With drupa in full swing, we have asked Andy Tribute to provide his commentary each day for our readers. Andy will be attending for fourteen days - May 5 until May 19. So watch this space daily as Andy will break news and provide insightful commentary on all the happenings at drupa. Please offer your feedback to Andy via email: tribute@attributes.co.uk.

Archives: May 6-10 | May 11-15 | Home


May 15, 2004


The Skoda Factor

The above heading will mean nothing to my readers in North America. Skoda is a Czech car manufacturer. Some years ago, while Skoda made good cars, these cars in Western Europe were treated as something of a joke. If you valued your ‘street cred' (the in crowd), you would never been seen dead in a Skoda. They were the basis of many jokes. Skoda was then taken over by the Volkswagen Group. The cars improved with better quality engineering and funding and were good reliable cars. Then they started introducing new models based upon Volkswagen technology and platforms. Soon people realised these were very good reliable cars. Today an increasing number of people buy Skoda rather than the equivalent Volkswagen. The realise the car is almost the same, perhaps better in the case of the Fabia vs the VW Polo. The differnce is often quite a few thousand Euro in Skoda's favour. Today you don't lose street cred in buying a Skoda. You may in fact be recognised as being financially astute and a member of the in crowd.

Why am I writing this. Well. I wonder if the Skoda factor may be applied to suppliers to the printing industry. The main ‘premium' suppliers like Heidelberg, Komori, KBA and MAN Roland sell at prices well above the prices of many other press suppliers from Eastern Europe and the Far East. Presses from companies like Poly and Hamada are today looking increasingly impressive in both specification and build quality, but are perceived by many as “old Skodas.” Companies like AB Dick are perceived as selling into lower quality areas. Products from these companies and others today appear very comparable in specification to those of the premium suppliers, but are at lower prices.

What would be the situation if the Skoda factor comes into the press market. Will people pay more for these Skoda companies, or will the premium brand suppliers be forced to drop their prices.

There is however good news from the car industry for the premium brands. Printers like to boast of their presses, and they may follow the approach of the owners of Mercedes and BMW. Recently Volkswagen Group have introduced their premium model, the Phaeton. This looks at least as good as Mercedes or BMW, but it appears that while this is a wonderful car, its image is not that of the premium brands. Can you imagine a printer boasting to his clients that he has bought a new ‘brandX' product rather than the latest Heidelberg. Perhaps again the brand X suppliers should follow the route of Toyota, Nissan and Honda in the USA. To sell against the German premium car brands they invented new names of Lexus, Infinity and Acura.

How about a competition for coming up with new names for AB Dick, Hamada, Poly, RISO and others?


CtP Status

Yesterday I indicated that there appears to be a change occurring in the way CtP is being viewed. At the last drupa if we were to believe forecasts before the event, it was almost as though visible light CtP was to be given the last rights. Instead violet diode technology arrived and breathed new life into visible light CtP. At this drupa we see violet diode visible light CtP (VDVL CtP) really being seen as a true alternative approach to thermal imaging. There are now a number of plates rather than just the Agfa Lithostar we had in 2000. The new photopolymer plates from Agfa, Fuji, Lastra and others have really changed the situation. These plates give very comparable results to the best thermal plates, and they too can be baked for very long runs. The only major player as yet without a violet plate is KPG, but this is expected to be announced at GraphExpo in October. Rumour has it that it may be seen at NEXPO next month. That is not to say silver plates are going away. These Agfa and Mitsubishi plates are still very important.

The benefits of VDVL CtP are being increasingly seen in lower purchase costs and lower running costs. At present the technology is mainly being seen for the 2, 4 and 8-page markets. With the new Cobalt 32 from Escher-Grad and the larger format Krause units it is now entering the VLF markets. At present none of the VDVL CtP units are offering 10 micron spot FM screening, which is a benefit of a few of the thermal systems. This ultra-high quality is still an exclusive domain for thermal imaging.

There is also the situation of process free plates. The excellent report by Cary Sherburne in yesterday's whattheything.com outlined all the plates that available. It failed however to say that most of these plates are at least 40-50% more expensive than other plates, and also much slower to image. Most assessment of the state of process free at drupa is that it is still more of statement of jam tomorrow rather than jam today.

