Irish Printer May June 2017

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MJ Flood and Konica Minolta because not everything is black and white

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MAY/JUNE 2017 CONTENTS

04

News

13

Talking Technical

A round up of some of the latest news from the Irish print industry.

We take a look at some changes that will affect colour and output intents, PDF transparency, and halftones, following the recent publication of the new international standard for PDF.

14

Fespa Digital 2017

18

Exhibition

Cover Story In the wake of their successful technology demonstration day in the Red Cow Moran Hotel, Maev Martin talks to MJ Flood’s Phil Schueler and DBC Group’s Colm Paul about best sellers, market trends, and the outlook for print.

Fespa Digital 2017 proved that the large format sector still offers more business opportunities for print companies than most other areas of the print industry.

Irish Printer gives readers a taste of a fascinating exhibition at the National Print Museum, which showcases record covers designed and printed in Ireland from 1955 to 2017.

22

Packaging

26

Interview

28

What’s New in Print

Design & Print

Rory Dowling, Head of Packaging at Dún Laoghaire design studio Clickworks, on how they worked with leading print specialists to help new drinks Vegified and Deep RiverRock Relax and Revive to stand out from the crowd.

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Visitors to the Interpack exhibition (May 4th to 10th) in Düsseldorf learned how to better manage brand colour accuracy and consistency across the global supply chain.

Fine Print recently acquired the business of Prontaprint on Tara Street in Dublin city centre. Maev Martin talks to David Graham, Managing Director of Perigord Group and Fine Print, about future business plans and his take on the Irish market.

• Serialisation Software Secures Supply Chain • Paper for Perfectionists • New Swatch Book From Mondi

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2

EDITOR’S LETTER

last quarter). Concern that profit levels are insufficient to provide for sustained investment has now supplanted access to skilled labour as the third ranked concern. In addition, now that Article 50 has been triggered and the negotiation clock is ticking, survey respondents have become less confident regarding the outlook for the UK economy during the Brexit negotiation period.

Again, UK and Northern Ireland printers appear to share some of the same concerns as those in the Republic of Ireland, particularly when it comes to paper and board price increases. However, overcapacity is still an issue in the Irish print trade, despite the closure of so many print companies in recent years. Over capacity is ensuring that printers are subject to continuous price pressure and that pressure is accentuated by the ongoing paper price increases.

In fact, over capacity and paper and board price increases are making it very difficult for some print companies to maintain a viable business. That is why now, more than ever, continuous innovation and service diversification are required to ensure that the printers’ porfolio remains relevant, and competitive, in this digital and price sensitive age.

elcome to the May/June edition of Irish Printer magazine.

The latest ‘Printing Outlook’ survey published by the British Printing Industry Federation (BPIF) shows that 45% of printers increased output levels in the first quarter of 2017. A further 37% held output steady, while 18% experienced a decline in output. The survey is the most positive quarter one report for three years.

The BPIF survey also reveals that output and orders growth have, on balance, remained positive and that confidence in the general state of trade in the printing industry has continued to improve from the lows experienced in mid-2016. It appears that this state of relative confidence has also taken root in the printing industry in the Republic of Ireland. David Graham, Managing Director of Perigord Group and Fine Print (see Page 26), believes that confidence has returned to certain sectors of the industry.

When it came to the most voiced business concern among UK and Northern Ireland printers, competitors pricing below cost continued to be regarded as the biggest barrier to growth - this was selected by over four-fifths (81%) of respondents, up from 76% previously. Paper and board prices remained the second ranked concern - this was selected by 32% of respondents (down from 39%

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Maev Martin, Editor Email: maev.martin@ashvillemediagroup.com Tel: (01) 432 2271

THE TEAM Editor: Maev Martin Editorial Manager: Mary Connaughton Creative Director: Jane Matthews Design: Antoinette Sinclair Production Manager: Mary Connaughton Production: Claire Kiernan Printed by: Walsh Colour Print on Novatech Matt 150gsm supplied by Antalis Ireland.

Contact: Irish Printer, Ashville Media Group, Old Stone Building, Blackhall Green, Dublin 7 Tel: (01) 432 2200 Web: www.irishprinter.ie

All rights reserved. Every care has been taken to ensure that the information contained in this magazine is accurate. The publishers cannot, however, accept responsibility for errors or omissions. Reproduction by any means in whole or in part without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. © Ashville Media Group 2017. All discounts, promotions and competitions contained in this magazine are run independently of Irish Printer. The promoter/advertiser is responsible for honouring the prize.

ISSN 0790-2026

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING RATES TO CELEBRATE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE IRISH PRINT AWARDS MAY/JUNE 2017 || THE VOICE OF THE INDUSTRY || WWW.IRISHPRINTER.IE

JAN/FEB 2017 || THE VOICE OF THE INDUSTRY || WWW.IRISHPRINTER.IE

MARCH/APRIL 2017 || THE VOICE OF THE INDUSTRY || WWW.IRISHPRINTER.IE

MJ Flood and Konica Minolta because not everything is black and white

Discover the Konica Minolta advantage with MJ Flood Ireland

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ADVERTISE To celebrate the 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE IRISH PRINT AWARDS we are offering SPECIAL ADVERTISING RATES IN 2017 contact FIONA LARMON, Commercial Manager on 086 821 0203 or email fiona.larmon@ashvillemediagroup.com Advertise_2L_IP.indd 1

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TEN TOP STORIES

Walsh Graphics Opens Dublin Branch Cork-based Walsh Graphics have been enjoying positive feedback from customers since the official opening of their Dublin branch in the South City Business Park in April. “The open day itself was a huge success with customers from Dublin and beyond calling in to show their support,” says Managing Director Michael Walsh. “With over 50 visitors through the door before midday, and more until early evening, along with representatives from supplier partners, Ultima, Ritrama and Arlon, there was a great buzz throughout the day.” The modern showroom was officially opened by Rose Walsh, Michael’s mother.

Rose, alongside her late husband, John Walsh, set up Walsh Graphics back in 1993, and she is still an invaluable member of staff. The large showroom is laid out to showcase the product categories on offer, including sections for fixtures and fittings, LEDs, exhibition displays, heat press, vehicle wrapping, and sign making tools. “Our new facility is the ‘go to’ place for everything you need if you are in the signmaking, vehicle wrapping and display solutions industries,” says Michael. “Our aim is to offer our customers a facility where they can not only order and collect on the same day, but also see more of our product range, book a machine demo, or meet one of the team to discuss a project. Our new showroom and trade counter facilitates all of that.” The experienced sales team, headed by Sales Director Tom

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McIntyre, have over 75 years of combined experience in the printing and sign making business. The three day opening event for the trade took place from April 26th to 28th when the Walsh Graphics team and representatives from some of their brand partners were on hand to meet printers and sign makers. The official open day, on April 27th, also saw the Irish launch of the new Imprimo Eco160 wide format printer and there were demonstrations throughout the three days highlighting the attributes of the device.

MAIN IMAGE: Tom McIntyre (second from left) and Damian McGrath (far right) of Walsh Graphics showcase the Imprimo Eco 160 machine to customers at the opening of their Dublin office. ABOVE: Managing Director Michael Walsh at the Dublin office opening.

