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Live Authors, Aspiring Authors and Stuff I Forgot to Tell You
by Noel Ward

It used to be that when a company demonstrated book production at a trade show they cranked out a few public domain titles of the books by dead guys. Not only were the contents the reason Cliff Notes is successful, but the bindings of these volume often left something to be desired, with random pages coming loose or the cover being laminated in a way guaranteed to curl. But no more. Vendors with a book production agenda have clearly turned a corner and there were plenty of good examples of digitally printed books coming off digital presses in Chicago......MORE


Don’t Listen to the Competition
by Andrew Tribute

One benefit of my background of the past 40 years digitizing the graphic arts industry, including when I directed the marketing activities of one of the major suppliers to this industry, is I can often look at a piece of technology from a non-graphic arts related industry and anticipate how it could be utilized within graphic arts. When I first read about the planned use of violet (then called blue) laser diodes in reading and writing to DVDs, I saw their potential for imaging CtP plates.....MORE


Print 05: One View plus Seeing the benefits of True Product Consolidation (Integration) Part 2
Commentary by Steve Aranoff & Robert FitzPatrick, The EAGLE

In the first part of this article, we noted that we were impressed while walking the aisles at Print 05, with a new product being shown at the Chuckwalla booth. What was most interesting was that it was really an integrated product from three small companies, coupled with significant technology from Kodak and Microsoft that made their task easier......MORE


Print 05: One View plus Seeing the benefits of True Product Consolidation (Integration) Part 1
Commentary by Steve Aranoff & Robert FitzPatrick, The EAGLE

It’s always hard for us to focus on real products and their attributes while walking the aisles of a trade show such as Print 05. There are so many booths, with so many acquaintances, with so many demonstrations screaming at you, and all fighting for your attention. Others will go about their “best of the show,” and other analyses about the meaning of what was presented at the official press conferences will occur......MORE


Binding & Finishing Gems for the POD Environment Part 2
by Heidi Tolliver-Nigro

Just for fun, I clocked the distance from the back of the Print 05 show floor to the press room, where industry analysts and journalists could access press kits, Internet connections, and of course, lunch. It was half a mile. Print 05 is simply a huge show, so it would be impossible to cover every company. I did discuss a number of neat products, including those from smaller companies, last time. In this article, I’ll throw out a few more from the major players......MORE


M4D, Xerox Ups the Ante and Océ talks Color
by Noel Ward

Between computer industry acronyms and the ever-morphing "language" of Instant Messaging, we've long since run out of letters and numbers that are at all unique. So the string of pre-show emails about M4D could have been just about anything. But since they emanated from Helene Smith PR, an agency focusing on the print industry, I figured it might be something ought to check out. So I did something unusual at PRINT 05 and went to the news conference. I find these events are often a waste of perfectly good meeting room space, but this one was more than worthwhile......MORE


Mohawk Paper Earns Energy Credit "Windfall" and Shares the Wealth
by Jean-Marie Hershey

In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the benefits of environmentally sustainable practices and the consequences of a failure to implement them are abundantly and urgently clear. From the death, destruction and displacement wrought by the storms to rising prices at the gas pump, the need to support the environmentally responsible manufacture of paper has become an economic imperative for corporate entities that buy paper in large volumes......MORE


A Day in the Print World
by Pete Rivard

Home from PRINT 05 and winding down my morning stroll with the dogs I rack my brain for some ideas on how to help the marketing guys at the college understand how our lives are intertwined with print, and how to craft that message to the high school crowd. Absent mindedly, I pull the morning paper out of its poly bag advertising some cell phone offer and read that the FEMA guy either was fired or he wasn’t and the Northwest mechanics are still on the picket line......MORE


Prepress and Business Solutions at Print 05 Part 3
by Cary Sherburne

As I reported in Parts One and Two of this series, Print 05 was a busy show—with more than 375 press releases across all categories, and nearly 120 in prepress and business systems alone. As is always the case with events of this magnitude, it is impossible—and probably not even useful—to write about everything and everyone. In Part Three of this three-part review of the “softer” side of print, I continue my coverage of high points and interesting discoveries in the workflow and business systems area, as well as more prepress oriented offerings......MORE