I have already discussed the situation concerning conventional plate CtP. This with the UV light devices from Basys Print and Esko-Graphics, and the ink jet devices from Glunz & Jensen, JetPlate and TechNova is also generating great interest.


Do You Speak Australian?

I have been given an essential guide for Australian staff of one of the largest exhibitors at the show. This list a few key phases and how to say them in German. These include important messages like, “Do you speak English?”, “Is this the correct tram for the Messe?”, and “Is this the correct tram for the town centre?”

There are however two very important messages for Australians, which may well be useful for other nationalities, so I am helping visitors by reprinting them in full here.

Ich denke das ich zu viel getrunken habe
I think I have had too much to drink.

Halt, ich muss mich übergeben
Stop the taxi, I'm going to throw up.



May 14, 2004


Ink Jet CtP

I am starting to see what may be a fundamental shift in approach in CtP systems. Suddenly thermal is not seen as the core technology for the future, and may be moving towards being a specific technology only for certain markets. It appears that Michael Mittelhaus, one of the top CtP consultants and analysts worldwide, is coming to the same conclusions. I will write more on this later. Michael should have his ideas in a future Seybold Report.

One of the most interesting areas at drupa is ink jet CtP. OK, this is not new. Pisces was doing this with its JetPlate product before going out of business last year. It is now back as JetPlate Systems. The key new arrival is the leading processor supplier, Glunz & Jensen.

Ink jet CtP is using an ink jet printer, which may be modified, to image directly to an aluminum printing plate. In the case of JetPlate they image a solution through an Epson printer onto a conventioanl coated plate, and this solution when heated andprocessed generates the image on the plate. Glunz & Jensen images a special proprietary solution onto an uncoated wipe on type of plate, and this generates the image. JetPlate is shipping printers, but Glunz & Jensen is enhancing its system ready for a launch at GraphExpo in October. Both are priced well under $50,000 for a complete solution. These are not for cheap printing, but are producing good quality plates for colour printing.

This is a must look at technology for smaller printers. It is likely to have an impact on the market for spreading CtP into smaller printers. It is also another CtP system for imaging conventional plates.


Halftone Dot Proofing RIP

Oops! Typo error in the heading. It should read Halftone Dot Proofing R.I.P. At drupa in 2000 there were many suppliers offering solutions using doner material for imaging true 100% accurate halftone dot proofs. This was not new however. Kodak had been offering this for years with their Approval system. At drupa we had a new system for this from Fujifilm, plus other systems that imaged the proof on the same CtP device that is also used for imaging the plate. The major one of these was the Creo Trendsetter Spectrum. We had new thermal doner proofing materials from DuPont, Imation and Kodak.

In my opinion, with a few exceptions, it appears that this is now technology of the past. I know Kodak has sold ten Approvals at the show, but I have to say that there are always people who don't know at which station to change trains. The train that has long ago left the station and which has totally taken over is large format ink jet printing. this is either using specialised engines, as in the Agfa Sherpa range, or off the shelf HP or Epson engines, as with Creo Integris.

This change does not surprise me. I projected the death of halftone dot thermal transfer proofing before the last drupa. Perhaps I was using too strong a pair of spectacles to look to far into the future. Today no spectacles are needed. Contract quality colour proofing is now a 100% ink jet market. There are many excellent suppliers that are following the lead set by the trail brazers, Agfa and Best. All the key suppliers are now well on the train which is now running at full speed.

Meanwhile for thermal transfer halftone dot proofing, Rest In Peace!



May 13, 2004


ECRM is Back

That headline may seem strange, as they have never gone away. The meaning is that ECRM is now back as a key CtP supplier. In the boom days of CtF, ECRM was one of the core players supplying both newspaper and commercial machines. ECRM was the Ford or General Motors of the CtF industry. Excellent well manufactured equipment that was both cost and performance effective. When CtP started, ECRM really lost its way. Its initial CtP machines were to put it politely, real dogs. The company lost market share and was seen as being on a downhill slope. In the past couple of years it has changed its approach to CtP, building on the technologies that are well proven in CtF. This started with a 2 and 4 page machine, and the ideal entry-level newspaper CtP system.

At drupa ECRM's highlights are a very impressive and cost effective 8-page CtP machine, which sells for under $90,000. They also show a very neat autoload facility for the 4-page CtP and newspaper engine. No doubt this will soon find its way to the 8-page machine.

