Introduction.
The Navigator browser client is a simplified digital front end based on the Xitron Navigator RIP. It is fully touchscreen compatible. It will work either with a touch screen or with keyboard and mouse. No special software needs to be installed on client computers. It works by pointing your browser at an address where a Navigator Server is running. For example, if your Navigator Server were running on a computer with an IP address of 10.122.123.5 then the browser should point to http://10.122.123.5/firefish/index.html.
Bookmark it! You can also save that bookmark as a shortcut on your desktop.
Overview of the intended operation
1. Submit a job.
2. Print one copy of page 1.
3. Examine print for positioning, rotation, and color.
4. Make any desired changes.
5. Repeat 2 - 4 until satisfied.
6. Set quantity
7. Print the entire job.
What you need to run the browser client:
Navigator Server version 7.0 or later.
We have tested extensively with Safari and Chrome and Microsoft Edge. We have done light testing with the Opera browser as well.
Describing the interface:
This client is a simplified user interface for digital print. Depending on your output device, there may be device feedback data as well.
Here is an example of the interface without device data:
Here it is again; this time with device feedback from a printer based on the Memjet Sirius/Northstar engine in the bottom left corner:
You may be using a customized version of this system. It could look different to the screen shots above. Don't panic! Here are some alternate views of the same system that will help you to visualize what might be different so this guide will make sense.
Job Previews
The upper left corner shows a logo when no job is selected.(See above) When a job is selected, it shows a preview of the job there instead. (See below).
That preview is briefly enlarged.
After a few seconds, the preview shrinks back.
You can also force this enlargement and shrinkage of the preview manually.
Touch or click the preview to enlarge or shrink it manually. (Shown below using another job as the example.)
Expanded preview after a click or touch:
Reduced size preview after touch or click:
Touch screen keyboard vs. physical keyboard mode.
There is a small keyboard button in the title bar. This will switch you from physical keyboard mode to touchscreen keyboard mode; and back.
Black keyboard = physical keyboard mode.
White keyboard = touchscreen keyboard mode.
To test which mode you are in, click or touch the search field. If an on-screen keyboard comes up, you are in touch screen keyboard mode. Enter your search criteria with your favorite finger. If an on-screen keyboard does NOT come up, you are in physical keyboard mode. Type your search criteria on the physical keyboard connected to your computer.
If you don't like which mode you are in, touch or click to switch.
The control buttons
Along the right side are the control buttons. I'll describe them.
Note: The "Print one copy" button.
The intended use for this button is also a good description of the workflow of this DFE.
- A job comes in, goes to pause.
- Print one copy of page 1.
- Examine it for positioning, rotation, and color.
- Make any desired changes.
- Set the quantity.
- Print the entire job.
Note: The "home" button.
This button is for integration with other software utilities. In a Memjet application you could route that button to open the 'toolbox'. It can open any URL you wish. See Appendix 1, below, for details.
Submit a Job
Click the job submission button on the main screen.
You will be presented with this simple UI.
Choose a file and fill out the options. Like so:
You will be brought back to the main screen and your job will appear at the top of the list.
Edit job parameters
Choose a job from the list, whose job parameters you wish to edit.
There are two places to get job parameter information; in the columns of the job list, and on the left side of the screen.
We'll change them with the job editor and show you how it looks.
Click the job editor button (looks like a pencil)
The features in the job editor are labeled and are mostly self explanatory. The "Edit Spots" function does require more explanation and will get its own section, below.
In this example we change:
Quantity to 400
Page range to From 1 to 3.
Collate On
Rotate 90
Offsets to 0.125x0.15
Global Color adjustment is edited to make the print darker
Paper Profile is changed from Plain Paper to Photo Glossy
(These are just example changes. I'm not claiming changing profiles and adding more ink at the same time makes sense)
Now you can see in the interface that our job has these parameters and is processing. (You can tell from the UI that we are printing page 5 of 400)
If this were a mistake you could hit the Cancel button and start over.
