PrintSmith Vision Reviews

It's faster than PrintSmith Vision Legacy (the Flash-based one, not Classic).

Operational security is terrible. Vision requires a connected browser with Flash and Javascript active. In 2020! Also, since all print output is generated as PDFs loaded in the browser window they can be reopened across sessions from history. Not good!

Search is weirdly inconsistent. Sometimes you have to use special characters like % to search for partial matches, sometimes not, etc.

Controls are inconsistent. Some dialogs are worded that clicking "Yes" is destructive, while in others "No" is. Columns in lists jump around when you change views and cannot be accurately resized. Why are some buttons round, some oval, and some rounded squares? Why are some controls buttons, others fly-out menus, and still others completely hidden unless you mouse over them? There doesn't seem to be a consistent reasoning behind these decisions.

Many, many features that existed in PrintSmith Classic are non-existent or severely limited; likely all due to making this a web app instead of standalone client software. For instance: still no key-command equivalents for much of anything. Still no "Open previous document" command. Still cannot copy jobs from one pending document to another pending document in any way. It's extremely difficult to edit the templates for invoices, estimates, statements, etc. and requires different software (and training!) to do. It wasn't real easy to do in Classic, but it was better than this.

I never thought I'd pine for the days of PrintSmith 6 on MacOS 9...

Stability is good, as is the overall functionality.

Updates should be automatic, or at least more intuitive to implement. We've found some glitches in the algorithms that price out wide format products, but that may have been fixed in a newer update.

Emailing - Several variable data templates for; Invoices, Estimates, Post Payments, Cash Register, Purchase Order and Statements. Will list all contacts within an Account, allows you to CC yourself. When setup will add outgoing email tracking to customer Logs
Pending List Search - No more scrolling, you can search from the column titles. Uses predictive text so just a few letters typically finds what you are looking for.
Notify Customer - Much improved over Classic. Ability to create tasks for yourself and others, having reminders when you log in, and email functionality make this a very usable light CRM
Digital Assets - A Classic feature grown up. Easy to attach artwork to each job makes pulling job history all that much better. You can submit those attached jobs directly to a compatible Fiery Device and monitor production from the WIP window
Remote Access - No more VPN, Team Viewer, Go to My PC, Chicken of the VNC. The ability to access the system from any computer anywhere is a huge benefit. For Support people the ability to access the system dramatically improves support service delivery. It includes a true mobile application designed for Phones and Tablets goes even further to cut the cord.
Customized Screens are Back - Dashboard, Pending List, WIP list are now all custom to the User...thank you
Dashboard - In Fast Track this now becomes a truly usable overall look at the Center, whether by individual user or the whole Center, good ability to customize as well

There has been a considerable effort to convert to HTML (the years spent on Flash were very unsatisfying and IMO the wrong direction to have gone) has left behind many bugs. I hope after October there will be a pause in new functionality to fix many areas of the program.
Stock Definitions - Once a rock solid functionality now suffers from development moving too fast and not enough QA. The Job Details Stock picker is a great concept that needs additional attention as well as the new Stock Picker screen trying to squeeze too much in too small a space.

I went with Vision because I had to upgrade our computers and that was the only Option. PrintSmith Classic fit my company like a glove, ease of use, it was a downloaded stand alone product not tied to the internet.
I switched to PrintSmith Vision because I had no choice.

The sluggish running PrintSmith Vision is, although slower, still very close to the PrintSmith Classic I have run for 22 years. Now they tell me it may not work after only 2 years of use and I will have to switch to Fast Track because Flash is going away. Fast Track is NOTHING like Classic OR Vision, and I am very upset they did not tell me this in advance, as I would have certainly shopped for another vendor with a product closer to what I am used to running.

It's nice that we can price complex jobs fairly quickly once the system was set up.

The conversion to HTML (instead of Flash) has been very long, and we are still concerned about missing functions on the HTML side. It also takes a bit of time to go in and update pricing - could be much more user friendly especially for basic functions. Wish there were more standard reports available.

We also purchased Digital StoreFront under the impression that the two systems would sync seamlessly, and this hasn't been the case. We have to manage complex pricing in both systems, which is a nightmare since the two use completely different pricing methodologies. One would assume that if you update a paper price in one system that you sync it with the other system automatically.

My company has been an EFI Printsmith customer for many years. I find Printsmith Vision to be set up perfectly for my commercial printing operations.

Due to my location in the US territories, we have extremely unreliable internet. Because of this, I've never liked the web based nature of the program. However, if I were anywhere but here with reliable internet, I wouldn't care about this.

This is not easy to use it now takes one more keystroke for almost everything you do compared to original PrintSmith.
Trying to find help in the user guide is ???
I do not like the new version. But did not want to lose the account history.

Having to click confirm then go into invoice summary and click save.
Waste of time. Also If you put the dollar amount in at the beginning and change it at invoicing time, it creates and "adjustment" that changes the amount going into your sales column. What is the purpose of that. The price changed for some reason it is not an adjustment with a separate line item.

Low cost and Sir Speedy (former franchise) compliance.

Wide Format pricing, the need to straddle both the flash and the HTML versions, length of time for support, lack of additional features and functions. Evey update for the last few years has been fixes for the HTML version only.

It's gotten easier to use over the years, I like the browser based functionality and that we can access it from outside the office.

Don't like the reporting features or the secondary software needed to write reports. I think it should have better integration with other web products that is not expensive to implement. I don't like how much time there is between updates or the back up procedure.

The UI is vastly more modern on the Fast Track version.

Some key features are either missing or difficult to find on Fast Track. For instance, there is no delivery menu. This is critical, because the legacy version is Flash based, which is due to be discontinued at the end of the year.