A2Z PDF – an automated imposition software

PChellappan, Managing Partner, PM Digital Products, Chennai has started a new venture called A2Z Binary that is devoted to developing softwares for the offset/digital printing industry. The company has recently launched a software called A2Z PDF. It is not only capable of automated imposition but also helping in readying a PDF file for print.

Imposition means arranging pages in a certain way so that after printing and folding, the pages are in a proper sequence. Most of the imposition softwares are capable of imposing pages for offset printing where the print runs were big. But with the advent of digital printing, the print runs became small and most of the times the print run is just one. Digital printing technology also allows collation during the printing process itself unlike offset printing where gathering is necessary before the final binding process. Hence an imposition software that caters to both offset and digital printers should be able to take full advantage of all that the printing technology has to offer.

Chellappan’s family has been in the offset printing industry for over 60 years and in the digital printing industry for over 12 years. Hence Chellappan is fully aware of what exactly a printer is in need of and what the pain points are. The knowledge gained from this rich experience coupled with his knowledge of software development has helped him to single-handedly develop a software that will benefit not only the sheet-fed/web offset printers but also the digital printers.

Very often the PDF file received from the customer is not a ‘Print Ready’ PDF and needs to be resized, scaled, rotated, flipped, split, joined, tiled etc before the final page imposition stage. At times pages have to be deleted, added and/or re-ordered. Text like page numbers may sometime need to be added. Usually this is a time consuming process and involves the use of several software applications like Illustrator, Photoshop, Corel Draw or Adobe Acrobat. During this process inadvertent errors and change of color profiles may occur and result in a disaster.

Once the PDF file has been made ready for printing, the next step is Page imposition. At the time of imposition, post-press operations (cutting, folding, gathering and type of binding) and print runs have to be taken into consideration. The type of imposition for printing multiple copies is completely different from that for printing a single copy. Similarly the type of imposition for a saddle stitched book is different from that for a Perfect Bound book which is again different from that for a Section Sewed book.

Unfortunately the customer does not pay for all these post-press operations. “The key to success in today’s competitive world is doing all necessary operations in the most efficient and error free way,” says Chellappan.

A2Z PDF provides the perfect solution to the myriad problems faced by today’s printers and helps them in making their printing business a profitable one.

“Proof of the pudding is in the eating,” they say. Chellappan significantly points out that this software has been successfully tested and used in house resulting in a largely bug-free launch of the software product. It reduces pre-press time from hours and minutes to just seconds, he adds.

This affordably priced software is available for download from the company’s website at www.a2zbinary.com. There are two versions of the software. One is A2Z PDF and the other is A2Z PDF PRO. The PRO version has some advanced options and is priced slightly higher. One can get a Free 15 day trial license before the final purchase.

–D. Ramalingam