Prepress and Business Solutions at Print 05 Part 2
by Cary Sherburne

As I reported last week, Print 05 was a busy show—with more than 375 press releases across all categories, and nearly 120 in prepress and business systems alone. As is always the case with events of this magnitude, it is impossible—and probably not even useful—to write about everything and everyone. In Part Two of this three-part review of the “softer” side of print, I continue my coverage of high points and interesting discoveries in the workflow and business systems area, as well as more prepress oriented offerings.......MORE


Goss and QuadTech Bring Next-Level Web Capabilities to Print
by Patrick Henry

At Print and Graph Expo, pride of place traditionally has belonged to sheetfed presses, but it no longer makes sense to refer to the events as “sheetfed shows.” Although sheetfed presses probably always will outnumber web presses at the Chicago printing fairs, it’s likely that Print 05 witnessed the end of many of the differences in how the two categories of commercial equipment are perceived......MORE


Market Leaders Vye for Share in Ink Jet
by Noel Ward

There are a lot of flavors of inkjet these days and it's interesting to watch the market develop as vendors vie for share. Some IJ technologies are well accepted, while others are still looking for broad adoption. But make no mistake, ink jet printing is a growing technology and already dominates some areas of printing......MORE


How xpedx and Ryobi Raised Their Profiles at Print
by Patrick Henry

Some exhibitors at Print downsized their stands from the last time they exhibited at McCormick Place, while others pumped up the square footage. Count xpedx among those in the latter category. The distributor of printing papers, graphic supplies, and production equipment doubled the space it occupied at Graph Expo ’04, and not just for the comfort of the extra elbow room.......MORE


Prepress and Business Solutions at Print 05 Part 1
by Cary Sherburne

If the number of press releases signifies anything, Print 05 was a busy show - with more than 375 press releases across all categories, and nearly 120 in prepress and business systems alone. The exhibitors I spoke with almost unanimously reported that the show traffic was lighter than anticipated, but that a more focused and better educated buyer seemed to be the rule rather than the exception......MORE


Sun Chemical: New Ink Stays Open on Press Indefinitely, But Dries in Minutes - No VOCs
by Heidi Tolliver-Nigro

Sun Chemical quietly dropped two bombshells on the marketplace at Print 05. The first was Liberty sheetfed inks, released through Kohl & Madden, which stay open indefinitely on press, but dry and can be put through finishing within minutes. All with no VOCs.....MORE


Van Son Holland Ink Adds Universal Appeal To Its Offset Portfolio
by Jean-Marie Hershey

Small can be beautiful. It also can be nimble, creative, flexible and smart. After a long and distinguished history serving the small offset market, where it holds a 70 percent market share, Van Son Holland Ink Corp. has moved steadily upmarket over the past five years. In a strategic move designed to broaden its brand appeal, Van Son has streamlined its portfolio and now emphasizes the superior performance of its Vs5 Series offset inks on all large commercial as well as small two-color presses........MORE


GretagMacbeth and X-Rite Extend Color Control into New Territories
by Pete Rivard

GretagMacbeth and X-Rite, the twin superpowers of color measurement and control, are a strong argument in favor of the benefits of competition in the market place. Both companies are rolling out their complete arsenals and newest solutions at Print ‘05 in Chicago’s McCormick Place, extending versatile color measurement and management options into design and photographic applications and further into the packaging and flexographic market segments.......MORE


The Latest on the Kodak Transformation
by Cary Sherburne

Print 05 is the public debut of the “new” Kodak Graphic Communications Group, following the apparent conclusion of the company’s aggressive acquisition path with the close of the Creo acquisition in mid-June. A unified brand identity was definitely in play in Kodak’s show presence......MORE


Running Through McCormick: Wider at HP, Faster at Nipson, Changes at Quark
by Noel Ward

What you really need at a show like PRINT 05 is a little magic, like the Time Turner Harry Potter and Hermione Granger use to go back a couple of hours and be in two places at once. That's because at a show the size of this one, it's easy to be in the wrong place at the right time, and vice versa......MORE


The View from the Aftermath: State-of-the Industry Reports From Heidelberg, Komori America, and MAN Roland at Print 05
by Patrick Henry

