified in set up. And, multiple levels of control allow for secure management of the type of document accessed, frequency or number of documents accessed, document date range, or other criteria specified in set up. What is it? See it at the AEC Systems 2000 show at the Washington Convention Center between June 6 - 8, 2000.

IDEAL gives credit to where credit is due. IDEAL's Dealer Relations Program has enabled IDEAL to earn the number one rank again. "Our network of dealers are our customers, and we prize our relationships with them," said Magenheim. IDEAL's program enables resellers to provide their customers with full service, large format scanning solutions. IDEAL provides dealers with many levels of support. Regional Account Managers provide personalized service and that competitive edge to help provide the right solution. Online Demos provide dealers with live, interactive, and real time product overviews and demonstrations over the Internet. IDEAL's Training Proficiency School offers periodic courses for dealers committed to staying on the learning curve to better serve their network of customers. Informative Updates cover the latest issues in digital technology, large format scanning, and document management, as well as case studies. Marketing Materials allow dealers to be up and running almost overnight. Finally, Customer Support and Warranties are in place to allow varied levels of service.

"We use our technology in-house, and that has allowed us to truly better understand our customers and to be a full service solutions provider," he noted. "Because we work with the equipment and software everyday, we know the products. They are not just commodities to us."

Most of the solution sets IDEAL has developed were the result of direct dealer and end user input. "We provided our customers' hardware specification requests over to our manufacturer and the software specification requests to our development team," he stated. "The result has been spectacular." Some of the results include the SuperWIDE50 front loading color scanner that can handle half inch thick media up to 50 inches wide and the ScanDEX software that automates the scanning, indexing, archiving, and retrieval process.

Knowing the customer needs means that IDEAL knows the vertical markets that have large and small format scanning, and document management needs. In fact, many of the solution sets serve several of the five major markets - CAD, AEC, and EDMS; GIS - Mapping; Reprographics, Copy Shop, and Imaging; Graphics, Posters, and Display; and Office, Technical, and Legal. See http://scanners.ideal.com.

For example, IDEAL's proposed solution for a major library and information services company came about as a result of careful listening. The solution - IDEAL OfficeStation Plus. This particular cutting edge solution is a Kodak 3500 office document scanning station running on IDEAL's ScanDEX software. This high performance combination enables 4,500 scans per hour in a fully automated environment with multi-field indexing and archiving for easy retrieval. High speed scanning and automated multi-field indexing? Yes! The result is increased productivity and better workflow in environments where high volume is the rule, rather than the exception. IDEAL OfficeStation Plus can also operate with a Contex, IDEAL large format, and aperture card scanner and that means no added learning curve.

"Our employees provide our customers with great service and support," he added. "We have built a solid team that is highly responsive to our customers' wants and needs. This has allowed us to hear directly from our customers. All of them. Even those who do not invest in a system, but have sent us many word-of-mouth referrals."

By Bert Magenheim, Director of Engineering, IDEAL Scanners & Systems, Inc.

Scanners and other image-capturing devices output different values when reading the same original. Adjustments to monitor controls cause wide color variations. Gamut differences between monitors and printing processes mean that unprintable colors can be introduced during image retouching. The conversion of scanned RGB data to CMYK separations differs from one program to another.

ICC Device Profiles.

Therefore, in order to ensure a close match between scanned input and monitor or printer output, some standard system is required to convert between the colors represented by each device. This is one of the most important concepts in color management: a scanner might produce colors that can be seen on an RGB monitor, but cannot be obtained with CMYK printing. So the objective is to provide the best possible approximation of these colors, within the limitations of the monitor and the printer's ink and paper, and to do so predictably.

To achieve this goal, the color characteristics of each device scanner, monitor and printer are measured and encapsulated in an ICC device profile, which is a digital representation of the relation between scanner, monitor and printer coordinates and a device-independent specification of color. In the case of scanning and printing systems, such as IDEAL's color systems, the goal is to make the color image that appears on the monitor or printer to appear as close as possible to the color document that was scanned when viewed under the same viewing conditions.

Many leading software development companies recognized the need for color imaging standards and formed the International Color Consortium (ICC) for the purpose administering the color specifications of device profiles. The founding members of this consortium include: Adobe Systems Inc., Agfa-Gevaert N.V., Apple Computer, Inc., Eastman Kodak Company, FOGRA (Honorary), Microsoft Corporation, Silicon Graphics, Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc., and Taligent, Inc. These companies have committed to fully support this specification in their operating systems, platforms, and applications. The result is a scientific approach to color management.

