The year 2020 was heavily defined by the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, worldwide lockdowns, and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

In the pre-2020 decade in the printing industry, the focus was on utilising capacities that were built in the first decade of the millennium. Fierce competition and price wars had resulted in margin erosion.

Digital printing was still evolving. Tablets and digital devices had disrupted reading habits. Book and newspaper printing had collapsed. Commercial printers had to race to diversify into packaging and large-format printing.

Innovations in print and post-press equipment resulted in higher levels of automation, which only enhanced the available capacity in a crowded market, resulting in the further erosion of many bottom lines.

InSoft Automation understood that optimisation was of utmost importance.

The company’s talented developers built optimisation algorithms that revolutionised layout planning, with some never before imagined features. The new methodology empowered printers to move to a single imposition, nesting and ganging software for an array of different printing techniques and applications.

Printed Easy was InSoft’s first client to build an Industry 4.0 workflow in 2017. Andy Kent, Printed Easy’s head of workflow and automation, was instrumental in building the workflow.

He said: “Imp software is the most powerful and dynamic imposition software I have ever used.

“Imp ensures that operators consistently produce impositions perfectly aligned with your in-house machines, eliminating human error. Fantastic development…it really has changed our business for the better.”