Efficiencies within labels and packaging prepress production are improved through the enhanced suite of Adobe® Illustrator® plugins

FFEI Ltd, the global developer of award-winning digital imaging solutions, today announces a range of new enhancements to their RealPro Toolkit prepress software that was launched at Packaging Innovations 2013 – a feature-rich software suite of tools designed to overcome the challenges of a label and packaging prepress cycle.

In response to customer feedback the latest release of RealPro Toolkit includes 12 new features that have been developed to further improve efficiencies in prepress work. These include a new FX module for managing the identification and elimination of banding and other artefacts on flat colours. Colour editing using curves on both Vector and Raster artwork is also possible. This is particularly useful for modifications of objects printed on highly reflective metallic/holographic substrates where profiles cannot be effectively made.

Furthermore when creating the imposition layout, it’s now possible to select a spot colour from the one-up file to be used for defining the CAD lines.  This is a great time saving feature – if you know the spot colour name used in the one-up artwork, you can go straight to creating the stepped job, import the one-up artwork and select the colour used.

According to Andy Cook, FFEI Managing Director, FFEI have seen increasing demand for a packaging pre-press solution that enables users to prepare native Adobe® Illustrator® files and PDF for production efficiently.

“I’ve been overwhelmed with the response from our customers for Realpro Toolkit. It’s always a privilege to hear how our products are helping to transform customers business, especially as it gives my team the enthusiasm to keep pushing the boundaries of innovation” Cook continued “This latest version really is a great set of additional features which I know we are all excited about. It overcomes the challenges that so many prepress technicians face – proprietary file formats, PDF format conversion, lost layers, transparency issues – just to name a few!”

Aimed at design agencies, trade-shops and label converters, Realpro Toolkit increases productivity, and standardises document structure from design concept to production ready files, regardless of the print process.

RealPro Toolkit prepress software consists of over 12 modules designed to address specific prepress workflow requirements such as file editing and preparation, colour management, trapping and step and repeat tasks. Features also extend to specialist tasks such as cylinder repeats, patterns and artwork pre-distortion, all displayed in a user-friendly interface.

Supporting all industry standard file formats, RealPro Toolkit integrates seamlessly into any existing workflow and is highly optimised for APPE-based solutions. All linked data remains live inside the final stepped PDF, enabling the 1up file to be easily replaced, and modules such as step and repeat, and trapping, can all be edited from within the workflow. This provides users flexible data that is less prone to errors and quick to process in APPE-based solutions.