Sun Chemical

BY ERIK CAGLE Mora, Minnesota—population 2,500—is as obscure as any town in America. Boasting predominantly farm land, it may seem an eternity away from the excitement of the big city for someone who calls Mora home. A. Oscar Carlson grew up there with his six brothers and parents on a dairy farm. Such an existence is not a way of life; it is life. From before the time the sun rises to a point beyond sunset, Carlson and his family knew what work had to be done. Something always had to be done, which didn't leave a lot of time for daydreaming about

DRUPA 1995 was the beginning of the thermal computer-to-plate frenzy. Leading the charge: Creo and Kodak. Five years later, new platesetting initiatives are poised for DRUPA 2000. What digital platesetters will be announced at DRUPA 2000? Dusseldorf, Germany, holds the answers. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO At DRUPA 1995, a tiny Creo Products—tiny compared with the CTP giants Linotype-Hell, Gerber and Scitex— touted the production and workflow merits of thermal CTP for commercial printing. Creo's message was all thermal. Kodak consumables were Creo's enabling technology, bridging Creo's thermal output engines with the digital plate production demands of the average commercial printer. Who didn't take

There's more to this critical printing ingredient than what comes in the can—tons of trust, good communication, lots of technical support, a competitive price and, of course, quality. BY CHERYL A. ADAMS Ink isn't just ink. One size doesn't fit all. Otherwise, there wouldn't be thousands of formulations—each with its own set of requirements, which may vary depending on the type of press, printing process, product and substrate used, as well as the product's end use and the environment in which it will be used. With so many applications and different ink formulations, how does a printer know which ink to buy? Which is

When John E. Spenlinhauer Jr. passed away, the competition said Spencer Press was finished. John E. Spenlinhauer III proved the competition wrong. BY JERRY JANDA In May of 1972, Spencer Press, then a sheetfed operation, took its first step into the world of web offset with the installation of a Heidelberg Harris M-1000A press. For John E. Spenlinhauer III—chairman, CEO and the driving force behind Spencer's equipment investments—it was a pivotal moment. He realized his Hingham, MA-based company needed web equipment to remain in business. "There was not a full-size web in the metropolitan Boston area," Spenlinhauer says, "and there was a lot of

At Graph Expo and Converting Expo later this month, Kodak Polychrome Graphics—the joint venture of Eastman Kodak and Sun Chemical—will showcase a new product, its first major launch since the company's inception. The device is the Kodak Approval XP4 digital halftone proofer. Recently, Jeff Jacobson, president of Kodak Polychrome Graphics, U.S. and Canada, met with Printing Impressions to share his thoughts on the company's aggressive positioning in the digital halftone proofing market, the direction the now-established joint venture is heading from a technology and marketing standpoint, and why he absolutely can't tolerate the annoying acronym that often plagues this young company. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Getting

Environmentally speaking, what's hot in inks? The EPA—hot on the trail of compliance offenders. But commercial printers cited for noncompliance need not join the much-dreaded "Environmental 4-H Club"—hazardous (as in waste), havoc (as in scrambling for compliance), helpless (the feeling of ineffective scrambling) and hell-to-pay (the cost of noncompliance). With hundreds of Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) listed by the EPA—and even more listed at the state level—it's easy to see why printers are feeling suffocated by the growing compliance haze. This controversial issue, like the color of polluted air, is gray, on the best of days. "The first line