Princeton, NJ, 30th June 2011 - More newspapers report improved quality and lower production costs after implementing ProImage ink optimization software. Production staff at the Austin American Statesman had a quality issue caused by out of specification individual ads or complete pages being sent to the press with incorrect ink values mixed together with correct specification files, some with as much as 300% total area coverage. This made ink setting on press very difficult.

Kit Yearty, Vice President of Operations at the newspaper said, “We continually made attempts to have incoming files corrected and resent to us. Results were spotty and time consuming. We spent a year developing a list of ‘permitted’ to fix files. We would then use a PDF plug-in to fix those, and still have to contact the customer or ad agency. This provided results, but was time consuming.”

The Austin American Statesman resolved the problem, and also made financial savings, by implementing ProImage OnColor ECO ink optimization software.

“The ECO Solution normalized all files so our ink presets were accurate, plus our first full quarter of using the software saved around 24% of ink costs.” stated Kit Yearty.

Additional benefits for the newspaper include controlled conversion to CMYK for any RGB files received, improved print quality with better detail, and less ink set-off and show-through.

Yearty added “We chose ProImage ECO Solution because it was a great fit for our workflow and ECO promised greater ink savings while protecting our gray bar furniture, and other specified color mixes.”

Another newspaper also benefitting from the software is the Eau Claire Press Company in Wisconsin. For this company implementing ink optimization was not primarily a cost-saving exercise; the major goal was to improve color tone and quality – and help the press crews.

Martin Winegarden, Director of Information Technology said, “We wanted a solution that would save on our color ink consumption but at the same time maintain or improve quality. We previously used a lower end solution that provided a modicum of ink savings but it didn't have the intelligence necessary to process every item on a page, and treat each differently. We found with ProImage ECO our quality for color pages has actually improved. Images are sharper and colors are more natural.”

He added, “The fact that it pays for itself, and then some, makes it an easy decision. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to implement it. Even if their color quality is pretty good already, OnColor ECO may improve it further. If color ink costs are under tight control it won't hurt, and may very well reduce them. So basically, there really isn't any way to go wrong with this solution.”

ProImage OnColor ECO is proving its value in newspaper and commercial printing companies around the globe. With many newspapers being faced with fewer production resources everything that will assist production is a valuable asset.  Importantly, as well as reduce costs however, less ink also helps newspapers to reduce their carbon footprint.

About New ProImage
First established in 1995, New ProImage Limited provides advanced workflow technologies that offer the printing industry flexible and feature-rich end-to-end communications, workflow management, color processing and production tracking solutions using a standard Internet browser. Hundreds of leading newspaper publishers rely upon ProImage mission-critical technologies every day. New ProImage Limited is based in Netanya, Israel, twenty miles north of Tel Aviv.  In Europe the company manages sales and support from offices in London, UK and in the Americas and Asia from Princeton, New Jersey. The company may be found on the Web at: www.new-proimage.com