The ECRM machines reflect the company's strategy that CtP should cost little or no more than CtF. The products look really good, and emphasize the challenge that is now coming to thermal devices from violet diode visible light units.

Welcome back ECRM.


Response on CtP Service Costs

It is a nice thing about blogging that one gets interesting replies. The following came after yesterday's post on the high service cost of thermal CtP.

Hi Andy,

Just got back from DRUPA a couple of days ago myself. I would send my entire company over if we could convince our customers that we needed to shut down for a few days, not to mention the deals that can be made on equipment purchases. Very stimulating environment for me but I digress….On the cost of thermal ctp versus violet that you spoke of today, I speak from experience as a Creo Trendsetter user for almost four years. Are you certain that you are not confusing the revenues from their service contracts with actual repair costs or do you consider that one in the same? No, the contracts are not cheap but I can tell you that many other companies are emulating their model whereby they have been able to look way into the machine coming over the internet from Vancouver or wherever, with a technician on site with wireless headset and sometimes a third technician from somewhere else patched in. Think SWAT team. The machine does not stay down for long when it does very occasionally go down. I know other printers who have struggled mightily with their non-thermal platesetters.

Really enjoy the column…keep up the good work. Jamie Bentley


New Printing Definitions

In the interest of helping a greater understanding of the digital changes with commercial printing, I have decided to start the production of a new dictionary of printing terms. This is designed to help people understand their sales person when they are trying to sell a product. It is also to help journalists when we go to press conferences and read sales literature from the suppliers. I will be entering the first few definitions and would ask people to add new definitions as they work them out. This is a vital service for the industry.

Worlds Fastest: This means that this is the fastest machine this supplier has yet built in this segment. They know that we all have limited memory capacity to remember the speeds and feeds of other machines, and also most of the journalists don't understand the technology, so any claim that is made is normally printed.

Smaller Footprint: A new machine that is slightly smaller than the previous hugely humongously large machine. It does not mean it is a small machine, so ensure the floor is strong wherever smaller footprint is mentioned.

Low Cost: The equipment may be low in cost, but be careful of the high running and service costs.


Got it Wrong with DI

Sorry, I got it wrong, but perhaps the people in the relevant companies should really find out what is happening.

The imaging system in the Heidelberg Quickmaster 46/4 DI is in fact modified Pearl Imaging. Presstek is being somewhat coy about what they have done to improve Pearl to give a sharper smaller imaging spot. What it allows now is higher quality output and higher quality commercial screening.

I am advised that it appears that the size of the new Heidelberg imaging module is a little too large to fit in the Quckmaster 46/4 DI


Did I Get it Wrong with DI?

In an earlier blog entry I stated that the new Heidelberg laser imaging technology was being used in the latest version of the Heidelberg Quickmaster 46/4 DI Pro. I may have been wrong. Various people are telling me the technology is being used, while others tell me that ProSpot is a Presstek product. It appears even some key people in Presstek do not know.

I will follow this up to find the truth, even if it means sneaking into the Heidelberg booth at night with a hammer, spanner and screwdriver to take the machine apart to find out!

DI however is not seen by Heidelberg as a major market. They appear incidentally to have dropped the Speedmaster 74 DI from their product range.


May 12, 2004


Show Business

I am delighted to see that HP has appreciated that its Indigo operation has a unique way of presenting itself. It is good that the usual bland corporate HP approach has not been imposed upon Indigo. This can best be seen by the HP Indigo presence at drupa. There is the usual large amount of equipment on the stand, leaving little space for visitors. This has the effect of always making the stand look crowded, which incidentally it nearly always is. The key thing however is they have kept the theatre, and the OTT (over the top) presentations in which Indigo staff exchange their normal business roles to become actors. This year the show has an active volcano (is this is the replacement for Benny Landa?), snowfall, etc.

It is great stuff and great fun. It also gets the digital printing message across in a funny but also educational way. Long may it continue. Can we expect it at GraphExpo in October?


