Digital Printing-Toner - Cut Sheet (Color)

In an era of multifunctional printers and decreasing color costs, does it make sense to hang onto your black-and-white copiers? By Jeff Smith Is it still viable to place a black-and-white digital copier in the in-plant environment? It depends on your organization's culture and how jobs get to the in-plant. I recently had a discussion on this very subject with the manager of a print shop in a large school district. She has had the support of the business and technical operations in her district, allowing her to use Web-based submission and the school network along with connected multifunctional devices. Her answer

Both digital duplicators and color copiers have made major strides to meet changing customer demands. Which is right for you?

A new survey tracks trends in continuous-feed printing. By Andy Plata When struggling to balance the mix of legacy and new equipment, in-plant printers face a continuous dilemma. How much time and money should be devoted to existing hardware and software? How many resources should go toward preparing the future? At a time when every penny counts, striking that delicate balance is trickier than ever. Those who rely on continuous-feed printers may gain some insight from a new research report from InfoTrends/CAP Ventures and OutputLinks entitled "Continuous-Feed Printing in the In-Plant Environment." InfoTrends/CAP Ventures and OutputLinks, organizations in the high-volume computer output (HVCO) industry,

The demand for black-and-white printing continues in an increasingly colorful world. By Gretchen Peck Digital color printing has been stealing the spotlight from black-and-white in recent years. But the black-and-white technology developers have had no fear; they realize it's still, very much, a black-and-white world out there. According to Paul Preo, business line manager of distributed printers for IBM Printing Systems, recent data indicates that as much as 75 percent of the work managed by in-plants is of the black-and-white kind. "Monochrome is still a lot less expensive and now offers excellent quality," he notes. "Today's digital monochrome technology boasts the strongest image

Finding the high-speed/high-volume printer that provides the maximum productivity and cost savings for your in-plant is not easy. Here's some help. By Michael Fego There are many printer/copier manufacturers, but relatively few offer high-speed/high-volume models. Since "high-speed" and "high-volume" can be somewhat relative terms, let's first define what constitutes a high-speed printer. Most experts consider devices with print/copy speeds of 70 pages per minute (ppm) or more to be high-speed devices. For the purpose of this article, we will use this definition. Manufacturers offering products with speeds between 70 and 90 ppm include Konica Minolta, Kyocera Mita, Sharp, Xerox, Canon, Ricoh and

Multifunctional printers have many advantages over stand-alone units. But how can you properly evaluate them? Find out from an expert. By Jeffrey A. Smith Make no mistake: The digital equipment output marketplace is in an all-out war. Printer and copier manufacturers are fighting over clicks, plain and simple. The spoils are the profit from an ever-increasing volume of printed output. Disinformation comes from all fronts, causing confusion among the masses of business consumers. At the heart of the battlefield are the multifunctional units. My company, Pro Buyers LLC, defines a "multifunctional" unit as a digital imaging device that can perform more than one of

In part two of our variable data printing coverage, Vic Barkin explains how your in-plant can move into this lucrative business. By Vic Nathan Barkin During the American Revolution, every rifle was what today we would refer to as a customized model. A master craftsman produced each lock, stock and barrel individually. No two were exactly alike. Finding the optimum load for each rifle meant that a rifleman had to test the accuracy of different powder volumes, patch thicknesses and ball size combinations to ensure, when the time came to hit his mark, he could trust his tool to do the job. Marketing

HP chose a sunny, seaside hamlet in Spain to show off its latest printers, a range of products that essentially completes its graphic arts portfolio. By Bob Neubauer As the sun rose over the nearby Mediterranean Sea, graphic arts journalists from all over the world gathered recently in a hotel auditorium in the coastal village of Sitges, Spain, to hear about Hewlett-Packard's latest technology innovations. With new digital offerings ranging from wide-format printers to high-volume, commercial-quality color presses (including the first commercial press co-developed by HP and Indigo), HP now says it has the industry's most complete graphic arts portfolio. HP couldn't have

Here is one in-plant production manager's take on recent technology introductions and how they address trends in the in-plant market. By Heath Cajandig In this industry, vendors are continuously trying to gear up the hype machine to tout a new vision for the future. Over time, it is hard not to be skeptical of any claim. Every now and then, though, a product actually does come along that perfectly sums up the current and future state of the industry. This past January, one of these products arrived: The Xerox DocuTech 100 series copier/printer. For Xerox it helps solidify a digital future for the company; for

Variable Data Printing has become a buzz word. But how do you sell it to customers? What does it take to provide VDP? And how can your department profit from it? By Vic Nathan Barkin When taking aim with a rifle, the smaller the target you aim for, the more likely you are to hit that target. The very same concept can be applied to personalized variable data printing. The VDP process is much more than just printing with new technology, though; it's a fundamental change in how printing is perceived, utilized and produced. A musket in the time of the American Revolution