In the following Lee Terry, Senior Pre-Press Application Specialist of the Mail Newspapers Business Service department, explains how Mail Newspapers implemented OneVision’s automated image enhancement software solution Amendo and tells more about the achieved benefits in the field of quality, efficiency and cost reduction.

Why have you decided to purchase OneVision’s Amendo? Which expectations did you have towards software for image enhancement?
Following extensive testing with several automated imaging software vendors, we found that Amendo gave us the best improvement in quality over a wide range of images. Thus, the amount of manual retouching got reduced.

How does Amendo fulfil these expectations?
Amendo meets our economic and quality requirements. Our expectations have been met and exceeded. All the publications we have worked with thus far have responded with good remarks for the software, and this has made it easy to implement across all titles.

Could you please also describe how Amendo is working in your specific production environment?
Amendo is mainly used for our automated imaging workflow in conjunction with our publishing system.

Was it difficult to implement Amendo in your existing processes and system landscape?
The implementation was simple, once the software was configured for colour we switched the image feeds to go through Amendo. There was no requirement to change our publishing systems workflow when we introduced Amendo.

Think about a regular working day at your company: How many pictures would go through Amendo?
On average about 1,800 images a day would be sent to Amendo. These would range from images for newspapers to high end magazines.

What do you think about the quality of the pictures after they have been processed by Amendo?
We have seen a marked improvement in the quality produced by Amendo compared to the software that we are replacing.

Did you also test other software solutions for image enhancement? Why did you decide to go for One Vision’s solution?
We analysed Amendo against three other software vendors. Amendo came out ahead of the others on our key metrics’ throughput and quality.

Did the fact that you were already using OneVision products influence your decision to buy Amendo and how?
No, the Business Production Director was extremely clear that testing had to be measurable so that he could make a clear decision.

How satisfied are you with the support of OneVision?
Should I have a question or any issues regarding Amendo, then OneVision has been prompt in responding. OneVision has provided a high level of support.

Is there anything else you would like to share about OneVision’s software or the company?
OneVision’s understanding of our business requirements has resulted in the transition going very smoothly.

About OneVision Software

OneVision Software AG is an international provider of innovative and cost-efficient solutions in the software industry. For over 20 years, the company has developed cost-efficient software for the printing, publishing and media industries and has used its products to establish itself as the world market leader for prepress. Magazine publishers, newspaper publishers and commercial printers worldwide work with products from OneVision and profit from the automation, the reliability and the resulting cost savings. In addition to steady optimisation of the existing solutions, OneVision Software AG continuously invests in developing new products and target customer segments. The company's product portfolio ranges from software for prepress to tools for intelligent colour management and image optimisation to products for digital publishing. Well-known global players in their field rely on the expertise of OneVision and value the benefits they get from working with the software company: time savings, cost reduction and quality improvement.

www.onevision.com