Thermal or Visible Light CtP

At risk of being accused once again of being anti-thermal technology for CtP, which would be untrue, I would like to pass on some interesting facts I found out today at drupa. The suppliers of violet diode visible light systems state that one of the advantages of their technology is that it is lower in cost to buy, and lower in cost to run. The provider of this new information is one of the world's leading suppliers, a company that sells both violet visible light and thermal CtP, plus a wide range of plates for both technologies. From analysis of their servicing costs for both types of technologies, they have found that the difference in cost of service operations between violet diode visible light and thermal CtP works out that the thermal systems costs in excess of $1.80 per sq meter imaged more than violet systems. This is irrespective of the volume processed. This because of the high cost of maintenance of thermal heads, and their replacement.

To confirm these figures one only has to look at the Annual Report of Creo. In this it can be seen that Creo's service income is in excess of 25% of Creo's revenues. That is predominantly the service cost of the large base of Creo's thermal CtP systems.

These figures appear to confirm that violet diode CtP imaging has reduced the costs of CtP, and it is much cheaper than thermal CtP. With the recent availability of a number of new photopolymer violet plates we can also see that there is no difference between the systems now in terms of processing costs. I am also hearing some quotes that the lifespan of the chemistry in certain violet photopolymer is longer than for other systems.


May 11, 2004

The DFE Challenge

The Digital Front End (DFE) business for digital presses is dominated by one company, EFI. With very few exceptions EFI is the supplier of such DFEs to just about every digital press. Their latest RIP for the Kodak Versamark sets new standards for DFE performance at up to 1,400 A4 pages/min. The only alternatives up to now have been to use Creo's Spire controller for certain high-end Xerox printers. There are also a few home-grown DFEs, such as those for the Kodak Nexpress and Indigo presses. This drupa we are seeing the DFE situation change slightly, but perhaps the end result may be that EFI increases its market share. One interesting development is at Fuji where they have developed their own POD RIP for the Fuji Xerox Docucolor 6060 presses in Japan. The question is will this also be used for other FX presses, and also will it be sold outside of Japan.

Possibly the more serious challenge to EFI may come from a combination of own grown technology, plus Harlequin technology for PostScript and PDF processing and ripping. The latest Harlequin RIP is now fully JDF enabled. This makes it very easy for integrators to build it into their systems. Harlequin historically has always been the fastest RIP in the industry, out performing Adobe's CPSI RIP, so if this new development with their JDF implementation works well, it could allow other suppliers to make a more serious attack on EFI's market.

One examaple of this is the new controller HP Indigo have for the new HP Indigo 5000 press. This has an HP Indigo controller in which the Harlequin RIP Eclipse release is the work horse for keeping the press running at full speed.


Response to Misinformation

One of the nice things of blogging is it gives me the opportunity to get a range of interesting replies. From this I often learn about things happening, or not happening in the industry. The following is from one of my regular readers.

Your last comment…”are there other items of information or misinformation that have been given that we now need to re-analyze?.”

I am not sure you are joking or you are being sarcastic. Of course there is a lot of information that has been presented that is faulty. I suspect it to be about half of it. One big problem is that the industry can not tell which half is true and which half is false.

Here are some faults in knowledge as an example.

Ink/water balance and density variation are inherent to the process. This is false. Steady state density varies because the ink feed going into the press varies. Modern offset presses do not have positive and properly designed ink feeds. This is the cause of density variation and ink water balance. Fix the ink feed and make it feed positively into the roller train and you will not have steady state density variation or ink water balance. One will not be able to wash out the print.

So since one has a process that does not have positive control over it main variable, ink feed, this results in a process that can not be preset. It also can not be used for doing scientific testing.

Presetting a press for colour requires that the ink feed is capable, which it is not at this time and it requires the preset data to be calculated properly. So the industry has for quite some time been pushing CIP3 and now CIM and JDF. There is all this talk about sending data to the press but there is no interest to insure that that data is calculated properly. Assuming that presetting an ink fountain is based on image coverage area of the plate is false. That assumption can lead to errors of 40%. This is of no concern to the printing industry because they have been told that it is based on image area for so long that they just believe it without thinking.

You suggest that the industry should re-analyze some information. I would agree but the problem is that they have been and still are not capable of analyzing the process. Some of the most fundamental and relatively simple issues of the process have been beyond the capabilities of the industry to analyze. There are so many poorly understood issues that the process looks much more confusing than it is.

The assumption that the scientific community in the industry is interested in science is false. It is actually anti-science because it still deals with the process as a craft and is not interested in finding out what is true. The goal of a scientific effort is to develop valid theories. Descriptions of what happens in experiments is not theory. They are only observations. The industry mixes up observations with theory. The scientists in this industry are really quite poor.

