Software - Web-to-print

BY CAROLINE MILLER In the realm of printing management systems, there's probably no hotter topic right now than printCafe and PrintTalk. The January 2000 announcement of the merger of nth degree software and Prograph to form printCafe, then the subsequent acquisitions of AHP, Hagen Systems, Logic Associates, M Data and Programmed Solutions left the industry confused, nervous and full of questions. That air of uncertainty was further fueled when, in June, the remaining MIS systems and 10 e-commerce companies announced the formation of the PrintTalk consortium. Both PrintTalk and printCafe made promises of seamless integration from the buyer to printer, but many in the

Dotcom companies enable printers to find new employees and attract more customers via the Internet. BY CAROLINE MILLER With just a click of the mouse, Miami Valley Publishing's Paul Barrett is improving his chances of finding qualified employees. And Rich Stevens of Stevens Printing is expanding his customer base. Both Barrett and Stevens are improving their businesses by taking advantage of the services two dotcoms are offering the printing industry. HireSkills.comIn today's tight labor market, finding seasoned employees in the graphic arts industry can be a challenge. But it's a challenge that HireSkills.com is helping commercial printers meet head-on. "The industry is challenged

BY CAROLINE MILLER "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." —a Western Union internal memo, circa 1876. Sound vaguely familiar? There are many in the graphic arts industry who have said the same thing about the promise of the Internet. But, in reality, the Internet is becoming intertwined in the commercial printing industry. One area that has seen the most change is the way printers communicate, not only with their customers, but with their employees. By integrating the Internet into their overall business strategies, printers will

The latest advances in digital photography and color scanning make image capture not only a snap, but exceptionally high quality. And the prices may be coming down, too. BY ALLISON ECKEL Take no specifications for granted. "The old models for discussing image quality are starting to dissolve with respect to evaluating the potential quality of an image," states Eric Zarakov, vice president of marketing for Foveon, a Santa Clara, CA-based manufacturer of image sensors and capture systems. While commenting on Foveon's recent digital chip breakthrough, Zarakov has voiced a trend in the digital image capture industry. Everything you thought you knew about the numbers

ATLANTA—The U.S. paper and forest products industry buys and sells more than $400 billion worth of products annually. Some estimates are that at least a third of these transactions will be conducted online within the next few years. With that in mind, Georgia- Pacific Corp., International Paper and Weyerhaeuser Co. have committed funding of $51 million to establish a global business-to-business electronic marketplace for forest products. The entity will be known as ForestExpress. Four other forest products companies—Boise Cascade, Louisiana-Pacific, Mead and Willamette—are reportedly considering taking part, as well. Officials say the goal is to create a common platform to simplify and accelerate

R.R. Donnelley wades into the world of e-commerce BY CAROLINE MILLER R.R. Donnelley & Sons (RRD) is launching a new e-commerce venture this month at Graph Expo and Converting Expo in Chicago. Digeno.com is an R.R. Donnelley-funded network that provides an e-procurement solution for the sheetfed printing industry. This portal is a comprehensive, printer-led Internet solution for buying and selling print-related products and services in the regional commercial printing markets, according to Digeno President Terry Tevis. As Tevis gets ready to introduce Digeno to the graphic arts industry, Printing Impressions wants to know how he views the direction of e-commerce in the printing industry,

A spinoff of L.P. Thebault, Cirqit.com is focusing on Fortune 2000 accounts. BY ERIK CAGLE There is no denying that Cirqit.com is a product of the cyberspace times. However, there is a method to the madness of "dotcomology" for this son of a printer—not just a move to cyberspace for the sake of being technologically chic. Formed in July 1999, Cirqit.com marked the beginning of what would ultimately become a web, if you will, of alliances, services and supply chains bound together by a single mantra: offering the ultimate in end-to-end solutions. In essence, Cirqit.com—an application service provider (ASP)—stands shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the

BY HOWARD FENTON Anyone familiar with Publishers Press will not be surprised that it was the first company to express interest in, pursue and pioneer entrance into the GATF/Apple ColorSync Registry. The registry outlines tolerances for acceptable quality control specifications for the implementation of color management technology, as specified by the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF). Publishers Press is a family owned company originally created in 1866, now operating under the fifth generation of the Simon family. Printing giant Frank E. Simon ran the company from 1946 to 1990 and is responsible for redirecting the company to its niche of short-run publications. At

Perhaps the most incredible thing about the printing industry is that it actually works. Most of the time, anyway. Think about it: You have a sophisticated manufacturing process driven by people hired specifically for their creative expertise. Adding to the confusion, the disparate nature of this service industry makes it virtually impossible to standardize procedures—which is why workflow is such a vague term. In many cases, designers, ad agencies, publishers, prepress trade shops and printers are all separate business entities; at a minimum, there are two parties: content creator and prepress/printer. And, just for fun, there's the subjective nature of the printed product itself adding

The Job Definition Format (JDF) has added a new vigor to the CIP3 movement—changing the consortium's name to CIP4, and forecasting a new era for CIM in an e-commerce and more automated printing industry. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO When the CIP3 consortium was formed in 1995, the intent was clear: develop standards that would facilitate a completely automated and integrated printing process, from prepress to pressroom to postpress. Hence the name, CIP3—the International Cooperation for Integration of Prepress, Press and Postpress. Easy enough. The mission was embraced by dozens of technology providers. Together, companies from Heidelberg to Adobe, MAN Roland to Agfa, formulated a new format, known