What's New in CHILI GraFx

GraFx Studio now offers PDF Crop Marks for your print production workflows. This essential addition ensures accurate page trimming when preparing your designs for print. PDF page boxes, configured for print production, are also fully supported as part of this update.

What are Crop Marks?

Crop marks are lines printed in the corners of your artwork that indicate to a printer where the paper should be trimmed. They ensure the final print product is cut to size and eliminate unwanted fringe areas around your designs.

How it Works in GraFx Studio:

Enabling crop marks is simple. Toggle the "Crop marks" option in the PDF output settings, and customize the offset and weight of the crop marks to match your specific requirements:

• Offset: Control the distance between the crop marks and the edge of the (Media) page.
• Weight: Adjust the thickness of the crop marks for optimal visibility.

GraFx Studio uses default settings recommended by the Ghent Workgroup (GWG) of offset (3mm) and weight (0.25pt).

Benefits:

• Accurate trimming: Eliminate errors and ensure your designs are cut with precision.
• Streamlined workflow: Reduce time spent on manual adjustments and communication with your printer.
• Professional results: Deliver polished and print-ready artwork at any scale every time.

Technical Details:

• PDF Page Boxes: Setting crop marks also sets PDF page boxes (Media, Trim, Bleed, Crop, and Art) for print production, ensuring compatibility with industry-standard print workflows.
• Registration Color: Crop marks are printed in "Registration color" (100% of all process and spot colors) to guarantee visibility on all color plates.
• White Background Offset: Crop marks include a white background offset for enhanced visibility on darker backgrounds.

Ready to cut to the chase?

Start using PDF Crop Marks in GraFx Studio today and experience a more efficient and accurate print production process.

Our latest CHILI GraFx release is all about giving you more control over your design elements – say hello to GraFx Studio Smart Anchoring!

GraFx Studio’s advanced, Smart Anchoring gives you total control over how frames react to page size changes or the movement of other frames in your design. You can choose to keep frames fixed at a precise location in your layout or let them adapt automatically to changes in your template.

Anchoring is incredibly versatile and easy to use. You simply link frames to the page or other elements then let GraFx Studio’s AI do the magic as you modify your template. Linking position to another frame? Choose specific edges for more control, and visual anchor lines will appear to make the positioning clear. Plus, a reset button lets you restore anchors and settings with ease.

Release Highlights

• Anchor frames to template elements: Anchor a frame to page size or another frame’s position with ease.
• Move and resize frames: Offsets adapt automatically as you adjust your design.
• Automatic sync: Move a frame, and its anchored elements follow, maintaining your design perfectly.
• Visual anchor lines: See anchor lines with clear offsets to better understand your frame positioning.
• Easy reset: A reset button lets you quickly revert your anchor settings to those of the parent layout.

With GraFx Studio’s Smart Anchoring, no matter what template changes you make, your content will always be perfectly positioned. Just anchor, move, and let GraFx Studio handle the rest!

With Layout Presets, creating multichannel content is a breeze. Add layout versions under your default layout and choose the format that fits – whether it’s for print, Digital or any other channel. Layouts are organized by type for better workflow.

Starting a new template? Select your preferred layout preset as the default, then effortlessly add more layout versions in your design, keeping your designs consistent across all channels with minimal effort.

Release Highlights

• Design once, adapt everywhere: Create different layouts within a single template for all your print and digital output needs.
• Organized by type: Layouts are grouped into categories
• Seamless setup: Start with a default layout preset when creating new templates, then add new versions for each channel – all within GraFx Studio.
• Streamlined workflow: Quickly adjust your designs for various platforms, saving time while ensuring your brand and content maintain consistent formatting across channels as business rules are applied.

We're excited to introduce a powerful update to GraFx Studio – Design & Run mode, developed to streamline your template testing process. This new feature gives you complete insight into how your templates behave in a safe environment before going live.

Design & Run mode lets you validate how your design will look when populated with data without first having to deploy your template. This works for new templates or existing templates that you have already put live and now wish to modify with the risk of disrupting your existing deployments. Create your template in Design mode then visualize your template with data in Run mode. GraFx Studio’s UI will even switch to dark mode to provide a distinctive, attractive environment to assess your work in.

Release Highlights

• Test template data population in real-time: Quickly switch to Run mode to see how your templates adapt to data entry without having to deploy.
• Safe validation: Easily test templates without leaving the design environment so you don’t need to alter live templates. It’s risk-free template testing!
• Dark Mode for Studio UI: A sleek, comfortable way to work while testing and validating designs.

