Clarity Nesting, which was released at the start of July, integrates with the estimating software in Clarity's MIS, allowing printers to find the best fit nested layouts for rigid and flexible cluster jobs before sending quotes to clients.

Richard Gamlin, managing director of Clarity, said: "Our customers are constantly looking for a new competitive edge without sacrificing margin. Clarity Nesting allows you to see the best possible layout for the job, so you know exactly what material you need to cost for and price accordingly."

The module is available as a plug-in for the Clarity Professional MIS, which costs from around £1,000 for a single user plus training, up to five figures for bigger systems with 50 users or more. Clarity marketing manager Emerson Welch said that based on a five-user system, the Clarity Nesting module would cost between £2,000 and £3,000.

He added that one of the advantages over other third-party nesting packages was greater integration with the MIS. "You simply hit a button in the MIS to bring up the nesting option and then you can adjust the best fit layout to minimise the costs and production time," said Welch.

"By clustering the jobs more effectively at the front end [for a roll-to-roll job] so that they're spread out less along the length of the reel, not only are you minimising material use and waste and recycling costs, but you're getting the jobs away quicker."

The PDFs generated by the Clarity Nesting module can be sent straight to production, saving hours of design time and driving orders to be processed faster.

Welch said that the module could minimise the risk for printers investing in hardware that will allow them to diversify into new markets. "If you're buying a printer that will allow you bring some production that you've historically had to outsource in-house, this software will allow you to take that sort of rise with a bit more confidence that you can stay on top of the costs," he added.