What is the Solara?

Gerber Solara at a recent tradeshow

Aside from a car, the Gerber Solara is a wide format inkjet printer that uses inks that are cured by UV lights that travel back and forth with the print head.

The Solara is developed and built by Gerber Scientific Products in South Windsor, Connecticut, USA.

UV-curable inks are great for large format use because the dry instantly when exposed to the UV light. This means that the prints are immediately dry as they come off the printer so they can be handled, stored, rolled and shipped immediately. Also, UV-curable inks don’t have the same odor as solvent-based inks.

On the other hand, because the inks will never dry unless exposed to UV light, the inks do not dry on the print head like solvent inks. This means less maintenance and more consistent jetting of droplets.

The Gerber Solara is also special because of the GVCMYK (Green, Violet, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) ink-set we use. This unique ink set allows us the get more color reproduction in the green, blue violet and purple color ranges. This is important when trying to match existing vinyl color, Pantone® colors or GERBER EDGE Spot Colors.

Overall, the Solara has proven to be an inkjet (great looking large format prints) that doesn’t act like an inkjet (easy to use, easy to get consistent color from).

Check http://www.gspinc.com/products/printers/solara.asp for more details.

Solara Beta Site Pix

These pictures were sent from Mark Roberts of InterSign in Houston, TX ( www.signprice.com ). Mark is helping out GSP by serving as a beta site for the Solara.

Here is some of his work off the machine.

The word from Mark is that the Solara has been very easy to use as far as work flow and maintenance is concerned, and easy to get great results from.

I’ll keep you posted with more work from the beta sites.

Thanks Mark!



Output from a Solara Beta Site

Got Demo Mode?

Got Demo Mode?

What is Demo Mode?

Demo mode is a great addition to the OMEGA version 2.0 and later software that lets OMEGA programs load and run without a security key. Demo mode offers full Composer functionality, but jobs cannot be "preserved" in any way. This means that in Composer you cannot save, copy or export jobs in any way. GSPPLOT will run in demo mode, but you must open jobs from the file menu, and you cannot output to the EDGE or to a vinyl cutter.

What is Demo Mode for?
Demo Mode has two main uses:
1. You can use it to evaluate or learn OMEGA software without having to invest in an additional security key. Once you know and love OMEGA, you can hit the ground running when you do purchase another key.

2. The one type of output that Demo Mode does allow is paper printing. Because of this, customers can run full OMEGA with a security key in the back office for designing and outputting to the EDGE or plotters while a Demo Mode version can be used in the front office to show on screen layouts, colors, and fonts. Plus these concepts can be paper printed for a customer as a proof. Remember that any changes made in demo mode cannot be saved, so don’t get too elaborate if making design modifications.

Why do those "Run Demo Mode" messages appear?
When booting your computer, Demo Mode can be very persistent about running if you don’t have the security key plugged in. You can do several things to avoid that the dialog box that asks you if you wish to "run in demo mode."

1. Simply click on YES, run in Demo Mode. If you click on "NO" without a security key OMEGA will continue to check for a key and will show the dialog box again

2. Plug in a security key and click on NO. This will start OMEGA in normal mode.

3. If you never wish to run in Demo Mode, click the right mouse button on GSPTRAY (the little Gerber G icon in the lower right corner of your screen) and click on CLOSE. To get rid of it forever, click RIGHT on the Windows START button, click explore, click start menu, click programs, click startup, then delete the GSPTRAY shortcut. You may have to do the same thing for ALL users as well as the current user.


Close GSPTRAY


Delete GSPTRAY Shortcut

How To Get OUT of Demo Mode?

Simply close all OMEGA Programs including GSPTRAY, install the security key and run Composer or Plot. There is no need to reboot the computer to get out of demo mode.

"Go FX" (aka EDGE FX Improvements)

The GERBER EDGE FX is the next member of GSP’s thermal transfer family. The EDGE FX offers GERBER EDGE 2 performance at GERBER EDGE 1 pricing, plus many additional usage improvements.
- “Go Green” with reusable plastic cassettes and GerberColor™ Foil-only inserts.
- “Get Smart” with “Smart GerberGauge™” that tells the user the color and quantity of foil on each roll via the FX keypad.
- “Go Deep” with Ethernet connectivity allowing for fast 100 base T connections that can plug into a network OR directly into a PC (network interface card required)
- “Go Easy” with foil cassette loading that slides in to the side of the FX without opening the cover.
- “Go Frugal” with reduced GerberColor Foil costs compared to the traditional Gerber Color foils.

Put it all together and the EDGE FX is the best reason ever to “GO DIGITAL” with proven Gerber thermal transfer technology.

Too Good to be True?

What would you say about a new digital printer that had the following specifications?

- Creates outdoor durable graphics
- Is extremely easy to use
- Requires no maintenance to start up or shut down. Zero!
- Has no odor, no disposal problems
- Offers easy color matching
- Creates predictable output even across different materials
- Can print onto dozens of mainstream and specialty materials

It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? If you want one, you better visit this spot:

http://www.gspinc.com/products/printers/edgefx.asp

GSP recently added an important person to its ranks to help guide the good ship GSP.

Peter Marchi is the Executive Director of Marketing for GSP and leads the marketing and product management functions.

Peter has a wealth of experience with industrial inkjet and thermal transfer technology, has a great sense of humor and is a great addition to the GSP team.

For more information, see http://www.gspinc.com/about/bios/marchi.html.