Colortrac Limited, the leading large format scanner innovator, has produced eleven practical, hands-on videos which cover the fundamental aspects of day-to-day large format scanning and copying. These videos can be quickly and easily viewed on Colortrac's web site.


26th October 2009
St Ives, Cambridge, UK
 
Colortrac Limited, the leading large format scanner innovator, has produced eleven practical, hands-on videos which cover the fundamental aspects of day-to-day large format scanning and copying. These videos can be quickly and easily viewed on Colortrac's web site: www.colortrac.com
 
Colortrac refer to these new videos as "mini movies". They provide a dynamic means for potential buyers and resellers to quickly and easily discover the unique features and distinctive time-saving scanning and copying advantages of Colortrac SmartLF large format scanners, as well as Colortrac's powerful ScanWorks and CopySmart software solutions.
 
For many years now, AEC, CAD, GIS and reprographics audiences have used the internet as their first step in finding product information before making a purchase. Today, on-line video presentations of products are increasingly being viewed by potential buyers as part of the selection process. As long ago as 2007, a survey of 5,300 businesses and IT professionals conducted by KnowledgeStorm, the technology researcher, and Universal McCann, one of the world's largest media services firms, showed that 63% of this sample access online videos at least once a week.

On-line videos provide manufacturers like Colortrac with an effective means for displaying the features and benefits of their products in practical, hands-on way. Often the selling process involves educating customers, something which not all resellers are skilled enough to do. This is especially true when selling large format scanning and scanning solutions software which is specialized and in some cases requires in-depth product knowledge. Colortrac's video demonstration of its SmartLF scanners and software offer realistic "sales education" in a works environment to both resellers and buyers alike.

Colortrac's "mini movies" are the result of collaboration between two of its employees, both long-serving large format scanning industry experts. Declan Tyler, Colortrac's Product & Application Specialist, is the producer of the videos while Peter Sandberg, Colortrac's Business Development Manager, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), is the presenter with the voice of long-standing scanning experience.


"With the internet being the first choice of most buyers today for gathering information before a purchase, videos are now a hugely important part of the selection process," said Tyler. "Our Colortrac videos provide an honest and powerful way to educate and or deliver our message to those who are comfortable with multimedia experiences and who seek direct, objective information on-line. Our videos are an un-staged and truthful representation of the performance and results you can reasonably expect to get from a Colortrac SmartLF wide format scanner and its software. What you see us demo, is what you get”

Colortrac's most popular video is "Scan Once", followed by "Document Handling" and the "CopySmart Demos". The average run time of the videos is under three minutes.
 
The full list of videos include the following:
 

Scan Once
(Run time: 1 minute, 26 seconds)
Most technical drawings are scanned in black and white. To do this properly in rival scanning systems you need to make several scans while adjusting the scanner settings. This takes time. This short video shows how Colortrac's unique "Scan Once" system provides fast and efficient "on-the-fly" editing with market leading drawing restoration - by scanning just once!


Adaptive Scanning
(Run time: 3 minutes, 57 seconds)
Colortrac adaptive thresholding is recognized for its ease of use and efficiency in post-scan image restoration. This short video shows a SmartLF Ci 40 wide format scanner being used to process a large format Mylar original.
 

Document Handling
(Run time: 2 minutes, 04 seconds)
Colortrac SmartLF large format scanners have special design features that make them market leading in their capacity to load problem and difficult documents. This short video shows a SmartLF Ci 40 scanning a torn and crumpled newspaper.

 

Sharpness Demo
(Run time: 2 minutes, 14 seconds)
Colortrac wide format scanners are renowned for achieving clean while backgrounds with crisp image quality and sharp line detail. This short video shows a SmartLF Ci 40 being tested for sharpness with a standard line pairs per millimeter target.

 

Gx+ 42 Speed Demo
(Run time: 1 minute, 28 seconds)
At 4 ips (101 mm/sec) in color and 12 ips (303mm/sec) in black and white at 200 dpi resolution, the SmartLF Gx+ 42 scanner is the fastest available today. This short video shows it scanning an A0 / E size document in less than 4 seconds.

 

Ci 40 Color Test
(Run time: 2 minute, 28 seconds)
The Colortrac SmartLF Ci 40 wide format scanner uses CIS technology which is ideal for technical documents, most of which are scanned in black and white. The Colortrac SmartLF Ci 40 also provides an effective solution for all AEC, CAD and GIS technical document color scanning. This short video shows the Ci 40 in action.

 

Normalization
(Run time: 1 minute, 54 seconds)
Any CCD scanner with multiple cameras must be calibrated or normalized regularly to maintain the best color performance. Color calibration sounds technical and frightens some. This short video show just how easy Colortrac have made this process. It describes the Colortrac normalization process standard across all Colortrac CCD scanners.

www.colortrac.com/wide-format-scanner-movies/normalisation.htm
 
CopySmart Scanner Profiling
(Run time: 2 minute, 28 seconds)
CopySmart is Colortrac's color scan and copy solution. It allows the exact colors on a document to be captured by the scanner and reproduced on popular large format printers. For effective CopySmart performance, a scanner profile and at least one printer media profile must be produced. This short video shows how the scanner is ICM-profiled (Image Color Management) using an IT8 color target.

 

CopySmart Media Profiling
(Run time: 7 minute, 17 seconds)
This short movie shows how the CopySmart ICM media profile is made using the scanner and the attached printer.

 

CopySmart Demo 1
(Run time: 3 minutes, 16 seconds)
CopySmart wide format color scan and copy software is easy and fast to use. It will often have finished processing scan data and moved the print job to the Windows spooler before the printer is half-way through. This short video shows how CopySmart is used with a popular make of large format inkjet printer.

 

CopySmart Demo 2
(Run time: 2 minute, 03 seconds)
CopySmart wide format copying software can be used to scale full originals or cropped sections from originals using the Preview Window. This short video shows how CopySmart incorporates Colortrac's unique "Scan Once" concept for copying efficiency.

 
"Our videos access a huge but targeted internet audience" said Peter de Winter Brown, Colortrac's Sales and Marketing Director. "We are excited about our new videos and what they can do in terms of bringing the best features and benefits of Colortrac solutions to the attention to potential buyers, as well as educating distributors and resellers in our distribution channel."
 
"The ability of videos to quickly articulate details of new products and new software solutions in a dynamic visual format is helpful to buyers, especially those searching for objective and practical information in a market full of confusing claims from competing vendors. Colortrac's videos' "hands-on" approach shows that there is practical substance to our claims for technical innovation, high quality image capture, scanning speed and price performance, among others. Viewing an industry expert talking knowledgeably about scanning products while demonstrating them provides potential buyers with excellent advice."
 

ABOUT COLORTRAC
Founded in 1989 and based near Cambridge in the UK, Colortrac Ltd is the leading innovator in professional wide format color scanners and image acquisition software solutions. Colortrac was the first large format scanner manufacturer to recognize the individual merits of CIS and CCD image sensor technology. This realization led to the creation of the SmartLF wide format scanner family in 2004. Colortrac SmartLF large format scanners provide affordable solutions for the divergent needs of the Graphic Arts, Reprographics, AEC, CAD, GIS, EDM and FM technical documents scanning markets. Colortrac Ltd has subsidiary offices in Beijing and Suzhou, P.R. China and in Chantilly, Virginia, USA.