Advanced Courses
For those in pursuit of advanced education or their Electronic Document Professional (EDP) certification, acadami has created industry leading courses that count towards Xplor Continuing Education Units (CEU).
AFP Overview and Advanced Technical Courses
Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) is arguably the most powerful and elegant architecture ever devised for assuring the integrity and quality of high volume printed and electronic communications. Yet many are unaware of the tangible value AFP brings to their organizations; the integral part it plays in mitigating risk, reducing costs and increasing productivity; and the competitive advantage it brings when using products and solutions that take advantage of the architecture.
For those individuals who make technology and solution decisions, implement or create solutions along the entire production work flow, or provide first, second, or third level support to internal and external customers, these courses are a must.
AFP Overview Course
This one day course is suited for those who require a comprehensive but high level understanding of the AFP architecture and structure; its history,value, components and objects; and structured field records that enable rich and comprehensive advanced functions for print and online presentation. The audience for this course are those who perform first level customer service and support, pre and post sales customer support, sales and marketing, and business line and products managers who are involved with products that take advantage of the AFP architecture and workflow.
AFP Advanced Technical Course
This three day course is suited for those who require a comprehensive and deeply technical understanding of the AFP architecture and structure, aswell as its history, value, components, objects, and structured field records. The audience for this course are those who perform second level print production systems service and support, and programmers who support or develop products that emit AFP data streams or interact and work with other AFP programs.
Download a course description for more detail!
Production Color and Acquisition and Implementation Strategies
The cost of high volume / high-speed color printing has dropped dramatically. Organizations are finding that they can produce color documents for about the same price as black & white. And by examining the costs/risks associated with black & white in their current work flow, they can realize enormous operational, monetary and time savings. As part of the course, we will use a case study that covers replacement of monochrome cut sheet and continuous lasers, conversion of long and short pre-printed form applications, implementation of dynamic colour, software requirements, and auditable processes.
Advanced Document Design Techniques
Effective document design is necessary for effective communication. A poorly designed document will not only fall short with regard to relating critical information, it can also cause confusion and frustration, which impacts customer satisfaction and increases support calls and costs. As part of the course, we will use a case study that covers introduction to creative document design, best practice guidelines for information layouts, how to get your point across with maximum impact, developing a creative approach, effective use of graphics, and effective/relevant use of transpromo in transactional statements.
Advanced Print Streams: How the latest print streams enable best-of-breed statements
For at least a quarter century, transaction document professionals have used line data, Metacode, PCL, AFP, even Postscript to create their transaction print documents. Because of newer technologies such as high speed economical full color printers, new print formats, variations and updates on existing formats, and new ISO standards, many document professionals must take the time to understand the new and updated print and Web technologies in order to bring legacy systems forward and to maximize the enterprise’s ROI on new hardware. This course incorporates important elements of modern print streams that enable full color variable data printing.The full course will have two focuses:
- a description of the new print formats (PDF/A, PPML, XSL/FO, CMOCA, IJPDS) that are available to transaction print professionals
- issues in transforming the traditional print formats to these new formats
Topics include print streams and how and why have they evolved, the creation of color, presentation issues on the Web: the PDF family versus the XML family, and issues in upgrading legacy print streams to newer formats and to the Web.
Job Profiling
In most organization, 10% of print jobs constitute 90% of production, and are the most profitable and least expensive to run. The other 90% are small jobs that amount to about 10% of the output and weigh the organization down – impacting productivity, cost, and overall profitability. Optimizing job selection and job programming to maximize productivity and reduce costs is an exercise very few organizations undergo. This one day class shows how to identify the most profitable jobs from a overall production perspective, use common application workflows for the majority of jobs produced, and consolidate processes for data through delivery.
Job Estimating and Costing
This one day class covers the end to end process of pricing jobs. It uncovers hidden costs and opportunities for profit that most organizations miss.