Prepress
dots iSWT 4 – the dots answer for Web-to-Print
Tuesday 13. May 2008 - dots to unveil latest Web-to-Print solution at drupa 2008: interactive printing portal dots iSWT 4.
dots iSWT 4 is designed particularly for commercial printers who act as print outsourcing partners for business and public administration and need to operate integrated order-to-delivery workflows to respond swiftly to customer orders… Offering print providers and their customers the utmost in security, transparency and control, the new interactive printing portal is ideal for these integrated workflows. With iSWT 4, office users in particular benefit from easy ordering. They can place orders in the simplest conceivable manner: by clicking the print command in their usual applications.
dots iSWT 4 is a Web 2.0 based front end that acts as an optimal communication bridge between clients and the printshop. Clients place their orders via a structured web interface which is customized precisely to their needs. The detailed print data preview and instant price display make the process highly transparent and actively involve print buyers in the steps to place their order. Print providers benefit from the ability to design a striking storefront for their services, with product icons, price lists and user views. Offering huge effectiveness gains for printers, dots iSWT 4 makes print buying part of a closed-loop workflow between buyer and provider.
dots iSWT 4 places the incoming print data on the printshop server in PDF file format, ready for further processing. The job information (the client, required number of copies, type of product, etc.) is stored in the dots Job&Order Ticket, which accompanies the job throughout its workflow. dots recommends a combination with dots Cockpit 4 JTX, which enables the data from the Job&Order Ticket to be used in the downstream production process and can even help automate this process.
Alongside its established suite of professional print functions such as file merge, imposition and tab printing, dots Cockpit 4 JTX offers an array of innovative extensions. The dots Colour Split function helps substantially reduce print costs by ensuring that colour printers only print the job pages which actually contain colour – all the other pages are routed to black & white systems. Following printing, dots Colour Split automatically re-assembles the pages in the correct sequence. The new configurable job ticket creates greater transparency for intranet-based submission of print data, and makes this step of the workflow even easier to manage and execute.
dots is also introducing a new product concept with the release of Version 4: the interactive printing portal dots iSWT4, and dots established solution for the central print room, dots Cockpit 4, can now also be used separately. Together, they form the new dots software suite.
Product profiles:
dots iSWT 4
– Interactive printing portal
– Easily customizable GUI
– Fast, interactive order placement
– Icon-based product catalogue
– Instant online estimate
– New: stand-alone web front end
– New: Web 2.0 based
dots Cockpit 4 JTX
– Powerful solution for the central print room
– Print job submission via intranet
– Internet job submission via dots iSWT 4
– Professional printing functions
– Workflow automation tools
– New: Colour Split Option
– New: Customizable Job&Order Ticket