Canon U.S.A.

WASHINGTON, DC—10/06/08—The International Cooperation for the Integration of the Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4) organization and Graphic Arts Show Corporation (GASC) today announced details for the JDF Works Print Shop Live! program at GRAPH EXPO 2008. The JDF Works Print Shop Live! is designed to show attendees exactly what can be accomplished using today’s print production automation technologies. At this new feature, show goers will follow a live digital print job through production at three different locations on the show floor from online job creation and customization, through order management, scheduling, prepress and imposition, to printing and finishing of the final printed

Canon U.S.A. has acquired San Francisco-based NEWCAL Industries, an independent value-added reseller of document and print solutions. Founded in 1991 by Steve Tarpley and Ken Wilkens, NEWCAL is an independent provider of technology solutions to businesses in the Bay Area. In 2008, the company was honored with the San Francisco Business Times’ “Recognized for Excellence” Award, and was part of the publication’s Top 100 privately held Bay Area Companies. “This acquisition is consistent with our strategy of aggressively expanding our market presence and coverage, and continuing to be an imaging leader for years to come,” said Joe Adachi, president and chief executive officer, Canon

The bi-annual photography extravaganza known as photokina swung open its doors this week in Cologne, Germany with the usual frenzy of digital imaging-related news and announcements. We’ll provide with a quick peek at a few of the headlines from day one. - Eye-Fi Inc. (www.eye.fi), makers of the world’s first wireless memory card for digital cameras, today announced enhancements to its family of Eye-Fi cards that will make the upload of digital photos from camera to computer twice as fast. The faster wireless speeds will also be made available to existing Eye-Fi users at no extra cost. In addition, users will be able to

The Canon 5D, the popular full-frame D-SLR used by professionals and enthusiasts alike, now has a successor...and it’s the most feature-rich “compact” D-SLR yet, but with a significant price tag. Canon has announced the EOS 5D Mark II, a 21.1-megapixel full-frame digital SLR with “live view” and HD video recording capabilities, set to hit the market with a MSRP of $2699, body-only ($3499 when coupled with a Canon EF 24-204 mm zoom lens). That’s far more expensive than Nikon’s new video-shooting D-SLR, the D90, a 12-megapixel camera retailing for $999 (body-only), but the Canon 5D Mark II is by no means

Printing Impressions and InfoTrends have recently conducted a survey of Printing Impressions’ readers that focused on their use of wide-format digital printing equipment. The respondents to the survey fell into two main groups: in-plant operations and print-for-pay establishments. Participants were asked various questions regarding their current wide-format equipment and services, as well as future plans for their wide-format business. (See Chart 1.) The results show that while aqueous ink-jet is still the dominant technology, there is a growing presence in the production and commercial printing market of newer printing technologies. More than 67 percent of respondents indicated that they currently own an aqueous ink-jet

Though its rural location is part of its allure, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke also has fewer choices when it comes to services. Knowing this, its three-employee in-plant has been striving to build up its printing capabilities. “We absolutely believe that we can provide any of the printing that any commercial printer can do,” proclaims Glenda Kiser, print supervisor. Two recent installations will help her prove it. The shop has added both a Canon imagePRESS C7000VP and an HP DesignJet Z3100ps wide-format printer. The imagePRESS C7000VP, one of Canon’s newest color devices, prints letter-sized jobs at 70 pages per minute, regardless

THE STATE of Ohio’s Printing and Mail Services operation had a lot going for it. Its facility on the west side of Columbus boasted a convenient loading dock, more than enough floor space and plenty of free parking. One thing it didn’t have, though, was easy access to customers, most of which were in downtown Columbus, a good 15 minutes away. “If you’re in the quick copy business, you really need to be around your customers,” acknowledges Joe Tucker, state printing administrator. “And being out here, logistically, wasn’t a good thing for us because everything we print, we ship downtown.” So when

Doesn’t seem like we go more than a few weeks without a new DSLR announcement as Canon’s New EOS 50D and Nikon’s D90 steal the headlines this week. Add to this news the recent announcement of a full frame chip with enhanced megapixel count from Sony, the incredibly compact E-420 from Olympus, the new Micro 4/3 news from the latter and Panasonic (promising even more compact DSLRs) and it’s easy to see why the DSLR category has everyone in this industry buzzing lately. Back to the latest hardware - the Canon DIGIC 4 Image Processor Fuels this latest entry offering 15.1 megapixel resolution, expanded

J.D. Power and Associates last week issued a study ranking various popular digital cameras in the area of customer satisfaction, in four separate categories. According to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Digital Camera Usage and Satisfaction Study, the highest-ranking cameras in the point-and-shoot series are the Fujifilm Finepix S series, while the Canon PowerShot G series and Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ series tied for top honors among premium point and shoot cameras. Sony’s Cyber-shot T series took the lead in the ultra-slim rankings, while top honors among DSLRs went, in another tie, to the Nikon D series and the Canon EOS Digital

Vox Employees Put on a Happy Face! OKLAHOMA CITY—Maintaining a pleasant workplace atmosphere at Vox Printing is very important to company management, headed by CEO Laverna Reid, whose family owns the business. Which is one of the main reasons Vox Printing was selected by OKC Business (journal) as one of the “Best Places to Work in Oklahoma” for 2008. So, why is it such a great place to be employed? For starters, smiles appear first thing in the morning when employees drive past the baseball diamond, soccer field and Frisbee golf course on the grounds before walking through a sunny atrium in Vox Printing’s

