HYBRID Software is celebrating its continuing string of successes with the installation of the 400^th seat of PACKZ, its professional PDF editor for packaging and label workflows. The milestone order for HYBRID, now the fastest growing software company in the graphic arts sector, has come from one of the leading players in the Italian flexographic market, Z Due. This is the sixth seat of PACKZ for Z Due, which has seen a 30 per cent increase in billable work from each of the workstations on which the software has been implemented.  

Z Due is also celebrating a landmark occasion this year, with its 40^th anniversary in September. The company, which employees 60 people across four production sites in Italy, provides a wide range of pre-press flexographic services and is one of the country’s major producers of liquid and solid photopolymer plates. The majority of its plates are used by customers operating in the corrugated board sector, with the remainder split between printers handling tissue paper, envelopes, plastic and paper. 

“We wouldn’t have installed our sixth seat of PACKZ if the product hadn’t made a significant contribution to our efficiency and we weren’t receiving first class service from HYBRID,” says joint owner Andrea Mingozzi. “In addition, the company stands out because it listens to you! In today’s fast changing technical environment, it is vital that suppliers provide not only a depth of knowledge in their field but also the flexibility to develop solutions that meet customers’ changing needs. 

“The technical team at HYBRID combines that versatility with the willingness to act, to analyse the issues you are facing and then create software tailored to your requirements now and for the future. This philosophy of helpfulness is a breath of fresh air in the pre-press sector and during our dealings with HYBRID we have seen that it stems from the top management throughout the entire company.”

PACKZ is a revolutionary application that makes high quality editing of packaging and labels accessible to small, medium and high production volume professionals. PACKZ, available on OSX and Windows platforms, offers 64-bit multiprocessing as well as multi-threading for high performance PDF editing. The software can be used for automatic and manual trapping, color separation mapping, step and repeat plus text and barcode editing, basically handling all production requirements for flexo printing.

“As the only vendor-neutral standard for graphics files, PDF eliminates the problems encountered by proprietary formats that lock-in users and deny them flexibility,” says HYBRID Software chairman Guido Van der Schueren. “By capturing all elements of the job in a single, convenient file, PDF ensures predictable results at every stage, without the need for file conversions which can often slow production. Offering support for advanced features such as transparency and versioning, PDF is increasingly the choice for packaging graphics production and platemaking.”

HYBRID Software plans to use drupa2016 to further strengthen its position as a major pre-press innovator by launching a range of industry-leading products. Highlights will include a groundbreaking cloud-based enterprise workflow solution, variable data options for digital package printing, warping and 3D facilities for shrink sleeves and cartons, plus a 64-bit scalable RIP for PC and MAC platforms, the only RIP of its type on the market. 

Visitors to the stand (hall 7A, stand F41) will also be able to hear about HYBRID’s expanded gamut color management for package printing as well as the latest developments in automated workflows, from MIS to digital output.