Heidelberg

Xplor 2003 brought MICR and one-to-one marketing to the forefront in Atlanta. By Mike Llewellyn The exhibitors at Xplor 2003 were upbeat, talking about a market rebound and new ways for the printing industry to gain a foothold as new media proliferates. While attendee figures were down compared with past Xplor conferences, most exhibitors felt that those who had arrived were there to do business. Continuing the show's tradition of education, companies like IBM Printing Systems and Océ set up their booths more like learning centers than equipment showcases. And with a greater focus on transactional printing and variable data, many companies rolled

Here's what's been happening lately at the10 in-plants that top the list. By Bob Neubauer 1. This was a year of major change for the Government Printing Office. In January, Bruce James took over as Public Printer and set about reshaping the 142-year-old operation as an electronic information distribution organization. Under his direction, GPO reached a compact with the President's Office of Management and Budget, which had challenged GPO's right to handle executive branch printing and procurement. A test program with the Department of Labor allows that department to select printers outside the GPO procurement process. GPO also reduced its staff this year

More than 90 people converged on Purdue University recently for the 36th annual Big Ten Printing & Copyright Conference. By Bob Neubauer For the second year in a row the Big Ten Printing & Copyright Conference took place in Hoosier territory, this time at Purdue University, in West Lafayette, Ind. The first cold snap of the year didn't deter more than 90 in-plant and copyright managers from getting together for the 36th annual event. The mood was set when Purdue President Dr. Martin Jischke told the assemblage, "Printing and copyright play important rolls in the future of this university." That statement was followed by

The new NexPress at World Bank Printing Services is filling in service gaps, providing variable output and winning awards. By Mike Llewellyn TWO YEARS ago, when she was looking for ways to bring short-run color more effectively into the World Bank's Washington, D.C.-based in-plant, Jane Bloodworth considered her options: the Heidelberg NexPress 2100, the Xerox iGen3 or HP-Indigo digital color presses. "The iGen wasn't available, and we found some concerns with the Indigo," says, Bloodworth, business manager of the World Bank's Printing, Graphics and Map Design unit. "We found that the NexPress brought a lot more flexibility." Not to mention a lower cost

Government in-plants from around the country gathered in Des Moines to learn from each other and develop their digital strategies. By Bob Neubauer Perhaps the highlight of the recent National State Publishing Association (NSPA) conference—the part that may have hit home hardest for the 27 government attendees—was when fellow NSPA member Raúl Guevara took the floor with an energetic presentation detailing how his department's strategic business plan saved $839,133 for the Kansas Department of Transportation. By analyzing his operation's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and calculating its savings, Guevara, bureau chief of KDOT's Bureau of Support Services, strengthened and improved his department. "We

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

Seeing big money in their mailing operations, these in-plants have invested aggressively in new equipment. By Mike Llewellyn State of Oregon Publishing and Distribution Program Salem, Ore. Manager: Kay Erickson In-plant Employees: 132 Mailing Employees: 25 Mailing equipment upgrades in past three years: Pitney Bowes Series 8 inserter, Secap V300 dual-head ink-jet system For Program Manager Kay Erickson, the purchase of a Pitney Bowes Series 8 inserter and a Secap V300 dual-head ink-jet system translated to an increase in cost savings and an expansion of the in-plant's business. "The Pitney inserter allows the option of cut sheet or continuous. It has given us backup

Last month I moderated a panel on digital color printing at the Big Ten Printing & Copyright Conference, held at Purdue University. Host Sandy Komasinski, director of Printing Services, had come up with the great idea to send each of the panel participants—Heidelberg, Xerox and HP-Indigo—a file containing a four-color print job that Purdue's in-plant had done on its two-color Heidelberg Speedmaster press. Copies of the job were printed on a NexPress, an iGen3 and an HP3000 and distributed at the session, offering attendees—and myself—their first opportunity to compare the quality of the three most-hyped digital color printers using the exact same printed

SET ON a land grant on the Idaho border, Washington State University welcomes 20,000 students to its Pullman campus each year, despite being a little...well, off the beaten path. "It's rural wheat country and really big football players," laughs Steven Rigby, director of printing at the school's Office of University Publications and Printing. Several hundred miles east of rainy Seattle, Pullman is usually pretty dry, he says. But it has been pouring on and off for days when Rigby and

Computer-to-plate technology has certainly cut a few steps out of the printing process. But plate manufacturers want to eliminate the processing, as well. By Mark Smith Computer-to-plate (CTP) production is all about removing steps, variables and labor from the workflow. So it naturally follows that people would look to eliminate the chemistry-based plate processor. The leading plate manufacturers have very similar takes on the future of this development. Their shared vision begins with a focus on non-ablative switchable polymer and/or on-press development systems. Presstek, however, is an exception. The Hudson, N.H.-based company has pioneered the market with its current generation of chemistry-free plates and