With Design & Run mode, you can ensure your templates will populate with data perfectly before deployment – all within a streamlined, user-friendly interface.

Our new PDF Error Handling feature can be enabled via output settings in the CHILI GraFx platform and is designed to keep your batch output running smoothly, even when things don’t go as planned.

Now, when handling large batch outputs, you’ll have the control you need to manage errors without disrupting your workflow. Simply toggle on “Continue batch output after failure”, and CHILI GraFx will automatically skip any failed records, while allowing the output process to continue. Prefer to address errors immediately? No problem. Toggle the setting to “Off” and the process will abort on failures, giving you the chance to intervene.

All errors are tracked in real-time through the Environment API, which logs any failed outputs, so you can review them later or download the error report immediately from your Output tasks, so you can see what needs fixed without delay.

Release Highlights

• Smooth batch processing: Keep large PDF jobs on track, even when errors occur.
• Toggle flexibility: Choose to skip errors or pause the process for more control.
• Real-time error tracking: Easily find failed outputs using the Environment API.
• Quick output access: Download your PDF output files directly from the Environment API.

Looking for perfect color precision? Meet Spot Colors in CHILI GraFx! This allows you to achieve unmatched accuracy, especially for brand logos, unique hues, and special finishes like metallics or fluorescents. Spot colors use pre-mixed, standardized inks, ensuring consistency that CMYK alone can’t deliver.

You can define a spot color by name – including PANTONE® colors – making it appear as a separate "ink" in your PDF output. This not only provides precise color control but also helps indicate specific finishing steps like varnishes, embossing, or die-cutting. It’s all about making sure your designs look exactly how you envisioned.

Release Highlights

• Perfect color matching: Define spot colors to match specific brand colors or special hues, ensuring consistency in every output.
• Enhanced finishes: Use spot colors to indicate areas for special finishes like varnishes, cold foil, or embossing.
• PDF precision: Spot colors are treated as separate inks in your PDF output, providing greater control during production.
• Simplified setup: Easily define and manage spot colors directly within GraFx Studio as part of a style kit, ensuring that your color choices and design intent translate perfectly into the final print.

The new Connector Hub makes connecting your essential tools a breeze. Whether it's linking your DAM or other go-to platforms, our Connector Hub makes setting it up easy and streamlines the entire process. No more jumping between systems – just smooth, automated workflows that keep your creativity flowing.

For example, connect your DAM to automatically sync assets into your GraFx Studio templates, ensuring everything stays up-to-date. With the Connector Hub, you can focus more on creating and less on managing.

Today we offer the possibility to connect with any media provider (from DAMs to generative AI tools). Our open-sourced Connector Framework allows everyone to build and share their Connectors. Soon you’ll be able to connect any data connector as well, such as a CRM, PIM or any other data system.

Release Highlights

• Effortlessly connect to your most-used DAM systems through a user-friendly interface.
• Intuitive UI makes setup and management a breeze, even for complex integrations.
• Test authentication easily to ensure secure connections and seamless access.
• Send metadata with your setup connection using runtime settings for tailored flows.
• Automate asset syncing for smoother workflows and reduced manual tasks.
• Future-ready: As new tools emerge, the Connector Hub will evolve to keep your integrations up to date.

Simplify your global marketing efforts with the latest addition to GraFx Studio—Prefix and Suffix functionality.

When designing campaigns for multiple regions, adjusting currency symbols, decimal separators, and formatting can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Now, with GraFx Studio's new Prefix and Suffix feature, you can easily tailor your design content to match local conventions, saving hours of manual work.

With this update, Template Designers can now effortlessly add prefixes and suffixes, such as currency symbols, to any variable type that can be used in text. You can also apply character styles to these elements, ensuring consistent and polished designs across all regions. Plus, by incorporating country-specific formatting rules directly into your Smart Templates, you ensure that end-users always receive the correct format, regardless of the output location.

Release Highlights

• Flexible Prefix and Suffix Application: Easily set prefixes and suffixes for any variable type that can be used in text, enabling quick customization of your templates.
• Advanced Formatting Options: Add character styles to your prefixes and suffixes to ensure they match your design choices.
• Automation for Global Consistency: Adjust prefixes and suffixes based on the target country, ensuring rapid, error-free localization.
• Time-Saving Localization: Eliminate the need for manual adjustments, allowing end-users to create localized campaigns effortlessly and accurately.

Do we have a date? Yes, with the latest feature added to GraFx Studio! Users can now incorporate date variables in their templates. We've also revamped the UI and UX to make setting up these variable types a breeze (now dates have their own dedicated field type).

