Delving Into Digital

With on-demand digital printing on the rise, vendors are offering better digital gear

at more reasonable prices.

These days, warehousing is just not as popular as it used to be. Now that customers know they can get short runs printed cost-effectively, that's what they want. The makers of digital printing equipment are wise to this, and they are continually upgrading their offerings—and making them more affordable for small shops.

"They are starting to show the corporate user and the in-plant user that there are more affordable ways to get short-run documents—especially unique documents—into the hands of the users," says Stan Bradshaw, president of the Bradshaw Group, a Richardson, Texas-based distributor of mid-range and high-speed printing equipment.

In-plants are taking the hint. Already more than 62 percent of in-plants have digital printing equipment, according to an IPG survey (see page 22). They use it to print on demand and provide personalization, among other things.

Despite the benefits, though, Bradshaw cautions in-plants to make sure digital printing is right for their operations before making a purchase.

"There is a premium to be paid for the digital advantage—it's got to be in a situation where there is some logistic advantage to being able to print on demand or personalize," Bradshaw notes. "That is where the value is going to be to justify the extra cost."

Justifying the cost means showing how the new technology will save money. Bob Barbera, senior line manager for Agfa's digital printing systems, points out that bringing the printing of high-quality color materials in-house will not only save money, but will be more efficient.

"In-plants are looking at the cost savings of how much it was costing them to send out printing in the past or print the material offset and let it sit somewhere and have to pay for storage," Barbera explains. "Half of the time that material is thrown away because it has become obsolete." With a digital device, he says, jobs can be electronically saved and printed on demand.

Barbera notes that several in-plant operations have purchased the Agfa Chromapress 32i system. It features the IntelliStream front-end architecture, which won a Graphic Arts Technical Foundation InterTech Technology Award. IntelliStream allows electronic collation of long documents, unlimited page lengths and variable data processing.

Although the Chromapress uses a Xeikon engine, Barbera contends that the front end technology makes the Agfa quite different from other digital systems. The CP501 RIP uses an Adobe PostScript 3 RIP, which can be archived with IntelliPrep 2.0 software. Plus with Odyssey remote video diagnosis, users can link up with Agfa support staff through a remote video connection to troubleshoot potential problems.

With the release of a recent study from Xeikon, which found its digital processes to be less expensive than traditional offset for certain applications, the digital press seems to be moving toward greater acceptance.

"Our message is, 'the wait is over,' " exclaims Mary Villmow, director of marketing for Xeikon. "For the in-plant market, we believe that digital printing has arrived."

Xeikon offers the DCP/50D and DCP/32D models. The 50D outputs 6,000 duplexed prints per hour on 81⁄2x11˝ sheets, while the 32D produces 4,200 prints per hour. Xeikon provides engines for many other vendor offerings, such as the Agfa Chromapress, IBM InfoColor and the Xerox DocuColor lines, Villmow adds.

Digital color has been a big topic of discussion in recent months.

"The digital industry has doubled in the last year with the interest of corporate America in digital color," notes George Promis, director of color solutions for IBM. He cites a digital printing report prepared by the Rochester Institute of Technology. To fulfill that need, he says, IBM offers several digital systems.

For the in-plant market, Promis suggests IBM's InfoPrint Color 100 and InfoColor 70. Both offer 24-hour service and support, which Promis feels is a major selling point of the products. Automatic dynamic toner saving features provide up to 35 percent toner savings. InfoPrint Manager software allows job ticketing, archiving and cascade RIP performance, among other options.

Early Difficulties

Digital printing may be more accepted these days, but it wasn't always.

"The early adopters had a difficult time turning digital printing into profitable businesses," admits Benny Landa, chairman and CEO of Indigo. But since the early days of digital printing, Landa says Indigo has worked on three areas to help customers.

"Creating end-user awareness, helping our customers with their business development and enhancing the reliability of the product," are the ways that Indigo is making digital printing work, Landa says.

Positioned as an entry-level product, the Indigo e-Print Pro was designed for brochures, flyers and advertising. The e-Print Pro features Intel's Pentium architecture and a Microsoft Windows NT operating system. Also from Indigo, the UltraStream produces seven colors, enabling four-color process printing, plus three spot colors, or IndiChrome On-Press six-color high-fidelity printing plus a seventh ink for spot or corporate colors.

