ProImage says customer Sun Media is using its NewsWay workflow to centralise production on a modern print site in Ontario.

The company - a subsidiary of Quebecor Media - prints more than 15.1 million newspapers following a project to rationalise production a central hub at Islington Printing.

The software had been in use at the Toronto Sun since 2005, and regional prepress, manufacturing and distribution director Mark Hall says he saw potential to use it to help centralise and automate the group's printing operations.

A press-map of all the configurations possible for all of the group's presses was used to create a single automated workflow management and control solution.

Islington Printing now provides tabloid and broadsheet pages to remote print sites around the country, most of which have different CTP systems and presses with different cut-offs.

First three dailies and 12 weeklies within a 300 km radius of Toronto were moved to Islington - a workload now increased to dailies and 64 weeklies plus about 25 commercial jobs a week - which also services remote sites are situated in Calgary and Edmonton in Alberta and North Bay. Further sites in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Leduc in Alberta and London Ontario are being added, a geographic area in three time zones and 3,000 km apart.

Hall says the real challenge has been to create editions on short notice and on different press configurations. "Now our remote sites and publications are able to see their editions coming together as the PDF pages are submitted to the central system. (The workflow software), which seamlessly integrates with our custom front end edition planner and order submission system, has been a critical part of this achievement," he says.

XML press-map files contain page colour information, but will be switched to a black and white RIP queue if it is going to a mono position on the press.

• Parent company Quebecor has recently signed a $316 million deal to sell Sun Media Corp.'s English-language operations to Postmedia Network Canada Corp.

Pictured: IT technical support manager and Stephane Vandal prepress technician Chris Terry