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TEN TOP STORIES

City Print Takes Delivery of New Heidelberg Folder

Postal Charges Put More Pressure on Print The Irish Printing Federation issued a statement on June 13th expressing its concern about the damaging effect that it believes the recent

City Print in Cork recently invested in a Stahfolder TH 82-P supplied by Heidelberg UK. “It is no use having presses that run at 14,000sph or 15,000sph and folders that operate at 8,000sph or 9,000sph,” says Michael Courtney, Sales Director of City Print. “We read about the new P series folder in the media and decided to investigate and have ordered a Stahlfolder TH 82-P.” The folder will replace a rival machine. What intrigued, and then persuaded, the Cork firm that this was the right choice of folder is that the shingle feed method slows down the mechanical speed of the folder, as well as increasing output. That means that the jobs it handles will be finished in an even more controlled way that protects the quality of work produced.

“We handle a high volume of bookwork and magazines and have one or two contracts each month where finishing creates a backlog,” says Michael. “When the folder arrives in June we will eliminate that and it will mean we can pitch for more work with tight deadlines with great confidence. In effect, it means three days’ work will be done in one.” City Print sent a manager and operator across to Brentford to review the folder at Heidelberg UK’s headquarters. “The team put a lot of effort into the demonstration and into ensuring that we knew exactly what the folder could do,” says Michael. “We took soundings from other suppliers, but once we had seen this Stahlfolder model in action it would have been hard for any other supplier to change our minds.” Founded in 1942, City Print employs 16 staff. It has an all Heidelberg pressroom, although to date its folding has not included Heidelberg equipment.

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) (Amendment) Act 2017 will have on the printing and postal industry. “As everyone is aware by now, An Post has dramatically increased postal charges without any regard to the impact that this may have on business,” says Eugene Healy, President, Irish Printing Federation. “An Post say this is so they can continue to deliver a ‘world class postal service.’ Postal volumes have been decreasing year-on-year due to electronic communication methods, which in themselves are being perceived as a cheaper way of communicating with a client base. I use the word perceived because this is debatable, as electronic methods carry costs which are not always as transparent as the cost of a stamp. Obviously, An Post are seeing volumes and revenues fall due to these alternative communication methods and have chosen to dramatically increase postal charges to offset this. In a normal business environment where this type of situation would happen you would see the business restructure and cut costs to match a changing market. They would not have the luxury of being able to charge more for their product, but then normal businesses do not have a monopoly on the market and would have to cope with competition. The outcome of these increases will only have the effect of reducing postal volumes further. Will we see An Post look for more increases to offset these further reductions and compound the situation even further? These increases will bring increasing pressure on a print industry which has already seen quite a significant number of companies close their doors over the last 10 years, and has experienced the impact of reduced hours and job losses. I would ask An Post to reconsider these increases and resort to a more normal business approach to cope with their changing landscape, as these increases can only further ensure that businesses that use the postal system will move to alternative methods.”

PICTURED: The Stahlfolder TH 82-P shingle feeder supplied by Heidelberg UK.

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TEN TOP STORIES

McGowans Installs World’s 2nd EFI Nozomi Press In July of this year, McGowans Print will take delivery of the Nozomi C18000, a revolutionary single-pass inkjet press that will change the print industry, not just in Ireland, but worldwide. The EFI press is capable of print speeds of 75 linear metres per minute, producing up to 7,224 square metres per hour, on substrates up to 1.8 metres wide.

Digital print has long eliminated the need for up-front makeready, plates, storage, ink mixing and all the associated labour costs, but now, with the addition of single-pass, LED, digital drop-on-demand, piezo inkjet technology, digital speeds can match and exceed litho’s output.

The investment in the Nozomi C18000, McGowans largest investment to date, allows them to enter and compete in new markets, most notably packaging. Billed as a press for high speed, high quality, corrugated board production, the Nozomi is ideal for packaging and, according to owner Mal McGowan, “will eliminate the need for litho-laminate in the next two-to-three years.” McGowans have made huge inroads into the cardboard market in recent years, producing huge volumes of in-store POS material, including some award winning FSDUs, and the Nozomi will help consolidate and improve their position in the marketplace.

Mal describes the press and its technology as a “quantum leap” for large format print. “This is almost disruptive in the marketplace,” he says.

“It’s kind of frightening when you see it working, it works so fast, and the quality is unbelievable. We researched all the single-pass technology available for large format printing, and the EFI Nozomi press was the best in class by far for our applications.” With much of its business centred on high-quality display graphics applications, McGowans has existing demand for corrugated display work, and many current and potential clients who would also use the company for corrugated packaging as a way to migrate away from litho lamination processes that are not economical for short-to medium-run work. According to Mal, the new press, which will be McGowans Print’s first EFI inkjet product, “takes us to much longer runs and new markets that we cannot reach today with our existing digital printers.”

The installation is a first for Ireland and only the second in the world, with the first press launched in Spain in April. It is expected that McGowans machine will be in full production by April 2018.

McGowans Print’s new press is a breakthrough technology in the corrugated space, one that can make digital a cost-effective, profitable option for shortand medium-run production printing. It can print on materials from 14-point card stock to triple-wall board, including traditional Kemi, model, bleach and kraft materials, at full press-rated speeds. Additional features include: a 100% in-line image quality inspection system that actively manages and optimises

ABOVE: Mal McGowan (centre) with EFI’s Scott Schinlever and Paul Cripps. Photo credit: PrintWeek.

inkjet nozzle alignment and uniformity errors; production in up to seven colours, including white (standard CMYK with optional orange, violet and white ink stations) for output in resolutions up to 360x720 dots per inch with four-level greyscale imaging; a permanent head architecture; and a fully integrated, programmable top and bottom-feed system that also handles media separation, lift, transport and alignment at full press speeds.

EFI announced the upcoming Nozomi press installation at McGowans during Fespa 2017 in Hamburg. The advanced, new EFI Fiery digital front end (DFE) that McGowans Print is installing with the press utilises the fastest, mostadvanced EFI Fiery technology ever developed, providing a scalable, high volume workflow for high speed inkjet versioned, multi-SKU or personalised production applications. In addition to the new press and Fiery systems, McGowans also uses EFI software to drive its online web-to-print operations.

The Nozomi C18000.

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TEN TOP STORIES

Karl Byrne

Niall Fitzgerald

GPMI Strengthens Sales Team GPMI boosted its salesforce recently with the appointment of Niall Fitzgerald as Commercial Director and Karl Byrne as Senior Account Manager. Niall joined GPMI in February as Commercial Director with responsibility for the internal and external sales teams. His focus is on expanding the business across all areas of the industry, from commercial and digital print to packaging and consumables. Niall has experience in print management with InnerWorkings and commercial print with Business Print.

He also worked for Spectrum Print Logistics, and in the paper business as Sales Director with Contact Papers, Robert Horne and Matrix Papers. Formerly of Xeretec Ireland, Karl Byrne took up his new role as Senior Account Manager with GPMI in May, looking after customers in the west of Ireland. Karl brings more than 20 years’ experience in the print industry to his new position. GPMI are currently planning their second open house event since the acquisition of Reprocentre by GPMI. The dates are set for August 30th and 31st. “We are lining up a few surprises for the open house,” says Eoin Honan, Sales Director Equipment at GPMI. “We want to show something different, not just run another ‘me too’ event. For the first time, we will showcase a textile and dye sublimation printing solution based around the new Mimaki TS30-1300 printer and Monti Antonio fixation/calendering press, both launched at Fespa in May. We are also working hard on what would be another first - bringing a page wide waterfall technology printer to Ireland. This is still a work in progress, but if we can make it happen it will generate a lot of interest from various businesses in Ireland and it could be a game changer for the Irish print industry.”

