Caldera works with Zund on new PrimeCenter

Caldera has brought out PrimeCenter - a prepress automation solution designed in conjunction with Zund for wide-format print-and-cut workflows.

The Caldera-owned and branded product has been developed to meet the move from a “ready to print” to a “ready to produce” mindset. The software solution sits upstream from the Rip, enabling production to be scaled. It consolidates preflight, bleeding and nesting into one tool. Different input image files (pdf, tif, jpeg, png) coming in from clients can be automatically prepared and optimised. These files are preflighted, marked and nested together, into ready for production layouts. PrimeCenter doesn’t replace the Rip as it does not directly drive any printer or cutter, but acts as a firewall, preventing earlier issues at the production stage. Production is streamlined thanks to the PrimeCenter’s ability to inject job meta data, and this contributes to complete workflow tracking using XML to connect to MIS and ERP solutions. There are three editions of the product. PrimeCenter Basic requires users to manually apply a combination of actions such as preflight, nesting and bleeding in what are called recipes. PrimeCenter Pro represents a step up - the application of recipes is semi-automated via the automatic import of incoming files. Layouts are automatically generated, though not instantly exported to the controller or the Rip. PrimeCenter Max handles the latter too.