All four Colorgate products - Productionserver, Filmgate, Plategate and Proofgate - now run on the latest version of Adobe's PDF Print Engine, which was launched in September and features Adobe's Mercury RIP architecture.

This is capable of driving multiple devices concurrently including wide-format, CTP and digital presses, and uses parallel processing to take full advantage of available hardware resources, effectively running multiple APPEs in tandem and load balancing across them.

Colorgate has also announced the Value Pack annual maintenance programme, which grants access to all updates and upgrades, exclusive discounts and preferential treatment of all web and remote support requests.

The flagship Productionserver 8 RIP will now be available in four versions - PS8 Select, PS8 Pro, PS8 Ultimate and PS8 Campaign Printing - while Colorgate will also develop PS8 Manufacturer Editions optimised for the devices of specific printer manufacturers.

PS8 Special Editions are also being developed to meet the requirements of certain application fields such as industrial printing.

All PS8 versions are equipped with Colorgate's Media Device Synchronisation MDS for colour management and its new Proof Standard Digital Module for contract proofing to international colour standards such as ISO 12647-7 and Fogra 39.

“All innovations in version 8 have been developed in accordance with our end users. As experts of the whole digital imaging process we are closely observing all changes in the markets, which we seek to further shape and flank with our solutions”, said Colorgate managing director Thomas Kirschner. “The focus is the steady enhancement of our software to improve the production abilities of our end users.”