News

22 June 2023: Updated standard for color conversion of newspaper ads

For more than ten years the ICC profile from Ifra called ISOnewspaper26v4.icc has been NADA’s standard for color conversion of newspaper ads. The use of this profile assumes that the newspaper production process has a dot gain of 26 %.

Several years ago an updated version of this ICC profile was released. This was called WAN-IFRAnewspaper26v5.icc. This profile too assumes a 26 % dot gain. The profile is more achromatic than its predecessor. This means that – especially in the darker hues – more black ink and relatively less of a cyan, magenta and yellow mixture is used. Correspondingly, TIC (Total Ink Coverage) has been reduced from the old 240 % to 220 %.

NADA has performed tests using the new profile, and also received input from two of the large newspaper production sites. NADA then has decided to use the new profile for the color conversion in NADAexpress. At the same time support pages and download pages (mostly in Norwegian only, unfortunately) have been updated. By carrying out this upgrade, NADA keeps up with the development of the ISO standard for newspaper production.

The difference between conversion results using the new vs the old profile, is limited. Some say that the results for skin tones are better using the new profile. NADA recommends that every user site downloads and uses the new profile for its own color conversions. However, it must also be said that the old profile still works and will produce the same quality as before.

9 December 2020: Version 4.2 of NADAexpress is out

On Wednesday evening December 9th, NADAexpress was upgraded to a new version. The most significant improvements and changes are as listed below. As one will see, most of these have significance for ad receivers, not for the ad senders.

• The part of NADAexpress that is used by ad receivers only, now uses a similar GUI as does the part for ad senders.

• Ad senders that send ads by NADAexpress Web Services now may have their ads color converted automatically if they get color errors in preflight.

• One-step selection using pull-down menus. Previously, one had to first select a menu entry and then use a Select … -button. In 4.2, such Select … -buttons aren’t needed.

• NADAs original file format «NAD-files» – which was PDF ad and Job Ticket integrated into one and the same file – are no longer an option for ad receivers.

• On the pages for ad receivers, ads received on the current date will be flagged using a red triangle.

 

In addition there are some minor improvements:

• Updated Help-files for preflight and for in-page explanations

• In the GUI: Some color changes; graphics with higher resolution, ...

• Simpler, more easy to perceive error message when trying to preflight non-PDF files

• Several minor corrections, word changes, …

17 June 2019: NADAexpress version 4.0 will be released shortly

In a few days there will be a new version of NADAexpress. Ad senders will see that the user interface is completely changed. The image to the left shows an example of the new GUI.

In this new version, NADAexpress can "automatically" color convert newspaper ads that get a blocking color error in the PDF preflight. If an ad has this kind of error only users won't have to control the color conversion themselves. Instead one just says to NADAexpress "Fix this and then proceed directly to the Job Ticket". The same can unfortunately not be done for magazine ads, as color conversion of these require input as to which ICC profile to use.

The main purpose of the new version is to make NADAexpress faster and easier to use and more up-to-date: Simpler, cleaner and not as much text.

26 June 2018: A new version of NADAexpress

Tuesday 26 June in the evening, a new version of NADAexpress was released, with considerably increased functionality.

The biggest news is that NADA's color conversion now is integrated into NADAexpress. Among other things, this means that if you get a preflight color error when checking an ad, you may color convert this ad to the correct color space without leaving NADAexpress. The user interface makes ut easy to convert the file and then return to preflight and sending.

The integrated color conversion handles newspaper ads as well as magazine ads. Conversion of newspaper ads is always done according to the ISO 12647-3 standard. When converting a magazine ad, one must either specify the magazine in question or select the relevant ICC profile directly. This will ensure that the ad is converted the way the receiving magazine wants it.

At the same time as the NADAexpress release, the separate NADAcmyk color conversion service will shut down - it is no longer needed. Please note that this means that for the future, one needs to be a registered NADAexpress user in order to enjoy NADA's color conversion services. Fortunately, registering is quite simple!

