PTI Marketing Technologies

SOLANA BEACH, CA—August 29, 2007—Printable Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of Integrated Marketing, Web to Print, and Personalized Direct Marketing Solutions will be demonstrating six new and enhanced products in multiple booths at Graph Expo 2007, McCormick Place, Chicago, IL, from Sunday, September 9, through Wednesday, September 13. Solutions from Printable Technologies can be found in the following booths: FusionPro® VDP and Web to Print solutions will be demonstrated by HP (Booth #1229) and Canon (Booth #2400). A FusionPro Web integration with ePace Print MIS will be presented by Pace Systems Group (Booth #4807). EFI will be showing the Digital Storefront powered by FusionPro Server (Booth #3000). FusionPro

Group Visits KBA’s German Head­quarters RADEBEUL, GERMANY—KBA North America invited a select number of U.S. and Canadian printers, as well as industry journalists, to visit its headquarters and sheetfed press manufacturing facility here recently. The group was treated to a behind-the-scenes look at the factory assembly hall; the R&D facility; product demonstrations on the new-generation, 41˝ Rapida 105 five-over-five perfector press and the large-format, 56˝ Rapida 142 four-over-four perfector; and visits to several area printers that are utilizing KBA presses in sophisticated markets. Time was also spent sightseeing in Dresden and Leipzig. “Our open house in Germany provided printers with an in-depth education on

Viewing On Demand BOSTON—Changing locations continues to be part of the story from the On Demand Conference & Expo, which last month completed its 2007 run at the (nearly) new Boston Convention & Exposition Center (opened in 2004). The event first moved from its long-standing home in New York City to Philadelphia for a two-year stint and now on to Boston through 2008. Close to 200 exhibitors had booths in the On Demand portion of the show floor, which the event continues to share with the AIIM Expo. New, or at least now commercialized, color printing systems added up to the largest category

MAN Roland Hosts Printers for Press Premier OFFENBACH, GERMANY—The world premier of a “next generation” sheetfed printing platform isn’t an everyday occurrence, so MAN Roland extended its recent festivities to more than a week to allow for bringing in several groups of select printers, journalists and its own employees from around the globe. The stars of the show were HiPrint and DirectDrive versions of the new Roland 700 sheetfed printing platform. To make the most of the trip, the contingent from North America was additionally treated to tours of a local DirectDrive beta site, MAN Roland’s foundry and its manufacturing/assembly facilities for sheetfed presses.

Cal Poly Dedicates New Sheetfed Press SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA—Cal Poly’s Graphic Communication Department received the donation of a new Heidelberg four-color Speedmaster CD 74 press to commemorate the 60th anniversary of its establishment. The perfecting press with anilox coater and Prinect system—which was a gift from Heidelberg USA—will introduce the newest sheetfed technology to Cal Poly students, said Harvey Levenson, head of the department. It will be used in sheetfed printing classes and as part of the department’s student-run company, University Graphic Systems (UGS). To better serve the graphic communications market, sales training consultancy 2WIN! Global has entered into a business

Open House Event Touts By-the-Book Production HAUPPAUGE, NY—Muller Martini and Nipson recently teamed up to host an open house at Muller Martini’s headquarters on Long Island. The theme for the day was short-run book production using the latest on-demand digital printing and finishing technology. “We see 2007 as a transitional year for digital print manufacturing, during which the industry will fully realize what on-demand technologies are capable of,” noted Robert Stabler, of Nipson America. “The short-run book market will grow very strongly.” According to Stabler, book publishers gain a number of benefits from being able to print lower quantities with digital technology. These include

LAS VEGAS— March 28, 2007—The Monte Carlo Resort and Casino, Las Vegas, was the site of the Printable Technologies®, Inc., 2007 User Conference, March 14-16, 2007. Printable Technologies, leading provider of Web to Print workflow and Variable Data Printing (VDP) solutions and Software as a Service (SaaS), and six co-sponsors hosted 170 participants. The event - built around the theme “New Power/New Possibilities” - was kicked off by Andrew Paparozzi, NAPL Vice President and Chief Economist. Special interest learning opportunities included “Cross Media and Direct Marketing ROI” with Steve Tingiris, President/CEO of ProspectSmarter; “Database Cleansing and Manipulation” with Professor John Leininger of Clemson University; and

FROM THE workflow and business standpoints, there’s becoming less of a need to make a distinction between digital and offset printing. New tools are bringing together the formally divided file processing paths, and digital devices are becoming standard equipment for more offset shops. With concerns about quality largely assuaged, it’s all becoming just printing under one service umbrella. The one exception is variable data printing, which remains somewhat of a special case from a production standpoint due to the processing required to integrate content from databases. The market that Western Graphics, St. Paul, MN, is targeting with all of its services (digital or offset)

Ryobi Plans Third Press Manufacturing Facility HIROSHIMA, JAPAN—Driven by strong U.S. and worldwide demand for mid-size offset printing presses, Ryobi Graphic Systems began construction on a new press manufacturing facility this month. The new facility will be the third at Ryobi’s Hiroshima East central production center. Ryobi officials said the newest facility, Hiroshima East Plant 3, will be at full-scale operations in September 2007. It will add another 99,000 square feet of manufacturing space and represents a total expected investment of $27 million. When the third facility is completed, Ryobi will have 314,000 square feet at its Hiroshima East operations, more than double

IT MAY be telling that, with a few exceptions, the presses in operation around the show floor of Graph Expo and Converting Expo 2006 were of the digital variety. Offset units were conspicuous in their absence. Digital presses largely have become part of the commercial printing mainstream, rather than being a specialty product segment or market niche. The exhibition’s Wide Format Pavilion showed ongoing interest in that segment, but adding a wide, large, superwide or grand format digital system still is seen as a way to diversify rather than being standard equipment. Hewlett-Packard shared results from an InfoTrends study that surveyed a sampling