As an example, you can use date variables to dynamically adjust the dates displayed in your graphical outputs based on the campaign’s start and end dates that you define. Additionally, you can exclude specific dates or days of the week, like every Sunday. Managing these dynamic dates is easy with the dedicated year, month, and day picker interface.

Now GraFx Studio empowers users to create date-driven campaigns at scale.

Release Highlights

• Select a date format for your campaign or create your own.
• Templates will automatically adjust to display dates in your chosen language.
• Use actions to automatically convert date variables based on factors like the target country for your campaign.
• Template Designers retains control over what the end-user can see and do.

With this week’s release, GraFx Studio users can now use number variables at scale. Instead of using text fields like before, number variables have gained their own settings within the editor. There, you can get granular: Add a price with a period or comma separator (10.99 or 10,99) and use superscript to highlight the 99 cents.

Use actions to set the behaviour in specific business contexts, e.g. French discount campaigns might get bold red pricing with a comma separator for decimals, a €-sign behind the price, cents in superscript, and the original price crossed out and in a gray font color behind the discounted price. Other campaigns and countries could simultaneously be set up with their own specific set of actions.

As always, since this is part of our composition model, you can now apply the logic at scale.

Updated in this release

• Add a range, decimal settings, a thousands separator, or even your own character styles to your number variables to make them stand out.
• Use actions to automatically convert your number variables, for example, based on the target country of your campaign.
• Template Designer governs the actions and formats available to the end-user - so no risk of going off-brand on your numbers and pricing.

Effortlessly Create at Any Scale!

Get ready to dramatically accelerate your campaigns with CHILI GraFx’s latest groundbreaking release: Variable Data Printing (VDP) via API for GraFx Studio. This powerful capability enables lightning-fast, personalized content creation at massive scale from any data source across multiple channels.

With VDP in GraFx Studio, you can transform your creative workflow by instantly producing any number of tailored marketing materials that resonate with your audience. Leverage your data to create dynamic and engaging content, enhancing both efficiency and creative freedom.

Updated in this release:

• Generate any number of on-brand assets instantly: Effortlessly produce personalized marketing materials for every customer, location, or product.
• Drive hyper-personalization: Connect to your DAM, PIM, CRM, CDP, or other data source to create tailored content that resonates with your audience.
• Enhance creative freedom: Use composition models that adapt to any data input, ensuring stunning visuals without sacrificing brand consistency, and freeing up time to focus on creativity.
• Scale your campaigns with ease: CHILI GraFx's scalable architecture ensures high performance, even for complex, data-heavy projects without compromising speed.

Transform your creative workflow and unlock the full potential of data-driven personalization in any MarTech stack with GraFx Studio VDP via API.

The CHILI GraFx Connector Framework enables partners to build Connectors between their technologies and our creative automation platform, CHILI GraFx. Each new Connector – whether it’s for a DAM, a PIM, or any other database or system within the content supply chain – increases the value of your offering and boosts ROI from your investment in the CHILI GraFx platform.

With this release, CHILI GraFx puts itself truly on the map as THE CREATIVE AUTOMATION PLATFORM ready to overcome many of the most significant obstacles in the creative production process.

The new custom Acquia DAM Connector for CHILI GraFx delivers plug-and-play connectivity with Acquia DAM, providing a host of benefits including:

• Increased asset usage rates – get more from your DAM investment
• Creation of on-brand assets based on existing assets in your DAM
• Single source of truth for media assets in your creative flow
• Automatic linking and use of metadata from assets stored in the DAM
• Digital rights respected for accessing assets

As Deanna Ballew, Senior Vice President, DXP & AI at Acquia puts it:

“By using a DAM and hooking it up to Creative Automation, you give yourself peace of mind. Only the content that you have the rights to use in a specific graphic production process will be available to you, so you don't have to worry about selecting the wrong ones anymore.”

Updated in this release:

• Open-source Connector Framework released
• Easily connect to use assets from DAM, PIM, or other systems
• Pull data from any external source into CHILI GraFx while respecting external tool rights and metadata governance
• Media Connectors can integrate with DAMs or any other system that deliver media (e.g. Google Maps)
• Media Connectors can retrieve asset metadata applied in external tools (e.g. language, quantities, prices, etc.)
• Acquia DAM Connector for CHILI GraFx is the first of many. Kadanza, Sitecore and others are in the process of developing Connectors using the framework
• Future Data Connectors will make it possible to hyper-customize/personalize campaigns using other data systems including PIMs, CRMs, and more.

