(November 12, 2008) Many of today's digital press users are finding that their VDP workflows, software and investments are barely able to keep up with the demands of their business. Often VDP systems require multiple eight hour shifts of processing and RIPing to produce a single eight hour shift of production print work. Such poor performance makes it hard to process enough work to make the lease payment, let alone make a profit. Lexigraph's new Mercury Tune Up provides an independent, cost effective means for companies to evaluate, assess and tune the performance of their systems to get the best possible performance out of their systems.

"For several years Lexigraph has been tuning workflows for customers of virtually every VDP provider," said Todd Kueny, president of Lexigraph, Inc. "Lexigraph gives the VDP solution owner a very low cost, independent means to assess whether or not they are getting the best performance out of their existing equipment and VDP software. Given this assessment the purchase of a Mercury Tune Up can cut RIP time by up to a factor one hundred and can cut pre-RIP processing by up to a factor of one thousand." The workflow, available for OS X, Windows, and Linux workflows, supports all major VDP solutions and all major digital press types – including the new, high-volume ink jet systems. Total cost depends on the complexity of the workflow and typically runs only a few percent of the overall VDP investment.

"With the current economic climate its important that users of VDP and digital print solutions extract every possible bit of performance from their existing investments,' said Kueny, " and targeted, personalized communication is more important now than ever. If you as a print vendor cannot meet your customer's expectations in terms of performance and delivery your very existence is jeopardized."

"Printers often make significant investments in workflow software that ultimately don't perform at their promised levels. And digital press and VDP software vendors don't typically provide the follow up support to ensure that the entire workflow delivers the promised level of performance. In addition, performance problems related to the interaction of RIPs and workflow VDP tools are virtually never addressed." said Kueny. "With the advent of high-volume VDP solutions it is often possible to create files which process or RIP so slowly that it is nearly impossible to make money printing them. A Mercury Tune Up will directly address these issues and will provide concrete data to help leverage vendor participation if required."

Lexigraph has been in the business of tuning print workflow solutions since 1998. With customers in Europe, the US and Canada, Lexigraph's workflow solutions touch virtually everyone's life on a daily basis through cell phone advertising, home improvement, newspaper advertising, direct mail, elections, ID cards, and healthcare. Other Lexigraph products include pdfExpress for variable data PDF solutions, Argon for off-line PPML/PDF proofing, JayLight for converting Indigo RIP files to PDF, Krypton for managing and controlling jobs, RFM for managing RIPed digital assets, PPML conversion tools and Web-to-Print offerings.