Digital Printing-Toner - Cut Sheet (Color)

DIGITAL COLOR was introduced to the marketplace more than a decade ago. Indigo and Xeikon unveiled key new products in the mid-1990s, and early projections were that these technologies would take off. Initially, as with a number of new technologies, there were technical issues. Presses were unreliable; ink and toner didn’t stick to the paper; and the cost of consumables was too high to generate any substantial application transfer from offset technology. Today, Indigo has been taken over by Hewlett Packard. Xeikon faced bankruptcy before being acquired by Punch Technologies. Kodak bought out Heidelberg’s share of NexPress. Ink and toner are now sticking

IBM extended its printer industry leadership with the introduction of a new set of production printers at the Hunkeler Innovation Days trade show. The company unveiled a new full-color, variable-data continuous web printer, a new monochrome continuous form printer and two new cutsheet printers. These new products build on the momentum generated by the recent announcement by IBM and Ricoh regarding their joint venture, InfoPrint Solutions, based on IBM’s Printing Systems Division. IBM’s new Infoprint 5000, a full-color, variable-data continuous web system fills a gap between previously available industry color offerings of very high quality but lower speed and and those alternatives with lower

ROCHESTER , NY—February 13, 2007—PODi, the Digital Printing Initiative, announces that Pageflex, a division of Bitstream Inc., is the first to successfully complete PPML Producer Certification, validating their ability to generate high-quality interoperable PPML files. PPML is the interoperability standard for variable data print production. Certification provides a means for PPML producers to confirm output from their products is compatible with PPML consumer devices, which are also tested. It boosts PPML effectiveness by ensuring workflow interoperability. “For PPML to work smoothly, producers and consumers must focus on the right way to implement it. Certification was developed as a methodology to ensure companies’ products comply with the

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The Benefits of Print: A Fresh Look The numerous changes in communications technologies and preferences have blurred the many reasons why print remains a viable and important medium in what often seems to be an over communicated marketplace. In light of the communications upheavals of the last decade, it is important to reiterate the benefits of print.

The move to computer-to-plate has increased the productivity and efficiency of printers by simplifying the production process and streamlining workflow. Despite the cost savings achieved by moving from film-based plate making to CTP, there are still important costs incurred in getting the plate from the platesetter to the press. Most printers accept these as unavoidable costs of doing business, and therefore do not track these costs very carefully.

Delphax Technologies, a provider of high-speed digital printing systems, will introduce its new press, the CR2200, next week at Hunkeler Innovation Days 2007 in Lucerne, Switzerland. Delphax will demonstrate the CR2200, producing high-resolution printed sheets, ready for finishing, at 500 feet per minute. The Hunkeler-sponsored show features the latest in high-performance digital printing, post-processing, paper finishing and software solutions offered by Hunkeler and its technology partners.

Long a leader in digital office solutions, Ricoh is making a move into the production printing environment. It has formed a joint venture company with IBM, based on IBM’s Printing Systems Division. Ricoh will own 51 percent of the joint venture, to be called the InfoPrint Solutions Co. “For Ricoh it signals the beginning of new stage in our strategy for global growth,” said Masamitsu Sakurai, Ricoh’s president and CEO, speaking in Japanese at a New York press conference. “We believe we can adopt our existing technology and production known-how to the production printing field.” Trends like variable data printing and print on demand prompted

WHILE DIGITAL color has been the hot topic in the printing industry for the past few years, digital black-and-white printing still accounts for the majority of the digital print volume. According to InfoTrends, black-and-white devices produced 874 billion impressions and generated $17.8 billion in retail value of print in 2005. Total equipment revenues (equipment, supplies and service) reached $7.41 billion. Equipment vendors have not lost sight of this opportunity and have continued to introduce new and improved devices to replace existing digital black-and-white equipment, as well as to open new market opportunities. Vendors realize that selling equipment has become about more than feeds and