emeness Press Release

April 14th 2005 -  emeness, commercial print firm and sister company of the digital print service company clickonprint.com, announces a new online digital printing service called totalPIX.  The Hackney-based group will offer digitally printed products, such as photobooks or calendars, that can be designed by the consumer via an easy to use interface, customised with personal photos, and ordered via a secure Internet commerce site.  The fulfilment is facilitated by an e-business application that is exclusively licensed for use with the KODAK NEXPRESS 2100 digital production colour press.

emeness is the first UK printer to offer this unique service.  totalPIX is an Internet-based service that will enable anyone to design and order a variety of personalised products, such as photobooks (weddings, new baby, holidays, etc.), school yearbooks, certificates or postcards.  Favourite photos can be used to create a custom calendar or poster.

Easy to use interface and instructions
totalPIX is designed to be truly user friendly. The customer accesses the totalPIX website (www.totalpix.co.uk) and in less than a minute they download a self-contained application to their PC.  Although a manual is available, user testing indicates that most people are able to work intuitively. Once the application is downloaded, the customer works totally offline. Noel Kavanagh, Managing Director of emeness, notes that this offers a huge advantage.  “Customers can spend as much time as they want, choosing the right design for their items and soft-proofing the results.  If they had to work online, it would slow them down , make any changes cumbersome and with dial-up could prove costly. We actively encourage clients to take a year to create their Yearbook.

Different templates are available to create three different sizes of photobook. There is also an entry-level wiro bound pocketphotobook.  Each provides a choice of layouts for adding images, captions and backgrounds. The customer’s digital photos can be imported and cropped or colour corrected within the totalPIX program. Captions can be added in a variety of typefaces and colours. A school testing the schoolyearbook have found the software easy and stimulating to use.

The totalPIX offerings are easy to create and make high impact gifts.  For example, a customised A3 calendar that starts at a month of choice and includes 13 personalised pictures and captions.  The customer can note birthdays, anniversaries and other memorable dates. Gloss-finished postcards look absolutely brilliant and can be personalised by the image and caption. totalPIX also creates professional looking certificates that can be finished with a choice of gold, silver or bronze foil.

Assured quality standards and user-tested
Digital printing is the technical wizardry that enables totalPIX to quickly fulfil customer orders.  The NEXPRESS 2100 press rivals traditional printing in quality, speed and cost effectiveness and ensures the highest consistency and colour in the printed image quality. emeness uses their commercial printing expertise to ensure that the finishing is top level. The photobook pages are first stitched securely and then case bound in robust attractive hardback covers. totalPIX contains a colour coded warning system to inform the customer if their pictures may not print well. A helpful code also appears if the picture has already been used elsewhere in the book.

When the customer has designed their custom product, they go online and upload the job to the totalPIX server. The software automatically compresses the file to hasten upload time,  the system verifies the job and all RGB pictures are automatically converted to CMYK for the best quality output.  As soon as payment is verified, the job is printed, finished and mailed to the customer, using a barcode system to match the job with the customer’s address.

emeness has fully tested totalPIX to ensure that the system works smoothly. This included a four-week survey of a user test group.  Feedback from the survey is highly positive: the software is easy to use, quality and finishing is excellent, and the pricing is competitive.

In the next few months totalPIX will be upgraded to provide even more creative options, such as creating montages. The service is now active and ready for business.  Anyone with a digital camera and a PC can easily turn their prized shots into high quality, memorable gifts for family and friends.  Visit www.totalpix.co.uk for more details.