Automation Engine Reference Guide - Esko Help Center

The parameters
1. Output
Choose TIFF in the Output menu.
2. Oversampling
Automation Engine
Oversampling means that ArtPro makes the calculation of the TIFF on a resolution which is too
high, that is, higher than the one needed. Afterwards it is ‘averaged’, this means that it is converted
to low resolution by calculating the average of each group of lines. This gives a kind of “blurred”
effect. Oversampling requires a long calculation time and therefore needs optimization.
The oversampling filter can be chosen from none to 8 times:
• none: a lot of jaggies
• 4 times: default value, this is the oversampling value used the most in the packaging and label
market
• 6 times: very high, example: for stamps
Example:
If you have an oblique black line on 360 lpi (= 140 l/cm), the edges are very much pixelized.
Oversampling means that you calculate with a higher resolution than the one you need.
Oversampling 4, means that the image is calculated at 4x the resolution (360 lpi) = 1440 lpi. Every
line is divided by 4. So there are 16 pixels read (4x4) for one output pixel. The output pixel gets
the grayvalue of the 16.
3. Resolution
The resolution of the TIFF file can be defined in l/cm or l/inch. A normal engraving resolution is
140 l/cm or ±360 l/inch.
4. Noise for gradation
The default : 3 %
1 byte = 256 gray values
Gradations normally do not have more than 250 bands (steps of 0.4 %). ArtPro creates 400 bands
instead of 250. The added noise makes the steps invisible. The desired amount of noise can be
entered in this field.
5. IBM PC Byte order
By default this option is selected, because most engraving machines are IBM-oriented. The
system IBM uses ‘Little-endian’ while Macintosh uses ‘Bigendian’.
6. 1 Bit
This option allows you to choose between 1 bit data (checked) and 8 bit 256 graylevel data
(default, unchecked). Most systems take 8 bit data.
7. Save Fast Forward Data
This option creates an extra text-file (.SVS) with a description of which parts of the TIFF-output
file are blank and hence can be skipped. Some engraving machines have the possibility to take
this information into account.
8.4.27 Grid Step and Repeat
Similar to the other step and repeat action, this action gives access to ArtPro’s grid step and repeat
module from within the ArtPro Action List Editor.
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