PressTune
Take total control with Agfa’s comprehensive PressTune print standardization tool. Benefit from more accurate, consistent colors, faster make-ready times, lower ink consumption, smoother approvals and an overall increase in efficiency and productivity.
PressTune is a comprehensive and unique print standardization solution that guarantees color consistency and ensures that printing jobs meet ISO, G7, and even client-specific standards. It increases productivity by lowering ink and paper consumption, significantly reducing make-ready time and improving communication between prepress operator, quality management and print buyers.
How is this possible? PressTune contains powerful analytics capabilities, based on lab values obtained through spectrophotometer measurement tools. This vital print and color data is collected straight from the printing press, and enables the objective evaluation of printing jobs related to specific standards. By doing away with subjective evaluations, print plants can operate in a standardized way and get more jobs done in less time. What’s more, this unique solution operates independently of printing technology and press manufacturer.
Benefits
- Set the standards – and always live up to them: PressTune allows printing professionals to measure color reproduction against any identified standard, including ISO 12647, G7, and specific buyer requirements. The pass-fail reporting process and scorecard system certifies that jobs are printed exactly to specification, improving quality and consistency.
- Avoid wasted prints: By monitoring up to 12 spot colors, PressTune guides operators to adjust the press to remain within tolerances when chemistry, paper, ink and other variables change. In this way, wasted paper is reduced by up to 26% on average.
- Flexible performance management: PressTune reports across multiple printing technologies, including offset, flexographic, and digital print, and offers unparalleled flexibility in performance management.
- Reduce make-ready time: By improving communication between prepress, pressroom and quality departments, PressTune ensures that jobs are printed to specification and reprint targets are met. Lower wastage and higher productivity will make a significant improvement to the bottom line.
- Faster validation: PressTune’s real-time job verification function eliminates the need for clients to be physically present on press sign-off, thus saving travel time and costs.
- Same quality anytime – anywhere: PressTune can be deployed as a cloud-based solution and therefore be rolled out across different printing presses and sites. In this way, it helps you maintain the same consistency and quality, and opens up the possibility of assigning jobs by site to maximize economy and efficiency.
- Use with any printing technology: Developed by Agfa, PressTune can be deployed with any prepress workflow solution or printing technology.
Erik Peeters, Marketing Manager Workflow Solutions, explains in detail why PressTune and InkTune will add value to your business.
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Myron Shapiro, President at Ohio-based HOT Graphics, discusses their experiences after using PressTune for over a year.
“PressTune is helping us understand what is happening on the press sheet, rather than just looking at densities or evaluating color by eye. It helps us see through the run and lets us know where we can make adjustments to improve quality.”
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Jack Brown, Executive Vice President
Graphic Visual Solutions - USA
“With PressTune and InkTune, we save 30 to 50 sheets during make-ready, and around 15% of ink. PressTune enables us to comply with the Process Standard Offset regulations, and to analyze and control the consistency and quality of our print jobs.”
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Izabela Jasińska, Director
db Print Polska - Poland
“With Agfa´s PressTune, we have the possibility today to verify if a specific job or print run is printed according to the intended ISO standard. In this way, we can have an incredible control over our presses’ output.”
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Magnus Sandström, Digital Workflow Manager
Taberg Media Group - Sweden
“We are an IS0 14001 accredited business, so tools like the Agfa PressTune and InkTune software ensuring colour consistency, ink optimisation and print quality help deliver environmental benefits through reduced ink consumption and paper waste.”
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Mark Roberts, Managing Director
Acorn Web Offset - UK
“We have gained greater control with PressTune. We can objectively evaluate printing jobs and guarantee consistency according to specific standards.””
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K. J. Yang, General Manager
Getech Printing Technology - Taiwan
“PressTune helps us with the quick short impression runs we are specialized in to achieve the G7 quality standard in minimum time, and the software also allows us to guarantee brand continuity through all products. We find PressTune easy to use and it's well integrated within our Apogee workflow.”
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Brad Clark, Prepress Manager
The Burke Group - USA
Features
Dryback compensation
The process of ink drying can have a significant impact on the end result. As a result, the colors that leave the printer can be different from what the client will see. With its innovative Dryback Compensation technology, PressTune can predict and include drying effects in its calculations, guaranteeing color fidelity without unpleasant surprises and disappointed customers.
Data gathering and feedback
PressTune gathers data from all presses on the network providing an easy to read dashboard for all stakeholders. For example, operators see how to adjust density, pre-press how to update tonal curves and management accesses overall trends. This resulting in faster production and continuous improvement.
Empowers the Apogee workflow
PressTune establishes two-way communication with Apogee’s prepress workflow. Apogee sends printing job data to PressTune to allow the calibration of the ink keys. PressTune sends data to Apogee (or to any prepress software) to optimize the calibration curve to compensate for dot gain and hit the required standard.
Analysis and predictive maintenance
Thanks to PressTune’s analytic capabilities, it’s easier to optimize press maintenance schedules, ensuring maximum up-time. These analytical tools help diagnose problems with presses, substrates and even operators before they become serious. Use long-term data to demonstrate to customers the print quality supplied to reinforce client loyalty.
Dynamic Density Adjustment Algorithm (DDA)
PressTune’s DDA algorithm provides the best possible density adjustment for each ink key and color, and calculates the adjustment for each new job. Real-time adjustment maintains color consistency throughout the production run and ensures customer standards are always met.
Report to the stakeholders
As a quality-managed network solution, PressTune reports in real time to each stakeholder.
- Printing press operators can monitor key elements that influence print quality such as ink-water balance, ink pollution, and more, which are displayed on-screen. They can then make adjustments on the fly to maximize overall printing quality and reduce the amount of unusable prints.
- Quality and plant managers see a clear trend analysis of printing jobs, printing presses, and even individual press operators. This allows them to identify problems, schedule maintenance, and see where additional training is needed.
- Brand owners and print buyers can check and approve the actual print quality of their orders remotely via PressTune’s customized graphic user interface. This eliminates the need for costly and time-consuming on-premise quality checks, and enhances customer loyalty.
ECO³
Agfa is committed to sustainable innovation focused on ecology, economy, and extra convenience – or ECO³. We develop integrated solutions – consisting of hardware, consumables, software and services – that streamline your prepress and printing operations and make them cleaner, more cost-effective and easier to operate and maintain. All while guaranteeing superior and consistent print quality.
The result? More value for your entire business!
PressTune and InkTune: a printing power combo
Use PressTune in combination with InkTune, Agfa’s ink reduction software, for optimum results. The combination of PressTune and InkTune reduces overall ink usage, improves quality and speeds production workflow so both you and your customer benefit. With its powerful process control and analytics capabilities, PressTune helps create the ideal environment for InkTune to work its magic. In addition, the cloud-based PressTune solution allows you to deploy InkTune across different printing sites, greatly enhancing opportunities for cost reduction and promoting consistency across the board. Your clients will love it.