Pantone LLC

The companies will unveil new technologies and showcase their latest line of print and prepress color management solution.

NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies has awarded its Harold W. Gegenheimer Individual and Corporate Awards for Industry Service to Dr. Juergen J. Stolt and Burgess Industries, respectively.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI—October 2nd, 2008—X-Rite, Inc. (NASDAQ: XRIT), the world leader in color management, measurement and communication technologies, today announced the immediate availability of the latest version of IntelliTrax, the printing industry’s fastest automated color management scanning solution for press-side color control. The new version (v. 1.5) now supports the G7® proof-to-print process control, ISO (International Organization for Standardization) defined targets, the next generation of CxF (Color Exchange Format), the universal file format for color communication, and the new PANTONE Goe digital libraries, featuring 2,058  new colors.

CHICAGO—September 9—A unique PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM Color Reference Book for digital print gives marketers, designers and printers added confidence in the color capabilities of KODAK NEXPRESS Digital Production Color Presses. The PANTONE® Color Reference book for NEXPRESS Digital Production Color Presses compares actual PANTONE Colors on a gloss coated, neutral white substrate (this is the same paper on which Pantone prints its industry standard guides)—printed by Pantone on the left side of the page—with the same colors simulated by a NEXPRESS Digital Production Color Press printed by Kodak on the right side of the page, in a true side by side comparison. “The KODAK

PERHAPS THERE is nothing as pervasive in the printing industry as the familiar PANTONE Color guide books. We often live and die by our ability to match specific PANTONE Matching System (PMS) colors, and these 1,114 colors have been the standard in our industry for 45 years. I’ve spent a fair amount of time talking about Pantone in this space, and how we can differentiate ourselves with customers by leveraging our color expertise. Now there is something new to learn and benefit from. After 45 years, Pantone is introducing a brand-new color specification system for the graphic arts industry called PANTONE Goe (pronouned Go).

GRAND RAPIDS, MI—Color management solutions provider X-Rite Inc. has struck a deal to obtain Pantone Inc. for $180 million. The deal is expected to close this fall.Pantone, based in Carlstadt, NJ, is known for its Pantone Matching System, which identifies, matches and communicates colors to solve reproduction problems in the graphic arts market. The company…

In February, I talked a bit about how print service providers could use their color expertise as a marketing tool. Although I am not a color expert or a graphic designer, I do love the way colors work with each (or, hate it when they don’t). In my spare time, when I am not writing columns for Printing Impressions, I am also a fiber artist, weaving, spinning and doing needlework. So, because of my dual interest in the craft of printing and the craft of fiber arts, I like to keep my eye on the latest color trends. You would think that with all of

Ovalstrapping Inc., manufacturer of strapping equipment and strap, announces the retirement of Jack White as president, concluding a 49-year career. David Lamb will assume the presidency. Lamb has been a member of the board of directors of Ovalstrapping for more than 10 years. As a distributor of pressroom automation, IMC America has agreed to represent two suppliers of press delivery equipment. IMC has signed an agreement with RECMI Industrie, manufacturers of fully automatic horizontal stacker/bundlers, rotary trimmers, overhead conveyors and palletizing systems. In addition, IMC will represent semi-automatic stacking systems and robotics designed and built by Penn Graphics. Kolbus America announced it is

NEW YORK—It took two years for consolidation to transform the commercial printing sector, it has taken two months of consolidation to transform the printing equipment supplier sector, and in a remarkably swift series of moves, it has taken scarcely two weeks for consolidation to transform the paper market. In mid-February, the low share prices of paper companies, as well as the usual quest to expand markets and raw material sources, drove a series of mergers and acquisitions in the paper and forest products industry—moves that will have a broad impact on commercial printers, for whom paper products are a primary cost center. Among the recent moves: