Canadian-based large format business Advantage Signs and Graphics accelerates productivity and enhances overall quality of graphics with Esko’s i-cut Suite.
Industry
large format printer
Solution
i-cut Suite
Advantage Signs and Graphics is a family owned and operated large format business, based in Canada, with over 20 years of sign making and digital printing experience.
Advantage Signs and Graphics excels at producing short-run, full color jobs with quick turnaround on a variety of substrates.
The company specializes in producing large format prints like trade show displays, full-color banners, vinyl-cut banners, backlit signs, decals, vehicle graphics, window graphics, Coroplast signs, and specialty items, like magnetics.
We had used i-cut Suite for just a few weeks, and already experienced much faster production — our graphic designer said in some instances it has been 75% faster than our previous way of handling PDF files and imposition.
Jeff Beaton, Vice President, Advantage Signs & Graphics, Canada
Advantage is always on the lookout for technology that will help speed up productivity, as well as the overall quality of the products they create.
Before, Advantage used Adobe® Illustrator® to preflight all of its files. But if they were missing fonts, the file just wouldn’t open. So, they either had to return to the client to collect the fonts, or change the font. Either way, it was a waiting game.
One of the big time-savers is that we are able to do all our editing right in i-cut Preflight—we don’t have to return to Illustrator. If there is something wrong with the file, i-cut Preflight automatically relays the information and tells us how to fix it.
Jeff Beaton, Vice President, Advantage Signs & Graphics, Canada
Advantage installed Esko’s i-cut Suite to help speed up the process of setting up files for printing and cutting on their Kongsberg digital finishing table.
i-cut Suite is a collection of pre-production software targeted specifically at users of large format digital printers and/or digital finishing systems.
i-cut Suite boosts the efficiency and profitability of large format production, regardless of the type, source and variety of the incoming job information.
Our i-cut Suite has saved us significant time and has really enhanced our Kongsberg table. The software has made it more efficient; they definitely go hand in hand.
Jeff Beaton, Vice President, Advantage Signs & Graphics, Canada
Advantage saves a lot of time by using i-cut Suite. The graphic designer can open PDF files even if Advantage does not have the fonts on the system for example—something they could never do in Illustrator.
One of its popular features is that it will flatten any file to a low-res PDF version, so when they are transferring files, they aren’t spending hours loading them.
The software has special tools to create and fix cutting contours very fast. It also adds a bleed to edge, so if the cutting table is off a bit, the printed piece still looks great.