SAi speeds up Flexi sign making software with new upgrade

SAi has announced the introduction of Flexi 19, a more powerful and feature-rich update of its flagship sign making software, engineered to meet the demanding design to production challenges of sign & display and large format print providers.

Unveiled at the ISA International Sign Expo in Las Vegas at the end of April, Flexi 19 will also be showcased at FESPA Munich in May (Stand A5-F31).

“As the largest ever upgrade to our all-in-one signmaking solution, Flexi 19 packs an extremely hard punch in catering for the varied and sometimes intricate requirements of those operating at the coal face of today’s sign and display industry,” says Gudrun Bonte, Vice President of Product Management, SAi.

Created as an all-in-one solution for design, print, print-and-cut and direct-to-vinyl production workflow, the new super-charged software solution includes a powerful new 64-bit RIP that delivers more than 30 percent increase in speed for users, as well as a suite of practical new features and tools - some of which will be available free-of-charge to SAi subscription-based customers. These include more than a dozen brand new additions, each geared towards improving the design, production and business aspects of users’ operations.

Among the convenient new tools introduced to ensure a more efficient and hassle-free design workflow, is Find my Font. This lets users open different photo files – including Bitmaps – before automatically detecting the font or the best match of that used in the file.

Another new addition is a PANTONE Fine-Tune Spot Colour Matching Tool. Particularly useful for sign & display companies that regularly use Pantone books, this tool allows users to measure charts and make manual adjustments to achieve precise colour matching from ICC profiles – not only saving time, but also ensuring colour accuracy.

Within Flexi 19’s suite of production tools is a newly-introduced Cut by Layers or Colours tool, which allows users to expand their ability to cut intricate designs based on the layer. This builds on Flexi’s long-standing use of colours to distinguish between the different vinyls to be cut. For added convenience, SAi has also enabled layers for those users that work with other software, but who can then take the job into Flexi. In addition, Flexi 19 includes a handy printed Ruler along artwork to let operators know where they left off.

Flexi 19 also comprises a raft of business-enhancing tools, including five completely new additions. Among them, Pulse, delivers ‘data in a dashboard’. This allows sign and display users to track production and media usage of projects in progress via graphs and pie charts. In addition, Sidekick lets users create quotes, manage customer accounts, and ultimately implement a CRM workflow so jobs can quickly and effortlessly be exported into the invoicing process.

Other highlight tools include:

Improved Spot Mapping – a particularly useful feature that empowers users to rapidly and accurately map spot/corporate colours in the design file to exact output values. This ensures the printer matches the desired output colour for each new job. Using Custom Spot Colour Mapping enables sign and large format print providers to easily build their own custom library of spot colours, ensuring such colours are precisely replicated every time they are printed.

An enhanced Profile Wizard – designed to make it easier when setting ink limits and alleviating the invariably complicated process of splitting ink. The automated Profile Wizard lets users obtain such information from measuring charts, taking away the manual guesswork required when creating profiles visually.