manroland Inc.

Anderson Lithograph's recent investments—which include a new eight-color MAN Roland web press, plus ongoing digital prepress and pressroom quality enhancements (Hint: Harris & Bruno's chambered doctor blade system)—are strengthening this high-end printer's profit and productivity margins. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO A LOOK at Anderson Lithograph, strictly from an equipment purchase standpoint, presents an interesting case study in the calculated risks and productivity merits associated with making the leap to new equipment investments. Anderson Lithograph, a high-end commercial printer situated in star-studded Los Angeles, is no stranger to leading, even bleeding, edge technology investments. As of last month, Anderson Lithograph became a part

BY ERIK CAGLE Shorter runs, longer runs, less waste, reduced makeready time, skilled labor shortages, increased automation—some of the biggest issues facing the commercial printers who use heatset web offset presses are also some of the oldest issues. They are issues constantly being addressed. It is a flourishing market, as some of the open web industry's manufacturing stalwarts now offer enhanced commercial models or are breaking into the heatset specialty for the first time. That gives the printer more variety of choices in both the quantity and quality departments. For the manufacturers already entrenched in the heatset web market, the quest is to answer

In an age of consolidation, Dome Printing—a $20 million, family run commercial printing operation servicing clients the caliber of Intel and Sutter Home—is a prime example of what good management, a clean production process and industrial-strength digital color proofing can do to retool a once-traditional printer. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Perfection is one word that must be very near and dear to the Poole family at Dome Printing. Family patriarch and president of Dome Printing, Ray Poole, and his three sons, Tim, Andy and Robert, operate the Sacramento, CA-based commercial printing facility. What makes Dome Printing unique? For one thing, the plant is

When sheetfed printer Spectrum Press expanded into web printing, business management tools helped ease the company's growing pains. BY DENNIS E. MASON Printers looking for a growth formula could do worse than take a page from the book of Roseland, NJ-based Spectrum Press, located just west of New York City. When President and CEO Matthew J. "Matt" Scott started Spectrum Press, he adopted a credo that he says accounts for the company's phenomenal growth: "Never say no to a customer!" According to Matt, "Price is important, but Spectrum Press is not a price leader. We offer higher quality and service than most other printers, but we win

CHEYENNE, WY—Vision Graphics, a 47-year-old commercial printer headquartered here, recently made headlines—twice. The first news was that the 65-employee company grew 41 percent in 1998, generating a total of almost $7 million in annual revenues. Vision Graphics also received publicity when it opened a new, 24,000-square-foot facility (expandable to 42,000 square feet), about 50 miles south of its headquarters, at Colorado's Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport. Officials reveal its increased growth meant the company needed another plant to keep up with its booming Rocky Mountain business. "A second plant will solidify the presence of Vision Graphics in Colorado and the surrounding states," says Mark

Commercial printers, trade shops, publishers and industry suppliers are banding together under the Graphics Century Project (GCP) umbrella to share critical information and find practical solutions concerning common Y2K problems. BY ERIK CAGLE (Editor's Note: This is the second in a year-long series of articles examining the Y2K problem as it applies to the commercial printing industry. This installment takes a look at the Graphics Century Project, an association-led effort to exchange knowledge.) Pat Maher will be one of the first to admit that the commercial printing industry falls short in the

CHICAGO—What were the odds that GRAPH EXPO 98 would be a Show of Shows—when the international spectacles that are IPEX and PRINT 97 captured the printing industry's collective practically within the same 12 month span, with IPEX in September and PRINT 97 the previous September? How about $108 million to one? If you're talking GRAPH EXPO and CONVERTING EXPO, that's not bad—that's the figure Heidelberg registered during GRAPH EXPO's four-day stay at McCormick Place here. Heidelberg's sales success was not singular. Scores of the show's more than 550 exhibitors reported GRAPH EXPO was a money maker. MAN Roland, for example, reported a

BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO As 1998 moves to a close, CIP3 moves closer to its mission: full digital integration of prepress to postpress production. Will it really fly? It's already soaring. AS 1998 posts its final days, the major technology players motivating the adoption of CIP3's Print Production Format (PPF) are forecasting that the international effort to digitize the print process from prepress to postpress stages is in store for a happy new year. The workflow vision of technology providers the likes of PDF's parent, Adobe, and imposition software developer Ultimate Technographics; prepress providers including Agfa, BARCO Graphics, Creo, Fujifilm, Scitex and Screen; hard

GRAPH EXPO 98 and CONVERTING EXPO 98 was a hot ticket—sales were robust, booth traffic was brisk, technology advancements fierce and cooperative announcements healthy. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Question pondered: Could GRAPH EXPO 98 be a "Show of Shows," when the international spectacles that were IPEX 98 and PRINT 97 captured the printing industry's collective practically within the same 12-month span, with IPEX in September and PRINT 97 the previous September? Does $108 million answer that? That's the figure Heidelberg reported it registered during the show's four-day tour of Chicago's McCormick Place recently. Heidelberg's success was not singular. Scores of the show's more than

Existing in a market that's changing almost as rapidly as is the market of its competitive counterpart, today's imagesetter is showing that delivering PDF performance and end-to-end productivity isn't purely the direction of the digital platesetter. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO With all the talk about the digital platesetter, the imagesetter is often overlooked. Should an investment even be made in an imagesetter when so much enthusiasm and technology are being placed in the conventional and thermal CTP direction? Does the imagesetter still remain a staple, smart investment for prepress environments poised for eventual full-tilt digital workflows? Make no mistake. The answer is YES. Imagesetting