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Analysis from FastEditor has shown that roughly 85% of uploaded logos are not print-ready, with its findings pointing to a wider industry push for end-to-end workflow automation
A prepress automation specialist has released new platform data, quantifying how much customer artwork needs fixing before print production – and how autonomous workflows can close that gap.
FastEditor is an artwork automation platform for the promotional, ecommerce, and print industries, designed to turn customer-uploaded artwork into production ready files for printing applications including garment and direct-to-object (DTO).
The software specialist recently analysed the logos being uploaded to its platform, in order to understand the quality of the uploads and how many of them are print-ready.
Across 13,773 logo uploads on the FastEditor platform between November 2025 and May 2026, the company found that about 85% needed at least one automated fix before production.
Most of the artwork analysed was not ready to print on arrival, with 79% needing upscaling, 61% needing vectorisation, and 40% needing background removal.
Vectorization is seen by FastEditor as a core problem: the 61% of uploads previously mentioned are raster files that can’t be used for screen print, embroidery, or laser without conversion.
A large percentage of the raw files being sent were also too ‘light’, with 79% of assessed raster uploads needing upscaling. FastEditor found that the median uploaded file size was around 0.6MB, which the company describes as “web-grade files that won’t hold up in print.”
The software company argues that by utilising its automated prepress solution, the median time from upload to a production-ready file is just 53 seconds, versus up to 24 hours for a manual proof and around three working days to reach production in a traditional workflow.
Rick Molenaar, commercial director at FastEditor, says: “The industry has treated artwork preparation as an invisible back-office cost for decades.
“This data puts a number on it: roughly 85% of uploaded logos need fixing, and almost all of it can now be done automatically in under a minute. Artwork automation isn’t an operational detail anymore – it’s a profit and loss driver.”
FastEditor is not alone in its mission to eliminate the manual file patching that has long plagued print shops, with the wider print industry rapidly shifting toward autonomous, touch-free workflows across the print process.
For printers dealing with unpredictable customer-submitted artwork, cloud-based preflighting platforms like Artworker focus heavily on automated correction. The Artworker platform automatically scans uploaded PDFs for missing bleeds, low-resolution assets, or incorrect dimensions, applying patches to make files press-ready without human intervention.
Web-to-print engines like Antigro Designer tackle the issue at the front-end by embedding smart, template-based design tools directly into ecommerce storefronts. By locking the design boundaries to exact machine specifications, its software guides the customer to creating print-ready files first time, removing the need for backend vectorisation or background removal.
Once files are deemed print-ready, the automation challenge shifts to the production floor, where high-volume software suites can handle industrial-scale execution.
At this stage, advanced automation servers such as Fiery’s JobFlow system can manage imposition, nesting, and intelligent job routing, automatically preparing approved artwork files for the specific press it will be printed on.
This push toward touch-free operations is mirroring a broader trend across the sector. The Summer 2025 In-Plant Printing KPI Report by PRINTING United showed that 65.4% of in-house printing departments are actively pursuing equipment or workflow automation.
As the volume of small-batch, web-to-print orders continues to climb, a growing number in the industry believe that relying on manual human checks to fix low-resolution logos or missing bleeds is no longer a viable business model.
This is backed up by a further data point from FastEditor’s analysis – between November 2025 and May 2026, monthly uploads to its automation platform grew by roughly eleven times.
Ultimately, the growth metrics from FastEditor alongside broader industry benchmark data suggest that manual artwork preparation is becoming increasingly unviable. As order volumes increase, automated prepress software is becoming a standard part of infrastructure across promotional, commercial, and in-plant print operations alike.
