Flint Group

BY CLINT BOLTE More than 650 vendors were represented in 575 exhibits covering 480,000 net square feet at Chicago's McCormick Place. Only a fraction of the estimated 46,000 in attendance at Graph Expo and Converting Expo 2000 were at DRUPA last May. But those that were may have been startled at the changes and progress of a number of the vendors in only a matter of months. Vendor coalitions, even among competitors, was the clear theme of this, North America's largest graphic communications trade exposition. The initial half dozen e-commerce hubs created much of last year's Graph Expo stir. The e-commerce caldron continues

Valassis Communications is the coupon guru, the originator of the free-standing insert—that four-color coupon booklet, which has become a household commodity, if not phenomenon, as a modern day, money-saving device. Now, it's revolutionizing the way consumers clip coupons by offering "virtual savings" online. BY CHERYL A. ADAMS If you've ever saved money with one of those Sunday newspaper coupons, chances are, you have Valassis Communications to thank. And you'll be even more thankful in the new millenium, when, beginning this year, Valassis is printing and distributing a record number (44 weeks!) of free-standing inserts (FSIs) in Sunday newspapers nationwide. And, that's not all.

WILSONVILLE, OR—The commercial printing industry's suppliers and manufacturers seem to have caught the merger and alliance fever sweeping the printer side of the business, with a number of major names announcing acquisitions and alliances in recent weeks. Notable among the announcements was Tektronix, which has reached an agreement to sell its Color Printing and Imaging Division to Xerox for $950 million. Xerox will set up a new business unit that adds Tektronix's color-printing technologies to Xerox's existing black-and-white workgroup printer offerings. Tektronix's color printer operations, with approximately 2,400 employees, will remain in this Portland suburb, and employees of the color printer division will become employees

There's more to this critical printing ingredient than what comes in the can—tons of trust, good communication, lots of technical support, a competitive price and, of course, quality. BY CHERYL A. ADAMS Ink isn't just ink. One size doesn't fit all. Otherwise, there wouldn't be thousands of formulations—each with its own set of requirements, which may vary depending on the type of press, printing process, product and substrate used, as well as the product's end use and the environment in which it will be used. With so many applications and different ink formulations, how does a printer know which ink to buy? Which is

Environmentally speaking, what's hot in inks? The EPA—hot on the trail of compliance offenders. But commercial printers cited for noncompliance need not join the much-dreaded "Environmental 4-H Club"—hazardous (as in waste), havoc (as in scrambling for compliance), helpless (the feeling of ineffective scrambling) and hell-to-pay (the cost of noncompliance). With hundreds of Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) listed by the EPA—and even more listed at the state level—it's easy to see why printers are feeling suffocated by the growing compliance haze. This controversial issue, like the color of polluted air, is gray, on the best of days. "The first line