Domino Wins European Digital Press Award For the second year running, Domino Digital Printing Solutions has won an award at the annual European Digital Press (EDP) Association Awards. This time their win was for the Domino K630i book block solution, which won the Book Printing Solution category award at the EDP Awards ceremony, which took place on May 10th during Fespa.

Bryan Palphreyman, Product Manager for the Domino K630i, was presented with the award and certificate by Michael Seidl, Managing Director at Print & Publishing Media Group in Vienna. The EDP Association represents 20 member magazines across Europe, covering 26 countries and reaching more than half a million readers in Europe.

The prestigious awards, which attracted more than 150 submissions, recognise innovation and quality in digital print, honouring the best new developments in print production tools, software developments, substrates, inks, materials and finishing systems. Officially launched at Hunkeler Innovation Days in February 2017, the modular solution was demonstrated converting paper rolls into high quality book blocks utilising Domino’s single engine duplex K630i ink jet printing press integrated with Hunkeler web processing equipment. “Within the book printing sector, there is a demand for flexible technology that not only facilitates high production output and is geared for rapid job change, but also minimises manning requirements and material waste,” says Bryan Palphreyman. “The compact size and small footprint of the Domino K630i press gives it the required flexibility and modularity to be easily integrated into existing web processing and finishing equipment, while its variable production speeds of up to 150m/min meets the high productivity required for printing in the book sector.”

The award-winning Domino K630i book block production machine.

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TEN TOP STORIES

Digital Advertising Increases Value and Recall Digital Out of Home (OOH) advertising increases recall. In a study measuring 18 different ads across both static and digital formats in different environments, results showed an eight per cent

Landa’s S10 nanographic printing press at drupa 2016.

increase in recall of Digital OOH formats. The research demonstrated that static OOH formats are particularly effective for delivering brand awareness. It also revealed that Digital OOH advertising brings additional reach to multiformat campaigns. The research, which was conducted by Kantar Millward Brown on behalf of Kinetic, was revealed on March 30th at ‘Moving Minds – Now and Next Technologies’. The event showcased the latest thinking in technology and media innovation from advertising industry experts across Ireland and the UK. In addition to using traditional research methods to measure Out of Home and Digital OOH effectiveness, Kinetic worked with Affectiva at M.I.T Boston’s Media Lab to conduct detailed research using facial coding to gauge the interaction of audiences with digital OOH advertisements. The bespoke research measured the effectiveness of digital OOH across retail and rail environments.

Media innovations that were discussed at the

Landa Begins Beta Press Roll-Out Landa has revealed its 2017 beta customer line-up. First shipment of the Landa S10 Nanographic Printing Press will take place in July 2017 to Graphica Bezalel, an Israel-based folding carton, packaging and label convertor. In November Landa will ship North America’s first Landa S10 Nanographic Printing Press to Imagine!, a US-based provider of POP solutions.

In December, Edelmann, a German-headquartered packaging company, will become the first European beta customer for the Landa S10. Edelmann, which specialises in packaging solutions for health care, beauty care and consumer brands, says that brands are actively looking to streamline their operations to remain lean and efficient, but not at the expense of product quality or price. “The Landa S10 delivers this,” says Oliver Sattel, Technical Director, Edelmann. “It removes the previous barriers of minimum order quantities with money tied-up in unnecessary printed stock and storage.

This represents unprecedented flexibility that will interest not only our customers’ procurement departments, but their creative teams too. We are confident that Landa is the right partner and that nanography is the only technology to deliver this capability.” Commenting on the global beta installations, Landa Chairman, Benny Landa says that the entrance of nanographic print into the commercial print market represents a “paradigm shift in print economics” and will “empower brands like never before.”

‘Moving Minds’ conference included the use of Drone technology in OOH, the use of eye-tracking technology on digital advertising screens to track age, gender and the moods of passers-by, what programmatic OOH might look like, the next steps for augmented reality, and how brands can use virtual reality as part of an integrated campaign.

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TEN TOP STORIES HP To Marshall Technology Armada for Print Show HP has become the latest major brand to commit to The Print Show this year and is set to bring a large cross section of its printing press technology. The show takes place from October 11th to 13th. This follows news that major finishing technology player Industria Meccanica Lombarda (IML) has partnered with Perfect Bindery Solutions to quadruple the size of the latter’s presence and take one of the biggest stands at the exhibition. HP and IML join the likes of Epson, KBA, Morgana, Kluge International, Premier Paper, B&R Moll, Intec, AXYZ International, Vivid Laminating Systems, and Grafityp as leading manufacturing names that have thrown their backing behind the show. HP caters for high-end commercial print applications with its Indigo presses, while also having a large market share in the wide-format inkjet technology sector with its Page Wide, Scitex, Latex, and Design Jet presses, so it will have an extensive array of equipment at the show. Steve Giddins, operations partner at Perfect Bindery Solutions, says that new systems from IML, which will be showcased at The Print Show, are going to change the way the short-run book production market works. The first new IML system is an automated single clamp, on-demand binding line that Giddins describes as “totally flexible”, adding, “Feeding can be by hand or in-line, glue application can be wheel-and-pot or nozzle, PUR or hot-melt, and, of course, it has milling, side-gluing and cover feeding for standard paperbacks, too. The system will be the ‘Holy Grail’ for commercial printers that want to produce as much as possible in-house - at the flick of a switch it can change over from conventional softback book production to perform end-papering and back-lining for book block production.”

PICTURED L-R: Tom Foley, Annuity & Services Manager, Ricoh Ireland, Gary Hopwood, General Manager, Ricoh Ireland, Caroline Flynn, Senior Play Specialist, Temple Street Children’s University Hospital, and James Lohan, Contracts & Procurement Manager, Temple Street Children’s University Hospital.

Ricoh Donates €175K to Temple Street Ricoh Ireland announced on April 18th that it had donated 44 nearly-new print and document

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management devices worth more than €175,000

then worked with its logistics provider, Cargocare, which agreed to transport

to Temple Street Children’s University Hospital,

the printers to Temple Street free of charge. Ricoh’s suite of devices replaces a

allowing the hospital to make significant savings.

wide range of 14-year-old disparate printers, which didn’t have the capabilities

The savings will now be redistributed within the

of modern document services technology. The devices are now being used across

overall hospital budget and can be used to fund

multiple key departments, including laboratories, operating theatres, radiology,

medical devices and equipment. The devices

wards, ICU and in the School of Nursing. Charts and records that were previously

include 33 from biotechnology company, Amgen.

in paper form can now be securely accessed by the hospital’s 1,400 doctors, nurses

Before delivery, Ricoh serviced the entire fleet,

and other clinical and non-clinical staff from any of the new devices. Departments

provided new parts as necessary, and fully tested

located in different parts of the hospital can also more effectively collaborate

the equipment to ensure optimum performance.

by sharing documents using the collaborative Ricoh technology. Following the

It also waived any revenues that could be won

installation of the devices, Temple Street now expects at least a 15% reduction in

through a contract with the hospital. Ricoh

print running costs.