Read about our Connector Framework or find out why Deanna Ballew, Senior Vice President, DXP & AI at Acquia, describes CHILI GraFx and Acquia DAM's relationship as “like peanut butter and jelly”.

GraFx Studio now empowers you to create custom user interfaces with pre-configured output settings, tailored for specific end-user needs. This streamlines the experience for your customers, allowing them to easily access the output formats enabled for them, while your template designers retain full functionality within their workspace.

For example, you can create a "Web" interface that only offers PNG and JPG output options, ensuring users focused on digital assets can output exactly what they need, and another interface that restricts output to watermarked content.

This release further solidifies GraFx Studio's position as the leading platform for multichannel graphics production at scale, adding another layer of quality and control to its extensive feature set.

Updated in this release:

• Create user interfaces tailored to specific needs (e.g., one for production and one with watermarked output for validation)
• Name your new interface for easy identification
• Select available output settings from dropdown menus
• Output settings are grouped by intent: print, digital static, or digital animated
• Easily manage interface configurations

Just released, GraFx Studio has added yet another powerful feature to enhance multichannel (print, digital and animated) graphics production at scale: QR and Barcodes. You’ll already have seen these high contrast line and square patterns everywhere, from the things you buy to the ads you see.

In the print world everyone knows about barcodes – they're all over the product packaging and printed materials we see daily. QR codes really came to the fore during the Corona virus pandemic when consumers often preferred to scan a physical print then engage digitally on their own device. Today, they offer a perfect example of how you can immerse your audience deeper in their customer journey, starting from print then moving to digital after a QR code scan.

This is yet another major GraFx Studio release that will make it easier for anyone wanting to generate multichannel content on the fly. The key takeaways?

When it is time to output your designs in GraFx Studio, you can now easily include a barcode or QR code. GraFx Studio generates these codes according to your intent (Print, Digital, or Animated), ensuring your multichannel output is optimized for its purpose.

Updated in this release:

• Easy access to all your different barcodes and QR codes via a side panel
• Search by name or scroll through the list to find what you need.
• Create resizable barcodes (2D barcodes) and for fixed sized barcodes don’t fret it – GraFx Studio ensures they are always standards compliant.
• Add bar heights and magnification to scale
• Change background or bar/grid colors to add some extra punch
• Enter codes manually or, even better, connect them to variables and add actions to them
• Codes are embedded in PDFs as vectors which allows for resolution independent scaling.

GraFx Studio now has desktop-class color capabilities baked in. You can work with RGB or CMYK colors in GraFx Studio, creating swatches and/or assigning colors to your Stylekits. While you do your creative work, both color spaces are accurately displayed as on-screen color (using ICC color management).

This is a major release for anyone working with printed content. The key takeaways?

When it is time to export to your Intent (Print or Digital), CHILI GraFx will render your artwork correctly for that destination. While Digital will be converted fully to RGB, Print will output a PDF that contains colors that keep their working color space: RGB remains RGB, and CMYK remains CMYK.

Moreover, there is no conversion towards a device-specific output intent of CMYK values in the exported PDF. This maintains a wide gamut for CMYK values created in GraFx Studio and applies no color conversion to PDF objects that were placed into the artwork – thus maintaining any color-managed properties of embedded artwork. By outputting PDFs in this way, your printer can choose the best conversion for their device as they go to print.

Updated in this release:

• Create colors in GraFx Studio using Hex, RGB, or CMYK.
• Create Stylekit Swatches to store values using Hex, RGB, or CMYK.
• PDF assets placed in GraFx Studio artwork now maintain their native color information and are not modified during creation or on export.
• Output PDFs containing accurate CMYK values ready for device-specific conversion by your printer.
• Accurate on-screen rendering of CMYK colors is fully color-managed using ICC profiles (International Color Consortium).

The result is what-you-see-is-what-you-get content creation for digital and print.

GraFx Studio introduces Layout Intents for the ultimate multichannel design experience. Simply specify your project's main destination – print, static, or animated – and the interface will adapt to provide the best possible workflow. Layout intents improve template design, adjust UI for the task in hand, and guide end-users' output choices.

