IFRA

WAN-IFRA: How is your ink saving software integrated into the workflow and at which point?

DENISE FEDDER: Ink-Miser integrates into a newspaper’s workflow before a page is sent to the RIP. We integrate into our own prepress workflow software, NewsXtreme, or any other independent workflow application.

WAN-IFRA: What is the principle of function?

FEDDER: Ink-Miser locates all the places on a page where the cyan, magenta, and yellow equal a colour of grey. In those areas, the system replaces those colours with less expensive black ink. The modified images are nearly unnoticeable to the human-eye. This saves publishers money but also improves print quality.

WAN-IFRA: Can Ink-Miser handle PDFs?

FEDDER: Yes, Ink-Miser supports PDFs.

WAN-IFRA: How large are the potential savings with coloured inks (and on what is this based)?

FEDDER: Each publisher’s savings varies and is dependent on how many coloured pages are printed and what other mechanisms they utilize when producing pages. Based on our projections from our customers, they are saving anywhere from 15-22%. Because of our expertise in colour calibration software (Blackmagic), we identify the amount of ink used with sample files from prospective customers and calculate estimated savings of ink when using Ink-Miser. We also encourage customers to take advantage of our 45-Day Free Trial which allows customers to use the software, calculate their savings and see the improved print quality. So far, all customers utilizing the trial ended up buying the software.

WAN-IFRA: How much more black ink is needed 

FEDDER: We include the amount of extra black ink when calculating the total ink savings.
WAN-IFRA: How can it be assured that the colour quality in print does not suffer from the ink "optimisation" process?

FEDDER: All of our customers have declared that their print quality has improved since using Ink-Miser. The 45 Day Free Trial allows prospective customers to ensure their quality will not suffer.

WAN-IFRA: Would you say that print quality is raised by using your software? If so, for what reasons?

FEDDER: Yes, because there is not as much color saturation on colored pages.

WAN-IFRA: What is the price (and ROI) of your software?

FEDDER: The price of Ink-Miser is $5000 USD. Most of our customers judge an ROI by using 20% of their total ink costs to calculate their annual savings.