Prepress
SAi at ISA
Friday 26. April 2019 - Super-charged software solution includes powerful new 64-bit RIP that delivers more than 30% increase in speed for users, as well as suite of practical new tools
SAi has announced the introduction of Flexi 19, a more powerful and feature-rich update of its flagship signmaking software, engineered to meet the demanding design to production challenges of sign & display and large format print providers.
Central to the super-charged Flexi 19 is a faster and more high-performance 64-bit RIP engine. Thanks to an increase in speed of more than 30%, the new solution delivers significantly more thrust to greatly improve the production capabilities for sign & display and large format print businesses.
Created as an all-in-one solution for design, print, print-and-cut and direct-to-vinyl production workflow, Flexi 19 also comprises a host of invaluable, easy-to-use features and tools – some of which will be available free-of-charge to SAi subscription-based customers. These include more than a dozen brand new additions, each geared towards improving the design, production and business aspects of users operations.
From Design
Among the convenient new tools introduced to ensure a more efficient and hassle-free design workflow, is Find my Font. This lets users open different photo files – including Bitmaps – before automatically detecting the font or the best match of that used in the file.
Another new addition is a PANTONE Fine-Tune Spot Color Matching Tool. Particularly useful for sign & display companies that regularly use Pantone books, this tool allows users to measure charts and make manual adjustments to achieve precise color matching from ICC profiles – not only saving time, but also ensuring color accuracy.
And Production
Within Flexi 19s suite of production tools is a newly-introduced Cut by Layers or Colors tool, which allows users to expand their ability to cut intricate designs based on the layer. This builds on Flexis long-standing use of colors to distinguish between the different vinyls to be cut. For added convenience, SAi has also enabled layers for those users that work with other software, but who can then take the job into Flexi. In addition, Flexi 19 includes a handy printed Ruler along artwork to let operators know where they left off.
To Business
Flexi 19 also comprises a raft of business-enhancing tools, including five completely new additions. Among them, Pulse, delivers data in a dashboard. This allows sign and display users to track production and media usage of projects in progress via graphs and pie charts. In addition, Sidekick lets users create quotes, manage customer accounts, and ultimately implement a CRM workflow so jobs can quickly and effortlessly be exported into the invoicing process.
Other highlight tools include:
Improved Spot Color Mapping – a particularly useful feature that empowers users to rapidly and accurately map spot/corporate colors in the design file to exact output values. This ensures the printer matches the desired output color for each new job. Using Custom Spot Color Mapping enables sign and large format print providers to easily build their own custom library of spot colors, ensuring such colors are precisely replicated every time they are printed.
An enhanced Profile Wizard – designed to make it easier when setting ink limits and alleviating the invariably complicated process of splitting ink. The automated Profile Wizard lets users obtain such information from measuring charts, taking away the manual guess work required when creating profiles visually.
“As the largest ever upgrade to our all-in-one signmaking solution, Flexi 19 packs an extremely hard punch in catering for the varied and sometimes intricate requirements of those operating at the coal face of todays sign and display industry,” says Gudrun Bonte, Vice President of Product Management, SAi.