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COVER STORY

Making the to

Innovation This was the theme of MJ Flood and DBC Group’s recent demonstration day which showcased Konica Minolta’s latest presses and DBC’s innovative finishing technologies. Maev Martin talks to MJ Flood’s Phil Schueler and DBC Group’s Colm Paul about best sellers, market trends, and the outlook for print.

The invitation to attend the ‘Leap to Innovation’ event, which took place on April 20th in the Red Cow Moran Hotel, was the perfect teaser to entice print companies to explore the latest technology that both companies had to offer. It was printed by MJ Flood on a Konica Minolta production press on 350gsm board, with ‘sleeking’ used by DBC Group to simulate spot-UV and foiling. It was then delicately and accurately cut on an i-Mark die cutter, cut to size on an EBA guillotine, and finished and folded using the Multigraf Touchline creaser and folder, all of which are available from DBC Group.

On the day itself, MJ Flood presented Konica Minolta’s AccurioPress C2070 and bizhub Press C1100. Konica Minolta’s Accurio Press C2070 is the successor to the high-functionality of the bizhub Press C1070 Series.

However, this production printing system is capable of handling an even wider range of applications and, according to Phil Schueler, MJ Flood’s Print Production Manager, the C2060 and C2070 seem to be generating a lot of interest. “That is because they are entry level machines that can do pretty much everything, from 350gsm duplex printing to the production of phenomenal colour consistency and half tone reproduction,” he says. “This gives us a bit of an edge. Also, they are specified a bit higher than a lot of the competitive entry level machines in that mid range segment.”

The C2070 features better paper thickness compatibility than its predecessor, a continuous supply of 750mm paper, 1,200mm printing, and a dedicated fuser unit for high speed envelope printing. The Accurio can handle 350gsm thick paper duplex printing and is capable of feeding from 62gsm for thin paper and 81gsm for coated paper.

Its multi-bypass unit and banner printing kit enables

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COVER STORY

1,200mm banner printing to support a wide range of applications, including A4 landscape book covers, doubleparallel folder catalogues, banner ads and POPs, while its large capacity unit is capable of feeding a maximum of 1,000 sheets of 750mm long paper to realise ease of high-volume printing of items such as book covers, tri-fold catalogues and pamphlets. Reflecting their continued co-operation with Premier Paper, MJ Flood also showcased their Moorim SRA3 paper, which is recommended by MJ Flood for use on their liquid and dry-toner digital presses.

New Accounts, Major Upgrades “We were very pleased with the turnout for our show with DBC on April 20th,” says Phil Schueler. “I think everyone who attended was quite impressed with the Konica Minolta Accurio Press C2070/C2060. There is a very strong buzz around the industry about Konica Minolta and MJ Flood right now. One machine that we didn’t show was our new Konica Minolta C71cf tonerbased label system, which we have already installed in Northern Ireland. This system, which is particularly suited to small to medium-size label and seal print companies who take on orders for local brand work, is generating a good deal of interest with the flexo/label printing segment of the market, so watch this space!”

According to Phil, the production print side of MJ Flood’s business has “hit and exceeded the half a million mark” quicker than ever this year. “We have sold nearly 20 production print machines already this year, representing a significant uptake on the number of machines we had sold this time last year,” he says.

“In addition, we have been successful in developing new accounts in the packaging sector to reflect the bespoke technology that we have developed for this growing market. Also, a lot of printers have moved from entry level Konica Minolta machines, which they invested in shortly after MJ Flood entered the production print sector in 2010, to big production machines. These printers include companies such as Castletown Press, Ryson Colour Printers, Allied Print and JustPrint.ie. In addition, Penninsula Press just added a third high volume production press and a fiery RIP for their mono machine, so they are now our biggest customer in Northern Ireland.

They have installed three of our high volume production presses and they also operate a mono press as well.”

Has he noticed any negative impacts on MJ Flood’s production print business, given the ongoing speculation about the likely impact of Brexit? “A lot of printers would say that they didn’t get the pick up they expected last year and they would attribute that to the uncertainty caused by Brexit,” he says. “But Le Pen lost the French presidential election so maybe we don’t have to be so worried. And I don’t think Ireland is going to turn into a Trump in America situation any time soon! Also, Britain has always had one foot out of the EU anyway. Of course Brexit will effect Ireland and we have to take it seriously. MJ Flood has a big market in Northern Ireland and none of our customers want Brexit in Northern Ireland. They are more worried about it than our customers in the Republic. However, I think Northern Ireland and Ireland as a whole will weather the storm. Exceptions will be made when you have countries that are that close together. They have to be.”

ABOVE: The SRA3 iMark cutter

the special foils adhere to the digital toner when fed through the pneumatic rollers of the Matrix laminator (complete with take-up reel). Foils are available in silver, gold, copper, red and blue and a clear gloss film to create spot UV-style finishes.

DBC’s i-Mark SRA3 digital die cutter is designed to automatically feed and contour cut A3 and A4 sheets up to 250grm. Printers can create their own cut-file and produce anything from sweet and packaging boxes to complicated labels with unique cut patterns (using the kiss-cut feature). A mobile lever lifts the sheets from

the loading-feeding tray and inserts them into the plotter. Depending on the thickness of the sheets, the machine’s feeder has a capacity of 120 sheets, and additional sheets can be loaded while the machine is in operation without having to stop the machine. Key features include precision eye-mark camera technology that allows for quick reading of crop marks with a precision grade of 0.2mm, high quality steel-rule dies, and doubleformat speciality and custom dies.

Also, on display from DBC was the Multigraph Touchline CP375 Duo, an integrated creasing and perforating system

BELOW: Konica Minolta’s Accurio Press C2070/C2060

Laminating & Digital Die-Cutting Meanwhile, DBC Group showcased what proved to be two of the most interesting pieces of kit at the demonstration day – the award-winning Matrix laminating system and the i-Mark automatic digital die cutter. The Matrix MX530 Duplex laminating system laminates both sides of the printed sheet at the same time and can also laminate single-sided, as well as encapsulate. The Matrix pneumatic and duplex systems can also create finished work using foils and spot UV-style effects. Special custom-made blocks or dies are no longer required to create these effects as

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COVER STORY

which is capable of performing up to 20 creases and 20 perforations simultaneously in a single run. Key features include stop perforation in both directions and up and down creasing in one run for book covers.

Soft Touch Films, Foils for Packaging “Designing unique and creative print collateral is the holy-grail for digital printers as it offers opportunities for good margin and adds a level of ‘stickiness’ that aligns the client to the printer,” says DBC Group Managing Director Colm Paul. “The packaging and label sector is growing steadily but traditionally this has been the domain of the specialists. However, with brand owners constantly looking for new ways to make their product stand out from the crowd, and with a culture of innovation that encourages companies to ‘fail early, fail fast, learn cheaply’, there are opportunities for the digital on-demand printer to exploit. Lately, we have seen the increased demand for quality GMP ‘soft-touch’ films, foils for packaging and creasers/perforators with the ability to stop-perforate in some of the most unusual places! In summary, it is all about creativity.

Gone are the days of standard creasing, folding and laminating. Everybody is looking for the differentiator to make them stand out from the crowd. Our range of digital cutters, laminators, laminates, foils and folder-creaserperforators offer the flexibility to the digital printer to be much more creative with their print offering.”

