Automator

Pre-RIP prepress management system for newspaper production

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Process automation for newspapers

Are you trying to figure out how to do the same amount of work with fewer people? Perhaps you want to expand but can’t afford the human resources. Puzzleflow has many success stories of sites making the move to Intelligent Automation using PuzzleFlow Automator.

What about file problems and production errors? Is there a way to reduce human errors in the production environment? The best way is to reduce manual steps in your job preparation process. Automated prepress, ad management and production administration software will allow your company to provide reliable service to your customers, to stay ahead of your compition and to keep your operators on profitable tasks.

If you are a newspaper or magazine publisher, PuzzleFlow Automator is the system built from the ground up to meet your needs. PuzzleFlow Automator will validate your incoming files, correct them for common prepress issues, notify you about the problems, auto-resize incoming ads and documents based on any number of dynamic parameters, and automate archiving and purging of your files. Whether you create your files in-house, get files from diverse sources, or outsource your printing, PuzzleFlow Automator is the digital front-end you need to stay ahead.

Features

Automatic preflighting with pinpoint notification of problem areas
Over 150 preflight checks (Ghent PDF Workgroup – GWG v3 compliant)
Automatic size verification of ads and pages (with size fixing option by ad type, Q type, product name, or advertiser)
Accepts Postscript, PDF, EPS, XPS, TIFF and JPG as input formats
Automatic output generation and distribution of all needed file formats for web, archiving and other purposes (PDF,EPS, TIF, JPG, GIF, PNG, etc.)
Automator can make the latest PDF ads work with your current pagination system
Automatic color management, color remapping and color conversion
Full integration with ad booking and tracking systems (optional)
Automatic notification of problems and logging of all activities
Automatic proofing / exporting of ads and pages at proof and approval stages
100% web based interface: approve, reject, proof, export, view history, and view all processing details using your browser on any PC or Mac
Rules based processing engine to auto-ftp, auto-email, or auto-deliver anything to anywhere.
Unlimited Users
Optimizes all files to work with other systems
Reporting engine logs all activities
Accepts files by any method: drop folder, printer, ftp, etc…

Benefits

Allow your top operators to spend their time on your top customers
Automates the majority of front-end tasks: stop shaking your head every time you see someone working on something you know can be done by a computer
Corrects file errors and removes human error – production files just work
A production system that automatically followes the specs of your ad booking data
A production system that communicates with and makes decisions with your ad booking, tracking and layout systems
Automatically processes and sends files (ads or pages) to other systems and companies based upon your needs using dynamic rules that you define
Manage your entire production system from any web browser

Testimonials

“We were given the orders to shut down our in-house printing and it would be sent out to the Baltimore Sun. Puzzleflow Automator made the transition smooth and painless. After 4 days of onsite installation and training, we were ready for the move. We have seen our prepress department go from 10 to 4 people with the automation we have gotten from the product. We continue to find new features with every maintenance upgrade performed. It’s especially rewarding to see our own suggestions for improvements get implemented into the product.” , says Dan Hiniker, Prepress Manager, The Washington Times.

“I’ve gotten praises so far with how easy it is to use and understand. I also like that we can schedule nightly uploads of PDFs and JPG’s to our website, Newseum, etc.. Training was very easy, the software only required a couple hours of training for end users. We’re a full PDF workflow now and we can send good, optimized PDF’s to our remote press shop and printers. I was really impressed with how they had no problem making the system work with our 12 year old classified system.”, says Brian Burbank, Systems Manager, The Pocono Record.

“The Puzzleflow Automator system greatly reduces the time we spend on mundane repetitious tasks which enable us to spend more time designing ads. I never realized how much time we spent on the average day processing pick-up ads, waiting for jobs to be processed by the printer and emailing ad proofs until we started using the system. The Puzzleflow system makes our day go much smoother, I wouldn’t give it up for the world!”, says Holly Pelliccione, Design Department, Daily American.