The parameters that can be edited are:
Quantity
Page Range
Collation
Speed
Rotation
Imposition
Offsets (positioning)
Paper (this shows a drop down menu of ICC profile configurations. i.e. RIP Colorpro setups)
Spot Color edits (shown in detail in the next section)
And Color Sliders.
I'll explain the color sliders here.
The color sliders add a curve to the entire job. This curve may reduce or increase each color individually and/or reduce or increase overall intensity. They are additive; you may make more than one change. You could add cyan and also darken the entire job, for example.
The top slider darkens or lightens the job by putting equal curves on all four colors. Each other slider effects only one color. Keep in mind that the sliders will effect the color in the entire job. For a more targeted color edit, try the spot color adjustment tool.
Edit Spot Colors
The RIP contains licensed Pantone libraries for accuracy in reproduction on a CMYK printer. For more information on that you can look at the RIP User Guide and the Colorpro manual.
Our spot color adjustment tool will allow you to edit the CMYK recipes for Pantone colors or any 'named' or 'spot' color.
The basic function is to print a test sheet (perhaps the first page of a job? We have a special button for that.) and check the color. If it is not as desired, print a swatch sheet with colors that bracket the spot color in question. You may measure these swatches or do the match by eye, with comparison against a acceptable print or a pantone book.
The spot color editor can either edit a single job or it can create a spot color library for re-use on any job.
See below for an applied Spot Color Library called "JP's Test Set". Selecting a spot color library uses its overrides to process any incoming job you apply it to.
If you have not applied a Spot Color Library, it will look like this:
There are two requirements for the "Edit Spots" button to be available and not greyed out.
1. You must have the ink remapping feature licensed and properly installed in your system.
2. Your job must have spot colors in it.
If you have that then pushing the 'Edit Spots' button brings you here:
In this job I have two spot colors. Clicking on one will show me the CMYK recipe for that color, and allow me to change it.
It turns out that Pantone 121 is a yellow color.
If I want to I can edit the color right here, using the sliders, or typing numbers into the fields. I made it a bit greener. The diagram in the lower right shows my original color on the left, my edited color in the middle, and a printer printing color swatches to the right.
These are buttons. If I click the yellow button with the arrow it will put our original color back in place of the green. If I click the printer, it will allow me to print color swatches to get help in determining the proper ink recipe for this ink.
Clicking the swatch printer brings me to this window:
I'll walk you through the sections of the window.
1. The swatches. These are the color swatches that will print on your printer. We will select a color from one of these to replace our current spot color definition.
2. The colors used in adjustment. These are going to be the predominant inks in the spot color. But you are free to change them.
3. Color Steps. The steps between color swatches. Here you can change how much ink changes between the ink patches.
4. The 3rd dimension. In two dimensional color editing, we print one sheet with the swatches you see here. If you add a third dimension by pushing the "3d" button, you will print swatches in that direction for a third color. (i.e. you print multiple sheets with the third color being changed between sheets)
5. Before and after. If you have made a previous edit, we will show you the original color next to your edited color here.
6. Print swatch sheet. Here you can click through different size and orientations for swatch sheets. And print the swatches.
Configuring and printing the swatches
The original color is in the center swatch. Choose color steps. I have selected "7". Lower numbers create smaller differences between swatches.
Scroll through other swatch sheet sizes....
After settling on one, click the printer button.
When you click that printer button, you'll see this:
With measurements or comparisons, determine which swatch is your desired new CMYK recipe for this spot color. I am going to select the swatch all the way to the right, second from the top. It will become my new center swatch. I could lower my Color Step value and print another set of swatches to see if I can get a little closer. Or I could accept the change.
If I accept the change but after printing another copy of the job I want to come back and do some more work, that is perfectly acceptable.
When you find your way back you'll see that the original and the adjusted colors are both available to you.
Maybe you have decided you need to do something totally different. Like change the colors that the swatch sheet is using. If so, click the horizontal or vertical color bars and we'll show you the other inks you can choose.
