Kodak Preps Alternative for Small Printers: Imposition in Your Browser

A Kodak Preps alternative

Kodak Preps is one of the standard imposition programs in commercial print: templates, SmartMarks, signatures and press-sheet planning, sold through Kodak and its resellers, often as part of a Prinergy workflow. For a large plant it earns its keep. For a small printer, a print buyer, a designer or a finishing house, it's a lot of software and a price you have to ask for. Here is how Metre2 Print Imposition compares.

Published 9 Nov 20265 min readBy metre2

What a Kodak Preps alternative has to do

Get the pages in the right place for saddle stitching and perfect binding, with fold schemes you can check before you plate.
Keep the artwork intact: place pages as vectors, never rasterise.
Cover the everyday layouts: n-up, step and repeat, cut and stack, gang-up and tiling.
Handle creep, bleed and marks without hand-editing.
Not get in the way: no plug-in to install into another program, no server to set up.

How Print Imposition compares with Kodak Preps

	Kodak Preps	Metre2 Print Imposition
Runs on	Windows or macOS client, with a Windows server for workflow use	Your browser; nothing to install
Signatures and fold schemes	✓, with a template and fold-pattern library	✓: F4-1, F6-1, F8-7, F12-14, F16-6, F16-7, F32-9, each checked by folding
Work and turn / tumble, perfecting	✓	✓ (work and turn in Pro)
Creep	✓	✓ (Pro)
Several jobs on one sheet	✓	✓ (Pro): gang-up by quantity
Marks	SmartMarks	Crop and fold free; registration, colour bar, collating and slug in Pro
JDF and workflow integration	✓, with Prinergy	Not yet
Price	Quoted by Kodak (subscription for new purchases)	Free; Pro £14.99 a month or £129 a year inc. VAT

Where Kodak Preps is still the right tool

If you run a Prinergy workflow, plate in volume, or rely on SmartMarks, JDF to the press and folder, and templates shared across a prepress team, Preps is the right tool and Print Imposition isn't a replacement for it. Print Imposition suits the jobs around it: a quick booklet, a gang of cards, a check of a supplier's imposition, or a small shop without a prepress department.

Price

Kodak doesn't publish a list price for Preps; it is quoted by Kodak or a reseller. Kodak's 2021 notice says new purchasers of its workflow products are quoted subscription licences from 1 November 2021. Metre2 Print Imposition is free for booklets up to 32 pages on SRA3, 2-up, 4-up and step and repeat; Pro is £14.99 a month or £129 a year including VAT, with a 7-day free trial.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a cheaper alternative to Kodak Preps?

For small printers, Metre2 Print Imposition does signatures and fold schemes, work and turn, creep, gang-up and cut and stack for £14.99 a month, with booklets, 2-up, 4-up and step and repeat free. It doesn't do JDF or Prinergy integration.

Can it check a Preps imposition?

Yes: impose the same PDF with the same fold scheme and compare the sheets, or use the folding dummy to check the order.

Are my PDFs uploaded?

No. Print Imposition runs in your browser and saves the imposed PDF to your computer.