Heidelberg

Finishing gear filled a few halls at DRUPA, with computerized integration more prevalent than ever before. BY BOB NEUBAUER Computers have integrated themselves into the postpress world more than ever. From monitoring machine functions to linking with digital workflows, the latest bindery equipment is smarter than ever. Take Heidelberg's Stitchmaster ST 400, shown in its immense finishing area at DRUPA. Data generated at the impositioning stage of the prepress process can be loaded into the ST 400's press-setting program. Also, feeding, gathering, stitching and cutting are all monitored to prevent time-consuming jams. Here are some of the highlights from the show. MBO demonstrated the new Navigator Control-Touch and

This is the column where I announce the winners in the sales letter contest that I announced in my January column. But first, 'scuse me while I do my old man aerobics exercises. I'm trying to burn off some calories. I've put this fat old body on a 1,500 calorie-per-day diet and I'm going to keep losing weight until you all:

The stakes are high and the iron-producing players are few in the world of 40˝ and larger sheetfed presses. Today, manufacturers are looking at what printers want in a press tomorrow. BY ERIK CAGLE The crystal ball is working overtime at manufacturing facilities around the world. While you make your way at DRUPA 2000 through the hundreds of thousands of people cramming the aisles of the 18 buildings at Messe Dusseldorf, the R&D people, the tech heads and marketing gurus are looking past the present. They're thinking DRUPA 2004. Phrases float through their brains: increased automation, but what's left on the press?...what is the

Job tickets—which have been around since Gutenberg, if only in an elementary form—have evolved from handwritten envelopes to computerized, customized, global documents. In the new millennium, that evolution continues as job tickets are transformed from mere digital versions of their paper-based predecessors to virtual windows in the production process. BY CHERYL A. ADAMS "Our crystal ball indicates that, not only will print buying on the Internet become widespread, but also, in many cases, the management systems that the printer uses [such as those for electronic job ticketing applications] will be run totally over the Internet, as well," says Carol Andersen, president of Micro

On the bill for DRUPA 2000 are a virtual army of new imagesetters, a variety of digital platesetters, plus PDF tools, new thermal consumables and scanning systems galore. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO It seems almost ironic that, after DRUPA 1995 called for the prepress industry to move its collective reasoning away from film-based environments and toward the promise of thermal CTP, that DRUPA 2000 would arrive, after much anticipation and press attention, and tout almost the opposite. Film is not dead. Imagesetters are still hot technologies. Guess what, so are platesetting devices for conventional and thermal CTP; so are new digital proofers; and so

Digital printing is finally well beyond concept acceptance, as On Demand proved last month. New moves in on-press imaging and color server technologies—and the Internet—are delivering on the promise of digital printing. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Given the impossible-to-ignore high velocity of the Internet as it targets multiple areas of the print production process lately, it is no surprise that the Internet is also targeting the time-sensitive profit center that is on-demand digital printing. True to current form, the dotcom emphasis at On Demand in New York was staggering, but not surprising—new online solutions for on-demand document fulfillment, new Internet tools for

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.

ARLINGTON, TX—The Imaging Bureau, a 29-employee shop based here that handles film output, ink-jet posters, digital and commercial printing, currently rents a 10,000-square-foot space. By the end of the year, however, that's all going to change if Brian Walden gets his way. "Our plan is to build a 50,000-square-foot building in Arlington that will include the new web press and require hiring 15 to 20 additional employees," says Walden, who started the company as a one-man operation eight years ago. The firm, which already runs a five-color Heidelberg sheetfed press, plans to add an eight-unit Heidelberg M-110 with double folder and UV coater.

BY DENNIS E. MASON A search for a modern printing company is not likely to begin in Columbia, SC. But it should end there, with Crowson Stone Printing. Founded in 1923 as Crowson Printing, Crowson Stone became the state's first offset printer in the 1950s. Still a family operation, it is led by John K. deLoach III, the third generation on the Stone side of the business. The 50 Crowson Stone employees generate annual sales of nearly $6 million. deLoach experienced other sides of business before taking the reigns of the family print shop, including earning a degree in business and finance. He then

The graphic arts world shifts its attention to Dusseldorf for the World Series of Printing. For some manufacturers, it's a coming-out party for new heatset web offset press hardware. BY ERIK CAGLE Don't worry, it's not too late to book a hotel within a half-hour commute of Dusseldorf for May's DRUPA 2000 exhibition. Should nothing be available, there's always nearby Brussels or Amsterdam. Yes, when it comes to attending the world's foremost ink-on-paper (et al) exhibition, early planning is absolutely necessary. The same can definitely be said for the many manufacturers, technology providers and assorted vendors that will be displaying their goods and