Quark Inc.

A year after Drupa, what new surprises do graphic arts vendors have in store for in-plants? Here's an advanced look. In-plant managers eager to see the latest graphic arts technologies can't do much better than Print 05 & Converting 05. Held in Chicago once every four years, this is the printing industry's main event. Larger than last year's Graph Expo show, Print 05 will feature nearly 800 exhibits covering more than 725,000 square feet of floor space. To help in-plants prepare, many of the industry's key vendors offered a peak at the products they plan to display in Chicago. Offset Boasting

Thanks to strong support from corporate management, Printing Services at Advocate Health Care is now a state-of-the-art in-plant… with an iGen3 to boot. According to Webster's Dictionary, an advocate is a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea. For Printing Services at Advocate Health Care, this definition couldn't be more apt. While some in-plants struggle to justify their existence to an ever-skeptical parent company, at Advocate, upper management fully supports Printing Services. So much so that, over the past five years, the corporation has made massive improvements to its 28-employee, 25,000-square-foot in-plant, replacing nearly every piece of production equipment. Based

In-plants interested in variable data printing should take things one step at a time. By Chris Reid Whether you're a small reprographics shop or a large offset printer, the prospect of supporting variable data printing (VDP) applications for your customers can be daunting. Many shops lack the IT skills or infrastructure to handle VDP. They may not be familiar with typical variable data formats or the composition tools used to build variable applications. Still others haven't made the leap to digital print technology in order to support a fully variable page for color or black-and-white printing. You may be at a

In-plant managers got a chance to see the technologies they've been reading about at the recent Graph Expo show. For the many in-plant managers in attendance, the recent Graph Expo and Converting Expo 2004 show in Chicago was a graphic arts fantasy land. "I felt like a kid in a candy store," observes Mike Renn, of Mellon Corporate Publishing, in Philadelphia. "I went to take a look at the latest direct-to-plate systems and software management packages and came away with numerous options." Attendance this year was pretty healthy, he adds: "I had to wedge myself between bodies to check out the latest gear." Other managers agreed. "I

Attendees at SUPDMC enjoyed great weather and even better companionship. by Jean-Luc Devis About 40 attendees from 27 various educational institutions got together in sunny Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., recently for the 27th annual Southeastern University Printing and Duplicating Managers Conference (SUPDMC). Colleagues from North Dakota and Minnesota escaped the snowfall in their respective states to enjoy 90-degree weather in southern Florida. This year's SUPDMC was organized and hosted by Bill Buckler, director of Printing and Graphic Arts at Broward Community College. Conferences are an excellent opportunity to meet with old and new colleagues, discuss common challenges and explore ways of

To keep business from going to quick printers, in-plants need Web-based ordering capabilities. Here's how one in-plant went online and some leads on how you can, too. by CAROLINE MILLER THREE YEARS ago, the University of Colorado at Boulder's printing and copying services department realized it needed to hone its competitive edge to remain viable against local competitors such as Kinko's. The $3.2 million operation's core business—course packs, stationery, business cards and flyers—could easily be sent to outside shops, since the university does not mandate the use of the in-plant. "It was very easy for people to go off campus," admits Newell Fogelberg, director

In part two of our PDF feature, learn about some of the hurdles you'll have to leap to implement a PDF workflow in both the offset and toner-based environments. (See part one here.) by Heath Cajandig LAST MONTH, I discussed the history of the Portable Document Format (PDF) and the challenges it was created to overcome. But in the real world, can PDF files make things faster, easier and more efficient? First of all, let's talk about PDF in the offset environment. The promise of the PDF is that it can be created by a customer and then RIPed and printed by the

In the first of two articles on PDF, we'll trace the path of PDF from its beginnings as a format for the paperless office to where it is today. (See part II here.) IF PDF documents have not affected your in-plant already, they will soon. Consequently, the future of your shop may depend on how much you learn about the Portable Document Format. To help you, IPG is presenting a two-part article on PDF, detailing its history and application in both the ink-based and digital/toner environments. Since PDF is a variation of PostScript, it's helpful to take a look back at the origins

Acrobat and PDF are starting to fulfill their prepress potential. Find out how to make them work for you. Unless you've been stranded on a remote Pacific atoll, there's virtually no way you could have avoided hearing about Acrobat and PDF (Portable Document Format). Not only has Adobe churned out numerous news releases, but other vendors are jumping on the bandwagon, as well—and with good reason: This application and its derivative file format are now coming of age. To recognize Adobe for its efforts to develop and promote PDF, In-Plant Graphics is honoring the San Jose, Calif.-based company with the 1999 Industry Leader of