Here's what it will look like if you change the colors:
Maybe you have decided you need to add a third color axis. Click the 3d button.
What you'll get if you click the printer button now is 3 dimensional swatch sheets.
(How? Paper is 2D.)
You'll print 5 sheets of paper.
(Why 5?)
5 sheets because we have 5 horizontal swatches, 5 vertical swatches; and in the 3rd dimension, also 5 swatch choices.
In this example:
Vertical axis = cyan
Horizontal axis = yellow
Height axis = magenta
Sheet 1:
The X and Y coordinates of sheet 1 will get differing amounts of Cyan along the vertical axis with identical amounts of magenta and yellow.
It will get differing amounts of yellow along the horizontal axis with identical amounts of magenta and cyan.
Sheets 2 - 5 will have the same cyan and yellow values as page 1, while each page will have differing amounts of magenta.
When you are finished editing the colors, accept the changes with the checkbox button.
You'll go back one level to this dialog box:
Here you can back out to the main screen by accepting your changes with the checkbox (if you wish to apply this spot color edit only to this job and not keep it for future use)
Or, you could click dropdown menu and add this spot color adjustment to a saved library. Or you could click the "Plus" button and create a new library to save this spot color recipe in.
Click the checkbox and you are finished with editing spot colors.
Search
If you are searching for a particular job, touch or click the search field. Type in your search criteria.
I typed "spot". The system limits the job list to showing me only jobs which match my search.
Device Feedback.
The device feedback is based on there being a device configured inside the "Manage Devices" dialog in Navigator Server.
That Server window looks like this:
The device feedback has some useful features.
Basically we tell you printer status, error messages, what page number is currently printing, how much ink is left, what address the printer is.
The background color of the window conveys some information as well.
Examples:
The printer is online and ready to accept jobs; currently printing page 1 of the currently printing job. To see which job is printing, look in the jobs table.
The printer is online and ready to accept jobs; currently printing page 13 of the currently printing job. To see which job is printing, look in the jobs table.
The printer needs attention. It is offline and in an error state. In this case, the printer is out of paper while trying to print the 13th page of the job.
The printer is offline. Check power, cabling, networking.
A screenshot to illustrate the device data embedded in the UI:
Appendices
Appendix 1. Customizing the home or exit button
The Home or Exit button is used as an integration button. In a Memjet application you could route that button to open the 'toolbox'. It can open any URL you wish.
Inside the Resources folder (at a path like c:/navigator/navigator/htdocs/Firefish/resources) is a file called “CustomInterface.json”.
Open it with a text editor.
CustomInterface.json will look like this:
Change the URL for "ExitURL" from whatever it says (in this case "http://xitron.com",) to any URL you wish to open. For example, an IP address. Keep the formatting. i.e. the quotes and comma. Save.
Appendix 2. URL and network
Do you want to know exactly how the URL that opens the web client UI works? Does your IT person want to know?
Extra information about the URL for IT staff or interested parties:
This is really just a folder and file at a location on your Navigator Server.
Note that, in this example, the web server is running at c:/navigator northstar2/navigator/htdocs so the URL specifies any folders and files inside that hierarchy. In this case that is
http://<IP ADDRESS>/Firefish/Index.html
Appendix 3. Multiple device support.
If multiple devices are supported by the RIP this entry in custominterface.json determines which device you wish to show when you first open a browser connection.
"DefaultDeviceIndex": 1
Inside the Resources folder (at a path like c:/navigator/navigator/htdocs/Firefish/resources) is a file called “CustomInterface.json”.
Open it with a text editor.
Allowable entries are any number corresponding to a device in the Navigator Server’s Manage Devices dialog box. In the case here, our browser will default to showing the device “Northstar”, because it is the first device in the list. First device = 1, second device = 2, etcetera. You can still scroll through available devices in the browser. This simply controls which device is initially shown by default.