The new version has a number of other improvements as well. Ad senders will see that the Job Ticket page is a little bit changed, while a number of receivers will benefit from the extended functionality of the automatic naming of received files.

31 May 2017: Per Edv. Trevland leaves NADA – Geir Engen takes over

Per Edv. Trevland, who has been NADA's CEO for more than a decade, leaves NADA at the end of May to go into retirement. In the years that he has managed NADA there have been dramatic changes in the print ad market. Since 1 January 2006, when Per Edv. took over NADA, NADAexpress has performed around 1.480.000 ad transmissions.

From 1 June, Assistant Director Geir E. Engen in the Norwegian Media Businesses Association (the owner of NADA) will take over the responsibility as NADA’s daily manager. Geir will do this job in addition to all the other tasks he already performs for the Association. NADA will continue its business just as before, focusing on standardisation, on ad distribution by NADAexpress and on support for NADAexpress users.

NADA's Board of Directors from April 2017 onwards consists of Tom Lekang (Amedia), Kristin Steien Bratlie (Mentor Media) and Martine Skau (Schibsted).

24 November 2016: A new release of NADAexpress

NADAexpress was updated to a new version on the evening of 24 November 2016. As did the previous release, this one too contains some important improvements of the functionality for ad senders. NADA's Support pages have been updated correspondingly.

The important new item in this release, is that ad senders now may retrieve from the User log files for renewed sending. Typically, if one finds out that a previously sent file needs to be sent also to other receivers, one just gets it from the User log. No need to upload it again. This new functionality has necessitated GUI changes on several pages.

• — A "GetPDF"-icon on all relevant rows in the User log. All rows in the User log that reference a PDF ad, has got a "GetPDF" icon to the right. Things now look like this:

When one clicks such a "GetPDF" icon, one goes directly to the page for file selection, with the file in question preselected.

An identical icon, with the same effect, is also on the page for User log details.

• — Improved search facilities in the User log. With the new functionality for retrieving old files, increased use of the User log is to be expected. To ease the search process when looking for the right file, there are now two extra search fields, for Receiver and for File name, respectively. When these are used, only events matching the Receiver and the File Name texts will be displayed. These may of course be used in combination or separately.

• — A similar GetPDF mechanism has been introduced in NADAbox. To keep NADAexpress as uniform as possible, the same "GetPDF" mechanism has been introduced in NADAbox. The NADAbox overview page now looks like this:

Clicking the icon works in just the same way here - one goes straight to the page for ad file selection, with the file in question preselected.

An identical icon, with the same effect, is also on the page for NADAbox details.

• — The page for selecting the ad file to send looks differently. To correspond with the changes described above, the page for selecting the ad file to send has a changed look:

The uppermost button is the "normal" button for selecting a file from one's own PC/Mac or file server. THe two other buttons are new, and allow quick access to the User Log and to NADAbox from the File section page. Only users with an active NADAbox will have the lowermost button.

6 September 2016 – NADAcmyk updated

Near the end of August, a user informed NADA Support of what looked like an error in NADAs color conversion solution NADAcmyk. A file that NADAcmyk had converted to CMYK, got a color error when preflighted in NADAexpress. That should not happen. The matter was looked into, and the user was correct: In rare circumstances an ICC-based color space remained unconverted. Luckily, it turned out that by modifying a configurations file for NADAcmyk the problem was fixed. The updated version was released on Tuesday 6 September.

6 April 2016 – NADAexpress updated

A new version of NADAexpress was installed in the evening of 5 April 2016. This version has improved functionality in several areas important to those who send ads:

• — More extensive information/aid when registering as a new NADAexpress user. We have discovered that the registration process represents more of a challenge than expected. Therefore, we have improved and extended the relevant pages in NADAexpress. Likewise, the texts in the e-mails that are sent and in the Help-files that may be shown, are updated. It is important that those who register get it right on the first try, and afterwards continue using their one and only NADAexpress user instead of registering repeatedly. We have also added validation of the e-mail addresses entered in the user data, in order to avoid useless e-mail addresses.

