Xerox Corp.

Commercial printing industry supplier company and personnel news from Printing Impressions' October 2010 edition.

Xerox will now market, sell or lease and service the system that prints, binds and trims bookstore-quality paperbacks with color covers in minutes. It's also providing the new ProfitAccelerator Espresso Book Machine Essentials Kit, which provides an overview of the on-demand publishing market and how the system can be leveraged to drive business.

No sooner did news break that Larry Summers would step down as director of the National Economic Council than speculation began on his successor. White House aides hinted they wanted a prominent corporate executive. Anne Mulcahy, who led a painful turnaround at Xerox, was soon being named as the top candidate to fill Summers' shoes.

The speculation was fed by reports of Mulcahy dining with White House advisor Valerie Jarrett last week. And even before the announcement of Summers' departure, according to a former Obama administration advisor, Mulcahy was being considered as a potential addition to the White House's

Global graphic communications companies report that the presses’ optional clear dry ink, which puts a clear layer on images and text, quickly has become a competitive advantage. The feature highlights images or text, draws attention to headlines or variable content and applies digital watermarks for artistic effect or security purposes.

Xerox will host a special marketing keynote at GRAPH EXPO 2010, featuring stories of marketing transformation and digital marketing successes. Bo Jackson, former football and baseball star and current entrepreneur, will discuss how to reinvent a brand to stay relevant.

PDF/VT enables reliable document exchange for variable data and transactional printing. It uses the Portable Document Format (PDF) based on the existing ISO PDF/X-4 and PDF/X-5 standards and will simplify VDP printing in a range of environments, from desktop printers to digital production presses.

To expand its customized, on-demand publishing capabilities, VISOgraphic turned to the Océ VarioPrint 6000 Ultra line of cutsheet printers. As a result, it can now help clients control inventory and waste, while still maintaining the look of offset-quality output. The company expects to run tens of thousands of documents, including applications like short-run books, and static, variable and on-demand collateral.

"Most recently BCT Houston has added a Sakurai six tower press with in-line aqueous coating. They have also added a Canon imagePRESS C7000," stated Ben Fretti, Senior Vice President. Plants in Des Moines, IA; Tempe, AZ; Chicago and San Antonio, TX have all added half-sheet presses and Canon or Xerox digital color capabilities to their existing four-color offset capabilities.

For the most part, coated and uncoated offset papers run reasonably well on toner-based digital systems but, with inkjet, it's a whole different ball game. Inkjet inks have a high water content, and tend to soak into uncoated papers or sit up on coated papers where they may smear.

The first step is to determine what you want to accomplish with a print e-commerce offering. Think of it as a needs assessment for your shop, but, more importantly, for your customers. Would it make your clients' lives easier to be able to order print projects on a self-service basis (that's ultimately what most consumer-based, e-commerce stores offer)?