Viz-It LLC

Contex Wide Format Scanner Reproduces Precise Textile Details in High Quality Images for Online Furniture Browsing.

Summary:

Confidence of consistent results insuring a high level of color and detail accuracy was the prerequisite of Viz-it when deciding on which scanner was most relevant to their business.

North Carolina-based Viz-it LLC delivers precise digital representation of interior design textiles for leading furniture manufacturers. These images allow prospective customers to zoom in to view the color, design, and texture of each textile with accuracy when researching major furniture purchases.

The Challenge: Accurately representing interior design textiles for onscreen viewing

Showcasing a company’s products on the Internet is no longer just for online purchases. Manufacturers like Thomasville, Baker Furniture, and Drexel Furniture understand that many customers first spend time browsing new furnishings online to identify the best color or fabric for their homes. Website visitors also expect the ability to zoom in to see color and texture with accurate detail. Viz-It is one of the few U.S. based companies that makes these up close-and-personal digital encounters with textile swatches possible.

Clients submit hundreds of swatches of drapery and upholstery fabric that need to be digitally represented with precise color and texture. Scott Davis knew that scanning the textile samples was the best method for accurately reproducing fine details. Unlike photography, scanning ensures stable lighting conditions and digital accuracy for both print and screen.

The Solution: Contex HD3630 Plus wide format scanner with NextImage

Viz-It uses the Contex HD3630 Plus wide format scanner which comes with Nextimage software to digitally capture fabric swatches. Davis selected the Contex scanner after a comprehensive search that involved submitting test swatches to leading scanner manufacturers and comparing the results. He considered various criteria, including color fidelity and the ability to render a range of fabric thicknesses—from satin to quilted.

“Hands down, the Contex HD3630 Plus wide format scanner had much better texture detail and color accuracy. These elements are essential to what we do,” comments Davis.

“The Contex scanner allows us to capture materials of varying thickness and provide our clients with a high-quality product, which they can then use for the web or print.”

Viz-It scans about 20 fabric swatches a day. The high-quality scans minimize the need to rescan items or to perform post-scanning manipulations. The images are then imported into Adobe Scene 7, an e-commerce tool, for displaying the images online.
 
“Time savings is the big benefit. If we photographed the materials, we would have to set up an environment with controlled lighting that changed according to the quality of the material. The Contex scanner negates this issue with its consistent lighting,” notes Davis. “We also like that the Contex scanner self-calibrates color, which eliminates the need to color correct the scanned images. That’s a significant advantage to our workflow.”

The Contex scanner comes with built-in document presets, folder and file name templates, automatic background clean-up, and other batch productivity tools that make scanning highly productive for Viz-It. The Nextimage enhancement software ensures the highest-quality scans that Viz-It requires, eliminating most user intervention, trial and error adjustments, and time-consuming post processing. Additionally, the software allows for custom presets, which result in an easy, one-button click to scan fabric.

The Results: High-quality images made affordable

According to Viz-It’s clients, precise digital representation of their products adds value to their customers’ online viewing experience. Once clients see the response to their fabric images, many choose to add to their online collections. Viz-It is also winning new business in this particular niche. New entrants like StoneSide.com are turning to Viz-It to create its online digital images.

“Contex scanners deliver exceptional quality scans for the price, which allows us to offer our clients affordable, quality images. Without this scanner, we would have to either offer an inferior product or significantly raise our prices to offset the cost of manual color corrections,” comments Scott Davis, owner of Viz-it LLC.