Digital Printing, Philadelphia Style

Though On Demand 2005 lacked any earth-shattering announcements, like last year's eye-widening news that Kodak planned to buy Heidelberg's digital business, many exhibitors did preview new products. Most, though, seem to be holding out for Print 05, coming to Chicago in the fall.

As usual, competitors were busy trying to one-up each other, as when Xerox introduced an inline coater for its iGen3 to rival Kodak's NexGlosser. Multifunction printers (MFPs) of nearly every speed and capability packed the booths of Ricoh, Sharp, Konica Minolta and others. And no less than four vendors showed digital printers with the number 5000 in their name.