Print 05 has been much less severely impacted by the national calamity of Hurricane Katrina than was Print 01 by the international act of terrorism that shut it down four years ago, and it may be hoped that no act of God or crime of man will throw its smothering shadow across Print 09 four years from now. This year, however, Print is taking place within a hard-edged context that it never, in its erstwhile innocence, used to occupy.....MORE


Why Press Progress Trumps Head Count at Print 05 (With Updates from KBA, Muller Martini, Mitsubishi, and Heidelberg)
by Patrick Henry

A moderately well attended show so far, Print 05 doesn’t need to play to massed crowds in order to make an essential point about progress in offset lithographic press technology—still the bedrock of the industry and the strongest motif of this quadrennial event....MORE


Heidelberg Prinect – A Vision for the Future
by Andrew Tribute

With the announcement of the 1,000th Prinect Image Control, and the release 4 of the Image Control software, I thought it would be good to get an update on what Heidelberg is doing with Prinect, and also try to find out the direction where the Prinect Color Solutions may be going....MORE


With Heidelberg Web Acquisition and FERAG Deal, Goss International Earns Heavyweight Status in Web Offset Print Finishing
by Jean-Marie Hershey

An established but little known fact is that in the wake of its acquisition of Heidelberg Web Systems in 2004, Goss International became one of the world's largest providers of high-end print finishing solutions, including commercial saddlestitchers, adhesive binders and auxiliary equipment, as well as a systems integrator for press and postpress equipment.......MORE


A Few Minutes with Océ's Guy Broadhurst
by Noel Ward

Océ North America announced some new color products here at PRINT 05, the CPT 60 and 90 and the VarioStream 9230. The former are tandem versions of its existing CPS 800 and 900 color printers and leverage those machines' high levels of consistency and print quality to deliver identical output on multiple devices.......MORE


CTP for Everyone: More Affordable than Ever Before
by Cary Sherburne

Computer-to-plate (CTP) technologies have been featured at printing trade shows for many years, and the concept is certainly nothing new. What is new at Print 05 is increased affordability for these digital systems.....MORE


Binding & Finishing Gems for the POD Environment Part 1
by Heidi Tolliver-Nigro

The traffic on the show floor was moderate on Saturday afternoon, although some booths were busy. Binding and finishing vendors reported that, while some customers were here to buy, most were shopping. All were anticipating higher levels of traffic on Monday and Tuesday, hoping that printers are simply preferring to stay home over the weekend and will come out in force during the early part of next week.......MORE


Laminates That Protect Against Germs? What WILL They Think of Next?
by Heidi Tolliver-Nigro

Here’s something you don’t see every day. At the Protect-All booth, you can stop by and see BioLam, a thermal laminating material that is antimicrobial. BioLam is enhanced with a patented antimicrobial compound that inhibits the growth and reproduction of bacteria and other microbes.....MORE


A Few Minutes With Mike Kucharski
by Noel Ward

There's a coffee maker in Mike Kucharski's office. Not content with the standard office blend offered by the workgroup machine a few doors down the hall, Mike brews a pot or two of his own every day. It is amazing stuff that makes the so-called super-caffienated beverages marketed these days seem like watery Kool-Aid. For a dedicated caffeine addict like me, it's always a treat to have coffee in Mike's office.......MORE


New From Big Blue
by Noel Ward

Back in 1978 a good friend of mine went to work at IBM as a field tech for this big honkin' printer known as the 3700. One night he took me over to the Norwich, Connecticut facility where he worked and showed off this giant box with which he had become intimately familiar. Back then I didn't know diddly about any kind of printing but I could see that it was one impressive machine that was clearly going to replace the line printers with which I had a nodding acquaintance. My pal has since gone on to other adventures at Big Blue, and the company's high-speed digital print engines have steadily evolved......MORE


Digital Print Best Practices: Not Just for Digital Printers!
by Cary Sherburne

I recently had the opportunity to review the Fifth Edition of PODi’s Best Practices in Digital Print. This edition reports on 45 successful projects, including: 18 new direct marketing cases spanning 8 vertical markets, 16 new digital collateral case studies in 8 vertical markets, 4 new transactional cases each in a different vertical market, 7 new cases in specialty printing and publishing in 5 vertical markets.....MORE


Binding & Finishing at Print 05: Harbingers of POD Market Maturity? Part 2
by Heidi Tolliver-Nigro