All Indigo presses now feature Adobe PostScript 3 technology as a standard feature. Existing users of the Indigo E-Print 1000+, e-Print Pro, TurboStream, Omnius and Omnius CardPress digital presses can upgrade to PostScript 3.

Feeling there was a need to fill out its digital product line, Xerox has plugged some holes by offering the DocuColor 30 Pro and DocuColor 30 CP. These products give users who need higher output than the nine-page-per-minute (ppm) Xerox 5799, but less than the 40-ppm DocuColor 40 line, a better fit for their output, at 30 ppm.

Paul Hartley, vice president of business development, hints that Xerox will soon announce another new product, offering output between that of the 5799 and the DC30.

Hartley says that digital printing equipment is coming down in price and is a less expensive option than using ink-jet printers. He also points out that having personalization options, like those on the DocuColor 40 and 30 Pro models, can help get better responses from direct mail campaigns.

"The in-plant is the best place for variable printing," Hartley says. He notes that the high number of marketing materials and mailings in-plants tend to print can benefit greatly with variable printing capabilities.

Plus, with the push for color documents, Hartley says the availability of digital color devices in-house is becoming necessary to many companies.

"Color is spreading," Hartley contends. "I liken it to the movie Pleasantville—once you get color, there is no going back."

Adding color capabilities is something many in-plants want to do.

"Color printers are becoming a necessity in printed communications," says Tim Moylan, vice president of on-demand printing and publishing for Océ Printing Systems USA. "Research shows that color in printed materials can translate into increased sales, better first impressions and improved memory retention."

Océ offers the Color System 200, a 31-ppm, four-color printing system. It has a duty cycle of 100,000 impressions per month and was designed for short runs of color work. Other products from Océ include the Color System 90 and 95 models and the Océ 6485, which produces eight ppm in color mode.

Cluster Printing Versus DocuTech

An alternative to purchasing a single digital printer is linking several lower-end printing devices together through a computer platform. That is exactly the thought behind the Micropress from T/R Systems. With the T/R Systems process, up to 11 printing devices can be "clustered" on a single Micropress server, utilizing up to 12 engines. Black-and-white, color and wide-format printers can be mixed into the same cluster, and can handle single or multiple jobs simultaneously.

"The Micropress sits on the network and looks to the printer through the software we built," explains Jim Cavedo, manager of marketing communications for T/R Systems. "It looks at your network [of printers] like one printer, so on a single Micropress you can have multiple engines."

For companies that don't often need to use several printers for the same job, clusters can be broken up throughout the building and on different floors. If paper jams or toner runs out, the job is automatically forwarded to another printer in the system.

"On black-and-white we beat anyone else," Cavedo boasts. "500 pages per minute—nothing comes close to that." This figure is accomplished by linking eight printers that can output 64 ppm. For color, Cavedo says the cluster system is comparable to other digital printing systems.

But that output is challenged by Mark Lyons, marketing manager for Xerox. Lyons says that the faster copying still leaves something to be desired in comparison to a DocuTech.

"I don't think that you get the productivity of one machine going faster that is putting out finished copy," Lyons insists. He warns consumers to look at factors such as collating and other finishing options and maintenance of equipment when making a decision on what type of equipment to purchase.

Printers with finishing options are now able to be linked to the T/R Systems cluster, such as the Minolta DI620 and the Hewlett Packard 8100, which offer stapling, saddle stitching, folding and punching options.

Cavedo says T/R Systems offers a cluster system with comparable output to the DocuTech, which includes all engines and the Micropress, for about a third of the cost. In response, Lyons says although the up-front cost of the Micropress may seem less expensive, there are some hidden costs involved.

"On paper you may crunch some numbers and say, 'O.K., they are more cost effective,' but what gets you in the end is the amount of intervention that you need with operators and other people," Lyons advises. "All of the things you think you are getting with lower cost and more machines you are burning in time."

To give customers a wider range of DocuTech products, Xerox has expanded the line to include several lower-volume models. The DocuTech 65 offers speeds of 65 ppm with a monthly output of 200,000 pages, while the DocuTech 6100, complete with a variety of finishing options, produces 96 ppm with monthly outputs of 400,000 pages per month.

These new models make a DocuTech an option for smaller shops that could not afford them in the past. Plus, as Lyons points out, customers can start out with a lower-end model and work their way to a larger one without having to change much in the way jobs are produced.

"You've got the same dashboard, you just have a car that goes a lot faster," Lyons declares.