Device Coordinates are numerical quantities through which a computer system communicates with a color peripheral, such as the digital signals received from a scanner or the digital code values generated to drive a monitor or printer. These quantities are usually labeled RGB or CMYK. The quantities are encoded as unsigned 8-bit integers for each of the three channel or 24 bits in the typical digital interface.

Color Gamuts of the Human Eye as established by the CIE and typical

Scanners, Monitors, and Printers.

The Device-Independent Specification is best given in a color space based on human visual experience as measured by the CIE such as CIE L*a*b* A three-dimensional, mathematical color model based on human sensitivity to the visual spectrum of light; L*= lightness, a*= red-green axis of the space, b*= blue-yellow axis of the space. Thus, a device profile provides a means of translating (or transforming) color image data from a scanner’s RGB coordinates, to a printer’s CMYK coordinates, a monitor’s RGB coordinates, or to a device independent file, such as a 24 bit true color TIF file. Or vice versa."

Many manufacturers supply ICC profiles with their equipment. Their profiles are based on device averages and are probably adequate for non-critical work. Since device characteristics may vary from device to device and change with the age of the device, professional quality work requires custom profiles for both the devices, and in the case of printers, for the various printer-media combinations. Existing ICC profiles may be selected or created to achieve more professional results.

IDEAL generates a scanner profile by first scanning a standardized ANSI IT8 color target and then letting IDEAL’s software, which is embedded in IDEAL’s scanner operating system, compare the scanner's results to a digital version of the same target.

ANSI Standard IT8 Reflective Target used to calibrate scanners.

The software uses the deviations to calculate the scanner profile. In other words, the software knows what color values the scanner should have returned and can create an ICC Profile that will characterize and correct the scanner's shortcomings.

"IDEAL's JETimage, for example, uses "Closed Loop Calibration". IDEAL achieves color consistency between the scanned original and the printed copy by analyzing the correspondence between printed and scanned values on a set of reference color patches printed on the actual type of output media used. Guided by the Calibration Wizard, the patches are printed on your printer and then the printer output is scanned automatically generating color matching mapping calculations - a so called "Media Profile", that will be applied during copying. You can store your calculations for future use and recall them by selecting the same Media Profile with the same printer. Each Media Profile reflects a specific combination of printing media and inkjet printer the printer output, automatically generating color matching mapping calculations - a so called "Media Profile", that will be applied during copying. Stored calculations can be recalled for future use by selecting the same Media Profile with the same printer. Each Media Profile reflects a specific combination of printing media and inkjet printer. The scanner must be calibrated as indicated in the previous paragraph before making the profile. JETimage comes with a number of predefined Media Profiles that cover the most common printer models and printing media.

Profiling software and a Spectrophotometer to measure the color of output test targets of the printer can be used to generate an accurate printer profile. In other words, the software knows what color values should have been printed and can create an ICC Profile that will correct the particular printer's output.

To make a monitor profile, a device called a colorimeter is attached (by a suction cup) to the monitor screen while the profiling software displays a series of gray patches and color steps. The colorimeter reads the display and returns the values to the software. Comparing what it sent out to what it got back, the software computes the corrections that make up the ICC profile data. The entire operation takes about three minutes and should be repeated weekly for best results. Some vendors offer both the software and hardware for monitor calibration.

IDEAL's Proficiency School featured "ScanDEX - Tools You Need to Build an Intranet" between February 17 - 18, 2000. The two day event pulled in dealers from across the country.

Attendees benefited by accelerating the time it takes to learn IDEAL's new products in large format scanning, indexing, and document distribution web server. Participants got an overview, as well as hands on experience using IDEAL's large format scanners with ScanDEX - automatic indexing software, and ReproWEB - a document distribution server.

The IDEAL Proficiency School is an educational and user forum for both technical and non-technical Dealer personnel, who want to increase their knowledge and profitability by providing them the tools for building Intranets.