Last time, I pointed out that, when digital printers, in volume, start investing in bindery equipment to increase their throughput and increase their application flexibility, you know we’ve really turned that corner in the digital printing marketplace. That is finally starting to happen.....MORE


Binding & Finishing at Print 05: Harbingers of POD Market Maturity? Part 1
by Heidi Tolliver-Nigro

Digital press manufacturers like to talk about the fact that they are selling more press units these days. And TrendWatch GA survey data indicate that printers see growing opportunities with their digital presses and that their print volumes are on the rise. But when printers themselves, in volume, start investing in bindery equipment to increase their throughput and increase their application flexibility, you know we’ve really turned a corner.....MORE


Printer-Turned-Press-Salesman Puts “Trust and Honor” First: An Interview with KBA North America’s Walter Chmura
by Patrick Henry

Who’s got more riding on the outcome of Print 05 than a printing equipment salesman? With the exception of the owners of the Graphic Arts Show Company, probably nobody. KBA North America’s Walter Chmura is headed for the event with the same hopeful ambitions as hundreds of others in his end of the business, KBA sales brethren and competitors alike. What gives Chmura an unusual stake in the show is the fact that he comes to McCormick Place with something that most of his counterparts don’t have but would be delighted, no doubt, to possess.....MORE


For Postpress Vendors To The Offset Market, It’s All Automation, All The Time Part 2 of 2
by Jean-Marie Hershey

In part 1 of this interview, a quartet of postpress executives [Mark Hunt, director of marketing, Standard Finishing Systems (booth 2845); Werner Naegeli, president and CEO, Muller Martini Corp. (booth 4018); Ralph Pasquariello, director of postpress product management, Heidelberg USA (booth 1200); and Rick Trapilo, executive vice president and general manager, C.P. Bourg (booth 4805)] discussed issues related to the trend toward bindery automation, including customers’ attitudes toward JDF, investment in automated solutions and what it takes to stay competitive as run lengths decline and customer requirements force printers to streamline for added speed and productivity.......MORE


Print 05 To Take First Measure of the Sum of the Parts In the Recent Merger of Drent Goebel and RDP Marathon
by Patrick Henry

Drent Goebel and RDP Marathon won’t have any equipment to flaunt in their joint exhibit at Print 05. But, they’re coming to Chicago with something that’s getting harder and harder for press manufacturers to lay claim to: a tightly focused approach to a marketplace awash in all-things-to-all-printers solutions from the top-tier vendors.......MORE


For Postpress Vendors To The Offset Market, It’s All Automation, All The Time Part 1 of 2
by Jean-Marie Hershey

If realtors were printers, the mantra, “location, location, location” would be recast as “automation, automation, automation.” Features like touchscreen or touchbutton consoles, servo-motor control and JDF compliance are said to result in significant savings of time and materials as the industry moves to shorter and shorter run lengths and dramatically reduced makeready times.......MORE


Keeping Pace with Market Trends
by Noel Ward

Industry trends always drive what vendors bring to trade shows. And while vendors compete for customers, they still perceive trends differently, based in part on the market segments they target with their offerings. To get a sense of how key vendors see the market today--and how that influences what they roll out at PRINT--I asked some execs what they think are the most important trends in the printing industry as we head into PRINT 05......MORE


GASC's Regis Delmontagne: Looking Forward and Looking Back Part 2
by Cary Sherburne

Industry icon Regis J. Delmontagne, long-time President of Graphic Arts Show Company, America's premier producer of tradeshows for the commercial, package printing and converting industry, and NPES, The Association for Suppliers of Printing , Publishing and Converting Technologies, will be retiring this year. WhatTheyThink interviewed Delmontagne to get his perspective on the past and future of the industry, GASC and the Print/Graph Expo trade shows......MORE

GASC's Regis Delmontagne: Looking Forward and Looking Back Part 1
by Cary Sherburne

Industry icon Regis J. Delmontagne, long-time President of Graphic Arts Show Company, America's premier producer of tradeshows for the commercial, package printing and converting industry, and NPES, The Association for Suppliers of Printing , Publishing and Converting Technologies, will be retiring this year. WhatTheyThink interviewed Delmontagne to get his perspective on the past and future of the industry, GASC and the Print/Graph Expo trade shows.....MORE

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