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Installing CTP means rethinking your proofing methods. When the State of Washington Department of Printing decided to add a Creo Lotem 800 II Quantum platesetter last fall, the in-plant had to start thinking about proofing in a whole new way. Without film, its DuPont Waterproof system wouldn't be much use. So the in-plant added Creo's Iris4Print ink-jet proofer, with an eye toward upgrading to the new Creo Veris 1,500x1,500-dpi proofer this spring, according to Dan Maygra, interim prepress manager. The same thing happened at Arkansas State University Printing Services when it added a Heidelberg ProSetter 74 in September. The in-plant went with

Even though Drupa is just a month away, vendors still had plenty of new products to show at On Demand. By Bob Neubauer The biggest news at the recent AIIM On Demand Conference & Expo was certainly Eastman Kodak's announcement that it would purchase Heidelberg's digital printing business. That announcement, unleashed the morning of the show, slowly filtered through the crowd of 33,753 at New York's Javits Convention Center, engendering lots of speculation. The upshot: Kodak will buy Heidelberg's 50 percent interest in the pair's NexPress Solutions joint venture, as well as the equity of Heidelberg Digital, which makes the Digimaster black-and-white printer. This

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

By adding digital duplicators, these in-plants have saved money, decreased turnaround times and kept more work in-house. Majoring In High-volume Color o grow beyond its humble beginnings, the Glassboro Normal School, home to 400 students in 1923, knew progress would be measured by more than a name change. Today, after much dedication and innovation, Rowan University, in Rowan, N.J., has almost 10,000 students and 1,200 faculty and staff. Back in the pre-digital days, students and staff turned to the Rowan University print shop for most of their document needs. In 1994, when Mike Lukasavage started to run Rowan's printing operations, he had a

In-plants that have added digital color printing capabilities are thriving—and the call for more on-demand color work is only getting louder. By Cheryl Adams ACE Hardware certainly has a loyal customer base. "We have 6.2 million customers in our ACE Helpful Hardware Club," maintains Rick Salinas, production manager at the company's in-plant in Downers Grove, Ill. He says the club—which awards customers points, and eventually store credit, for purchases—is the "second largest customer-loyalty program in the country." The company's in-plant has played a major part in creating that loyalty, chiefly through the huge number of personalized color marketing materials it produces. In 1998

Despite the growth in color printing, black-and-white copiers still produce much of the work in today's in-plants. By W. Eric Martin With all the new and improved digital goodness popping up in these pages, it's easy to overlook the advances made in those unappreciated machines of yore: ye olde black-and-white copiers. These printing mainstays might not be the most exciting machines an in-plant manager can add to his or her arsenal, but they can't be discounted entirely because sometimes they're still the best tool for the job. What's more, today's models bear little resemblance to the faulty, all-too-easily broken machines that most people

More than 38,000 people attended this year's expo. Here's a glimpse of what they saw. By Bob Neubauer Integration was the big theme of this year's Graph Expo and Converting Expo. Individual manufacturers like Heidelberg and MAN Roland showcased computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) technologies connecting prepress, press and finishing. And vendor partnerships, both small and multi-faceted, foreshadowed future integration between multiple vendors' systems. Notably, at a large press conference touting the Networked Graphic Production initiative, 27 companies proclaimed their commitment to defining, developing, testing and delivering JDF-based integration between their systems. They plan to define a standardized set of interfaces to create plug-and-play solutions

Wide-format technology is advancing rapidly. Is it time for your in-plant to get on board? By Linda Formichelli You've probably heard Americans are getting bigger. But you may not have heard that our graphics are getting bigger, too. According to CK Associates, a consultancy, the aggregate growth rate in the market for ink-jet graphics greater than 45˝ wide will be 9 percent over the next few years. And according to Deborah Hutcheson, Agfa's senior marketing manager for color systems and workflow, the graphic applications for wide-format printers have a compounded annual growth rate of 20 percent. In 2003, the engines, ink and media

With an ear for his customers' needs, Randy Stahl and his team have built a tight, efficient in-plant. By Mike Llewellyn Although central Pennsylvania's Messiah College Press recently added a 42˝ Hewlett-Packard 5500 wide-format printer to its lineup, and even though it's been checking out Xerox DocuTech, Canon and Océ printers to beef up its digital services, Manager Randy Stahl says the in-plant's chief talent is its ability to flourish in a tough economic environment. "One of the biggest things is always doing more with less," he says from his office on Messiah's pastoral, 350-acre campus in Grantham, just outside the state capital. What