February 29, 2000, New York, NY - Today at the On Demand tradeshow, IDEAL Scanners & Systems, Inc., the leader in scanning technology, introduces a new Color Scan to Print Solution with high-resolution photo RIP and WebOS software for the ability to scan and index directly to the Internet. IDEAL's new Scan to Print Solution with high resolution photo RIP provides the best possible scan to print solution for high resolution color renderings, maps, large color graphics, and photographs as well as chromas, negatives, and transparencies. This solution is targeted to Reprographics, Service Bureaus, and the Graphics Arts industries interested in maintaining color fidelity in their scan to print applications as well as obtaining an electronic centralized, secured location for drawings and documents. IDEAL's new scan to print solution also goes beyond a company's existing network into the web for document storage and retrieval.

IDEAL's new Color Scan to Print Solution includes IDEAL's SuperWIDE 50" color scanner, which is front-loading, and can handle media over a half-inch thick including foamcore. The 50" wide color scanner provides 50 to 800 dpi resolution selectable in one dpi increments to match user requirements. The SuperWIDE50 is flexible, supporting both color and black and white scanning applications. With the SuperWIDE50, color scans are captured at 36 bits for maximum color precision. The best 24 bits of color data are passed to the computer to enhance color fidelity and to capture subtle color changes. Scanning productivity increases with the new SuperWIDE 50" color scanner because drawings can be scanned in a landscape instead of portrait mode. This allows the scanner to capture more data. The SuperWIDE 50" color scanner is fast, scanning a typical E-size color original in 18 seconds at 200 dpi.

Scan photo quality color originals, including maps, and print them to any inkjet plotter without losing color fidelity," states Jay Magenheim, president of IDEAL Scanners & Systems, Inc. "The SuperWIDE50 is an appropriate front-end to photo quality printers or inkjets," Magenheim adds.

IDEAL's new Color Scan to Print Solution can simultaneously render wide format output up to a maximum of 64,000 dpi or can input direct to sized output up to 17 by 17 feet at 300 dpi. High resolution images can be processed and ready for output in a matter of seconds. IDEAL's new Scan to Print Solution can be easily integrated into a company's workflow and supports optional photo printers including DDS Lambda, CSI Lightjet, Roland HiFi Jet, HP Design Jet 2000/2500CP, Encad Novajet II and Novajet III, and many more. IDEAL's new scan to print solution also supports both PC and Mac output devices.

With IDEAL's new Scan to Print Solution, you can also scan and index directly to the web. IDEAL's Scan to Print Solution includes WebOS, which allows scanned images to be accessed over an intranet or over the Internet using a Web Browser. IDEAL's Scan to Print Solution operates in a secured environment allowing predefined user access from anywhere. You can quickly View, Pan, and Zoom documents without downloading and then when the appropriate document is chosen you can print it. In addition, you can send URL links instead of an entire document via email.

IDEAL Scanners and Systems, Inc. integrates, markets, and supports a wide range of scanning solutions sets for large and small format drawings and technical documents. These solution sets cover a range of document sizes, platforms, and operating systems, as well as Scan to Print and Scan to the Web. For more information on IDEAL's new Scan to Print Solution and/or a color TIFF image of the solution, contact Kathy Magenheim at (301) 468-0123 ext. 1230 or via email at kmagenheim@ideal.com.

IDEAL closed January and February with the successful launch of LIVE and interactive Online Demos. "Our Online Demos are a great way for all the key decision makers to convene and see the product perform in front of their eyes," said Jay Magenheim, President of IDEAL. "The days of making that critical decision based on a spec sheet and the glossy cover of the box or CD case may be over." Informed decision making that can quickly close the loop has never been easier, he added.

"IDEAL's Online Demo are better than Trade Shows," said Peter H�bert, IDEAL's Marketing Manager and Online Demo Producer. "If you are a dealer, there are no maddening crowds or rubber neckers blocking access to your booth. Our Online Demo's for Dealers on Thursdays are really great, because questions are answered and there is support."

Fore example, January's "I/Vector: Scan to CAD" Online Demo was a clear demonstration of the flow of the conversion process, said Allen Patrick of Image One. "I showed the audience the actual conversion process," said Ed Cranston, IDEAL's Information Manager and resident I/Vector expert. "I took the audience through many sample document scans from various disciplines: mechanical and electrical engineering; architectural and construction; and mapping and cartography," he added. "Together, we viewed the parameters for vectorization sets, and then processed through to CAD format." Cranston's Online Demo of I/Vector included raster editing, calibration, rubber sheeting, text correction, and batch processing.

IDEAL's Online Demo attendees asked questions throughout the demonstration. "Feedback indicated that demonstrating the conversion process was tremendously effective and valuable," said Cranston. "New users and those researching the process of converting archived scans into working CAD files benefited."

