Images Magazine Digital Edition August 2018

www.images-magazine.com 84 images AUGUST 2018 SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS Tell us a bit about your business Vektor has a growing team of print and merchandise specialists to help produce high quality printed products, the core being screen printing, embroidery, direct-to-garment, heat transfer and laser cutting capabilities. We have a diverse client base, ranging from blue chip corporations and YouTubers with millions of subscribers to craft breweries and leisure centre chains. We also have a number of key B2B accounts and provide a turn-key printed product solution. When did you start using CadLink? We started using CadLink in October 2016. From memory, it cost around £800 + VAT from GS UK Ltd. We also paid around £200 + VAT for extra training/support outside of the initial starter package. Why did you choose CadLink and what other software programs, if any, did you look at before buying CadLink? We didn’t look at any others. We were recommended CadLink by Sean Barker from GS UK, who sold us our DTG printer. We quickly came to realise it provided the colour management support we had been missing in the PDIP Rip we were initially using, and also a wider colour gamut and faster workflow, and therefore did not look any further. What do you think are its main advantages? Colour management. After a significant amount of testing with CadLink, we now have a WYSIWYG [what you see is what you get] DTG workflow in Photoshop. This means we can import PNGs or vectors into Photoshop and assign them the colour profile. Combined with having our screen colour calibrated, this means that the colour printed on the garment will be colour matched to the screen. The benefit of this means there’s no more colour correction work to be done and no more test prints. This saves a heap of time and money. Are there any other advantages you’d highlight? The simplicity of use once set up; the proofing system for last minute checks before hitting the print button; Queues (saved settings) for different garment types and/or clients; and support – Ray at CadLink is very helpful if we have any problems or questions. Is there anything you‘d like to see in an upgrade or don‘t particularly like about it? We think that making the ink cost calculator easier to understand would be a good new feature. It would also be better if the software worked on Mac – we only run one Windows machine in the business and that‘s the one for CadLink. What sort of work do you use it for? We use it solely to send artwork to our DTG printer, a Brother 381 Series. What would be your advice to others thinking of investing in a new software programme like CadLink? The best advice would be to not worry about the learning curve and the time needed to introduce the new workflow into a production environment. www.vektor.co.uk Vektor: CadLink Pete Andrews, managing director Pete Andrews from Vektor uses CadLink We quickly came to realise it provided the colour management support we had been missing