February 2009
ONYX Graphics has rolled out ONYX PrepEdge Pro, its software that is a professional job preparation tool designed specifically for large format workflows.
‘PrepEdge Pro’ reduces job preparation time and media waste, and increases throughput and productivity for large format print service providers in the prepress stage of their printing workflow.
Software highlights are:
Job preparation is the main bottleneck in most large format print workflows. The problems can include customer file issues; disparate settings from using multiple content creation applications such as Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW or QuarkXPress; color matching issues; and lack of tools specific to large format printing. These problems negatively affect productivity: printer operators waste time fixing or preparing jobs instead of printing; ink and media are wasted due to multiple test print runs; and deadlines are missed because files are not ready or will not print.
‘PrepEdge Pro’ addresses all job preparation issues prior to print processing. It is the only job preparation software that includes features specific to large format job preparation such as one-click grommet placement; size, crop and positioning tools; bleed and fold tools; complex tiling and template tools; fast contour cut path generation; and a raster image to vector tool.
It also gives users the ability to view color-accurate, on-screen proofs, and quickly check and fix file anomalies. The built-in color correction and management tools include controls to correct hue, saturation, brightness, contrast and color balance. It includes a simple and accurate spot color matching function with the ability to create and save spot color libraries in addition to the on-board Pantone, RAL, HKS and industry cutting vinyl color libraries.
With ‘PrepEdge Pro,’ prepress operators can quickly and easily edit any image, text or graphic element of a PDF file. It is the only large format job preparation software that includes a full professional PDF editor. Shapes, lines and gradients can be manipulated, and text or fonts can be changed. Users can import files and save the output as a PDF. Job templates, including tiling and placeholder setups, can be saved.
Increases productivity and decreases media waste
Print shop owners and their production managers can rely on ‘PrepEdge Pro’ to optimize their large format workflow, ultimately resulting in cost savings. Integrating it into their workflow addresses all preflight issues prior to production and eliminates the need for print operators to master multiple creative content applications or other job preparation applications. Because the workflow is optimized and issues that lead to multiple test print runs (and media waste) are eliminated, shops can also see a decrease in media usage.
"ONYX PrepEdge Pro software really saves us a lot of time in pre and post-production with banners," said Chris Panza, Production Manager at Image Graphics 2000, Pompano Beach, Florida.
"On one job of 50 banners, it cut our time in half and saved us over five hours."
"ONYX PrepEdge Pro software has been beautiful for setting up our banners and vehicle wraps," says Scott Manwaring, Manager of Digital Print Services, Rainbow Sign & Banner, St George, Utah.
"We took on a lot of banner and wrap jobs in the last couple of weeks and ONYX PrepEdge Pro software worked perfectly. I quickly removed bleed lines the customers had added, along with some bad clipping masks. It's easily saved us eight hours of time. Before using ONYX PrepEdge Pro software, we spent a lot of time on paneled jobs going back and forth making small changes between Illustrator software and our RIPs. ONYX PrepEdge Pro software just cuts out so many steps. Once a job is ready, we submit it once and we're done. With ONYX PrepEdge Pro software in our workflow we can cut days of lead-time off of our biggest jobs."
"Nothing needs to be done through Illustrator software anymore," says Richard Nuhn, Manager of NC Pestill'sHamilton, Ontario, grand format production location.
"On banners, we get unbelievable time savings with ONYX PrepEdge Pro software. For example, we produced two 2-foot by 10-foot banners that took us 22 minutes to prepare using Illustrator software. With ONYX PrepEdge Pro software, we produced them both in less than five minutes. Those job preparation savings add up. What used to be a weeks-worth of job prep time using Illustrator software, we can now do in a day using ONYX PrepEdge Pro software. More importantly for us, job preparation isn't a bottleneck so we can do today's work today."
ONYX PrepEdge Pro software works with all large format software RIPs. It is the only job preparation software that can run on Mac OS X 10.4 or higher, Windows XP or Windows Vista platforms. It offers capabilities specific to the large format printing workflow, which is a step beyond existing PDF editing tools that are currently available.
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