Kürten & Lechner in Bergisch Gladbach, near Cologne, is one of Germany's largest poster printers. In existence since 1896 and growing steadily, the company produces large format posters of all descriptions and sizes, and is the market leader in outdoor advertising and point of sale products.

Kürten & Lechner in Bergisch Gladbach, near Cologne, is one of Germany's largest poster printers. In existence since 1896 and growing steadily, the company produces large format posters of all descriptions and sizes, and is the market leader in outdoor advertising and point of sale products.

From pre-press to poster output, K & L provides the best services using the newest hardware. The order book has increased steadily, necessitating a new extension to the production plant. Further, the customers were demanding shorter and shorter lead times. The original data was imaged to film and enlarged with a special camera before being RIPt and output. This task was particularly labor-intensive in the tiling of large formats and had long RIP times. A solution was needed that would cover all three variations of poster printing.

K & L checked and analysed the software applications of different manufacturers. While most could solve some existing problems, there was no application that could fulfill all K & L's wishes.

Viva noted the necessary features for a software for tiling and output of large format posters and started programming work. The end result was VivaPosterize, a stand-alone program, which brings to this field a flexibility in the workflow that there has never been before.

for the first time the user can create his poster in its original size and enter all the settings for the tiling and output in one single dialog. The program takes into account the printing press used, which means that every press, whether for screen, offset or digital printing, may be predefined and displayed in the dialog. If the section or selected sheet size is too big for the machine, the user will be warned immediately.

Among other features, tilings of all kinds, several sections on a sheet, rotation of individual sections and the integration of the company's own marks was needed. Further, VivaPosterize can apply a different section numbering or a different overlapping to meet the requirements of different countries.

With this software K & L can meet the requirements of the printing department and also of the poster industry, says Werner Althoff, head of K & L's Pre-Press Department. Different markets require different types of tiling, overlapping, etc. We can take on orders for international poster ad campaigns, because with a keystroke we can tile and output the same poster not only according to German standards but also for all other markets.

Customers: Boss, Coca-Cola, Renault, TUI, Nescafé, etc.