JDF compatibility will allow the software, designed for commercial web and newspaper applications, to take settings from pre-press and MIS and to pass reports back to MIS.

QuadTech will be showing this and the rest of its products in Hall 6 as part of PrintCity. It has yet to finalise the details of which pre-press and MIS suppliers it will work with, but its equipment will be mounted onto MAN Roland presses.

It works with the firms Colour Control System (CCS) and Register Guidance System (RGS).

Both RGS and CCS can now be run on the same hardware and from the same operator console using the firms Icon common platform.

With Data Central and the integration of its other products onto a common platform the firm says it is a step closer to what it terms the lights out pressroom.

We are striving towards complete integration of ancillary press systems to eliminate errors and minimise variation in the printing process, said QuadTech director of marketing Sharon Quint.

By moving CCS to the Icon platform the firm can also offer it to gravure printers. In the next year it will roll it out across parent firm QuadGraphics 28 gravure presses.

QuadTech will also show new gravure products at Drupa.

Its Heliostat electrostatic assist system, which came from the PressTech business it acquired in 2002, has been upgraded in response to the latest developments in gravure presses. It can now work with presses up to 4.2m wide and its performance with water-based inks has been improved.

A range of miniature scanning heads for Autotron Packaging system will also be launched. Using LED illumination they will be able to read a range of visible marks and check coatings and finishing processes.