DIGITAL digest

Trade Show Takes a Digital Direction

MIAMI BEACH—Graphics of the Americas, the annual international graphic communications education and exhibit showplace running from February 4-6 at the Miami Beach Convention Center, will feature a new, more digitally focused program for its 2005 event.

The Printing Association of Florida, the organizers of the show, have announced the addition of the “JDF in Action” pavilion to its annual event. The pavilion, a combination of a dedicated presentation theater and exhibits, will feature three days of multi-vendor presentations and hands-on demonstrations designed to provide attendees with a clear understanding of the emerging standard.

The JDF in Action pavilion will also focus on JDF’s impact on printers, driven by the potential for widespread use when JDF authoring tools gain adoption by customers through desktop publishing applications. The pavilion will teach attendees the benefits of JDF; what the technology means to printers from a practical, clear and easy-to-understand point of view; as well as the potential for profits and savings.

Six industry representatives will participate at the JDF in Action pavilion at this year’s Graphics of the Americas, including Adobe Systems, Esko-Graphics, Grafitec, HiFlex, Screen (USA) and Xerox Corp. Executives from each participating company will provide both exhibits for one-on-one demonstrations and key theater presentations to attendees.

While manufacturers typically take up most of the floor space at trade shows, some printers are seizing the opportunity and presenting their own new technologies at the show, as well.

“Graphics of the Americas is an international show with a Latin American flavor, and a big portion of the work that we do is for Latin American companies,” explains Cecil James, director of digital prepress systems for St Ives U.S. division. “We wanted to take an opportunity to display some of our online technologies and capabilities.”

The St Ives U.S. division, which operates Florida printing plants in Miami and Hollywood, recently introduced St Ives Online Digital Prepress Services, a suite of new technologies designed to facilitate customers’ workflows while improving quality and reducing costs. St Ives Online will be a big part of what the company will be able to demonstrate at the show.

“We think it is going to be huge,” James predicts of the new suite of online capabilities his company now provides. “It allows customers to be connected from anywhere in the world, in real time.”

In another digital development regarding the show, Xplor International will put on a two-day Variable Data and Digital Color Printing Conference. The conference, hosted at Graphics of the Americas on February 3 and 4, includes a combination of case studies and best practices, as well as expert discussion that will address the application, value, and business side of variable data and digital color.

In addition, the conference will feature two days of presentations from industry professionals that will provide insight into the future of variable data and digital color for both printers and creative and marketing professional audiences in the transactional printing, direct mail and vertical market applications.

Visions of The Future

LOVELAND, CO—At MAN Roland’s annual end-of-the-year editor’s briefing, CEO Yves Rogivue issued a call to action to overcome resistance in the market to implementing computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM). Rogivue avoided framing his argument around JDF, since just hearing that acronym can be enough to cause some people to tune out.

Instead, the manufacturing exec outlined a real-world example of what is possible when CIM is applied extensively. Some printers are just as likely to be turned off by the future this company represents, though.

According to Rogivue, VistaPrint is a model of production efficiency. The international company has been registering a 50 percent annual growth rate while building its yearly sales to around $100 million. Its typical job takes less than 500 press sheets, so the organization is averaging about 10,000 jobs per day across its operation and billing around $30 for each, on average, the MAN Roland exec says.

The company’s target is a RIP-to-ship time of two hours or less. Its model is based on jobs being submitted through a Web interface that provides design capabilities. Jobs are automatically ganged up for production on MAN Roland presses that run as many as four jobs per hour.

So far, VistaPrint’s success has been based on highly standardized jobs, particularly business cards, Rogivue concedes. However, he says the company is looking to broaden the applications for its business model.

The event also featured a visit to a local printer, Vision Graphics, which has also been achieving healthy growth. According to President Mark Steputis, focusing on meeting its clients’ breadth of needs, rather than being a niche player, has been the key to Vision’s success.

“In this era of corporate belt tightening, print buyers don’t have the time to deal with multiple suppliers. They want to do business with an integrated resource,” Steputis says. “We focus on helping clients increase their sales, rather than cutting their printing costs.”

Vision is no “me too” supplier, as management looks to excel at all the services it provides. The company also is an interesting study in the potential of running an integrated operation and where today’s reality can still fall short.

Since the fall of 1998, the printer has modernized the pressroom in its 50,000-square-foot main facility with the addition of (in sequence) a six-color MAN Roland 700 (41˝) with coater, six-color Roland 900 (56˝) with coater, six-color Roland 500 (29˝) with UV capabilities and a two-color Roland 700. The Roland 900, in particular, has supported a move into packaging work. The company also added a 12-pocket Wohlenberg perfect binding line to keep with its philosophy of meeting customer needs in-house.

This past October, Vision acquired a $2 million mailing operation—called First Class Direct—to further extend its range of one-stop shopping. First Class Direct had an existing design department, but no in-house production, although Steputis anticipates that business is now driving a move into digital printing. The combined company’s sales team has now been centralized in this second facility.

Vision’s steps toward building an integrated operation have been technological and organizational in nature. An example of the latter is locating the company’s prepress/ preflight technicians, CSRs and front-office staff in one room. Prepress output—CTP, proofing, etc.—is located one floor up.

