Metrix, which gangs multiple jobs to make the most efficient use possible of every printed sheet, has used XML since the release of Metrix 2.0 in 2006 to automate pre-press and finishing setup.

However, trying alternate planning scenarios, adding marks to non-standard work, and approving and exporting the project to pre-press and finishing has always required operator intervention.

This has changed with Metrix 2011.1 via Metrix Automation, which enable estimators, planners, pre-press operators, or other software systems to send XML data to Metrix and move on to other tasks, while Metrix automatically performs the work.

LithoTechnics said that the software, which is available as a standalone server solution, Metrix Automation Server, or as a module for standard Metrix users, called Automation Lite, can now automate job planning and imposition right up to and including the imaging of the plates, provided no error conditions have been triggered.

Metrix Automation can be configured to send email for various events, including successful completion for a particular project, or when operator attention is required. An associated feature, Automation Workflows, enables similarly automated processing directly from any Metrix client.

Alan Dixon, managing director of UK distributor Workflowz, said: "Integration with the MIS is key to successful deployments and we have many POS, Retail and commercial printers using Metrix to drive down production costs through time and materials savings.

"Further improved efficiencies are now possible during the calculation stages, not just in production, with a lights out solution for actually planning the work through the new Automation Lite module.

"This allows our existing clients to make even greater costs savings in an ever more demanding market, and has sparked renewed interest from other prospects who also wish to keep their costs under control."

Metrix 2011.1 Automation Server is aimed at large companies requiring high throughput, and allows for a "virtually unlimited" number of hot folders, and parallel processing of multiple concurrent projects per hot folder.

Metrix 2011.1 Automation Lite is for lower-volume users and is an optional module for Metrix that allows for a single hot folder per Metrix client, processing one project at a time per hot folder.

Rohan Holt, president of LithoTechnics and inventor of Metrix, said: "End-to-end, lights-out automation has always been part of the Metrix vision, and for certain markets Metrix Automation completely fulfills that dream.

"Metrix Automation will do, totally automatically, what many companies spend hours of skilled labour doing. Many printers have a hard time believing this is possible. I invite everyone to schedule a demonstration with one of our resellers or with us, and have a look for yourself. Seeing is believing."