Creative Mock-Ups and Direct Mail Colm reports that DBC are also experiencing an increasing demand for their SRA3 iMark cutter which allows digital printers to print labels of any size and shape using its unique ‘kiss-cut’ feature. Furthermore, printers are using the cutter to create ‘mockups’ for clients with special packaging

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ABOVE LEFT (L-R): John Byrne, Allied POS Director, Colm Paul, DBC Group, and Tracey Harkness, Allied POS Director. ABOVE RIGHT (L-R): Phil Schueler, MJ Flood Production Print Manager, with Will Enright, Premier Paper. BELOW LEFT: Visitors at the demonstration day.

requirements or those who want an innovative and creative print piece. “This is complemented by our new foiling or sleeking process which, when used in conjunction with our range of laminators, can create gold, silver, spot varnish and holographic effects onto digital printed stock, and all without sending the finishing outside of your printshop. This sleeking or foiling process is an on-demand foil ‘stamping’ solution for short run digital applications. Our sleeking film fuses to toner-based ink and creates very similar effects to traditional stamping or blocking processes. Our range of laminators, used in conjunction with our films and foils, allow digital printers to be creative and add value to the printed media. And we are expecting this technology to develop further, whereby digital on-demand printers using special custom software will be able to create a ‘custom foil’ which will match or complement their client’s existing brand colours or colour pallets. Foiling and sleeking is really taking off and, when matched with ‘touch-pleasing’ (GMP-soft-touch) films, printers can create a truly magical experience for the end user.”

Print Outlook Colm Paul believes that confidence has returned to the Irish print industry. “We have seen this in the increase in sales of print finishing equipment in recent months, albeit most of this is replacing or upgrading existing equipment as opposed to new start-ups and initiatives,” he says. “The print industry has gone through huge levels of change since the recession and the number of printers in the market has decreased substantially.

The industry has faced competition internationally, particularly from eastern European and Asian markets, but for those that have survived the recession there is a sense of relief and optimism mixed with caution about their future.”

Major trends in the global print space that Colm believes will continue to impact the Irish market this year and into 2018 include lower offset volumes and greater digital print volumes.

“The productivity of digital presses and their on-demand capability will create growth opportunities within the label and packaging market,” he says. “What’s more, reports of the death of direct mail may have been exaggerated. Email marketing and social marketing has not killed direct mail, so I forecast an increasing spend on innovative mail pieces as marketing executives see the falling ROI from email activity. Consequently, more and more printers will add value-added services, such as design and distribution, to their selling portfolio.”

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TALKING TECHNICAL

NEW

‘The Impact of PDF 2.0 On Print Production’ provides background information on the new standard for PDF, insight into what it means for print, and recommendations around implementation planning.

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he white paper, published recently by Global Graphics Software, provides a summary of the changes that will affect print production following the recent publication of the new international standard for PDF. Since its publication in May the new ISO standard defines PDF 2.0 and will replace PDF 1.7 over time. The standard has been developed by a committee comprising subject matter experts from many countries. The white paper clearly outlines risk areas and makes several recommendations as to how to introduce PDF 2.0 into a print workflow.

The main changes affect colour and output intents, PDF transparency, and halftones.

Colour and Output Intents The printing condition for which a job is created can be encapsulated in professional print production jobs by specifying an ‘output intent’ in the PDF file. PDF 2.0 allows separate output intents to be included for every page individually. The goal is to support jobs where different media are used for various pages, eg, for the first sheet for each recipient of a transactional print job, or for the cover of a saddle-stitched book. In PDF 2.0 it is also now possible to embed spectral measurement data for spot colours.

PDF Transparency PDF 2.0 includes a number of changes around transparency, driven by what has been learnt about where the prevous PDF standards could trip people up in realworld jobs. It will now be much easier to get the correct colour when imposing multiple PDF files from different sources together. That is especially the case when you are imposing PDF/X files that use different profiles in their

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output intents, even though they may all be intended for the same target printing condition. The obvious examples of this kind of use are placing display advertising for publications, or imposing for gang-printing.

Halftones Halftoning and screening are often thought of as completely understood and stable, but there were still a number of issues identified in real-world print environments that will benefit from changes in PDF 2.0. The new standard allows a single file to be created that can be used in a variety of RIPs that support different sets of proprietary halftones and to select the best one available in each RIP for that specific object. This functionality is expected to be used mainly for high quality flexo press work, where it is a key part of the workflow to specify which halftone should be used for each graphical element.

Global Graphics CTO Martin Bailey, the white paper’s author, is the primary UK expert to the ISO committees working on PDF, PDF/X and PDF/VT. “The overall aim is to make improvements that reflect real-world workflows and factor in updates that will help to futureproof working procedures,” he says. “But print service providers, graphic designers, press vendors, and PDF application developers all need to be aware that older PDF readers will silently ignore some aspects of the new specification and won’t know anything about any new features in the file.

Old readers can’t possibly know if those new features are important to you or to your workflow, so the safest approach to adoption of PDF 2.0 is to ensure that all applications and tools that consume PDF are upgraded to support PDF 2.0 before you start thinking about upgrading the file creators. My best advice is to start at the back end of your workflow, probably the Rip or DFE or an integrated prepress workflow, and work upstream. That way you will never be trying to consume PDF 2.0 in a product that doesn’t really know what to do with it.”

A copy of the white paper can be downloaded at www.globalgraphics.com/ impact-of-pdf-2-0-on-print-production.

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FESPA DIGITAL 2017

Making a Big Impact in

Fespa Digital 2017, which took place in Hamburg (May 8th to 12th), proved that the large format sector offers more business opportunities for print companies than most other areas of the print industry.

Clearing Production Bottlenecks Esko featured software and hardware solutions that help companies get the most out of their production workflows, their equipment, and their staff. One of their latest innovations is Automation Engine, a dedicated workflow solution that combines wide format workflow automation with i-cut Suite’s tasks of preflighting, file editing, as well as adding cutting paths and optimal nesting to a sheet. Esko claims that Automation Engine creates productive workflows that increase throughput on digital printers and digital finishing platforms, while reducing errors and improving file management and communication to customers. Esko’s Device Manager was also featured at Fespa. This new solution gives everyone in the company a view of their digital finishing tables status. It is used to communicate the job status and helps to manage jobs more efficiently based on precise cutting time estimates and substrate selection. Operators can prioritize table queues, insert rush jobs and balance workloads among different tables, even when tables are located at different sites.

Advanced Digital Print

The Rho512R Plus.

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Inca Digital introduced a new B1 inkjet printer at Fespa.

Built on the same platform as the Onset X Series and the SpyderX, the new B1 format printer has been developed to offer a short run B1 solution for the offset, screen and industrial printing markets. The new machine will be distributed globally by both Inca and Fujifilm. Visitors were able to preview the actual machine on the Fujifilm stand.

The eight channel B1 printer will be initially targeted

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FESPA DIGITAL 2017 at the POP and commercial print markets. “However, its inherent versatility means that it will also be suitable for an extensive range of applications, including those that are too thick to be printed on offset,” says Inca CEO John Mills. “The new B1 platform has the capability to virtually eliminate material handling thanks to a fully automated system complete with feeder and stacker.

