Less Wasted Media
SAVE MEDIA – BUT SAVE TIME, TOO. LOTS OF IT.
Advanced nesting and ganging. Optimized tiling. True Shape nesting, mirror templates, cut-path editing, – and all the bleed settings you could ever want or need. PrintFactory does it all, but we do it in a way that reduces your media wastage AND gives you more control over what you’re doing and the profits you’re making. How? PrintFactory doesn’t process PDFs. It creates XML instructions that do the job, instead.
The way our workflow software works will make you think. It’s not just what you can do with smart layouts, it’s how the software processes those jobs: saving time, reducing wasted media.
XML INSTRUCTIONS
A RIP-connected tool that detects exterior cut contours is nothing new, nor are layout tools that handle optimised layouts. But did you know that mainstream RIPs create bleeds by copying and pasting blocks of color – or mirror copies of them – flush up against an original image’s boundaries? And did you know, every time a RIP adds more data to the file, the increase in that file’s size is slowing your production down … enough to make a difference to your profit margins?
Last-minute amends: New file. Version error: Another file. Imposing the images: Huge file. Even bigger PDFs, and so on and so on. By the time artwork gets to the RIP, every original 1MB file may now be 100MB or more. Especially if you’re adding a last minute job to a layout – the RIP has to start processing everything from scratch. Except, PrintFactory doesn’t work that way. PrintFactory’s workflow software takes a cutting edge approach to layouts – giving you faster production, less wasted media.
PrintFactory doesn’t move PDFs. Nor does it make them. Instead, our workflow software makes and reads XML instructions. In other words, with PrintFactory you’re printing faster – you don’t need to worry about the extra time you’d need to re-submit a job. Instead of creating a PDF, our Layout tool writes instructions to describe which file sits where, and the media in use, and what the individual profiles are.
The final RIP then reads those XML instructions, explaining where the source files are on the server; which layout to use; which printer to use; what the profiles are and what the media set-up should be – file by individual file. Mirror bleeds? Nanoseconds. Last-minute jobs? Add less than a couple of minutes to production. A day’s work set up for the wrong printer? Not on our watch. This is a real-time conversation, by workflow software that’s working smarter, not harder. No network lag. No media mistakes, no layout errors, and all-round faster production guaranteed.
TEMPLATES FOR SUCCESS
We have plenty of experience laying out jobs of our own. Doing the same thing, over and over again? That doesn’t seem very sensible.
Our Layout tool lets you store jobs as a template, which lets your team quickly create a ‘mirror image’ for two sides of a building or a vehicle. If you’re printing vehicle wraps, for example, then you need to print one complex image on lots of different substrates. You’re handling low-tack vinyl for metal and high-tack vinyl for plastic parts, like bumpers; plus one-way-vision materials for windows – it’s a complex job. PrintFactory’s Layout tool will take all of those substrates into account and deliver the best possible layout – but with total control, still in your teams’ hands.
MINIMUM WASTE, MAXIMUM MANUAL CONTROL
Like many other RIPs, PrintFactory’s nesting tool solves all of your basic layout problems. It’s hard to imagine a wide format printer who’s still laying out every job by hand – although there are many.
Our intelligent Layout tool it chooses the perfect layout to make the best use of media every time. But, unlike some other workflow software we could mention, PrintFactory’s Layout tool also lets you make changes to those layouts by hand. In theory, options like ‘conserve media’ or ‘group jobs’ are a good idea. But you might still want to move parts of a job around on a substrate so they’re easier to work with, or cut, or send on to another team. PrintFactory’s Layout tool lets you do all of that and more.