• — Changes in how "Directly to the Job ticket page" works. The functionality for the buttons "Job ticket to newspaper" and "Job ticket to magazine" has been somewhat changed.
  
  Previously these buttons took one straight to the Job ticket page regardless, where one filled in the Job ticket information and clicked "Send". But the ad file was necessarily preflighted all the same, and if it contained blocking errors it was not sent. And the sender was not explicitly informed, but had to find this out by looking in the User log.
  
  Now these buttons work like this: If the file has blocking errors, you will be sent to the Preflight feedback page, and the file is not sent. If free of blocking errors, you go to the Job ticket page where you work as before, and the file is sent!

• — Advanced new options on the Job ticket page. The screen dump below shows the new look of the Job ticket page. To the left of the list of possible receivers there is a letter-based selector. Click the desired letter and the list jumps to the first receiver starting with that letter. Lets you avoid a lot of manual scrolling! On the screen dump, the letter "I" has just been clicked.
  
  And above the list there is another selector with 5 alternatives that - for those who want to use it! - allows one to filter/shorten the list down to those receivers one uses most often or is especially interested in. When "All" - which is the default - is selected, everything is as before. If one clicks "Favorites" the list will display only the receivers in one's own special group called Favorites. Receivers are placed in this group by clicking the button under the righthand side list. The Favorites group may also be manually maintained on the Groups page. "Recent" is maintained by the system and shows only receivers used recently. The two "groups" alternatives will display your own groups and the shared/common groups respectively.

  
  

 

10 February 2014 – Updated net pages

NADA has carried out a revision and temporary redesign of its web pages, most of which are in Norwegian only. The purpose has been to ensure that the text is up-to-date and to finish the first phase of a visual redesign.

25 October 2013 – NADA Servers relocated

On Friday 25 October, NADA's servers that host NADAexpress and other solutions, were moved to a high security server park at Rosenholm outside Oslo - Digiplex Rosenholm Center. The servers are co-located in Teknograd's facilities here in what is one of the most secure data centers in the country.

The data centre is EN ISO 9001:2008 certified and has complete redundancy for power, cooling and Internet access, as well as a very high level of fire protection and physical security.

The relocation of NADA's servers was done to maintain optimal conditions for continuous and problem-free service to NADA users.

1 May 2013 – NADAexpress updated

A new version of NADAexpress was installed on 1 May 2013.

There is lots of new functionality in the new version, mainly intended for the receivers of ads, in other words the Norwegian newspapers and magazines. For those users who send ads, almost everything is just as before. One small change for these, though: Now one may enter the cell phone number and email address of the sender's contact person in the job ticket.

For ad receivers, the extensions are formidable: The new pages for receivers may be used as a complete, net based ad receiver. This means that NADA's earlier receiver solutions NADAstasjon - in the short term - and NADA Annonsemottak - in the very long term - will be discontinued. Note: All the new receiver pages are in Norwegian only.

27 December 2012 – Real transparency OK as of 1 January 2013

From 1 January 2013 onwards, NADAexpress does not block ads using transparency. This means that it is no longer necessary to flatten transparency in NADAexpress ads. This goes for newspaper ads as well as magazine ads.

NADA wants use of NADAexpress to be as easy as possible. For many senders of ads, not having to flatten transparency should ease the task of making NADA compatible ads somewhat. These days, transparency is used by the PDF creating programs for a number of purposes outside of obviously transparent objects.

The final decision to allow transparency was made during the summer of 2012. NADA receivers were informed in September. They have thus had plenty of time to prepare and to test their production systems. NADA expects the transition to go smoothly.

Starting sometime just before new year's eve, the NADAexpress preflight will just issue a warning for transparency. The reason for saying anything at all about transparency is that for a limited period, it may be useful to know whether an ad has transparency or not.