Manual and ¾ automation solutions are also planned, with modular lay table and collection tray to suit the print company’s requirements and budget. The B1 printer features Fujifilm small drop, 7ng print heads for crisp 4pt text and smooth colours, ideal for short viewing distances. Two stage UV curing using UV-LED pinning on the carriage keeps heat sensitive substrates cool during the printing and a UV tunnel provides excellent adhesion and durability. Advanced technologies such as recirculating print heads, automated print head cleaning, and collision avoidance ensure that the machine maintains the same print quality and productivity throughout its life. The productivity and quality of this new platform will give commercial and screen printers the confidence to take lower volume work off their commercial printers, increasing overall productivity and opening up potential new revenue streams in the process.”

Durst presented its commercially successful Rho P10 250 HS Plus and Rho 512R Plus printing systems under the slogan of investment security and reliability and highlighted new features and enhancements. The Rho P10 250 HS Plus printer is now offering 40% greater productivity and an ink-saver function, saving up to 15% of ink, as well as an advanced application for hapt printing and roll-to-roll double-sided printing. The Rho 512R Plus five-metre extra-wide printing system now has a new Fine Art printing mode at 1,200 dpi. Durst says that new additional colours allow even finer colour transitions and the faithful production of corporate brand standards. Innovation and sustainability were the keywords applied to their new Rhotex 325 and Rho WT 250 printing systems. A new industrial printing system with a print width of 3.2m for the area of soft signage, the Rhotex 325 allows environmentally friendly textile applications based on Durst Water Technology and delivers productivity of up to 390 square metres per hour through either direct-to-textile printing or printing on transfer paper. The Rho WT 250 is a new flatbed printing system featuring an ‘uncompromising’ development of Durst’s Water Technology for environmentally friendly applications on paper media, corrugated boards, and plastics such as acrylic, polycarbonate, and polypropylene. Durst claims that it provides offset printing quality in look and feel and is economically viable from a batch size of one. With the DSR Automatica E, Durst will also be unveiling an initial system in its imaging segment. It is a standalone kiosk system equipped with 120° camera technology which was integrated into a textile workflow process at Fespa to demonstrate new design and product variations from a range of perspectives.

Ricoh showcased its portfolio of wide format, large format and flatbed devices, including a new direct to garment system, supported by a dedicated suite of software solutions. The Ricoh Pro L 4160 latex large format printer ran

BELOW: One-off designs for items like player numbers and names on sports uniforms can be created on Mimaki’s entry level die sublimation printers.

Ricoh Pro L4100

alongside the MPC W2201SP colour wide format multi-function device. Ricoh’s latex printer features Ricoh’s own non-solvent based aqueous resin inks and Ricoh’s piezo variable drop print heads. With the MPC W2201SP colour wide format multifunction device, potential buyers can choose between copier/ printer or scanner functionalities and use Ricoh’s environmentally sustainable pigment-based liquid gel ink technology. The MPC W2201SP is capable of printing advertising and other graphic arts applications for outdoor as well as indoor environments.

Demonstrated for the first time in Europe was the 1.65 metres wide EFI Vutek H1625 LED UV hybrid roll/flatbed technology device. It features four colour print plus white and includes single pass and multi-layer capabilities. Variable droplet sizes provide eight levels of grayscale. It is ideally suited to backlit displays, indoor and outdoor signage, posters, and point of sale, as well as display and exhibition graphics.

Small Format & Entry Level Mimaki unveiled a new member of its UJF-MkII product family, its latest generation of small format UV flatbed printers, at Fespa. “The UJF-MkII UV curable flatbed printing systems were launched last summer and have been very well received by the market since their introduction,” says John de la Roche, National Sales Manager for Hybrid Services in the UK and Ireland. “Mimaki has identified the opportunity to raise the bar even further with the new UJF3042MkII EX model, enabling, in a single operation, the laying down, where required, of a base coat of inkjet primer, a base print of white ink, full colour print, and a surface coating of clear ink, adding up to an efficient means of producing value-added printing applications.” In addition, the new UJF-3042MkII EX adds more features to the standard model, including a status indication lamp to quickly check the status of the printer, a vacuum table to fix the print substrate, and an emergency switch to immediately stop the machine operation.

The compressed workflow includes a jettable primer to improve ink adhesion while retaining the texture of the material after printing, which is difficult to do with manual primer application. The Mimaki PR-200 primer can be used on resin, glass and metal materials.

Mimaki also debuted its entry-level sublimation inkjet printer, the Mimaki TS30-1300, at the show. The 1.3m wide roll-to-roll sublimation transfer inkjet printer enables users to print their designs on demand at speeds of up to 20 square metres per hour. “The TS30-1300 is ideal for in-house production of lowvolume printed products, including prototyping of textiles or sports apparel, or the creation of customised items,” says John de la Roche. “With the versatile TS30-1300, it is possible to print original full colour images on polyester fabrics, now widely used in the textile and apparel industry. This process can be used for clothing, bags, scarves, socks and more. One-off designs for items like player numbers and names on sports uniforms can also be created with ease.

It is also possible to produce items such as polyester-based banners, towels, t-shirts, handkerchiefs, mouse pads, lanyards and cushions and, in addition to textile-based products, the TS30-1300 can be used to create unique designs on polyester-coated mugs, glasses and coasters, customised items that can broaden product offerings and drive new revenues.”

Wide Format ‘Game Changer’ Canon Europe broke new ground in high-end roll-to-roll print with the European launch of the new Océ Colorado 1640. Built on Canon UVgel technology, the new press proved to be one of the star digital innovations of the event, pulling in large crowds to hourly demonstrations, and attracting immediate orders from signage and graphics producers across Europe, Africa, North Africa and the Middle East. “Just two months after launching Colorado, we now have 100 orders for the printer from customers in 17 countries,” says Mark Lawn, Director, Graphic & Communications Group, Canon Europe.” During Fespa the Océ Colorado 1640 won a prestigious technology award from the European Digital Press in the ‘Roll-toroll Printers up to 170cm’ category. The judges commented that the Océ Colorado “may be a game changer in the 1.6 metre segment, bringing more speed and prints at lower costs with a unique machine concept.”

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FESPA DIGITAL 2017

Avery Dennison’s Got It

There was plenty of innovation at Fespa Digital on the digital finishing, screen and 3D printing front but Avery Dennison really made its mark with a new range of solutions for the vehicle wrap sector, including plenty of innovation from its recently acquired Mactac brand.

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very Dennison Graphics Solutions Europe revealed five products – its new digital wrapping series, MPI 1105, together with a range of other vehicle and architectural solutions. These include 5600 LD translucent films, an outdoor high opacity film that covers existing graphics, facade film for building decoration, and 18

new Supreme Wrapping film colours, expanding the vehicle wrap range to more than 100 colours. Avery Dennison claims that the new MPI 1105 wrapping series delivers outstanding printability, image quality and 3D conformability. “Benchmark testing of the material by six independent applicators reveals that installation is more than 17% faster than common alternatives, and that MPI 1105 is significantly more conformable, slideable and repositionable,” says Oliver Guenther, Marketing Director, Avery Dennison Graphics Solutions Europe.

“Printed durability of up to six years and clean long-term removability are among the benefits offered by the new film.” Architecture was also firmly on the agenda with the new facade film and the new translucent films for LED lights. “We are releasing more and more materials designed to create truly different internal and external looks for buildings, and this year’s show gave installers an important insight into how options such as textured finishes can be used to set their offering apart from the competition,” he said.

