With the launch of Asanti 3.0 – the latest version of Agfa Graphics’ automated production hub and workflow tool for sign and display printers – Agfa offers wide-format printers new functionalities, more integration possibilities and added automation. Combining these innovations with Agfa’s signature colour management solution, automatic pre-flighting and the new intuitive GUI, Asanti 3.0 promises to revolutionise workflow management completely.
Sign and display producers need streamlined and automated processes. Asanti is Agfa Graphics’ response to that need: one workflow tool for wide-format printers to manage all their data and devices. What’s more, version 3.0 allows for integration with third-party print equipment, MIS solutions and with the new, in-house software like PrintSphere and StoreFront.
“It really is a complete production hub that streamlines the entire workflow from beginning to end,” explains Erik Peeters, marketing manager workflow solutions, Agfa Graphics. “As such, it allows print professionals to avoid errors and minimise manual interventions, shorten prepress procedures and thus simplify the entire printing process.”
Among the Asanti 3.0 innovations is IntelliTune, which automatically analyses and improves image quality by optimising skin tones, for example, or by eliminating noise or staircasing and blurriness.
“This is truly unique in the world of wide-format printers,” Peeters adds. “IntelliTune is completely automatic and integrated into Asanti. It contributes to the simplification of complex workflows, as well as to the consistent quality of printed images.”
Asanti 3.0 also boasts new features such as convenient proofing support with QuickProof which helps to avoid waste, an improved digital alternative for see-through graphics on clear material, optimised automation thanks to the use of new parameter presets and smart image repetition possibilities to further increase productivity.
Next to Asanti’s intuitive graphical user interface featuring improved job layout and positioning visualisation, version 3.0 offers a new user interface for tiling huge jobs.
“Our aim is to simplify the complete product life cycle of complex projects like tiling. As such, Asanti adds mounting instructions on the prints to ease the stitching and finishing after printing,” Peeters says.
In addition, Asanti’s dedicated production dashboard displays all print jobs, the number of prints, status data of multiple engines, ink levels, elapsed time and more –all in one overview.
“It is all HTML5-based and works perfectly for those in close contact with clients and financial connections,” asserts Peeters.
New to Asanti Color Management is the advanced mode that allows printers to use a wizard for managing colours and shortening throughput time, and it features new white printing options. Finally Asanti 3.0 allows for overruling special spot colours (e.g. brand colours) by dedicated colour alternatives, in order to reproduce them with high accuracy, even on challenging media.