With this, GraFx Studio gains new features to facilitate print-specific work:

• Work in pixels, millimeters or inches, plus automatic conversion when switching layouts
• CMYK color for precise control of color values in print
• Document bleed to ensure design accuracy when the page is trimmed
• A new View Mode that assists proper alignment and layout
• Backgrounds that adapt to intent for accurate output representation on screen

We are thrilled to unveil a powerful addition to our CHILI GraFx platform – GraFx Studio Renders Reporting. As GraFx Studio matured into a comprehensive Smart Template builder for print, digital and animation, we are delivering complete visibility and control over the rendering process. Complementing our pay-as-you-go, pay-as-you-grow model, gain deeper insights into your renders, connect actions to impact, and truly start measuring the value of your output.

Introducing User Groups, a fresh approach to user management within our CHILI GraFx platform. This improved method of access management significantly reduces the time and effort required for setting up user permissions, while maintaining the same high level of security (ISO:27001) that you've come to trust. With User Groups, you'll gain more streamlined control over how you manage users in your large-scale graphic production.

Key Features of User Groups

• They comprise individuals who assume the same role(s) and share access to similar environments
• They can have multiple users and a user can be assigned to multiple User Groups.
• Additionally, extra access rights can still be given to resources on an individual level
• They can only be set up by a Subscription Admin on the platform
• There is a default user group that contains all the users form the subscription

GraFx Genie, our proprietary AI(Artificial Intelligence) assistant, now empowers creatives to incorporate actions and business logic through prompts. Presently, GraFx Genie has drastically reduced Smart Template creation time by up to 80%, by generating JavaScript code to enable self-service for a broader audience. Additionally, it assists in platform scripting and continues to expand its capabilities to handle tasks more efficiently. Keep an eye on GraFx Genie as it evolves to further streamline your creative process.

Key Feature of GraFx Genie

• Generating JavaScript code for Smart Templates through prompts

GraFx Media centralizes, controls and manages the usage of media assets throughout the organization when using the CHILI GraFx platform (yes - that includes GraFx Publisher!) when you don’t have a DAM implementation. Stop wasting time searching for assets or relying on developers to update materials for specific use-cases. GraFx Media ensures instant clarity on approved assets for consistent brand impact.

Key Features of GraFx Media

• Steer and control media usage with one central environment for asset management
• Easy UI and UX to add, remove, delete, download, filter, rename, create folders
• End-users work in a controlled environment with a consistent end-user experience, ensuring brand consistency

GraFx Fonts centralizes, controls and manages the usage of fonts throughout your organization when using GraFx Studio. Avoid the headache of managing fonts across platforms, projects, and clients. GraFx Fonts is visually intuitive and easy to use, while providing powerful tools to centralize font usage.

Key Features of GraFx Fonts

• No more duplicate fonts, as duplicates are checked for and flagged
• Works with font families to allow font-style selection
• Checks exist to ensure correct fonts are licensed to ensure brand consistency

My Projects empowers end-users with the ability to customize content while staying true to Brand Guidelines. Using Smart Templates crafted in GraFx Studio by a Template Designer, non-designers can adjust any content they require at scale. This autonomy enables users to meet specific customer demands promptly and effectively in graphic production. A user-friendly UI and UX make seamless modifications easy, accelerating time-to-market and reducing design expenses simultaneously.

Key Features of My Projects

• Self-serve portal for end-users
• Sophisticated Actions & Business logic become user-friendly UI & UX in this interface
• End-users can tap into integrations (DAM, PIM, CDN,etc...) when integrations are set up.

GraFx Publisher, formerly known as CHILI Publisher, is our first application launched on the GraFx platform. Originally an on-premises solution, it's now 100% cloud-based. This tool generates fully preflighted, press-ready PDFs and other image formats in various color spaces. It offers optional features like die cuts and registration colors, ensuring reliable print output. GraFx Publisher facilitates versatile, audience-specific variant production.

Key Features of GraFx Publisher

• Dynamic Templates: change size, color, text etc, depending on your input
• Copy fitting: input any copy in your print design and the feature makes sure it fits
• All print-necessary features; CMYK color, die cuts, page bleed and much more
• Connect to any data source: lights out graphics production & Variable Data Print (VDP) output

With GraFx Studio, graphic production at scale reaches new heights. The Smart Template editor enables seamless creation of animated and digital output. Designers craft templates with Brand Guidelines, Business Logic, and Media, while Developers integrate them via open API. This boosts speed, relevance and consistency of digital-animated but also print output for end-users. GraFx Studio marks another significant-boost for the CHILI GraFx platform.

Key Features of GraFx Studio

• Actions & Business logic give control of how templates react to end-user input
• My Projects makes self-serving content easy
• Super easy UI and UX make working in GraFx Studio fun and relatable
• Connect to any data source for fully automated graphical production