Pre-press specialist FFEI has stated that one of its chief aims at Drupa is to expand its network of channel partners. Managing director Andy Cook said that Color Confidence’s large reseller network was an important part of the new partnership.

"This isn’t the kind of product you sell over the web," he added. "So we needed someone with the right network and the right technical skills to be able to go out and show the software to clients."

RealVue 3D Packager, which is a plug-in tool for Adobe Illustrator, is being pitched at graphic designers, creative studios and brand owners as a low-cost alternative to market leader EskoArtwork’s suite of software tools.

One of the advantages of the software, according to FFEI software business manager Nick Gilmore, is that anyone with experience of Adobe’s Creative Suite can pick it up in under two hours.

"This gives designers the ability to see the final product as they design the artwork," said Gilmore. "They can work in Illustrator on the flat design and simultaneously see the finished product in 3D."

Color Confidence technical director Simon Prais said: "We started out with a tool for bending artwork for the visualisation of tableware and there are so many parallels with RealVue.

"One of the things that I really like about the product is how easy it is to use – for example, I designed an Easter egg box from scratch with no training in less than 30 minutes."

Gilmore added: "This is the first time there has been an affordable tool that gives the power to brand owners – we’d like this to be the industry standard, to see a situation in which brand owners won’t accept a packaging design unless it has been visualised."