Every lab is different. Some are running a single Epson SureLab on a retail counter, printing school packages three days a week. Others are managing a cluster of Fujifilm Frontiers across a production floor, pulling orders from Shopify overnight and GotPhoto by day. Most have grown into their current setup over years — adding a printer here, a web platform there — and what works is rarely what a textbook workflow would suggest.
The BlueFX Workflow Builder is a free, interactive web application that lets you map your own setup, step by step, and see it as a live diagram as you go. It is not a sales tool. It is a practical working aid — the kind of thing you use when you want to think clearly about how your lab actually runs, where the joins are, and how BlueFX and BlueControl fit in.
There is nothing to install and no account to create. The tool runs in the browser and takes about three minutes to complete. When you are done, you have a workflow diagram you can save, print, or send directly to the InsituaFX team as the starting point for a conversation.
How the Builder Works
The tool is laid out in three stages, moving from left to right across the production chain: where your orders come from, how they are handled in the middle, and what they print to at the end.
Stage One — Order Sources
This covers the full range of ways orders arrive in a real lab. Kiosk hardware from Fujifilm, Noritsu, Agfa, Kodak, and DiLand. Online platforms including Shopify, WooCommerce, GotPhoto, Sytist, Pic-time, Pixieset, Dakis, LifePics, Photo Finale, Pixfizz, Proofpix, ImageQuix, and ROES. Lab and studio software such as Express Digital Darkroom, Timestone, PhotoLynx and Captura, Noritsu EZ Controller via Print-by-Proxy, Kodak DP2, and IFX’s own x-Studio. File-based input including hot folders, CSV spreadsheets, PDF photobook layouts, DPOF from camera cards, and HEIC and HEIF files from phones.
Stage Two — BlueFX & BlueControl Production
This is the production layer — the part that sits between the order arriving and the printer running. You choose your automation level: fully automatic for overnight batch runs, a review queue for jobs that need a human check before printing, or manual on-demand for bespoke or event work.
You set your printer routing: a single device, a cluster of up to seventeen printers, or a mixed estate running Fujifilm and Epson side by side. Job handling features include: package printing for wallets, school packs and sports orders via PackFX; variable data and backprinting for names, barcodes, ID cards and memory mates; job separators and delivery notes; barcode and QR tracking; custom print sizes created on the fly; panoramic and banner prints up to 59 inches via Auto Panorama; duplex and double-sided products; ICC colour management; print order and sequence control; cut-length and media saving; and automated upload to FTP or Amazon S3 via BlueUpload.
Stage Three — Printers & Output Products
Fujifilm Frontier models covered include the DX400, DX400W, DX100, DL650, DL600, DE100-XD, and the LP series for labs migrating from wet minilabs. Epson SureLab models include the D1070, D1070SE, D1070DE, D1000 through D1060, D3000, D800 through D870, D700, and the D500 compact series. The tool also covers DMLab, Noritsu dry and wet minilabs, Agfa d-Lab, and any Windows-connected printer.
Output products range from standard prints and wallets through school and sports packages, template products such as ID cards and memory mates, duplex double-sided products, panoramic prints and banners, stickers, photobook and album pages from PDF layouts, and contact sheets.
What You Get at the End
As you work through the three stages, a workflow diagram builds on the right-hand side of the screen. Every node in the diagram can be hovered for a citation — a link to the relevant InsituaFX blog post, FAQ, or case study that documents exactly how that part of the workflow behaves in practice. Nothing in the diagram is theoretical.
When the diagram reflects your lab, you enter your name and email and the tool sends the full selection summary to the InsituaFX team, with the diagram attached. The team typically responds the same day to confirm whether the workflow fits your exact setup and suggest the most useful next step.
Who This Is For
The tool is most useful for lab owners and production managers who are either evaluating BlueFX for the first time, working through an upgrade or migration, or trying to articulate their current setup clearly before a conversation with IFX. It is equally useful for a single-operator drylab wondering whether automation would save them time, and for a production manager at a high-volume school photography lab planning a cluster of printers for the autumn season.
The workflow that works for you approach has been at the centre of how InsituaFX operates for over thirty years. The builder is a practical expression of that — a way to put your lab’s specifics on the table before the conversation starts.
The tool is available in English, French, German, and Spanish, with no login required.
