Boston—August 10, 2007Pageflex, a division of Bitstream Inc. (NASDAQ: BITS, www.bitstream.com) and a leading developer of enterprise variable publishing and web-to-print solutions, announced today the availability of Pageflex Storefront 5.5. The new features of Storefront 5.5 will drive Pageflex users into new markets by enabling them to create, deploy and manage websites for the lucrative consumer market. Pageflex users can expand their offering to their own customers by utilizing new features that support the development of consumer-oriented products including photo books, stationery and calendars. At the core of the upgrade is the ability to alter the graphical elements of the customer-facing site, including colors,
Bitstream Inc.
When in Rome. . .Do as the Printers ROME—There’s been a marked increase in the number of vendor-specific industry events—mini trade shows, open houses and road shows—held in recent years. They provide stages (some even international) for new product introductions and briefings on how these companies see the state of affairs. HP recently brought hundreds of customers, press people and analysts from around the world to Rome during the run of its 2007 Graphic Arts Summit. Highlights included the introduction of two new seven-color HP Indigo press models (5500 and 3500), a near-line UV coater and a large-format printer targeted to print service providers
Viewing On Demand BOSTON—Changing locations continues to be part of the story from the On Demand Conference & Expo, which last month completed its 2007 run at the (nearly) new Boston Convention & Exposition Center (opened in 2004). The event first moved from its long-standing home in New York City to Philadelphia for a two-year stint and now on to Boston through 2008. Close to 200 exhibitors had booths in the On Demand portion of the show floor, which the event continues to share with the AIIM Expo. New, or at least now commercialized, color printing systems added up to the largest category
MAN Roland Hosts Printers for Press Premier OFFENBACH, GERMANY—The world premier of a “next generation” sheetfed printing platform isn’t an everyday occurrence, so MAN Roland extended its recent festivities to more than a week to allow for bringing in several groups of select printers, journalists and its own employees from around the globe. The stars of the show were HiPrint and DirectDrive versions of the new Roland 700 sheetfed printing platform. To make the most of the trip, the contingent from North America was additionally treated to tours of a local DirectDrive beta site, MAN Roland’s foundry and its manufacturing/assembly facilities for sheetfed presses.
BOSTON—April 17, 2007 -- At an awards ceremony this afternoon, Questex Media Group, Inc. announced the winners of the On Demand Best of Show Award program. InfoTrends, a leading market research and consulting firm in the digital imaging and document solutions industry, partnered with the On Demand Conference & Exposition to produce the awards program. The On Demand Conference & Exposition is taking place this week at the Boston Convention & Exposition Center. The On Demand Best of Show Awards were judged in eight categories. One Best of Show award was presented in each of the following categories: Bindery, Finishing and Mailing
HP Indigo Press Users Get the Scoop TAMPA, FL—There were no signs of the terrible twos or growing pains at the 2007 Dscoop Annual Conference, just the second users meeting for this group of HP Indigo press owners. Total registration was nearly double that of the inaugural event last year. A greater focus on the packaging and label printing market segments contributed to a spike in attendance to around 750 people. The keynote address by NFL Hall of Fame Coach Marv Levy kicked off the conference sessions. Levy used anecdotes from his coaching days to relate his philosophies on people management and motivation. Following
IT MAY be telling that, with a few exceptions, the presses in operation around the show floor of Graph Expo and Converting Expo 2006 were of the digital variety. Offset units were conspicuous in their absence. Digital presses largely have become part of the commercial printing mainstream, rather than being a specialty product segment or market niche. The exhibition’s Wide Format Pavilion showed ongoing interest in that segment, but adding a wide, large, superwide or grand format digital system still is seen as a way to diversify rather than being standard equipment. Hewlett-Packard shared results from an InfoTrends study that surveyed a sampling
A KNOCK frequently made against printers is that many don’t know their true costs and, as a consequence, can’t say if they’ve made money on any given job. Another way of looking at is that they don’t know the dollar value of individual jobs and customers to the bottom line. In order to know that answer, shops need to have the required infrastructure in place and an ingrained discipline throughout the company to capture and analyze the relevant data. It takes a big commitment to implement and religiously use a comprehensive Management Information System (MIS), now also called Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP),
THE FIFTH annual PIA/GATF Variable Data and Personalization Conference, held November 12-14 in Phoenix, will feature more than two days of sessions to help companies advance their capabilities. This special supplement has been designed to highlight some of the key conference topics and speakers. Attendees will hear case studies from the Canadian Conservative Party and Move.com that provide a behind-the-scenes look at effective uses of VDP. Three separate tracks, a total of 21 sessions, are being offered. Management sessions will include: Building an Efficient Cost/Financial Model; Liability/Security Issues; Managing a Multimedia Company; Transitioning from Transactional to Marketing; as well as Profiting from Digital
SEWICKLEY, PA—A panel of independent judges dubbed 17 innovative technologies worthy of 2005 PIA/GATF InterTech Technology Awards. The winners were chosen from a field of 52 technology nominees. Winners will be presented with Lucite InterTech stars during an annual banquet at the 2005 PIA/GATF fall administrative meetings, November 10-13, in San Francisco. The following is a list of the companies and their honored technologies: Metrix v1.5, LithoTechnics Pty Ltd. and Alterio Associates; Chameleon, Böttcher America; PDF Compare and PDF Merge, Creo Inc.; in-line coating for digital presses, NexPress Fifth Imaging Unit Solutions (Eastman Kodak); in-line coating for digital presses, Xeikon Print Protector, Xeikon International/Punch Graphix; Arrowlith UV,