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Opens in new tab Linus Wittich saves 40 tonnes of paper per year
Linus Wittich KG publishes more than 1,000 official journals and newsletters across Germany and Austria. Founded as a small family business in 1963, it has grown into one of Germany’s leading publishing houses, with around 1,000 employees across 13 locations.
Until 2009, the company’s site in Föhren, near Trier, used a cumbersome paper-based correction process. Every advert had to be printed for review. If proofreaders found an error, the corrected version had to be printed again for approval.
The process consumed approximately one lorry load of paper each year. Michael Grundmann, System Administrator at Linus Wittich, therefore began looking for a way to reduce both paper consumption and the associated costs.
He found 3f8h.net / electronic publishing, a workflow and automation partner of Impressed GmbH and a long-standing Gold Partner of callas software GmbH.
“After analysing our requirements, Sebastian Nafroth, owner of 3f8h.net / electronic publishing, recommended callas pdfToolbox,” explains Michael Grundmann. “Because pdfToolbox alone could not meet all our complex requirements, we also implemented Enfocus Switch as the central control component and Pixometry, formerly Elpical Claro, for image processing.”
Splitting and Merging PDFs Speeds Up Corrections
Linus Wittich has since moved the entire correction process into a digital workflow.
Enfocus Switch sends the PDF files to callas pdfToolbox Server, which separates the adverts into individual PDF pages. Proofreaders review these pages and add correction comments in Adobe Acrobat. The typesetters then apply the requested changes before releasing the adverts.
The combination of pdfToolbox Server and Switch has already saved us several tonnes of paper in the first six months. The integration into our existing workflows was realised by 3f8h.net / electronic publishing in such a way that no further conversions were necessary for us.
Michael Grundmann
System Administrator at Linus Wittich
Due to the associated time and cost savings, Linus Wittich has extended the combined solution of Switch, Pixometry, and pdfToolbox to its twelve other locations.
High level of automation
Since then, the publishing house has not only benefited from a faster and, above all, paperless correction process, but also from automation: the company receives all texts and adverts for its more than 1,000 publications to be produced every weekday by 9 a.m. and has to provide them as a printable PDF version by 3 p.m. Due to this high time pressure, automated processes are essential. This applies in particular to preflighting, as the publisher receives more than just flawless PDF/X files. ‘We sometimes receive PowerPoint or CorelDRAW files, to name just two examples,’ says Michael Grundmann. ‘Of course, these are not designed for printing. Fortunately, pdfToolbox can automatically create perfect PDF/X files from them.’ Some incoming images also have to be post-processed, which Pixometry takes care of.
Linus Wittich also uses the OCR function integrated into pdfToolbox to find published press releases in all editions more quickly. ‘This allows us to tell the agencies how many press articles have been published on which pages,’ explains Michael Grundmann. ‘This service is particularly appreciated by agencies, as they don’t have to manually search through all editions.’
Automatic generation of PDF/A files
In addition, other departments at Linus Wittich KG, such as accounting and human resources, also benefit from the PDF/A technology in callas pdfToolbox by automatically converting documents into the ISO standard for long-term archiving.
The calculation makes sense
The newly implemented digital correction process alone enables Linus Wittich to save 40 tonnes of paper per year, which means that the investment in the solutions from Enfocus, Pixometry and callas software has quickly paid for itself.
Michael Grundmann wants to use these solutions to automate more processes in the future and knows that he is in good hands with 3f8h.net / electronic publishing and callas software. ‘The support is first class,’ summarises the system administrator. ‘Errors and requests for improvements are dealt with immediately and we receive a solution promptly. A big compliment for this service, which cannot be taken for granted these days.’