Of course this is a sore point with me and I could go on and on, but I won’t. You are right is suspecting that the information presented is sometimes not correct. In my area interest, most of it is incorrect.


Dangerous drupa

drupa is a very dangerous place to be. It has always been dangerous with the possibily of major facial damage. This is caused by the tubes holding print samples which people hang on their shoulders. As they move about these tubes are very likely to hit you in the face as people push through the crowds around here. This drupa however, it has now got more dangerous. The company we have to blame for this is Océ. They are giving out a new item for carrying print samples and other items. These are “wheely boxes”, which are cardboard boxes on wheels with a pull handle. Just like the wheely bags we use when travelling. You all know that airports are now dangerous places as people rush past you with their wheely backs almost tripping you up.

If you think it is dangerous at an airport, just imagine what is is like in the heavy crowds at drupa. On one side you are trying to protect yourself from being knocked out by a shoulder slung print tube. You duck down to miss this and find you have tripped up over an Océ wheely box.

Help, I need more insurance!


Heidelberg Core Business

The new approach of Heidelberg is to concentrate on its core businesses and not get diverted into secondary businesses. The core business is commercial printing and finishing in the sheet fed offset market. In this the company wants control over all the key technologies used within its products. One area that this is seen is in the development of its own thermal imaging technology. This is being seen in the new Supersetter CtP range. It may appear that Heidelberg is regularly changing its mind in how it handles CtP. It had an agreement with Creo to build and sell the Trendsetter CtP products. This agreement went sour and was terminated after Creo acquired Scitex, and degrated its relationship with Heidelberg to one forcing Heidelberg to be the subservient junior partner. Naturally Heidelberg terminated the agreement. Following that Heidelberg reached an agreeement for imaging and CtP delivery technology with Screen. This is an excellent two way agreement that Heidelberg is very happy with.

In the DI print area Heidelberg has agreements with Presstek for the Quickmaster 46/4 DI, and with Creo for the Speedmaster 74 DI. As stated before the agreement with Creo is an unhappy one.The agreement with Presstek is better but not that good, as indicated by a legal action instituted by Presstek to try to stop Heidelberg sourcing its own plate for the Quickmaster DI. On the basis of all this Heidelberg started the development of its own thermal imaging technology that could be used for CtP as well as for DI technology products. The first results of this have been seen at drupa. The Supersetter CtP range is one example of this, and over time this range will replace the Topsetter, which uses Screen technology. One reason for this is Heidelberg preferred for the future a technology that provided greater redundancy in the the event of an imaging beam failure, than the latest Screen approach using a 512 beam GLV imaging solution.

What was not announced is Heidelberg has also implemented its new imaging technology in the Quickmaster 46/4 DI, replacing the old Pearl imaging technology from Presstek. This provides an immediate benefit in significant quality and speed improvement making the product more competitive against the DI products sold under the KBA and KPG brands, and which are built by Ryobi. It is also being a major test bed for the future, in the event of new DI products for Heidelberg.

This new imaging technology shows Heidelberg has a very open approach to future press design. If it sees opportunities for direct imaging to the press cylinder, or some other equivalent approach, the company now owns and controls its technology. It will no longer be dependent upon other companiies, who may see Heidelberg as a cash cow that can almost be held to ransom. It is a very good move for Heidelberg.

Archives: May 6-10 | May 11-15 | Home

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Attributes Associates is an internationally oriented consulting company specializing in marketing and technology issues for the printing, publishing and media markets. The Managing Partner of Attributes Associates is Andrew Tribute, who is recognized internationally as one of the world's leading authorities on these industries and subjects.

Attributes' client base comprises a large number of publishers and printers as well as a significant number of industry vendors. In most cases consulting is carried out at high level to assist such organizations in the selection and adoption of technology, or to define ongoing business strategies covering the likely future directions of the markets.

Attributes have been in the forefront of technology changes and market developments from the time it started in 1984. It has been involved in assisting both users and vendors through the changes in these industries since then. This has included desktop publishing; PostScript imaging; changes in working practices in newspaper and magazine publishing; adoption of digital printing and computer to plate imaging in commercial printing; and more recently the impact of the Internet on publishing and printing markets.

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