We are celebrating its Twentieth anniversary! From consumers and small businesses to leading graphic arts OEMs and Fortune 1000 companies, Apago enables users to easily transform electronic documents for print, the web, and digital media.

Founded in 1991, Apago first focused on custom applications and workflows for large publishers and graphic arts OEMs . Since then, the company expanded its offering to include retail software products, achieving tremendous success while marking several important milestones. These include:

In 1992, Apago (formerly Essential Technical Services Inc.) became one of the early innovators in the large-format printing market developing RIP software, specialized halftone patterns and color correction for producing large-format prints and vehicle wraps. Apago is still active this market providing software to a wide variety of markets including large format printing & cutting to textile printing.

In 1994, Apago developed one of the first OPI image server products for the newspaper industry. The company licensed its Native File eXchange software to leading graphic-arts OEMs, including Scitex, Dalim, Dupont, Screen, Contex and PCC, allowing them to interface with competing systems. Apago was a leader in the TIFF/IT-P1 market with RIP and conversion software.

1998 was the year that Apago released Piktor, a powerful RIP and file conversion tool. Piktor has been licensed by many graphic-arts companies including Fuji, Onevision, Screen, Summa and Agfa.

In 2001, Apago expanded beyond OEM partners to begin selling software under its own brand. The company name was changed from ETS to Apago, Inc.

Also in 2001, Apago introduced PDF/X Checkup, the first product for creating and preflighting PDF/X-1a files. The product received a Seybold Hot Pick that year. DDAP awarded its “Founder Award” to Dwight Kelly in 2002 for helping make PDF/X the standard for digital advertising submission world-wide.

In 2002, the company made its first move into the consumer market with PDF Shrink and PDFmerge.

In November 2002, Apago introduced PDF Enhancer, a powerful production tool for PDF document assembly and preparation tasks. The product has received numerous awards including a MacWorld 4-mice rating, inclusion on Kevin Slimp’s “Must Have” software list, 5 stars and a Pick award from SoftPedia, along with an honorable mention in Electronic Publishing’s 2005 Hot Products.

Since 1997, Apago has helped guide the development of and provided technical feedback on numerous international and industry standards including TIFF/IT, PDF/X, JDF, PDF/A and the Ghent PDF Working Group.

In 2005, Apago broke into the corporate document and newspaper markets responding to the demand for solutions for creating, modifying, archiving and repurposing digital documents. Apago’s Cluster Workflow continues to provide reliable, scalable automation to large publishers such Time, Inc. and Hallmark Cards.

Apago partnered with QualityLogic in 2008 to develop a comprehensive library for working with Microsoft’s XPS document format.

During 2008 and 2009 Apago worked on several large digital archiving projects with Bondi Digital including The Rolling Stone and Playboy.

Apago also released its digital publishing workflow products in 2008/2009 and they are licensed by several of the leading e-publishing providers including Time, Zinio, Texterity, NXTbook Media and Bluetoad.

For 2010, partners with Enfocus to integrate Apago’s products into their Switch workflow automation products. A major update to PDF Enhancer was released that brought significant new functionality and faster processing speeds.

In 2011, Apago expanded into the textile printing business with a user friendly design & print solution for digital t-shirt printing. PDF Enhancer continued to tackle new markets including legal documents and extremely high volume digital printing.

“Our productivity software serves as the linchpin in document workflows improving workflow efficiency, whether it’s to reduce file sizes, optimize documents, or automate repetitive processes. Apago’s longevity and growth is a testament to our ability to help people get the most from document communications and to profit from new opportunities. Our 20-year anniversary is significant because it demonstrates that we can effectively respond to an constantly evolving market and deliver the highest-quality products and services,” states Dwight Kelly, president of Apago Inc. “With 20 successful years behind us, our customers can trust that we will continue to be there in the future with the solutions they need.”

Here are some quotes from our customers and partners on this anniversary occasion:

Mitch Turner, Publishing Production Systems Manager, Courier Corporation – “I’ve worked on several projects with Dwight and Apago and found them to be very resourceful and responsive to our needs. They’re experts on anything and everything to do with pdfs and have created solutions for us that we couldn’t have found anywhere else. Happy 20th Anniversary, Apago!”

Dan Keene, President & CEO of MOD-PAC CORP – “Apago has been a long-term partner with MOD-PAC. We rely on Apago to create tailor-made solutions to our specific business requirements.

Erik Cullins, print workflow expert – “”I’ve had the pleasure of working with the team at Apago on projects at a couple different companies. From projects of modest scale to corporate-wide enterprise-level integration, they never failed to deliver. To borrow the words of Arthur C. Clarke, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” When we had no idea how to tackle seemingly insurmountable projects, we’d call the magicians at Apago in to save the day.”

Janice Reese, NetworkPDF – “Apago is very customer focused and always looks for the solution to any problem. They are detailed oriented and can be counted on to get any task done with quality. They understand the role technology can provide to enable customers and is a valuable resource for Network PDF and our customers.”

Matt Beals, Apago reseller – “Apago has always been the go to company when you need truly innovative solutions for projects of all sizes and scopes. Their portfolio of technology and expertise is truly amazing. Working with the professionals at Apago is always a pleasure. On spec, on time, on budget. It doesn’t get better than that.”

David Zwang, graphic arts consultant – “In its 20 years, Apago has continued to prove itself as a key resource to the graphic arts industry. Not only in their consumer products, but also as a contract developer for some of the largest and most efficient premedia production systems. I look forward to their contributions in the next 20 years. Happy Anniversary Apago!”

David McDowell, Chair USTAG TC130 – “Congratulations to Dwight Kelly and Apago on 20 years in business. Dwight Kelly and Apago, have been supporters of the international graphic arts standards almost as long as Apago has existed. Dwight has been a supporter of both the ANSI CGATS work and the other work in ISO TC 130 WG2. For me he has been the go-to person for issues of file formats, compression, etc. He is always available and responsive to questions and requests for help, regardless of how stupid the questions being asked. His support has been invaluable and greatly appreciated.”

In the years ahead, Apago’s customers and its target market will continue to see innovative solutions from the company. Apago is leading the way with the tools and technology to support the need for electronic and archived versions of magazines and newspapers. Consumers and small businesses can also expect regular enhancements to our entire product line.