After installing a new Xerox 700 digital color press, Longwood University Printing Services was able to print diplomas.

By Bob Neubauer

It was one of the most important printing jobs of the year...yet it was being printed off campus. That bothered the provost at Longwood University, in rural Farmville, Va. He began asking why the school was paying an outside vendor to print its diplomas instead of sending them to its five-employee in-plant.

When word reached Tim Trent, director of Printing Services, he just smiled. His shop was three weeks away from installing a new Xerox 700 digital color press, a device he knew would be more than capable of printing diplomas. Trent invited the provost to visit in a few weeks.

“When I installed the unit, I showed him what the capabilities were, and he was on board,” says Trent. “For the first time in the history of the university...I was able to print the university diplomas.”

Using 100-lb. Domtar Cougar Natural cover stock, Trent had the sheets foil-stamped by an outside company, then printed 1,100 diplomas on the new 70-page-per-minute Xerox 700, using PrintShopMail VDP software.

“What used to take six to eight weeks took me a week and a half,” Trent says. Needless to say, everyone was pleased with the outcome.

Getting the 700 was a necessary step, Trent says, as the demand for short-run color had increased far beyond what the shop’s two Xerox DocuColor 250s could handle. The in-plant traded one of them in to purchase the 700 in June, and Trent is very happy with the result.

“It offers speed, better registration, higher monthly volume and the ability to print 2,400 dpi,” he enthuses. Also, he adds, “it allowed me to migrate into the variable data market.”

The in-plant has already personalized several jobs, notably a brochure soliciting alumni donors.

In addition to printing documents for the university, the 700 is also being used to help the school’s graphic design majors. Trent works with them to print their projects on the high-quality digital press, giving them some practical experience while contributing to the educational mission of the university.

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Bob Neubauer Author's page

Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.

New Digital Press Lets Longwood University Bring Diplomas In-house