Fujifilm software brings nesting breakthrough to wide-format

Fujifilm has added Tilia Labs' wide-format layout software to its XMF workflow suite, aiming to maximise printed area use and minimise substrate waste.

Fujifilm said integrating Tilia Griffin with XMF automates the manual process of nesting multiple wide-format jobs.

Fulfilling a role previously completed in Adobe Illustrator, the Tilia Griffin is available for purchase ranging from €4,000 to €8,000 (£3,500-£7,000) or for yearly subscription at around €1,500 to €2,500 per year. 

“Mainly, what we are providing customers is savings in time,” said Fujifilm workflow product group manager John Davies.

“Getting a human to fill in the task of nesting and setting up multiple jobs on the same substrate uses their time inefficiently when it could be better served elsewhere.

“Tilia Griffin reduces preparation times from hours to minutes. We have seen great interest from our wide-format customers who are seeing increasing demand for shorter, more diverse runs on similar substrates.

“When we took this product to our customers we found that the more demanding their jobs, the greater their desire to make use of a product like this. It will help them to turn around their products much quicker, which can only lead to greater satisfaction for their own customers.”

Davies described the use of Illustrator for nesting as “inefficient because the program is not designed for that and only persists because people are used to the software”. He said that Tilia Griffin would also be useful for outputs relating to sales materials, including packaging and labels, where shorter runs are becoming increasingly common.

Tilia Labs’ system offers shape nesting with any rotation, using the engine of its Phoenix software, which automates nesting for commercial printing. The Griffin also aims to minimise substrate waste and associated costs and increase throughput.

Its user interface, built on Tilia Labs’ new Aries UI platform, is described by Fujifilm as “ultra-responsive and attractive”, intended to be easily accessible for new users. The software also features barcode tracking, camera registration, and grommets.

Last month, Fujifilm launched its Illumina LED UV retrofit curing system in Europe