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FESPA DIGITAL 2017

Mactac, an Avery Dennison brand since August 2016, showcased its chrome wrap with a matt surface. ‘Self healing’ films, which eliminate small scratches and maintain showroom-fresh looks over long periods of time, also made a debut. “These wrapping films achieve what at first seems impossible,” says Martine Bouvet, Market Manager, Mactac Europe. “Using nothing more than a heat source or hot water, the surface can reform itself to eliminate scratches.” In the car wrapping demonstration area, Mactac presented its CastRAP 629 B-Free printable cast media. “When using CastRAP 629 B-Free and CastLAM gloss and matt overlaminates, installers benefit from the right combination of highly conformable cast vinyls and high-quality print, while also reducing application time thanks to the bubble-free adhesive technology that is easy to apply,” he says. “Materials like our self-healing wraps and our ‘liquid meets metal’ film mean that applicators can offer new and exciting solutions, whether they are working on vehicles, furniture or buildings. The new TF 900 FlexChrome BF series was one of the show’s highlights, creating a truly different look for vehicle and furniture wraps. Available in 10 chrome-finish colours, with a unique matt effect, the new bubble-free material gives exciting new visual effects both when dry and when wet - effects that can be best described as ‘where liquid meets metal.’ In addition, MacBlock film for window graphics offers very high opacity, so that double-sided graphics can be created without any concerns about direct light and show-through.

3D Printing Potential Massivit 3D Printing Technologies used Fespa to demonstrate how large format print providers can increase business revenues and enhance their competitive edge with its flagship Massivit 1800 3D printer. Highlighting how the Massivit 1800 enables the rapid creation of unique eye-catching applications beyond those that can be achieved with 2D large format printing solutions, Massivit’s stand featured an eyecatching illuminated 1.6 metre tall (5.2ft) fragrance bottle illustrating how the technology is transforming the way high-level retail, marketing and advertising projects are created, an intricate 1.5m (4.9ft) ‘spilled’ milk carton, emphasising the greater design freedom that print providers can enjoy when creating cuttingedge, bespoke applications, and a 3.2 metre-tall (10.5ft) mythical Greek sculpture, demonstrating the premium, larger-than-life capabilities of the Massivit 1800 3D printer. Using the technology, print companies can produce innovative themed projects, exhibition ‘graphics’ and even up-scaled vehicle wraps. With the ability to quickly 3D print large and complex objects, printers can now add a new dimension to their business as well as shave weeks off their production methods.

Mimaki was pleased with the attendee interest in the technology demonstration of its 3D printer, the Mimaki 3DUJ-P. “Based on Mimaki’s advanced UV inkjet technology, the 3DUJ-P offers high definition modelling with a maximum size of 500 x 500 x 300 mm,” says Ronald van den Broek, General Manager Sales at Mimaki Europe. “It is the world’s first truly full-colour modelling solution and supports up to 10 million different colours with the ability to achieve 84% of the FOGRA39L colour gamut with high definition printing.” The Mimaki 3DUJ-P, which also includes clear ink, is expected to be commercially available later this year.

Simplifying Digital Finishing Apart from their design, pre-press and on press solutions, Esko has streamlined and improved its Kongsberg table portfolio to help customers easily identify the systems that best suit their needs. They can pick from two primary families based on the type of work they typically produce - choosing the greatest flexibility for versatile and creative jobs (Kongsberg X), or the best productivity

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TOP: Mimaki’s TS30-1300 Press. ABOVE RIGHT: Massivit’s 3D printed ‘spilled’ milk carton. ABOVE LEFT: Mactac showcased its chrome wrap with a matt surface.

for efficient production runs (Kongsberg C). For those that are new to digital finishing or have only limited needs for a cutting table, the X Starter offer the Kongsberg experience for less and is upgradable to evolve with your business. On display at Fespa was the Kongsberg X20 and Kongsberg C60 finishing tables. The Kongsberg C60 table was shown with a new automatic feed and stacking system that frees personnel from loading and stacking. This system can be fit to any Kongsberg C, no matter the size. It means that operators can control a number of machines concurrently or can be reassigned to other tasks. Media is always ready and waiting for the cutter, which eliminates delays caused by loading and unloading the table. The system is also modular: companies can install the feeder first, and add the stacker at a later date.

Big Screen Launch Sakurai hosted the official European launch of its MS110-DDS production unit at Fespa on May 8th. The unit features a direct servo drive, which is capable of significantly enhancing print precision, due to the roll to roll cylinder mechanism and improved pressure. Sakurai says that this is making it a compelling proposition for all types of screen printing applications. The new system offers improved sheet edge accuracy with an optional CCD Camera Sheet Alignment System. The system allows for large sheet printing with a maximum sheet size 1140mm x 788mm.

The printability on thin material and scratch resistance have been enhanced up to a thickness of 75 μm, which was previously considered to be very difficult for a cylinder press to achieve.

“The introduction of this machine represents a significant step forward for screen printers, as many aspects of production are improved and the direct servo motor improves precision and adds flexibility to production,” says Claudio Moffa, Screen’s UK and Europe Sales Manager. “The launch underlines the continued potential of screen for paper, textile and industrial based applications.

This amazing system was launched in Japan at our open house in April. The response from our customers has been tremendous. We know that this machinery is a unique and game changing platform that will help to put screen printing innovation back on the map.”

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EXHIBITION

An exhibition that opened at the National Print Museum on May 4th examines the Irish-printed album cover. All of the covers featured in The Irish Printed Record Cover 1955 to 2017 exhibition were designed and printed in Ireland.

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he work was completed for Irish groups, who worked at home or abroad, as well as albums from abroad referencing Ireland or Irishness.

The collection dates from the late 1950s to the present day and covers a wide range of musical and non-musical genres. Arising from the increase in popularity of the vinyl record, the Irish print industry saw an increase in companies solely devoted to album covers in the 1960s.

This business flourished for two decades before declining, along with the vinyl record, in the 1980s. Yet, even with the decline in production and sales, the vinyl record and the album cover have both persisted, and have seen a revival of late. Despite selling in much smaller numbers than in its heyday, the format has proven remarkably resilient and album covers continue to be designed in Ireland.

For most of the 20th century the gramophone record, pressed originally in shellac, later in vinyl, was the dominant recorded musical format.

The 79 rpm record could only allow for five minutes per side. Shellac is a brittle and noisy material and these limitations resulted in numerous attempts to produce a more robust alternative. In the late 1940s the vinyl LP record was introduced by Columbia Records, available in either 10 or 12 inch formats, played at 33rpm. The 10 inch record allowed for 35 minutes of sound, whereas the 12 inch allowed for up to 45 minutes. Unsurprisingly, as time

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progressed, the 10 inch was superseded by its larger rival. Given the constraints on the vinyl record, various means were employed to allow for longer performances prior to the arrival of the CD. In tandem with the LP, the 45 rpm seven inch single appeared, produced by RCA Victor. This smaller format at first contained about three minutes of music. This was later extended by new production and microgroove recording techniques.

Several other formats were used, including 12 inch singles and seven inch EPs (extended player) records.

