Agfa Apogee WebApproval enables printers to offer their customers an online collaboration tool that makes it easy to submit, review and approve proofs.
It gives a printer’s customers and customer service representatives (CSRs) an up-to-date view on the status on their jobs, 24/7 and from any location with internet access.
Apogee WebApproval 10.5 is integrated in Apogee 10.5, and both systems use the same database to give people access to jobs and production data. The Apogee client software is typically used by prepress operators whereas WebApproval makes jobs accessible to people outside the internal network.
A printer administrator can set up a list of companies and define which people within each company have access to jobs. These users are assigned one or more roles, for example uploader or approver.
When a new job is created in Apogee, it can be associated with a company and one or more of its users. Additional controls are available to make such a job web-enabled.
One of the key advantages of WebApproval is automated messaging: once a job is set up and waiting for content, the uploaders assigned to that job automatically receive an e-mail with an invitation to log in and upload PDF files. The e-mail contains a link to the WebApproval web server where the user can log in. If security is less of an issue, users can receive links that grant direct access to a job without the need to fill in their name and password.
Uploading pages can be done by simply dropping the files on top of a job tile. Multiple files can be uploaded in one go and while the upload is taking place in the background, the user can already access pages in another browser window.
All the files that are uploaded get listed in the file overview window, which also indicates how many pages are used within the publication. Apogee can preflight the uploaded files so that WebApproval users are made aware of potential problems such as low image resolution or missing fonts.
WebApproval is HTML5-based and does not rely on Flash or Java technology, so it also works perfectly on an iPad or Android tablet. The web page adapts automatically to the size of the screen.
Approved pages are automatically submitted for production in the Apogee workflow. If the customer rejected pages and provided comments on what needs to be changed, the prepress operator is informed so that corrective action can be taken. .
The CSR is notified automatically when all the pages of a job have been approved. Output on plate or a digital press can start automatically. WebApproval improves productivity and reduces the number of steps before printing.
