Former NCS technology centre manager Tony Talbot is heading up the operation as director of sales.

The Minneapolis-based firm has developed a range of file transmission, editing, proofing and verification tools using a compression technology called SmartPacket, which massively reduces file size.

Talbot said that in tests with a standard modem a 35MB image file was transmitted in around 30 seconds. "It was too big an opportunity to miss," he said. "Ive been in the industry 24 years, it takes a lot to get me excited."

Products include Courier, Expert, WebConnect and MarkUp. In the US it has already signed up big-name users including RR Donnelley, Quebecor and AGT.

Courier is a free application for decoding the .cxm file format that is created by SmartPacket technology.

Expert is a remote retouch tool, while MarkUp is a system for the transmission of comments and sign-offs made on a hard copy proof.

Using a special pen and location-detecting bar, comments made on a hard copy proof are converted into line art and sent to the pre-press shop or printer where they are overlaid on the file the hard proof was made from. This ensures that corrections are made to exactly the right part of a file and that the whole proofing procedure is logged.

It also saves on the time and expense of shipping marked-up proofs.

Talbot estimated that it would halve the number of proofing cycles required for a typical job. MarkUp costs 4,800. It currently supports CT/LW, TIFF, EPS and Photoshop files. TIFF-IT and PDF support will be added by the end of March. Talbot is recruiting a dealer channel to sell the products in the UK and Europe. Prolatus will also be at Ipex.

Contact: Prolatus UK 0113 251 5042; www.prolatus.com.

Story by Barney Cox