>Back to ACT2²

Job GROUPING for Direct-to-Plate or Plate Image

ACT2² provides a module that performs the grouping of jobs into a logical order for placement on printing plates or printed pages. Order grouping is a program that may be executed as often as is deemed necessary to produce plates for the press room. Jobs are placed onto plate images with respect to stock, ink color and one of several priorities (either assigned priority, first-in-first-out, etc.).

In most cases Grouping is performed soliciting the user input regarding the type of plates to produce. Users may indicate which stock(s), ink(s), order(s) and which plate layout(s) to address. The user may select all combinations and Grouping will do its best to produce full plates according to a user defined sequence of plate layouts (i.e. 12up then 8 up then 4 up, etc.).

Because Grouping performs a function normally assigned to an individual, the level of individual needed to run the Grouping software is diminished greatly. Orders may be entered randomly, without any regard for ink color, stock, etc., or any other of the normal grouping concerns since this program will provide that logic automatically. Also, it will free up those individuals for other assignments, thereby reducing even more the manpower requirements for pre-press.  [BACK]