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Contex RACE Job Management System

Job management system for printers, trade shops, implant, anyone with prepress facilities. RACE runs on SGI servers and workstations, and is an image database, a job tracking system, and archiving system. RACE enables managers, CSICS, planners, and console operators to track job elements, and entire jobs by automatically registering al files to the database, tracking revision control, and timing all processes that occur to a job (i.e., Rip, trap, compositing time, etc.). Users can view thumbnails of not only CT's, but also any file type including Contex CT and linework files, Contex ALC (composited pages, including double page spreads and imposed signatures), and TIFF. Future releases will support thumbnails of additional formats. Thumbnails can be viewed for on line and off line jobs. RACE will store thumbnail stamps of CT's, lineworks, Tiffs, even completed double page spreads! Users can define their own file type, i.e., if you have EPS, voice, video (.wav), and more. There will be a text descriptor (not thumbnail), that will tell you what file type it is. Component Registration - all elements that enter Contex job are automatically registered and a thumbnail created, there is no manual process Event Registration - all processing times that occur on Contex, or any Contex Plug-Ins (Eclipse, Photoshop), are tracked with the job. For example, Rip, tarp, color correction, composite, etc., can all be tallied in assessing a jobs true cost structure. Object Oriented Architecture-Contex is based on ObjectStore from Object Design, Inc., the world's leading developer of object oriented database systems. The advantage of an object oriented database are many:

1. There is no need to "pre-plan" the database schema by developing a very complex table of relationships, which is difficult to alter later. The object oriented approach allows the user to design the database on the fly, simply selecting an element, and telling the system wnat job it belongs to by using "drag and drop" hot folders. Very user transparent, very fast, very low maintenance.

2. Object databases can handle graphics faster, older relational databases are really optimized for text only. This means that whether you store CT's lineworks, (even multimedia video clips) in the future, your database is built for speed.

Fred Harrison

Marketing Manager
Contex Prepress Systems
101 Edgewater Drive
Wakefield, MA 01880
USA
617-245-4100
617-246-6263 (fax)

For applications in related solution areas, see the following indices: Desktop Publishing, Electronic Image Assembly & Prepress, Image Processing, Prepress, the developer index for Contex Prepress Systems and the market segment index for Graphic Arts.

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