callas pdfChip streamlines production process for etikett.de

Berlin. The label-printing website etikett.de (also known as label.co.uk) recently launched a Transparency label generator. Customers can use Transparency to design their own secure labels, protecting their products against counterfeiting. The entire process – from receipt of order to approval and production – is fully automated. The site has achieved this thanks to pdfChip from callas software, as well as a page description system developed by calibrate GmbH, which saves the label design provided by the customer as a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) file and hands it over to pdfChip.

Until last year, etikett.de used callas software’s pdfToolbox to automate its digital printing processes. In order to enable greater flexibility in designing labels, the company switched to pdfChip, a solution that automatically converts HTML files into high-quality, true-color, print-ready PDF documents. It supports all HTML functions, including CMYK, spot colors, XMP metadata, PDF standards, barcodes and much more. “This solution makes it easier to accommodate the specialist requirements that come with label printing, which are comparable to those of personalized, variable data printing,” said Peter Kleinheider, Managing Director at calibrate GmbH, which has supported etikett.de for many years. “pdfChip can also generate barcodes and position them on sheets or rolls where they can be used for post-processing.”

Fully automatic creation of print-ready labels

“By implementing pdfChip, we were able to fully automate how our product is produced,” said Michael Wey, Managing Director at CCL Label online, which runs etikett.de. “What we were missing was a way to seamlessly hand over the print orders received via our website to pdfChip, which is where calibrate was hugely helpful.”

Intuitive label design – no HTML required

calibrate developed a page description system which was recently implemented at https://etikett.de/transparency. Businesses can use this system to design their own labels for use with Transparency without any specialist knowledge of HTML. pdfChip is controlled using an interface which is also supplied by calibrate. It quickly turns the JSON data it receives into a print-ready PDF file which is then provided to the client for final visual checks. Once the customer gives their approval, production begins right away. “This saves us all the manual data-handling work and speeds up communications with the customer,” explained Michael Wey.

With this pilot test’s successful completion, CCL Label online is now planning on expanding the process to other websites, too. In particular, they have plans for websites where customers can design labels that feature hazard symbols or other marks and order them for printing. These sites are planned to go live by the end of Summer 2020.

Server license model allows scaling by usage

etikett.de decided to use a server license for pdfChip based on the number of units processed. This allows the site to respond flexibly to demand and order more units if required. The calibrate server is responsible for managing the associated licenses.

About Transparency

Transparency is an item-level authentication service developed by Amazon that helps to identify individual items or products. Retailers can use it to actively prevent their customers from receiving counterfeit items. Businesses can also use Transparency codes to communicate product information such as the date and location of manufacture, or other details such as product ingredients.