Hewlett-Packard

Despite the economic downturn, many printers made the trip to New York to see the latest in on-demand printing technologies. by Bob Neubauer With print sales predicted to be relatively flat in 2002, it was encouraging to see the exhibit floors of the ninth annual On Demand Conference fairly busy with attendees. According to conference organizers, nearly 19,000 "industry professionals from around the world" were in attendance. Though the number of exhibitors (150+) was down from last year (200), the event still drew a number of in-plants to New York's Jacob Javits Center, to do some serious looking—and even purchasing. Still, all was

In-plants that have wide-format ink-jet printers say the devices have quickly paid for themselves in increased business. by Caroline Miller According to Joe Goss, if there is one thing that has had an impact on the wide-format ink-jet printing market, it's the PowerPoint presentation. "We never realized the kind of demand there would be for charts and posters to accompany PowerPoint presentations," says Goss, director of university printing and materials management at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Ind. "The professors don't want to keep redoing the charts. They need something that is printed on a flexible material that they can roll up, place in a

State of Washington Olympia, Wash. Despite being one of the country's largest in-plants, the State of Washington's Department of Printing behaves much more like a small company in the way it treats its employees. "We're very pro-people," remarks Dan Swisher, assistant director of the Olympia, Wash.-based operation. "We like to grow from within. We like to involve everybody in our operation. And we like everybody to have fun doing it." To show employees how important they are, Swisher says the department's director, George Morton, visits each employee every single day. With 105 employees, that's a tough task, but the payoff is great. Trying

Disaster recovery was one of the hottest topics at Xplor this year, for understandable reasons. More than 5,700 people from around the world headed to Orlando, Fla., recently to attend the Xplor 2001 Global Electronic Document Systems Conference & Exhibit. Held at the Orange County Convention Center, the 22nd annual Xplor conference drew document and printing professionals, industry consultants and nearly 150 exhibitors. "Despite world events and economic challenges, the electronic document industry will move forward in positive and exciting new ways," noted James Shand, commercial director of edotech Limited, and Xplor International chairman of the board. Directions And Visions In one

Though tragedy cast a pall over the show's final days, most of Print 01 was filled with exciting product introductions and surprising merger news. by Bob Neubauer Even the biggest industry news at Print 01 was overshadowed by the horrific destruction of the World Trade Center, which stunned attendees as they prepared for the sixth day of the show. The resulting shock and cancelled travel plans drastically slowed trade show traffic on the show's final three days. Many vendors even abandoned their booths. Prior to that tragic Tuesday, the largest graphic arts trade show of the year had been a place of

Print 01 featured numerous innovations in prepress, offset and bindery technologies. Find out all about them in part two of our show report. &002;by Bob Neubauer Walking the show floor at Print 01 was a printer's dream. Presses were churning out color posters, software was being demonstrated on large screens for small crowds, books were being folded, stitched and trimmed—wherever you looked, something was happening. Though the September 11 attacks brought the show to a halt, show management said about 66,300 people attended overall. Vendors reported a number of sales. Heidelberg's NexPress subsidiary sold more than 70 NexPress 2100 presses, part of

The chocolate king's in-plant has done away with its DocuTechs in favor of clustered printers—and added a new folder and wide-format printer to boot. Hershey Foods Corp. is always moving forward. Whether increasing the size of its Kit Kat bar or expanding its visitors' center, Hershey's Chocolate World, the 118-year-old company never stops looking ahead. Its in-plant shares this philosophy. In recent years the 10-employee shop has acquired a five-color Shinohara press and an Encad wide-format printer, to name just a few additions. Now the Hershey, Pa.-based in-plant is at it again. The operation recently installed a new T/R Systems Micropress cluster printing system,

Picking a scanner can be a tough job. Find out from a prepress specialist how to sort through the different categories and specifications. The opening years of the new millennium offer a remarkable array of scanners to choose from. Consequently, making a decision—much less gathering all the information necessary—can be a tedious and frustrating exercise. Scanners can be more or less grouped into three categories: high-end, midrange and entry level. The boundaries between these categories are blurry, and exceptions abound. Still, they will help bring some order to the scanner selection process. Also keep in mind that drum scanners are often

Wide-format printing can add profits and a heaping helping of customer satisfaction to your operation. by Allan Martin Kemler RIDDLE ME this, Batman: How can an in-plant add service, increase profits and deliver a return on its investment all in just one year? Easy. Purchase a wide-format printer. At least that's what Joe Miller and Anthony Velazquez recommend. Miller and Velazquez both manage busy in-plants and both men encourage other in-plants to look into wide-format color printing as a way to recapture lost revenue and add extra value. "The key thing is, the color market is only going to grow," advises Miller, of

Digital color printing has improved tremendously in recent years. It's time for in-plants to focus on the benefits it can offer them. DON'T LOOK now, but digital color printing is poised to become the darling of the in-plant world. Faster, cheaper and more reliable than ever—and boasting improved print quality—digital color printing is finally living up to the hype it once received. Despite all the hoopla, however, one of the biggest strikes against it, marketing reps will tell you, has long been lack of awareness in the marketplace. And then along came Heidelberg. Ever since Drupa, where the offset king announced that