Fujifilm Graphic Systems U.S.A.

More than 200 people flocked to the Ponte Vedra Inn for the second annual Inkjet Summit. These included almost 90 senior managers and business executives interested in purchasing a production inkjet press—in some cases their second or third machine.

When will an inkjet production press make its way into your in-plant? The technology is advancing steadily, and a handful of in-plants have already invested in it, but for most managers, inkjet means wide-format, not high volumes and high speeds.

Alvin B. Griffin, director of the Graphic Production Center at Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, can hardly contain his excitement about the Fujifilm Acuity Advance Select flatbed printer that his in-plant installed in June. And rightfully so, since the printer has already cut production time of 8x4-foot panels from four hours to seven minutes.

Some of the latest wide-format printers from Agfa, Epson, Canon, EFI, Screen USA, HP, Mimaki, Mutoh and Fujifilm.

The SGIA 2013 Expo wraps up today in Orlando. So far this week, several new wide-format printing technologies have made their debut.

With traditional offset exhibitors like Heidelberg giving the Chicago trade show a pass, the digital print vendors were the new kings. Xerox, Canon, Konica Minolta and Fujifilm led the pack in booth size, and each of them had new inkjet production presses to proclaim.

Here's a look at some of the new printing and binding equipment and software that will be shown at PRINT 13, taking place in Chicago, September 8-12.

At the inaugural Inkjet Summit in April, Charlie Pesko, founder of InfoTrends, stressed that production inkjet technology was poised to transfigure the printing business. "I sincerely believe that inkjet is the next big game changer in the printing industry," he said.

Here's a look at some of the latest computer-to-plate technology available to in-plants from companies like Fujifilm, Glunz & Jensen, Heidelberg, Kodak, Presstek, Xanté and more.

At Graph Expo, digital press vendors highlighted their workflow and digital front end capabilities, enabling everything from transpromotional and variable data printing to ganging of smaller jobs into longer production runs. The emphasis was on automation, personalization and run-length optimization.