In order to have a significant advantage in this competitive wide-format print market, it is important to revolutionise the way we run our print shop by increasing productivity through increased flexibility, efficiency and automation. PrintFactory is an answer to such quest of revolutionary change spurting across the industry as this software solution provides all professional job preparation and file correction tools needed to produce more and faster with minimum waste and guaranteed superb results. This innovative and easy to use print production software is a multifunctional all-in-one solution.

Multitasking capabilities

Back in the days while most of the cutting machine and large-format printer manufacturers were using hardware RIPs, PrintFactory was already using a software RIP running on a standard Mac. Another feature that was ahead of its time was the multitasking capability of the solution. Thanks to PrintFactory, ripping, cutting and printing were carried out simultaneously. On top of that, the software came with a powerful WYSIWYG editor for drawing and designing objects, dimensioning, scanning and vectorising, text editing, etc. All this may seem very normal today, but back then it was quite revolutionary.

A complete solution

A lot more great functionalities have been added to PrintFactory through software upgrades over the last 20 years. “Red wine and aged cheese get better over the years. This saying certainly applies to PrintFactory which has been around for years, but still getting better,” remarked Vincent Abee, managing director, Abee Reclameproducties, Moordrecht, Netherlands. He added that his company specialised in display materials, billboards, retail signs and plastic letters is one of the early adopters of this multifunctional software solution and to optimise their production environment, they have recently invested in PrintFactory v4.

The main advantage of PrintFactory is that it is more than just a RIP; it can print jobs as they are being processed, giving a real speed advantage over competitors. For the files needing manual intervention, PrintFactory editor allows to handle more jobs per day by separating job preparation from production. Whether one needs to combine or correct multiple jobs, make edits on colour, masks, shapes, scaling, rotation, mirroring, create tiles or place grommets, with PrintFactory all job preparation and correction tools are just a click away. Besides that, the software is quite user friendly. Someone who is a bit familiar with the use of Photoshop or Illustrator will be very comfortable with it.

One RIP for all

PrintFactory is a complete production solution that can drive over 600 different devices. One and the same RIP can drive multiple large-format printing and cutting devices. This unique capability to control several printers with one single RIP is truly exemplary. Once the file is ripped, all that remains to do for the operator is to select the appropriate file on the print controller and print it. Another strong point of PrintFactory is the advanced build-in colour management solution. One can easily introduce proofing in workflow, increasing machine up-time and reducing waste of expensive production media and ink.

Vincent admitted that PrintFactory gave them a significant competitive advantage over sign makers in the market. He added, “Good support from the people behind PrintFactory has been crucial in building our business from exhibition stand builder to sign making specialists we are today.” To conclude, adoption of PrintFactory offers a significant competitive advantage for large-format printers in the market. The simplicity of the wizard-based user interface is instrumental in guiding through the process of aligning different printers and different media. With PrintFactory, a print shop can assure its customers with colour consistency throughout their entire campaign.