manroland Inc.

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor It’s been more than a decade since the first high-volume, modern digital color printing systems were introduced. Heidelberg and Presstek teamed up to launch the digital offset (GTO DI, in this case) product category in 1991. A few years later, the Indigo EPrint and Agfa/Xeikon Chromapress ushered in the era of the all-digital production color printing systems. In the future, though, 2004 may be looked back upon as a key transition period in the maturation of digital printing as a business segment—both on the vendor and user side. No fundamentally new technologies were unveiled, but all the vendors

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor There were no mysterious bulges, but maybe the occasional exacerbated expression and a testy moment or two during "The Great Debate: JDF—Reality or Hype?" session at Executive Outlook 2004 in Chicago. This "debate" between Frank Romano, industry consultant and Professor Emeritus at Rochester Institute of Technology, and James Harvey, executive director of CIP4, actually started with an exchange of opinion pieces published by OnDemandJournal.com. As entertaining as these exchanges have been, Harvey says he's not interested in repeating the debate since the questions have been asked and answered. He sees more value in the industry moving on to discussing

Bruno, 94, Lithographic Pioneer CHICAGO—Mike Bruno, 94, whose research, knowledge and innovations proved to be a catalyst for the viability of lithographic printing, passed away in January. Mr. Bruno was involved with the Lithographic Technical Foundation (later the GATF) and joined International Paper in a senior capacity, where he edited the "Pocket Pal" printing educational resource. He also published a newsletter, "What New(s) in Graphic Communications," for 25 years. His autobiography, "Mike Bruno's History of Printing in the 20th Century," will be published in 2006. Quad Bolstering Hartford Plant HARTFORD, WI—Quad/Graphics is constructing a 161,416-square-foot addition to its plant here, a move that will provide 1.5 million

American Loose Leaf has appointed Cindy Stevenson as the new production manager for its St. Louis facility. Stevenson has more than 30 years of experience in the ring binder industry and has been with American Loose Leaf for 20 years. John MacKay has acquired all outstanding shares of Feuiltault Machinery from its founder, Martin Feuiltault. Mr. Feuiltault will remain with the company as a member of the company's technological orientation committee. MacKay will assume the position of president. International Paper's 2005 Best on Press Awards will feature $14,000 in prizes to 21 winners. Work printed on IP brands during the 2004 calendar year is eligible for

california RIVERSIDE—Daily newspaper The Press-Enterprise has installed a Goss Magnapak packaging system with 42 stations and dual delivery capability. The system also utilizes an integrated MultiDisc winder/unwinder storage system from Ferag and Packman stackers from Quipp. Omnizone supervisory and downstream software bundle controls were supplied with the Magnapak system. colorado GRAND JUNCTION—Colorado Printing has been using EFI PrinterSite Internal integrated with EFI Hagen OA to realize increased efficiency and reduced operating costs. PrinterSite Internal provides field sales personnel and customer service reps with secure, direct access to submit quote requests and obtain job status data. florida Panama City—Freedom Communications' Florida division has ordered

OAKDALE, PA—Sheetfed and half-web printer Knepper Press has begun installation of a 10-color MAN Roland 700 perfecting press. In order to accommodate the new hardware, the suburban Pittsburgh company expanded its production facility by 10,000 square feet. The press will complement three half-webs and a sheetfed unit, among them a six-color, 41˝ Roland 700 and a 29˝ Roland 300, both with in-line coaters. The general commercial and publication printer chose a five-over-five perfecting configuration as a way to build business. The press' 12,000 sph perfecting capabilities, in a single pass, enables Knepper to vie for short-run publication work against competitors doing those jobs on

At Graph Expo, Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG) donated a Kodak Approval NX digital color imaging system to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). David Hohman has been appointed vice president and general manager of Rycoline, a manufacturer of printing supplies based in Chicago. Rycoline was recently acquired by Sun Chemical. Hohman has been with Sun Chemical for 13 years, serving in operations management. John Strottner has joined Akiyama International as regional sales manager. He will be based at the company's Cerritos, CA, headquarters. Baldwin Technology announced that Mark Becker and Gerald Nathe were re-elected to the company's board of directors. Also, Takayuki Miyaoku was elected as

Trade Show Takes a Digital Direction MIAMI BEACH—Graphics of the Americas, the annual international graphic communications education and exhibit showplace running from February 4-6 at the Miami Beach Convention Center, will feature a new, more digitally focused program for its 2005 event. The Printing Association of Florida, the organizers of the show, have announced the addition of the “JDF in Action” pavilion to its annual event. The pavilion, a combination of a dedicated presentation theater and exhibits, will feature three days of multi-vendor presentations and hands-on demonstrations designed to provide attendees with a clear understanding of the emerging standard. The JDF in Action

In the not-so-distant past, it was easy to look at small- and medium-format sheetfed offset presses (29˝ and smaller) as the less-coordinated sibling to large-format units. While small-format machines could print with similar quality, they lacked some of the automated features and bells and whistles of their larger counterparts. Today’s generation of smaller-format presses refuse to be overshadowed—most features offered on large-format presses are now available on smaller machines. “For the past few years, equipment manufacturers of sheetfed presses have been adding the same automation that can be found on their larger 40˝ presses to their mid-size and smaller sheetfed presses,” says Thomas Goecke,

by chris bauer Managing Editor Merger and acquisition activity. Monster trade shows. New faces in high places. The luck of the draw. It all adds up to just another year in the commercial printing industry. Let's take a look back at how the year 2004 played out, and who made headlines during the past 12 months. The year started out on shaky ground for the industry, with rumors that Heidelberg planned to sell off its web systems business and digital printing division, as well as reduce its worldwide work force by up to 1,000 employees. Eventually, the whispers became a reality as the other players in these