Edge Color Streamlines Wide-Format Workflow and Achieves Vibrant Quality

Asanti helps Edge Direct automate its prepress, production, and finishing, thereby minimizing manual interventions.

Edge Color Graphics, based in Rochester, N.Y., knows how to keep its customers happy. The team provides high quality, wide-format graphics that take brands to a new level. Clients have increased their print spend, knowing that Edge will deliver bold, bright, and durable point-of-purchase and retail signage that gets them noticed.

When the door opened 11 years ago, the majority of work was solvent and aqueous roll-to-roll (RTR) output, predominantly for trade show applications. But that has changed over the years.

“We transitioned our business to efficiently handle direct-to-board printing,” explains Christopher Stocks, owner of Edge Color Graphics. “The excellent image quality of the Anapurna flatbed is impressive. Plus, it easily handles printing on corrugated board and most all rigid materials. The vacuum even holds down wood. We’ve also printed on glass, ceiling tiles, and plexiglass.”

Stocks purchased two Agfa (Booth 8242) Anapurna FB2540i LED systems, and is running them with  the Asanti workflow.

“We had a third-party RIP for every printer,” explains Stocks. “We had five PCs running independently, and now we run everything through Asanti. Asanti is streamlining all our prepress work, and it even makes cut files. Production is considerably faster. It’s making us more efficient.”

Asanti automates prepress, production, and finishing, thereby minimizing manual interventions. This robust workflow avoids errors and shortens procedures, ultimately simplifying the printing process. Asanti production hub features Agfa’s award-winning color management solution, and integrates with the latest version of Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE).

“When we demonstrated the capabilities of Asanti and the Anapurna flatbed to the wide-format offset printers who run 20-, 30-, and 40,000 POP displays at a time, they were impressed, and awarded us their short-run POP work,” says Stocks. “We can achieve ‘near-offset’ quality, which has opened up doors. The vibrant, saturated color images, combined with our CAD cutting and finishing ability, sets us apart. We deliver what our clients want while exceeding their expectations and deadlines.”

“We can achieve ‘near-offset’ quality, which has opened up doors. We deliver what our clients want while exceeding their expectations and deadlines,” says Christopher Stocks, owner of Edge Color Graphics

The Anapurna FB2540i LED is a high-speed, UV-curable flatbed inkjet system with speeds up to 1034 sqft/hr, offering pinpoint precision and high-density, intense color output on practically any rigid and sheet material. Ideal for both step-and-repeat work and for running multiple jobs on differently sized media, the Anapurna FB2540i LED features borderless printing, which avoids an extra finishing step while reducing costs and improving turnaround time.

This six-color plus white Anapurna flatbed has 13 pl printheads for high-density color printing. The accuracy of the Anapurna 2540i LED delivers pre-, post-, and sandwich-white in one run, increasing productivity.

With this technology, Edge Color Graphics continues to service customers that started working with them when the business launched 11 years ago. “We are celebrating our most successful month,” says Stocks. “Customers enjoy working with us. Our clients say they can rely on us. They come to us with a problem, and we bring them a solution. I hear from new customers that it’s so much easier to interact with Edge, and that makes us proud. Our people are our best asset. That is our intrinsic value and what makes us unique.”

Asanti and Anapurna are helping Edge Color Graphics provide high quality, large format graphics that take brands to a new level.