"I thought the demo was great," said Allan Campney of Alcan Aluminum Corporation. "We had the ability to ask questions at anytime. I feel very comfortable with your equipment and would not hesitate in making a recommendation. It has helped us greatly," added Campney. Alcan's experience with IDEAL and ScanDEX was profiled in the story Alcan Aluminum Solves Document Management Problem, IDEAL ScanDEX Installed October 1999. See Alcan Story.

A live presentation of the Kodak 3500 and IDEAL's 36" wide scanner both running on ScanDEX. ScanDEX automates the scanning, multi-field indexing, archiving, and retrieval process for both large and small format documents. Since ScanDEX can run the Kodak 3500 and Contex / IDEAL scanner lines, the learning curve is minimized and productivity begins at plug and play.

Rockville, MD (Thursday, 11:00 am to 12:00 noon, February 3, 2000) - Kodak Value Added Resellers (VARs) truly add value to their products to better benefit their customers because they are positioned to provide solutions. In a world that clamors for more features, better technology, and products that are easier to use, IDEAL and Kodak VARs are perfectly situated to offer customers what they want. And to offer it now.

What does a large and small format scanner have in common? Digital technology. Digital applications. Because the world is going digital faster than you can blink, mastering the art and application of digital tools is crucial for managing and dispersing digitized files across a network and even the World Wide Web. Resellers, such as Kodak, who know they will be better positioned to serve the diverse file management needs of their customers, seek out IDEAL for the "killer application" software that has solidified IDEAL's place on the map as a solutions provider that is recognized around the globe.

"When you have one application that automates the scanning, multi-field indexing, and archival process for both large and small format documents," mused Jeremy Cook, Product Manager, "you have a ‘killer application' … a hot product."

"Our KODAK VARs Open House was well attended," noted Ed Delaney, National Sales Manager. "Because ScanDEX can easily handle large and small format documents in all of the markets we serve, the learning curve is minimized and productivity begins at plug in."

"IDEAL offers fully functional virtual conferences to bring our dealers closer," said Peter H�bert, Marketing Manager and Online Demo Producer. Representatives from Kodak came from across the country to meet in cyber space for an IDEAL-sponsored open house. They came from Manhattan and Rochester, New York; Charlotte, North Carolina; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; New Ulm, Texas; Norcross, Georgia; and Mt. Prospect, Illinois to convene with IDEAL's representatives in Rockville, Maryland.

Yet, in spite of the cold weather in the metropolitan Washington region and places north and north west in early February, Kodak dealers stayed in their warm offices in front of the warn glow of their PCs. Who needs the hassles of traffic, flights, and hotels. And did I mention added expenses?

The best is going to get better. And the rumor is official. IDEAL will release a 2.0 version of IDEAL-CloudOS and ScanDEX sometime in late February or early March.

Look for the following upgraded features in the new release of ScanDEX:

Also, there will be greater integration between ScanDEX/Client and ScanDEX/Pro, as well as several enhancements. Look for the following features in the 2.0 release:

IDEAL-CloudOS offers single field indexing and is the basic scanner operating system. The 2.0 release will feature the following enhancements:

Indexing is one of the most overlooked and difficult tasks in converting large format documents and drawings to a digital archive. Without effective indexing, efficiently and quickly locating raster drawings can be very difficult, if not a nightmare. Up to now, the only possible way to create a manageable drawing archive has been to scan the drawings in one process and then index the drawings by hand. File by file. This makes sense only when labor costs and personnel productivity are not issues. Performing manual indexing can be a burdensome and time-consuming process.

ScanDEX can speed up the indexing process by automatically indexing your scanned paper drawings or aperture cards. ScanDEX is the fastest and easiest way to convert your large format drawings to a digital archive. ScanDEX scans your documents, indexes your documents, stores the indexed documents in an ODBC compliant database, and provides you with tools to search, browse, print, edit and track versions of the stored documents. The unique feature of ScanDEX is that scanning, indexing and archiving are all done in one process. All you have to do is design a database structure defining the index fields relevant to your documents and ScanDEX will do the rest! Scan DEX even automatically indexes Hollerith codes from Aperture Cards.

After the scanning, indexing and archiving process, ScanDEX provides you with easy-to-use integration and distribution tools. ScanDEX is fully network enabled for workflow environments and you can direct print to plotters for out put or export to CD with built-in browser.

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