Eastman Kodak

BY ERIK CAGLE Truth be known, San Ramon, CA-based K/P Corp. is a mom-and-pop printing organization that grew legs. Really, really big legs. Founded in Salem, OR, in 1929 as Unruh-Knapp Printing, the company became known as Knapp Printing in 1963 and, later, K/P Corp. It quickly became a staple of the Northwest printing landscape as it expanded into Utah and California. Operations expanded to include direct mail services in 1982, fulfillment capabilities in 1993 and full-color digital imaging in 1994. K/P has since complemented its arsenal with a full barrage of Internet capabilities. A massive growth spurt this year saw the company

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

CHICAGO—Once again, Graph Expo and Converting Expo will play host to the annual Gold Ink Printing Awards & Hall of Fame Gala on Sept. 25th. This year's inductees to the Printing Impressions/RIT Printing Industry Hall of Fame are: David H. Bracken, president and CEO, Press of Ohio, Brimfield, OH; A. Oscar Carlson, chairman and CEO, American Spirit Graphics, Minneapolis; John J. Frautschi, chairman, Webcrafters Inc., Madison, WI; and Frank Stillo, chairman and CEO, Sandy Alexander, Clifton, NJ. The inductees to the Publishing & Production Executive Hall of Fame include: Michael Arpino, director, manufacturing and distribution, at Condé Nast; Carmine Catena, senior VP/director at Hill/Holliday; Richard Koplitz, senior VP, global sourcing,

Tom Tran arrived in the United States in 1975—broke and alone. Today, he owns a successful printing operation in the Silicon Valley. BY CAROLINE MILLER Tom Tran's story is the very definition of an American dream. It is the story of a penniless refugee who finds his way to America and, through sheer determination, hard work and a little bit of luck, builds his fortune. It is a story many people have come to regard as myth and legend. But Tom Tran has proven that legends do exist. Today, Tran is the owner of Citation Press, a $6.5 million company located in Santa

It is increasingly difficult to find major vendors that have not jumped onto the XML bandwagon. Adobe, Agfa, Heidelberg and MAN Roland have teamed up to develop the Job Definition Format (JDF) using XML, while CreoScitex and Quark are both building XML-based applications to drive their own systems. In the e-commerce space, printCafe, PrintTalk—a nascent group of firms—and others are building transaction and supply chain management systems based on eXtensible Markup Language. Not to be left out, the on-demand group PODI has published a specification called PPML—Personalized Print Markup Language—based on this spec, and still another industry initiative, called the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP),

BY CHERYL A. ADAMS In the great digital plate debate, the stakes are high, competition is fierce and expert opinions are numerous . . . "Thermal is dead!" "Visible light will fade away!" "Polyester is taboo!" "Blue laser diode isn't a technological breakthrough, it's a setback!" "Anything but silverless UV CTP is economically unsound!" When the dust settles, which consumables (and related technologies) will be left standing? Which ones will not only survive, but thrive in a future where print will compete with other media channels and other digital printing options, such as distribute-and-print, and the Internet? As more commercial printers address the transition

With NexPress 2100 unveiled, Heidelberg ready for the Xerox challenge, Indigo and Xeikon bolstered, Screen showing intent, Presstek enabling on-press imaging for Adast, Ryobi, Sakurai and soon Didde—and more manufacturers, not the least of which is MAN Roland, targeting full-production digital—there is a new zest to digital printing. It ain't just about on-demand any more . . . BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Say goodbye to on-demand digital printing—at least the on-demand part. It is now June 2000, the much hyped DRUPA 2000 is over and the digital production color press is an emerging force to be taken very seriously by even the most

David Steinhardt has built a 17-year career on being what he terms a professional outsider—having worked for four industry associations. Today, Steinhardt is vice president of industry relations at PrintNation.com. He's now an Internet insider. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO David Steinhardt was an outsider—if you consider being knee-deep in association work and issues the definition of outside the actual nuts-and-bolts of the printing industry. Interesting. What if the definition of inside the commercial printing industry also meant being an insider at an emerging Internet company, serving the equipment, production and business needs of the commercial printing industry? This is Steinhardt today. Certainly,

While this cutting-edge technology offers the promise of "speed without compromise," some reluctant customers (who are uncomfortable with the electronic concept) fear that the digital proofing promise is simply too good to be true. How, then, do commercial printers convince them otherwise? BY CHERYL A. ADAMS "Have you looked at a National Geographic that was printed in 1980? Looks great doesn't it, just like today's issue? Only the 2000 issue was produced in a fraction of the time—without compromise in quality and from a source of information that is vast," says John Bassett, director of sales and marketing at Scholin Brothers Printing in

DRUPA 1995 was the beginning of the thermal computer-to-plate frenzy. Leading the charge: Creo and Kodak. Five years later, new platesetting initiatives are poised for DRUPA 2000. What digital platesetters will be announced at DRUPA 2000? Dusseldorf, Germany, holds the answers. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO At DRUPA 1995, a tiny Creo Products—tiny compared with the CTP giants Linotype-Hell, Gerber and Scitex— touted the production and workflow merits of thermal CTP for commercial printing. Creo's message was all thermal. Kodak consumables were Creo's enabling technology, bridging Creo's thermal output engines with the digital plate production demands of the average commercial printer. Who didn't take