Background

IFPRO is a large format print operation with production facilities in Porto Alegre and São Paulo, Brazil. Running a diverse fleet of printers and cutters — including Epson, Liyu, Handtop, Audley, and multiple cutting systems — IFPRO handles a high volume and variety of print work across two busy production sites.

Like many ambitious print businesses, the complexity of their environment had outgrown the tools holding it together.

What Were The Problems?

Growth is a good problem to have — until the workflow can’t keep up with it. At IFPRO, a combination of disconnected tools, manual processes, and inconsistent standards was creating daily friction across the production floor:

• File preparation was slow, manual, and entirely dependent on Adobe Illustrator
• Closing files for production was taking far too long and creating bottlenecks
• Colour accuracy varied between different printers and substrates
• Processes differed between jobs, operators, and sites — with no standardisation
• Production speed was being held back by the time lost to manual fixes and workarounds

The biggest single bottleneck was at the very start of the workflow: file preparation and standardisation. Before a single job could be sent to print, it had to pass through a slow, operator-dependent process that left little room for scale.

“File prep, taking too long to close files, was our biggest bottleneck… everything was done in Illustrator.” — Ricardo Fantini, Director, IFPRO

The Turning Point

IFPRO made the decision to move their entire production operation onto PrintFactory — replacing their fragmented stack of tools with one unified platform built for the demands of professional large format production.

The transition brought PrintFactory Production to every printer and cutter in the fleet, standardising the workflow from file intake through to final output across both sites.

What Did PrintFactory Deliver?

The impact was immediate and operation-wide. With PrintFactory running across the full fleet, IFPRO transformed the way jobs move through production:

• Standardised file preparation — consistent processes across every job, every operator, every site
• Faster closing times — jobs move from intake to production-ready significantly faster
• Improved colour accuracy — consistent, reliable colour matching across different printers and substrates
• Automated processes — manual steps replaced with controlled, repeatable automation
• Full workflow control — complete visibility and oversight across the entire production environment

What was once fragmented, time-consuming, and operator-dependent is now unified, controlled, and built to scale.

“We’ve gained a lot in standardisation and control… before, everything was fragmented and very time-consuming.” — Ricardo Fantini, Director, IFPRO

One Platform. Total Control.

IFPRO now runs their entire diverse fleet — Epson, Liyu, Handtop, Audley, and multiple cutters — on a single, unified PrintFactory platform. No patchwork of tools. No compromises on quality or consistency. Just one connected workflow, from file to finished print.

And by their own assessment, the best results are still ahead.

“I believe when we master PrintFactory above 80%, the gains will be incredible.” — Ricardo Fantici, Director, IFPRO