Monarch Planner Prepress Automation with Prinergy Prepress Integration

The EFI (Booth 1902) Monarch Print MIS/ERP solution provides a solid foundation for the end-to-end management and optimization of the office and the shop floor. Monarch Planner is the advanced workflow planning and automation component of EFI Monarch MIS/ERP software for larger commercial print enterprises. Now, with direct integration to Kodak PRINERGY Prepress, businesses can move production-critical information quickly and effectively from the order processing and planning phase to production.

The Monarch Planner automation works closely with PRINERGY to essentially take over prepress management. More importantly, Planner is “content-aware” – able to receive content details, insert them into the imposition, provide a visual review with content in place, and build a plate-ready PDF in the correct format for the selected press. This plate-ready PDF includes marks such as trim, registration, color bars, and plate IDs, all dynamically aligned to the layout for each press form. Using CIP4 JDF technology, the content position, geometry and PDF are communicated to Prinergy, which creates an imposition plan on the spot. This automation also has the ability to adjust geometry, such as an A4 ad that is received for an 8.5x11” publication, or to account for last-minute imposition or target press changes.

When EFI PrintFlow is incorporated into this workflow, smart software replaces human intervention from the time the client uploads a document or publication to the time the plates are generated by PRINERGY, all controlled by the MIS. This will provide a higher level of accuracy and will eliminate the need for time-consuming prepress operations and the manual selection of production templates.

Another unique attribute of this workflow automation solution is single-form submission, which means, as soon as a signature is ready for printing, it can be printed without the need to have the entire publication ready for production. This is particularly helpful in applications such as school textbooks, allowing chapters to be written and produced piecemeal, which better aligns with the preferred publisher workflow.

Finally, this automated workflow process allows for fast and easy last-minute changes in page count, page order and more, allowing publishers to reorder pages based on a variety of factors, including the ability to upsell better advertising placement at the last minute.

EFI Monarch Planner/Kodak Prinergy Automation is part of the EFI Productivity Suite offering. The Productivity Suite utilizes smart software to globally optimize a business from the client’s desk throughout planning, production and delivery. EFI is working on similar automation projects for Agfa :Apogee Prepress and Heidelberg Prinect.