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VIDEOS:

Colortrac large format scanning and copying videos

Soon, playing on a big screen near you ....

Colortrac Limited has produced eleven short videos with an average run-time of under three minutes. Suitable for viewing on your PC, they cover the basic aspects of day-to-day large format scanning and copying using Colortrac SmartLF scanners and ScanWorks and CopySmart software.

Colortrac Mini Movies


Colortrac Mini Movies

All eleven videos can be viewed on Colortrac's web site. See direct links, below.

Colortrac "mini movies" are videos which provide potential buyers and resellers with a dynamic way to quickly and easily discover the unique features, distinctive benefits and time-saving scanning and copying advantages which Colortrac believe their SmartLF large format scanners and ScanWorks scanning and CopySmart copying software solutions offer AEC, CAD, GIS and reprographics audiences.

Once upon a time... trade shows

Once, to get a competent demo of a new product from its manufacturer or distributor, you took a day off to go to a trade show, often some distance out of town. Now, the internet is the biggest show in town. In fact, town is now the global village. There is no longer any need for you to leave your desk and spend an unprofitable day wandering the aisles in tight shoes. Many who once went to trade shows now use the internet as the first step in quickly finding product information before making a purchasing decision.

Welcome to today's video reality show

Today, on-line video presentations of products are central to this selection process. Colortrac have tapped into this need with eleven new product demos that cover a wide range of scanning and copying issues.

Colortrac Mini Movies


Colortrac Mini Movies
Peter Sandberg demos Adaptive Scanning
To view, click here.

On-line videos provide Colortrac with an effective means for showing the best features and benefits of their products in a practical, hands-on way. Unlike several highly unrealistic promotional videos which feature flying drawings that zip through the scanner faster than you can say "abracadabra", Colortrac's product videos have a raw, grainy earthiness about them, perhaps because they are the product of a Colortrac backroom.

We are slightly disappointed with some videos which we feel do not show the strengths of some Colortrac products enough!

We've looked at Colortrac's videos and cannot find any obvious manipulation of the scanning process. They are apparently based on what's real. There appears to be no deft sleight of hand or editing. There's little that is slick or glossy, cunning or contrived about them. What you see is what you get. Some professionals may be put off by their lack of sophistication and style but others, like practical engineers, will more likely applaud. On the other hand, the music is annoying, as thumpingly intrusive as a teenager's automobile sound system at full blast.

The aim of these videos or "mini movies" is to show the best features of Colortrac's simplified scanning process and thereby educate both potential customers and Colortrac's resellers. As a group, resellers are seldom as knowledgeable as manufacturers, distributors or buyers would like them to be. These videos do not replace the need for reseller demos, instead they are intended to help Colortrac resellers give better demos. There is NO substitute for a hands-on demo that uses your own sample drawings to show you in detail how the scanner and, most importantly, its software solution works.

Colortrac's "mini movies" are the result of collaboration between Declan Tyler, Colortrac's Product & Application Specialist and Peter Sandberg, Colortrac's Business Development Manager, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). Both are long-serving large format scanning industry experts.

"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 videos are "Scan Once", "Document Handling" and the "CopySmart Demos". The full list of videos is available on Colortrac's web site. We list only the more popular ones here.

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! To view, click here.

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. To view, click here.

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. To view, click here.

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. To view, click here.

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. To view, click here.

Presumably, Colortrac's videos will get slicker with time as large format scanning success demands that ad agencies be given a licence to produce them in a sterile, recreated office environment with skilled actors reading from pre-written scripts. This will be sad as these Colortrac's videos convey an off-the-cuff, unscripted spontaneity and under-stated enthusiasm for the basics of SmartLF scanners and their software solutions. As such, they are a curious insight into Colortrac as a company which does its own thing outside of the herd mentality.

No doubt, in future we will see an increasingly competitive "war of the large format scanning videos" between rival manufacturers' sales and marketing departments. Video footage offers no guarantee that honesty will prevail. We have already seen one very dubious video for Graphtec scanners - for which no-one wanted to assume the credit - whose claims for speed totally ignored this product's compromised image quality the faster it runs.

Curious readers should view one or two of these videos. Users might even find some useful tips.