Continental Web Press in Itasca, IL, is celebrating its 40th year in the printing business by moving into a new digital print market, with the addition of a Kodak NexPress SX3300 digital production color press. The high efficiency of the new platform has encouraged many of Continental's existing web press customers to add additional digital jobs to their orders.
A young designer I spoke to the other day was very frank about the fact that she did not like digital printing because you could only print on white paper. Granted there are some print providers that prefer to print on white coated stock all day long (digital or offset, it does not matter to them). And these few give our whole industry a bad reputation.
Frederic Printing, a Consolidated Graphics (CGX) company based in Aurora, CO, does its job when it comes to having the right people in place. The firm is always aggressively seeking out new talent. Chris Greene, Frederic president, notes that Denver is not exactly a printing mecca, so he usually has a fairly strong sense of who's out there and who might complement the existing Frederic staff.
A letter of intent has been signed by Newsweb Corp. and TKS for Newsweb’s second Jetleader 1500 digital inkjet press. The press will compliment and run in parallel with Newsweb's existing Jetleader 1500 which went into production last October. Included in the bill of material are the new sectioning accumulator unit, new variable cutoff folder and variable data printing for both presses.
Adding six bizhub PRESS C8000s has allowed Financial Services (FSI) to expand its bank statement printing services to include highly personalized marketing advertisements. With 75 percent of its customer base now leveraging the service, the company has grown its revenues by 40 percent.
The potential for digital packaging is great, and while there are many obstacles, these can all be overcome. Commercial printers would also like to get into packaging, but commercial shops have some additional challenges. Commercial printers generally do not have the finishing equipment: folding, scoring, diecutting. Perhaps more significant, brand owners generally look to box makers for boxes, not commercial printers.
The new Xerox Color 8250 production printer is targeted for 800,000- to four-million impressions per month and can deliver variable, vibrant color. It eliminates the need for preprinted offset shells—allowing print service providers to offer the additional value of one-pass color on statements and direct mail pieces.
It was around Valentine’s Day when a red-striped promotional piece captured my paper lover’s attention within a millisecond. GLS, a single-source marketing services provider based in Minnesota, used CMYK and a triple hit of white to produce a beautiful striped pattern and ribbon effect. But it was the striking look and velvety feel of some of the hearts and stripes in the design that left me weak in the knees.
What is striking about the round of installations this year over last, we are hearing about far fewer installation problems and challenges with substrates. We are hearing more about the costs and need to expand post-processing capabilities rather than installation or performance of the presses themselves. Business cases are still strong but, unlike the earliest adopters, those needs were not as acute, so they had the luxury of hanging back and biding their time until that time was right.
Tribune Direct is the direct mail printing offshoot of the Chicago Tribune Media Group, perhaps best known for its venerable Chicago Tribune newspaper. Its value proposition is a three-pronged attack: direct mail strategy, program management and creative development.
