Edit2print was developed as an evolution of its Templates product after it went "back over the basics of print e-commerce".

It is an ASP service, which is designed to be used by printers and print management firms for regular jobs with existing clients.

"Its a win-win situation all round," said ControlP general manager Daniel Emerson. "Purchasing saves costs and gains control, marketing gets time savings, brand integrity and personalisation, and print suppliers get fewer errors, precise instructions and greater efficiency."

A customer of one of the five pilot sites is claimed to have almost halved the internal ordering administration cost of a job from 39 to 21 using the system.

Among the pilot sites are a print management company, a quickprinter and a point-of-sale specialist.

Customers include one of the political parties, which is using it to co-ordinate its campaign materials for the local elections in May.

Customers submit their file to the printers branded edit2print site. Those with the right access privileges can use the systems intelligence to select text and image areas to set up parts of the job that can be modified, and the rules controlling those modifications.

Based on PDF and database technology, the print supplier and its customers dont need special software. Emerson claimed that its use of standard file formats throughout was, as far as he knew, unique.

Templates can be supplied as pre-flighted print-ready PDFs from any design application. All firms need to use the site is Acrobat Reader and a web browser.

Costs are split into a one-off set-up fee, which starts at 10,000, and monthly charges to use the service.

Contact: www.controlp.co.uk.

Story by Barney Cox