AVA is a end-to-end solution that is used in the Decorative Print Industry. There are many benefits to AVA as specialist software but particularly the ability to design in repeat, colour separate flat and tonal designs and create multiple colourways within the same design file.

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There are several modules which make up the AVA software:

Create & Repeat
Quick Separations
Technical Separations
Colour & Layout
Texture Mapping
Digital Print RIP
 

Create & Repeat 

The design and creative part of the software: You can work with scanned artwork, import from a third party, or design from scratch directly in AVA.

There are many tools, brushes, patterns and filters to enhance your work and help you be at your most creative. Experiment with standard drops, mirrors or create unique repeats.

Quick Separations  

Used by designers to quickly create colour separations of their flat or tonal designs. Once the artwork is put into repeat, AVA’s separation tools can be used to extract each colour in the design. 

AVA will simulate how the print will look once all the layers are visible and printed on top of each other.

AVA’s powerful tools will allow you to separate a watercolour design while maintaining all the tones and paint effects of the artwork, unlike other separation software which will index the colour giving a crude result.

Colour & Layout Window

With the Colour module you can create as many colourways as you like within your separated design. The Layout Window allows you to present these colourways and lay them out for printing. You can also create moodboards and present collections.

Another part of the Colour module is the ability to create profiles for both your monitor and printer. This means that what you see on screen is an accurate match to what will be printed. This is invaluable in the decorative print industry.

Texture Mapping

This is the 3D mapping part of the software. You are able to use your own photograph of a product or scene and transfer your design onto it or you can choose from the library of available room scenes on AVA Assist. 

Technical Separations

This module is particularly aimed at preparing your designs for analogue print. Check the overprinting areas of your designs, add overgrip to help with any out of register issues and convert your design to half tone screens.

Digital Print Rip

This is for AVA users who need to print to large format digital printers. It allows several designers to send files to print and drives the printer using specific settings.

AVA Settings (AVA / Settings)

This is where you can set up AVA to your specifications. You can load preferences from other users or share your own by using the share option in the Share Settings panel.

In your Settings you can also set up your Tools- and your Layer Palette to only show what you use in your workflow.

There are lots of different functions in the Layer- and Tools Palette but you will find the most important ones explained below:

Layer palette (Window / Layer)

This button allows you to scroll through the colourways. Use the + and – buttons to add and delete colourways The T button allows you to change the transparency of the layers
The palette button allows you to open the Swatches window. You can store colours in this window and drag and drop them into any design. The Colourway Browser allows you to view all your colourways side by side as colour palettes.

	The left button adds a 24 bit RGB image layer to the file.		Clicking on this tonal rectangle adds an 8 bit tonal layer
	The button on its right adds a 32 bit CMYK image layer		This button will duplicate the layers you have activated.
	Clicking on the plain rectangle adds a 1 bit solid colour layer to the file.		The rubbish bin will delete any layer you have activated.

The substrate box shows your chosen substrate. This should always be set to AVA Printing White as this colour chip represents the whitest white that you can achieve and does not contain any colour information at all. If the substrate isn’t set to AVA Printing White you will have problems when printing white areas of a design.

You can find the AVA Printing White chip in the AVA Colourfile along with AVA Printing Black which is your blackest black.

Difference in layers

Initially it can be a bit difficult for new users to understand the difference between the individual layers types. Add a new 1 bit layer and a new 8 bit layer. Use the Vignette tool to draw a gradient. What difference do you notice?

As you can see the 1bit layer can only contain 100% of tone or no information at all. The 8 bit layer can hold 256 tonal values from 100% to 0% of tone.

So what’s the difference from spot layers to image layers? Hold down ⌥ (option key) on your foreground colour and choose a completely different colour to the one of your layer. Now draw a shape with the circle tool on your 8 bit layer from before. While I draw the shape it shows in the selected foreground colour but as soon as I let go of my mouse the colour of my shape turns into the layer colour:

As the 8 bit layer can only contain tonal values of the layer colour, it will interpret the foreground colour in the layer colour.

Now draw the same vignette as before on a new 24bit (RGB) layer and then change your foreground colour to draw a differently coloured circle:

The circle will appear in the colour of the foreground as RGB images can contain endless variations of colour. While this might seem easier, you must bear in mind that if you want to create unlimited colour variations or produce your designs using analogue print you will need to work in separated spot layers.

Tools palette (Window/ Tools)

The Hand Tool		The Magnify Tool		The Crop Tool		The Lasso Tool		The Magnetic Lasso Tool		The Polygon Tool
The Rectangular Selection Tool		The Oval Selection Tool		The Magic Wand Tool		The Free Rotate Tool		The Text Tool		The Distort Tool
The Pipette Tool		The Pin Tool		The Origin Tool		The Spline Tools		The Vector Cloning Tool		The 3D Designer Tool
The Brush Tool		The Morphing Brush Tool		The Spray Tool		The Pencil Tool		The Dodge & Burn Tool		The Carbon Copy Tool
The Stamp Brush Tool		The Smudge Tool		The Eraser Tool		The Bucket Tool		The Splatter Tool		The Filled | Outline Rectangle Tool
The Filled | Outlined Oval Tool		The Filled | Outlined Freehand Drawing Tool		The Filled | Outlined Polygon Tool		The Filled | Outlined Arc Tool		The Vignette Tool		The Line Tool
The Grid Selection Tool		The Contour Grid Tool		The Perspective Grid Tool		The Rectangular Grid Tool		The Measure Tool		The Select Vector Tool
The Rotate Vector Tool		The Resize Vector Tool		The Freedrawn Grid Tool		The Silhouette Tool

Some of the most important tools are:

Crop tool

Allows you to crop your design smaller or bigger.

This tool can also help you create repeats when used along with the Carbon Copy tool. ^ (control) + click for more options such as setting the size and position of your Cropbox or cropping one repeat.

Selection tools

Selections allow you to copy, paste, resize and move motifs.

The Lasso tool enables you to draw your selection freehand. In the automatically opening Selection Window, you also have options to add or remove areas of your selection.

Rectangular or Circular Selections will draw selections according to the chosen shape.

The Magic Wand is a great tool for precise selections. If you would like to add more information to your selection, adjust the tolerance in the Magic Wand Window.

If you would like to move a selection, make sure that you have your Standard Lasso or Rectangular/Circular Selection Tool selected. If you don’t want to move the content within the selection, remove the pencil from your layer.

Pipette tool

Allows you to pick colours for designing and colour separation. Hold Shift + (command key) to add colours directly into the layer palette.

Origin tool

This tool allows you to move and resize Partial Images (floating layers). Partial images are an image layering feature which allows you to create designs by building them up gradually, layer by layer.

You are able to copy selected elements from source images and paste them as partial images within the same design or different designs. You can identify a partial image by the little black symbols on the image icon in the layer palette.

Paintbrush

Double click on the tool icon for your Brushes Library. You can create your own brushes or load a default set from AVA. The Brushes Library can also be found in the Windows Menu.

To resize your paintbrush quickly, use 1 and 2 on the keyboard. To rotate use 3 and 4

In the Brushes Library, you have various different brush tracking options with which you can create fantastic effects and shapes.

Carbon Copy

The Carbon Copy tool can be used to edit designs or repeat complex tonal artwork with the Carbon Copy from Cropbox feature. In the Carbon Copy Window you can chose your Standard Carbon Copy tool or experiment with Carbon Copy Blended and its various modes.