DIGITAL digest

Ricoh Revs Up For Graph Expo

CHICAGO—More than one year after announcing the formation of its Production Printing Business Group (PPBG) and the development of a high-end, digital color printer, Graph Expo 2008, being held here next month, will mark the official launch and commercial availability of Ricoh Americas’ Pro C900 series.

Capable of printing 90 color or black-and-white pages per minute (ppm) with 1,200x1,200 dpi image quality, the Pro C900 is aimed at the commercial and quick printing, copy shop and in-plant environments, as well as service bureaus and direct mailers.

With a paper capacity of 11,000 sheets, the device can handle heavy stocks up to 110-lb. cover/165-lb. index without slowing down. Operators can load paper and toner on-the-fly without pausing the job in progress.

Controlled by an EFI Fiery RIP, the printer accommodates up to a 13x19.2˝ sheet. The system can also be fitted with several in-line finishing options for stapling and punching, bookletmaking and saddlestitching, as well as ring and perfect binding.

In late July, Ricoh PPBG executives held a press and analyst briefing in New York to discuss their product strategy. “Our vision is to be a leading force in the production printing environment by 2010,” said Tim Vellek, vice president, noting that the business unit has already been ramped up to 200 people in the United States, largely by hiring industry pros in the production space.

One of the group’s first employees is PPBG Vice President of Marketing Carl Joachim, a former vice president at Océ who also worked for several years at Xerox. He provided an update on Ricoh’s evolution into the color digital production printing space, including its existing relationship with Kodak that allows Ricoh’s 90 direct salespeople to sell Nexpress series digital color presses.

In addition, one year into Ricoh’s joint venture with IBM, he said that Ricoh and InfoPrint Solutions are currently looking at co-marketing opportunities such as trade shows, developing a lead sharing program and exploring product development synergies.

Joachim also revealed that five beta sites for the Pro C900 have been in place since this spring, and that Ricoh has partnered with InfoTrends to develop a “Build Your Business” Website. He described the new production printer as an affordable alternative for those first getting into production color, as well as for establishments with underutilized iGen and Indigo digital color presses.

John Fulena, director of product marketing and sales development, said the Pro C900’s cost per page (single click, 11x17˝ sheet printed simplex) is 17 cents for color and about 1 cent black-and-white. The Pro C900S model, featuring a color scanner unit, will also become available in late 2008, he added.

E-Paper Ad Pioneering or Gimmicky?

NEW YORK—In the early 1980s, the National Geographic Society created a buzz by featuring a large hologram on the cover of its renowned magazine. The effort was impressive and a few similar covers have cropped up in the intervening years, but the process has never advanced beyond being a novelty.

Esquire magazine’s October issue, which has created a similar buzz by incorporating an electronic paper component, may go down in history as the first shot fired in a revolution—or merely end up being the digital equivalent of the hologram. To mark the title’s 75th anniversary, the publisher teamed up with the Ford Motor Co. and E Ink to incorporate a flexible electronic display panel into a spread advertisement for the new Ford Flex crossover vehicle. The inside cover ad was designed to utilize E Ink’s Vizplex technology to display words and images that scroll across a glued-on panel.

Esquire’s plan was to distribute 100,000 issues with the special cover on newsstands, including those in Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores. The title reportedly has a total monthly circulation of more than 700,000 copies.

According to David Granger, editor-in-chief of Esquire, the innovative ad was 16 months in the making, with the publisher having first contacted E Ink in summer 2007.

“This cover is both a breakthrough for magazines and an expression of the theme of our anniversary issue,” he explains. “The entire issue is devoted to exploring the ideas, people and issues that will be the foundation of the 21st century.”

In a sense, the ad already was a success before it ever appeared because a press release sent out weeks in advance generated a great deal of coverage in print and online media. Stories run by the New York Times, IDTechEX and other sources reported that the publisher made a six-figure investment in the development of a battery small enough to fit in the cover.

The batteries and displays were said to have been manufactured in China and shipped to Mexico for insertion into each magazine by hand. Finished issues were to be transported in refrigerated trucks to preserve battery life.

An interesting aside to the story was the amount of coverage that focused not on the technology innovation and its marketing merits, but instead criticized the environmental impact of its production and disposal.

digital bytes

CARLSTADT, NJ—Under new licensing agreements signed with Pantone Inc., support for the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM and Goe System will now be available from Exstream Software by HP in its Dialogue 7.0 software and with all Kodak Nexpress digital color presses in early 2009.

ROCHESTER, NY—Kodak’s Print On-Demand Solutions Group reports implementing JDF-based integration of its CREO color servers to the Hiflex MIS solution and Printable Technologies’ FusionPro variable data publishing and Web-to-print solutions. Both products communicate job parameters (such as customer info, order number, etc.) to the servers. With the Hiflex MIS, the servers can return job processing updates (status, processing times, etc.) via JMF messaging.

NEW YORK—Registering a first in the United States, C2 Media has installed an Inca Digital Onset flatbed UV ink-jet color printer, distributed by Fujifilm Sericol, for volume production of prints up to 101⁄2x5 feet, at its Englewood, CO, facility.

BOULDER, CO—Under a new agreement, InfoPrint Solutions is now reselling Press-sense’s business flow automation software solutions, including iWay, Manager and Omnium. InfoPrint will offer customers a print-on-demand workflow that includes Web-to-print and MIS solutions for enterprise level to smaller operations.

ALEXANDRIA, VA—IDEAlliance has launched a Website (www.g7global.org) to provide info for the growing G7 user community. G7 is a specification that defines printing process controls based on the “visual appearance” of a piece and focuses on gray balance rather than dot gain. The Website includes materials about ISO inks recommended for implementing G7 on sheetfed offset presses.

DAYTONA BEACH, FL—The Direct Marketing Alliance (the Alliance, www.directmarketingalliance.com) and Kodak have entered into a relationship to assist printers in building their digital printing businesses. Users of Kodak Nexpress digital color presses and Insite software can now join the Alliance, thereby gaining access to a virtual sales force, intellectual resources and tools for effective data driven marketing implementations. PI