Wide-format print operations can now enjoy unrivalled brand and reputation protection thanks to a series of color management and quality assurance enhancements made to the PrintFactory software suite. The new features, which have been introduced in the PrintFactory Version 6 update, have been driven by customer demand and the company’s desire to be the industry frontrunner in delivering fully automated workflows.

“The latest updates have been implemented with two things in mind: consistency and quality,” says PrintFactory CEO, Erik Strik. “Beyond improving the user experience - as indeed any significant new software release should do - Version 6 brings a number of powerful new tools that deliver unrivalled results and peace of mind to print shops and their customers.”

As well as empowering print shops with the potential to leverage all the benefits that automation can bring, the latest software delivers more robust solutions to ongoing color management and quality assurance challenges.

Version 6 features an easy to use dashboard that puts the user in control of all aspects of the production process through a single web-based interface and provides data-driven insights that enable operators to identify and address inefficiencies. The dashboard can share quality control measurement reports against set tolerances with the print-buyer, and the solution provides track and trace IDs to show the real-time status of each job, printer and cutter.

The update also delivers multiple advances in color management tools, ensuring consistent, accurate and vivid color reproduction across substrates and devices. A new Resource Manager enables better management of color profiles through storage on a central database, enabling easier access to profiles and ensuring they cannot become corrupted. Several new features have also been applied to the VISU MultiColor Engine, such as a light adjustment tool for visual color adjustment, cleaner spot color functionality and a color correction plug-in that takes RGB to multi-channel creation.

Strik commented: “In looking at the transition to print industry 4.0, the importance of color management in delivering the efficiencies we have come to expect from automation is often forgotten. If a business cannot rely on its technology to produce consistent color across substrates and devices, the benefits of automation are lost in media wastage and the time it takes for operators required to check each individual job.”

“We believe the changes to the core functionality alone set the platform apart from a quality assurance perspective - add into the mix the automation dimension and we’re operating in a different league to conventional color management systems. The PrintFactory platform presents the opportunity to achieve more with less - giving print shops assurance that the job will be right first time, every time and completed as cost-effectively as possible. The point is, the platform can be as advanced as you need it to be and Version 6 is about as future-thinking as it gets,” concludes Strik.

PrintFactory Version 6 also includes a new RIP user interface, the implementation of QR codes to enable end-to-end customer tracking, more powerful 64-bit conversion, PSB import (up to 2GB) and support for Mac OSX10.13. For full release notes visit: https://help.printfactory.cloud/v6-updates/ 

To find out more about how automated workflows are redefining wide-format print, download our latest white paper: http://printfactory.cloud/lfp-automation-media/