14 June 2012 – NADAexpress updated

On Wednesday June 13th an updated version of NADAexpress was installed. For this version most of the development effort has gone into restructuring and clean-up in the source code. Also, NADA's catalog (i.e. the list of receivers) maintenance software has been made an integrated part of NADAexpress. The software is now ready for further development according to NADA's strategy and plans.

The improvements visible to users this time aren't that many. Some important ones are:

• — The HTML code for many pages has been restructured. NADAexpress pages should now appear more regular and unified regardless of the browser/OS combination used.

• — On the Job Ticket Page for newspapers, insertion dates may be entered using a user-friendly calendar control. Entering dates in the correct format is now much easier.

• — In the NADA catalog, short information texts may be associated with each receiver. Such texts are displayed on the Job Ticket Page. In time, the use of this feature will increase, as receivers start to utilize this new opportunity.

• — The Job Ticket Page now has a Search function that searches the catalog and the associated information texts.

1 January 2012 – Changed color management for newspaper ads

Newspaper ads in Norway were for a number of years color managed according to a national standard called “linear repro”, with a specific ICC-profile used only for Norway. This changed at the beginning of 2012. Now the correct color management for Norwegian newspaper ads is to use ISO 12647-3. This is a well known international standard, used in almost all European countries.

This change requires those who produce ads to handle color a bit differently from what they did previously.

NADA publishes a few support pages in English, where one finds the necessary detailed description of correct color management for Norwegian newspaper ads. The ultrabrief advice goes like this: Download and install the two ICC-profiles that belong to ISO 12647-3, and use these in the Color Settings of Adobe Photoshop and suchlike.

The change of standards is due to the fact that NADA has to put more of its resources into its core business of ad distribution. Maintenance of a national “linear repro” standard is not considered core business, especially as there exists a very good and universally known and accepted alternative.

5 July 2011 – NADAexpress - Interactive PDF preflight results

NADAexpress now has a totally different way of displaying the PDF preflight results. The new version is better structured, easier to work with, and first and foremost much more interactive: Now users may decide for themselves how deep into the results they want to look.

The feedback results are sorted into groups: Colors; Fonts; Quality; Structure; Miscellaneous. In addition there is an Information group, which works much the same way as before. Initially when the results are displayed, there is only one small colored icon per group, and one bigger one for the file as a whole. Green = Everything OK; Yellow implies Warnings; Red is for Errors. Blue is used for the Information group. Yellow, Red, and Blue lines have disclosure triangles, that when clicked open up for the next level, with more detailed information. Using these triangles, the user may open and close separate parts of the feedback at will, and hopefully find out just what she or he needs - and not more. The explanations at the lowest level are displayed using the new NADA Help system (see next item).

Note: The actual NADA PDF rules – stating the requirements for valid PDF ads in Norway - have not been changed at all. The only thing different is how the results are displayed.

5 July 2011 – NADAexpress - new Help system

NADA has developed a Help System connected with each page in NADAexpress. Almost all pages now has a clickable Help icon in the upper right hand corner. Some very comprehensive pages, split into well defined sub-pages, may even have have more than one. When clicked, a Help icon will display a box with relevant information for the page or sub-page in question. One closes the box by clicking outside it.

5 July 2011 – NADAexpress - Unregistered use discontinued

The new NADAexpress release in July 2011 puts an end to working as an "unregistered NADA user".

Long-lived applications like NADAexpress have to develop and change over time. Just as important as adding new required or requested features, is considering if there are parts that should be removed. If one doesn't do this and now and then perform some necessary weeding out, the application will become too complex. NADA now has looked at the functionality for unregistered use, and decided to discontinue it. Factors considered:

• — Not many people used this functionality any more.

• — A general negative view of having to register for something is not as widespread today as it was in 2003 when NADAexpress was started. Registering is now commonplace.

• — Working unregistered had very limited functionality: Not being able to send to more than one receiver, only to newspapers – not magazines, no User log. All in all – a disappointing user experience.