Bluetree cuts front-end bottleneck with Odystar investment

Wide format printer Bluetree Design and Print is to cut a bottleneck in its front-end processing, installing an Odystar workflow system from EskoArtwork.

The installation is expected to be complete the week commencing 28 March and comes six months after the company improved the consistency of its colour management with a raft of GMG installs.

According to Bluetree Design and Print managing director Bryan Shirley, the increase in its digital output has meant that printing is actually much faster than its production.

He said: "The Odystar will consistently get the PDF to the presses as quickly as possible. We are finding more and more with digital that people order work today and want it tomorrow. It had led to a blockage in the system at the front end because the digital machines are very fast; this will even that out."

In late 2010, Bluetree bought a GMG ColorServer and GMG Smartprofiler colour management software system, along with a GMG InkOptimizer package. The software will work alongside Bluetree's Odystar.

Shirley said that the company was having trouble matching colours when it was producing jobs across different machines and different substrates.

He said: "Colours were not close enough to be acceptable - printing on foam PVC often leaves a yellowy tinge for instance. Now we can confidently tell customers that the colour matches will be as good as they can get."

Bluetree employs 40 staff and has a turnover of £3.4m.