THERE HAVE been significant developments that make ink-jet a more viable process and now thrust it into the mainstream of the printing industry. The ink-jet market is growing in every direction, from flatbed and wide-format, to label, to transpromo, to commercial web and sheet. Print head manufacturers are accelerating their developments, and new inks are being introduced almost daily. Today’s ink-jet technologies are undergoing a number of significant quality and performance evolutions. These changes will combine with advances in new jettable fluids and inks, with improved materials handling and substrates—all of which are leading to a new generation of cost-effective printing solutions. But many of these solutions are due in the 2009–2011 time frame.
Eastman Kodak Co.
IN-PLANT MANAGERS from 19 states and Canada gathered last month at the historic Stockyards in Fort Worth, Texas, for the combined Southeastern University Printing and Digital Managers Conference (SUPDMC) and Texas Association of College and University Printers (TACUP) conference. While billed as a regional conference, the event’s theme, “Making the Tough Decisions,” attracted representatives from as far away as California, Colorado and British Columbia. The conference was organized and hosted by the University of Texas at Arlington’s Maverick Print and Mail department, led by Director Steve Burdette and Assistant Director Mary R. Burdette. The 65 attendees from 40 different schools were treated to a dynamic
SOFT PROOFING seems to be causing at least some degree of discomfort in the in-plant world. Should we be offering it? How do we do it? What exactly is it? We use soft proofing a lot at the University of Missouri. Our designers and a good number of our customers really like it. We send PDF proofs to customers during the design stage. Our designer exports the job file into a PDF as soon as it is designed and sends it to the customer. Soft proofs save customers money on one or possibly multiple sets of proofs. For example, the least
GRAPH EXPO took over Chicago for four days last month, bringing the best of Drupa to U.S. soil. Thousands of printers turned out to see what the 600+ vendors had to show. They saw several striking changes from years past. For one thing, offset presses were not a dominant sight. Wide-open floor space typified the booths of many offset vendors. Even Heidelberg had just one press on hand, focusing instead on using Prinect to fully integrate a print shop. manroland showed no presses, but highlighted its service contract portfolios. This contrasted sharply with the booths of digital press manufacturers, which crammed as many
WASHINGTON, DC—10/06/08—The International Cooperation for the Integration of the Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4) organization and Graphic Arts Show Corporation (GASC) today announced details for the JDF Works Print Shop Live! program at GRAPH EXPO 2008. The JDF Works Print Shop Live! is designed to show attendees exactly what can be accomplished using today’s print production automation technologies. At this new feature, show goers will follow a live digital print job through production at three different locations on the show floor from online job creation and customization, through order management, scheduling, prepress and imposition, to printing and finishing of the final printed
IF YOU look back at some of the large in-plants IPG profiled in the ’90s, you’ll quickly observe that nearly all of them have gotten smaller in the intervening years. And busier. Such is the case with one of the largest of them all: the California Office of State Publishing (OSP). When IPG ran a cover story on the colossal Sacramento printer in July of 1995, it had 540 employees. Today it employs 326. Yet revenues have gone from $56 million back then to $65 million today. State Printer Geoff Brandt says the staff shrinkage started around 1998 when the state lifted
A GOOD PRODUCTION workflow is one of the main factors in meeting deadlines and profitability. Historically, the answer to creating an effective workflow has been to throw people at it. Not only is that expensive, but with the increasing complexity of the tools and processes required, it demands very skilled operators. And finding and training these operators can be a big challenge in itself. Now, automating everything is not always practical. For example, any process that requires some subjective decision making is not usually suited to automation; however, we should be using technology to replace many of those predetermined and repetitive tasks. That is
LOUISIANA STATE University Graphic Services has long been ranked as one of the top university in-plants. When IPG profiled the Baton Rouge operation back in March 1998, it boasted a $7.6 million budget and 98 employees. By 2004, sales had grown to $9.1 million. But then Hurricane Katrina hit, and life hasn’t been the same since. “It significantly cut state budgets mid-year,” recalls Tony Lombardo, who was recently appointed director of Auxiliary Services, which includes the in-plant. “It threw all of the departments into panic mode. You had to get real ‘creative’ in how you made it to the end of the
When the University of Mississippi was picked to host the first U.S. Presidential Debate, school officials knew exactly where to turn for the printing of media kits, programs and invitations. They went immediately to their in-plant. “Our administration recognized and recommended the use of our facilities because of their confidence in us to produce the highest quality printed piece within the timetables demanded,” notes Tony Seaman, director of Printing and Graphic Services. “This was certainly an honor for us to be thought of so highly.” The Oxford, Miss.-based in-plant used its new Kodak NexPress 2100 Plus to print many of these pieces, employing
The third annual INTERQUEST Digital Printing in Government Forum is set to take place on Wednesday, November 5 at the Omni Shoreham in Washington D.C. Last year’s event drew about 150 attendees from more than 40 agencies and printing companies serving the government market. This year, INTERQUEST will present the results from a new study “Digital Printing in the Government: Market Analysis & Forecast (2008-2012),” which will be published in November. The study is based on an in-depth survey of government in-plant, CRD and data center operations. It analyzes market trends, issues, applications, and opportunities. The event will feature two customer panels, along with