IN ORDER to remain competitive and profitable, graphic communications providers must travel beyond just putting ink on paper—expanding their services to variable data, the Web and cross-media. The first annual PIA/GATF “Converge: Variable Data, Web Services and Cross-Media Conference” will be held September 20-23 in Phoenix. Three tracks containing fundamental, advanced, and sales and marketing sessions, make this conference suitable for companies just beginning to redefine their digital services, as well as veteran practitioners. This special section has been designed to highlight some of the key conference topics and speakers. The Converge Conference is a combination of PIA/GATF’s Workflow and Variable Data and

MISSION VIEJO, CA—July 22, 2008—Franchise Services, Inc. is pleased to announce that more than 200 franchise owners and salespeople from around the world received awards at the annual Sir Speedy and PIP International Convention and Vendor Show at the Westin Diplomat in Fort Lauderdale, FL, July 9-12. Don and Bernadette Sanders of Amarillo, TX, received the Sir Speedy “Franchisee of the Year” award and Frank and Clarice Petrellis of Kissimmee, FL, received the PIP “Franchisee of the Year” award. Jim Corliss, Jerry Hogan and Jose Tafur of Braintree, MA, received the Sir Speedy “Top Volume” award and the Fulner Family of Indianapolis and

For decades, merchants and manufacturers have collaborated to engage and entice shoppers with compelling stories of product features and benefits. From packaging and point-of-sale signage to sales training days and end cap placements, retailers and their vendors have worked together to refine the art of merchandising products to drive sales. Shopper behavior has fundamentally and forever changed. With the overwhelming popularity of online social networking and ubiquitous online video, it’s no surprise that most shoppers, particularly in the high disposable income demographic segments so important to merchants, are looking online first to research products and form their purchase decision. And they are expecting the

The CE distributor Almo Corp. made a big addition to its camera category this week, announcing that it has added both Canon and Olympus to its roster of digital imaging products. Other brands in the category include Panasonic, Samsung and Vivitar. Marquee products as part of the new lines include Olympus’ FE- and FP Series, as well as the EVOLT Digital SLRs, and Canon’s new EOS Rebel XSi DSLR. “Our goal is to be a one-stop source for our dealer and fulfillment customers, from brand diversity, to product breadth and automated ordering and shipping services”, Almo’s president and CEO, Warren Chaiken, said

BIRMINGHAM, UK—July 2, 2008—Following the official launch of Ipex 2010 at the highly successful Stars in Print reception at Drupa 2008, which was attended by over 90 of the industry’s senior management, the Ipex 2010 organizers are thrilled to announce that they have sold out its pre-media and digital solutions halls 9, 10, 11 and 12. Major exhibitors in these halls include HP, Kodak, Ricoh, Agfa Graphics, Epson, Canon, Screen, Xeikon, Konica Minolta, Canon, Fuji and many others, some of which have significantly increased the size of their stands. In particular, Konica Minolta has increased its footprint by 400%; Canon by 91%, Fuji by

BURLINGTON, NJ—June 30, 2008—Canon Business Solutions, Inc., a subsidiary of Canon U.S.A. and leading provider of document imaging and office solutions, announced that Sir Speedy of Naperville, Illinois, has selected the Canon imagePRESS C7000VP digital color production press to make its short-run digital printing more efficient and provide the ability to tap new revenue opportunities through expanded services. The imagePRESS C7000VP will also enable Sir Speedy to expand its offerings within the area of variable data printing (VDP). Installed at its new facility in Naperville, Sir Speedy looked to Canon’s imagePRESS C7000VP to help improve its existing short-run printing services. The fast speed, coupled

While the finer details will be announced early next month, Canon has let the latest Rebel out of the bag here in the U.S. Dubbed simply the Rebel XS, this latest member to the Canon DSLR Rebel family will feature several improvements over the Rebel XTi and Canon added they are hoping to bring the MSRP in at $200 less than that of the Rebel XSi. Among the feature set, we are told, will be 10.1 megapixel CMOS sensor; 2.5-inch LCD and a 7-point auto-focus system. This model will also feature LiveView, and an IS lens as part of the kit (F3.5-5.6, 18 -

Across the world, the giant chemical corporations have been rapidly strengthening their position as producers of the new materials at the heart of printed electronics, an industry set to be over $300 billion. BASF has licensed in know-how and invested in a new producer of organic photovoltaic devices while Sumitomo Chemical, Akzo Nobel and Henkel have made acquisitions of appropriate organic and inorganic material suppliers. Merck Chemical has funded major new university research in inorganic materials for printed electronics in Germany. Kodak, Honeywell and DuPont have announced new electronic display materials with Bayer also gearing up as a supplier. In Japan the filing of

Perfector Boosts Versatility and Quality CONYERS, GA—After recently installing a six-color, 41˝ KBA Rapida 105 one-over-five perfector with aqueous coating capability, 4D Printing reports that the press is “completely booked” and is running three shifts a day, five days a week. Doug Silsbee, 4D vice president, claims that the Rapida 105 is 25 percent faster in makeready than the printer’s other presses. It is also equipped with automatic plate loaders, auto washup and the KBA Densitronic S closed-loop scanning spectrodensitometer. “Thanks to the amazing automation, we’re putting more jobs through the KBA Rapida 105 than any of our other presses,” Silsbee says. “We

PAUL ROTHSTEIN was selling thermal copy paper (remember that stuff?) out of the back of a borrowed car in 1973. In a former life, he had been a business machine salesman, but suddenly realized that the “real” market was in consumable sales. Looking past the obvious (his traveling salesman selling-out-of-the-back-of-a-car routine), Rothstein saw that there was a growing demand for quality, customer-oriented, fast-turnaround printing. Shortly thereafter, Canton, MA-based Copytech was born. In those days, Copytech had a single one-color press and a desktop folder. If the press operator (one of three employees) called in sick, Rothstein had to run the press. Fortunately for him,