The technological integration begins with the shop’s Creo Prinergy workflow providing color data to enable automatic ink zone setting on the presses via PECOM JobPilot. All of the presses are monitored and controlled by the PECOM operating and automation system. Press operators are still given paper dockets along with digital job tickets, Steputis points out.

The presses report back operating data electronically via a direct machine interface. Steputis has approached MAN Roland about developing what he calls a “dashboard” that will graphically represent what is happening on each press so managers don’t have to crunch heavy numerical data to assess press and operator performance. The printer has installed an EFI Hagen OA computer management system, but the JDF connection to the pressroom isn’t there yet.

Some of the equipment in Vision’s postpress department is also capable of accepting electronic job data captured upstream, but Steputis says he isn’t comfortable yet eliminating the checks that come with manual job setup. In the case of the cutter, for example, he points out that “you have to be absolutely certain everything is right, because you’re creating instant trash when the blade comes down if you’ve gotten any job parameter wrong.”

To better integrate customers into its workflow, the company has started rolling out Creo Synapse Insite and Prepare to major accounts. These tools facilitate the creation of proper files and provide Web-based tools such as remote proofing. “Integrating our operation with a customer’s workflow makes it more difficult for them to switch suppliers,” Steputis contends.

Another recent change has been adoption of Creo Staccato FM screening. Vision doesn’t charge more for this enhanced screening, but rather has seen it as a way to help hold the line against the recent price cutting in the market. “Since we’re using it every day, printing with stochastic screening doesn’t cost us more,” Steputis says.

In keeping with the region’s great outdoors culture, one other recent addition that Vision’s management likes to show off is a Technotrans Ecoclean solvent cleaning system. Steputis says there were less expensive options available, but he didn’t want the shop to boil solvents. “We’ve gone from having to dispose of 20 barrels a month of used solvent down to one,” he proudly notes.

DIGITAL bytes

CINCINNATI—Miami Systems has purchased a VT3000 high-volume printing system from Kodak Versamark, a part of Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. The company is seeking to help clients converge transactional and promotional data into a single document with full variable color printing. (www.miamisystems.com/www.kodakversamark.com)

BOONE, NC—Minors Printing, a commercial printing firm with 22 employees, has installed a KBA 74 Karat digital offset waterless press from KBA North America. The company reportedly intends to branch out into short-run packaging work. (www.minorsprinting.com/www.kba-usa.com)

RICHMOND, VA—Cadmus Communications has purchased two Xerox iGen3 digital production presses for its Easton, MD, reprint operation. The digital presses will support short-run color printing for article and journal reprints, as well as short-run journal and book production. (www.cadmus.com/ www.xerox.com)

NORWALK, CT—Kodak Polychrome Graphics continues to register strong growth in the installed base of its KPG DirectPress 5034 DI digital offset press. Penmor Lithographers in Lewiston, ME, (www.Penmor.com) was motivated to add the press by a customer survey that found short-run color printing was the top request. Indianapolis-based SPG Graphics (www.ropkey.com) says the press fit with its approach of creating a profitable short-run color business by increasing efficiency. Royal Printing Service in Guilford, CT, (www.royalprintingservice.net) saw a need to install a second machine to meet the demand for short-run color in its market. (www.kpgraphics.com)

BALTIMORE—Print Manage, a print integration company, has acquired new equipment and added technical staff to support expansion of its online integrated, variable print-on-demand services. The company recently installed an HP Indigo press 3000 and Océ 5160 printing system with spot color capability. (www.printmanage.net/www.indigonet.com/www.oce.com)

SOLANA BEACH, CA—Online print services provider Printable Technologies has acquired all of the assets related to Datalogics’ DL Formatter variable data software product line. The companies had an existing relationship that included incorporating the functionality of DL Formatter into Printable’s PrintFusion3 variable data product.

To reassure current DL Formatter users, Coleman Kane, president and CEO of Printable, promises, “We will continue to license the applications to both end users and OEM partners. Partners currently utilizing the DL-1000 server include Creo, H-P, Heidelberg, NexPress, Xerox, Xeikon and others.” (www.printable.com/ www.datalogics.com)

ROCHESTER, NY—Xerox Corp.’s DocuColor 8000 digital press with the DSP8000 color server is now approved and licensed by Pantone Inc. to enable optimal color representation and printing of more than 1,000 solid PANTONE Colors. (www.xerox.com/www.pantone.com)

ASTON, PA—GCom2 Solutions, a digital marketing and print solutions company, has installed a Xerox iGen3 digital production press to grow its color and personalized printing business. The company expects to increase its digital revenue by 50 percent this year. (www.gcom2.com/ www.xerox.com)

PORTLAND, OR—Adopting the Kodak Polychrome Graphics Matchprint Virtual proofing system has enabled Colourscan to bridge the miles between the prepress shop and one of its major clients, a Seattle-based advertising agency. Previously, hard copy proofs had to be delivered by a sales representative who drove three hours each way or via an overnight shipping service. (www.colourscan.com/www.kpgraphics.com)