Digital Printing-Toner - Cut Sheet (Color)

Indigo's new digital presses directly challenge the mainstream commercial offset market and the domain of black-and-white xerography. In a swirl of colored lights and exotic music, Indigo N.V. Chairman and CEO Benny Landa unveiled several impressive digital printing devices at his company's headquarters in Nes Ziona, Israel, recently—devices sure to draw the attention of industry stalwarts like Heidelberg and Xerox. As a crowd of journalists and consultants from around the world took in the scene, Landa discussed the technologies Indigo plans to debut at DRUPA—technologies intended to bring digital offset color into the heart of the commercial printing market. New products include: • A

For short-run, on-demand work—especially work that can be enhanced with variable data—digital printing is the answer. FOR YEARS the data center at Georgia Tech University was churning out up to 12 million impressions annually and was a separate department from the in-plant. Paul Thomas, director of printing and copying services, knew that if he could combine both departments, he would produce this work cheaper and faster. Last year Thomas merged the in-plant with the data center. He then made another bold move by purchasing two new 110-ppm Kodak DigiSource 9110s, distributed through Danka. He hasn't looked back since. "It enabled us to take

Several vendors have released products designed to tap the high-speed digital printing market, long the domain of the Xerox DocuTech. Ever since the Xerox DocuTech made its debut in 1990, it has stood virtually alone in its class. In recent weeks, however, other vendors have unleashed products designed to cut into the digital market that Xerox created. Specifically, these new products are geared toward printers who don't have the volume to afford a DocuTech, but want the same features at a slower speed. One unlikely entrant into the print-on-demand market is Heidelberg, a dominant force in the offset world. At Graph Expo

You are the copier expert for your organization. Therefore you should manage all of its copiers. Find out why. AT MANY companies, copiers are available in various departments for the convenience of employees. But who should control the selection, purchase and maintenance of this equipment? In too many cases, it's being left up to the individual department to make these crucial decisions. But who is more likely to choose the most appropriate copier for the situation—and get it at a reasonable price? Is it the accountant from the fifth floor who doesn't know duplexing from collating? Or is it you, the in-plant professional, who

In-plants that have moved to a digital workflow have streamlined their operations—saving time and money and eliminating costly errors. TO REALLY join the digital age and take advantage of all the benefits it has to offer—like faster turnaround times and fewer production errors—in-plants need more than just digital printing gear. Recognizing this, some shops have taken it a bit farther, receiving jobs digitally and often routing them directly to digital output devices. For example, after the State of Maryland linked its two in-plant sites—one in Baltimore and one in Annapolis—last summer, it eliminated the need for courier services between the two. Sam Cook, director

Color copier connectivity rates are soaring, as is the quality, speed and ease of color output. How does this impact your in-plant? WITH THE demand for color documents on the rise, color copiers are getting more use than ever in in-plants. And with the number of color copier devices and color impressions projected to skyrocket within the next five years, vendors are working hard to provide equipment for every speed requirement. "A few years ago you only had very slow, six page-per-minute devices, and controllers from a relatively few manufacturers," recalls Tim Griffin, director of product marketing for Danka. Speed, he says, went up

In-plants that have integrated digital printing systems into their shops are racing ahead and not looking back. IN JULY of 1997, CCH, of Riverwoods, Ill., made a bold move. The publisher decided to retire two of its offset presses and bring in digital printing equipment to produce its business law publications. The goal was to do away with the practice of overprinting and warehousing books, as well as to increase quality and make it easier to update materials. But CCH had to find a product with dynamic database management capabilities that could print on 8.6-pound bond—akin to the paper in phone books.

Getting the O.K. to buy new equipment requires research, reporting and good timing. Learn how to dodge the red tape and get what you want. Gregg Gabbana decided to move into color printing and convinced the management at Unisys to purchase several pieces of equipment, including a color press, an imagesetter, a color proofer and a plate processor. Mike Renn of Mellon Bank negotiated an offset press, two Macintosh workstations, a RIP and a color copier for his in-plant shop. How did these two get the goods when so many other in-plant managers are snagged by red tape trying to buy even

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

According to a new study, significant cost and performance improvements have qualified digital color presses for mainstream in-plant printing. In-plant operations have always been pioneers in digital production printing. A decade ago, many in-plants began to add networked PostScript printers to produce books, manuals, directories, forms and other products. In fact, the in-plant market was the largest initial opportunity for the Xerox DocuTech, which essentially defined printing on demand (POD) and supplanted small-format, "short-run" offset production for many corporate applications. On the color side, in-plants have been major customers for mid-speed digital printers such as the Xerox DocuColor 40. However, the digital color revolution—promoted