Presstimator - About Us
About Us



About the Developers

Star*Key Software was created in 1999 to address the estimating needs of web offset printers. As a software company, Star*Key Software has worked in consultation with estimators, pressmen, general managers, owners, CFO's and CEO's in many newpapers and commercial web printshops. The Presstimator was created by a team of professionals at Star*Key Software with experience not only in printing estimating and software development, but also in management, finance and education. The resulting product is a sophisticated software program that is easy to use.

Technology

The Presstimator is developed using Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 .NET as a multi-tier application for the Microsoft Windows platform. The presentation layer of the application is developed using Visual Basic .NET. The business logic layers consists of C++ COM objects. The data access layer consists of C++ COM objects and communicates with a Microsoft SQL Server 2014 database (LocalDB, Express or Full License Server) via ADO SQL commands. This approach allows the development to easily migrate each layer to new technologies separately as they emerge. Some Presstimator reports are created using VBA macros which require Microsoft Word and Excel (Office 2003 or greater). Installation of the Presstimator is handled by InstallAware.