April 13, 2008 -- Agfa Graphics announced today that more daily U.S. newspapers are joining the ranks of Agfa customers now using :Arkitex OptiInk software to reduce ink costs. Many newspapers and coldest printers are recognizing that in addition to ink savings, OptiInk also offers significantly improved press stability and print quality.

Recently joining the growing list of newspapers to use OptiInk are The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Baltimore Sun, Morning Call of Allentown, PA, Chicago Tribune, Charleston Post & Courier, the Virginian-Pilot, Day Publishing of New London, CT and Expedi Printing of Brooklyn, NY. All of these major daily newspapers have invested in the ink optimization software and report impressive results. Statements from around the country are reinforcing the multiple benefits of OptiInk, topped by a reduction in ink costs (in some cases by as much as 30%), and followed closely by increased press stability, improved registration, shorter make-ready time, reduced fan-out, set-off and drying times, and improved print quality.

"Many newspapers in the Tribune Group are enjoying significant ink savings, including my home paper, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel," said Slade Wentworth, prepress & quality assurance manager. "Right now we're looking at a savings of 15%, which is quite substantial." Wentworth's colleague at the Sun-Sentinel, Quality Systems Analyst and Coordinator Kurt Moody, added, "We now have less ink on the sheet, and because of that we have less set-off and less show-through, both of which were problems before we installed OptiInk. In addition, by using less ink we will obviously save money, which is another important consideration in going with the system."

"We completed our installation of OptiInk at the end of 2007 and we immediately found it to be user-friendly and very easy to customize," said Dee Addington, prepress director at the Baltimore Sun. "The biggest benefit will be the savings in color ink consumption, which we anticipate will be quite significant in 2008."

"We included OptiInk when replacing our output system and it has worked out better than expected. Not only was the installation easy, but we are seeing a savings in color ink costs that makes us realize we are headed in the right direction," said Kate Cortez, IT Project Manager at The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk.

OptiInk uses Agfa technology to assign an input profile when one is not provided in the PDF file, ensuring consistent color output and optimum ink savings. These advances make OptiInk ideally suited for the daily newspaper market. The fully automatic software solution has been demonstrated at all of the major printing and publishing trade shows and has been generating considerable attention throughout the worldwide newspaper segment.