Konica Minolta Graphic Imaging U.S.A.

Xanté Symphony Workflow is a comprehensive, turnkey PDF workflow featuring support for both the Adobe PDF Print Engine and Adobe PostScript 3. It drives all output devices (platesetters, imagesetters, laser printers, digital color presses, copiers, inkjet printers and plotters) from one RIP. Symphony Workflow’s scanning, trapping, screening, advanced imposition and ganging, Pantone Color Libraries support, and color proofing features are available for all output devices. Symphony Workflow automates tedious, error-prone prepress tasks and offers enhanced imposition that allows mixing of page sizes and orientations on a press sheet.

What was once a fairly low-volume print shop when it opened at Ball State University 30 years ago, has turned into a bustling operation. When Ken Johnson, director of Printing Services at the Muncie, Ind., school, saw that he could barely squeeze any more equipment into his in-plant’s 3,200-square-foot space, he knew it was time for a new facility. 

Taking place only once every four years, the drupa international printing trade fair is a huge show. By the time it wrapped up its two-week stint in Düsseldorf, Germany, last month 314,500 visitors from more than 130 countries had walked its 19 halls and visited its 1,850 exhibitors.

After opening its 19 halls to the public yesterday, drupa 2012 is in full swing right now in Dusseldorf, Germany. IPG's sister publication, Printing Impressions, has two editors walking the show floor. With 1,850 exhibitors from 56 countries showing their wares, our editors have more than their share of work ahead of them. Here are just a few of the reports that have trickled back to IPG.

Since installing a new Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C7000, Printing & Distribution Services for the City of Portland, Ore., now prints an average of 155,000 color pages a month—a 55 percent increase over what the shop produced on its previous printer, a bizhub PRO C6500.

Once their digital color presses are up and running, in-plants often discover a few things they wish they had known ahead of time. We asked four managers to tell us what they learned—and what they wish they had known ahead of time.

Since the purchase of a Konica Minolta bizhub C500 press five years ago, Jeff Davis, in-plant coordinator at Southwest Tennessee Community College, has been impressed with the quality of the machine. So when he decided to boost his in-plant's finishing capabilities, he went with two bizhub C6000 presses.

The addition of a new Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C7000 last September has made all the difference to the in-plant at Iowa Bankers Association in Johnston, Iowa. As the in-plant's volume began to increase, Todd Palmer, printing coordinator, realized that sharing a four-color Canon imageRUNNER press with the rest of the staff at the company was no longer going to cut it.

The Mail and Print Services department at Barnard College in New York City, has had a long-standing affair with Konica Minolta equipment. That's why when the time came to add a new digital press, it was an easy choice for director Alan Anderson, who chose a Konica Minolta C7000 digital press.

With the retirement of his offset pressman last August, Mike Ford, Print Services manager at Kilgore College in Kilgore, Texas, decided to retire his offset presses as well. “We are going through some really tough financial times here in Texas with our higher education system, and when my pressman told me that he was retiring, I knew that we would not be able to replace him,” Ford points out. “There are just not a lot of offset pressmen or bindery operators in this area.”