The album cover developed first as a means of protecting and promoting the various record formats, whether seven inch single, EP or LP record. As the nature of albums changed so too did the album covers. For example, the compilation album, an album of songs not intended to be a single work, arrived in the 1950s. The concept album, a collection of albums expressing a theme or idea, appeared afterwards in the late 1960s. Records inside album covers were usually held within sleeves - originally these were generic paper or plastic covers used to avoid scratches. By the 1970s, however, they evolved to specially designed printed sleeves, which would contain additional information and song lyrics. Each iteration brought with it different requirements, as well as cover sizes. As time progressed, the demands of musicians and record labels resulted in considerable experimentation with the form of the cover itself. For example, gatefold was employed - an over sized cover folded to the record’s standard size - along with other innovations. This provided greater scope to experiment with artwork and text. The cover became a piece of art and design in its own right.

By the 1960s, there were over 150 printers in Dublin alone, supported by a workforce of thousands. Apart from these, a smaller number of companies were involved in printing record sleeves, both of Irish and international musicians. Most of these companies were based in Dublin or on the eastern seaboard. The market for record sleeves started to grow. The packaging company, Dakota Ltd purchased the smaller Earlsfort Press in the 1960s to concentrate mainly on producing record sleeves for the Irish music industry. The 1980s, however, brought about change. In the printing industry, multinational computing corporations based in Ireland contracted local companies to produce their computer manuals. So great was the

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EXHIBITION

“Import tariffs, VAT and point of entry taxes made it cheaper to print a lot of albums by international artists in Ireland. Jim Reeves etc. would be typical of artists we worked on. All work and film and master dies was sent to Dublin (from London or US) and in two weeks they’d be up and running.”

- Billy Ryan, Printer “My own opinion is that the old record sleeves printed from letterpress and hot metal were always better as there were more skills involved in their production.”

- Michael Lynam, Typographer and Printer

demand, that large parts of the printing industry were occupied with the supply of manuals. This led to a reduced capacity in Ireland for record sleeves printing, at a time when the record format itself was under threat from another direction. By the mid 1980s, sales of tape cassettes rivaled those of vinyl records. Then a newer format, the CD (compact disc), arrived towards the end of the 1980s, marking another shift. The demand for vinyl records and album covers declined swiftly. Since then, almost all album covers for Irish groups have been printed outside of Ireland.

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The following companies printed album covers are displayed in the exhibition: Associated Printers, Greenhills Industrial Estate, Walkinstown; Bray Printing Co, Bray, Co Wicklow; Central Remedial Clinic Workshops; Dakota Printing Co; Dolmen Press Ltd; Dublin Print and Paper Co. Ltd; Earlsfort Press; Graphic Printers, Greenmount Industrial Estate; Grafotone, Inchicore; Irish Silkscreen, Glasnevin; John Augustine Ltd; Massey Brothers, Killeen, Inchicore; Litho Universal Ltd, Bray, Co Wicklow; Sign of the Three Candles; Task, Naas; TS Connolly & Co Ltd; Wood Printing Works.

“For the most part sleeve printing was a commercial entity and not considered fine art, so one had to largely take pot luck on the way a sleeve might ultimately appear when printed...

The process aside from the physical manufacture varied from project to project as sometimes the brief came from the label, sometimes from the band or artist management and, on occasion, from the artist directly.”

- Steve Averill, Designer.

Green Sleeves is curated by Dr Ciarán Swan and Niall McCormack. The exhibition runs from 5 May until 1 October 2017. Admission to the exhibition, which is sponsored by MCD Productions, is free of charge.

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DESIGN & PRINT

CLICKWORKS CLEANWATER Rory Dowling, Head of Packaging at Dún Laoghaire design studio Clickworks, tells Irish Printer how they worked with leading prints specialists to help new drinks Vegified and Deep RiverRock Relax and Revive stand out from the crowd.

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oday’s consumers are very well informed about the importance of good nutrition and a balanced diet, but hectic lifestyles and an absence of time make achieving these goals more difficult than it first appears. The wall of information about clean eating, celebrity diets, and often contradictory nutritional advice leaves many scratching their heads in confusion and frustration.

Increasing vegetable and mineral intake from food and drink is very much desired by consumers, but where do they start? Could this be done without shredding your own kale and wrestling with avocados? What if better nutrition could be achieved in a simple convenient way, where

someone else has gone to the trouble of balancing these requirements for us? Exciting new drinks ranges Vegified and Deep RiverRock Revive & Relax achieve just this, creating great tasting, affordable drinks with benefits.

Clickworks has recently added a brand and packaging division to build on its success in brand strategy, business design and digital communications. With a strong record in brand creation and development, we were tasked with the challenging and exciting job of designing a brand and packaging proposition for an exciting new fruit and vegetable juice drink Vegified, and also an innovative health and wellness sub-brand for popular water, Deep RiverRock to meet the demands of the market.

Vegified was specially created as a unique range of great tasting, affordable, vegetable and fruit drinks fortified with six essential vitamins. Many vegetable juices, while undeniably healthy, can be forbidding to consumers from a taste and texture perspective. Vegified is offering a light, fresh taste and vibrant natural colour. There are four delicious flavours, including Beetroot & Strawberry; Pumpkin, Ginger & Orange; Cucumber & Lime; and Bell Pepper & Orange. The flavour combinations work in perfect harmony.

Each Vegified variant comes in at 60 or less calories per 300ml bottle.

The Brief The design brief was to create a packaging design and visual language that encapsulates the goodness and great taste of these unique products in an accessible, colourful, impactful and differentiated way. Many competitors in the juice category have cutting edge designs with contemporary minimal cues. We felt that, given our rich, natural sources, our design should be warm, earthy and natural. Starting with the bottle, we created a simple silhouette with echoes of traditional artisan shapes. Its squat form and wide mouth are ideally portable, with the perfect portion sizes for a single serve drink. Our visuals were refined and technically realized by leading PET manufacturer Sidel.

We created label designs with a rich crafted quality that speaks of taste and naturalness. The Vegified logo at the heart of the design evokes the rich vegetable source of the juices. Our type with an organic, natural warmth was redrawn by hand to give a strong rustic effect and the lower case ‘g’ was reinterpreted as a vegetable with sprouting foliage and cascading root. The logo is contained within a striking rustic diamond of torn craft paper from which emerges a cornucopia of beautifully painted watercolour illustrations. Secondary typefaces and messaging are a beautifully balanced selection of crisp, contemporary fonts combined with warmer, spontaneous hand-drawn typography.

Print Techniques & Substrates Having achieved our design and visual language, there still remained the not inconsiderable challenge of executing the designs with print techniques

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DESIGN & PRINT

and substrates that would enhance and support the tactile simplicity of the designs. Leading Northern Irish print specialists Nuprint were appointed to work with us to achieve this. A key challenge was the choice of a suitable substrate. While as designers we very much wanted the label to be highly textured paper, this was not going to be compatible with the bottling process for the juices. Materials for the reel-fed process had to be waterproof plastic or they would tear or get wet during production. A 38micron BOPP was chosen and a matt varnish was used to give the natural paper the effect and tactility that we sought. The print process at Nuprint allowed for a very fine halftone, so we used a very subtle parchment texture which, when combined with the matt varnish, completed the totally convincing paper effect. Nuprint achieved a very fine, finished result with perfect colour balance, and the fine screens and excellent registration brought the design beautifully to life.

The early success of Vegified is evident. The new drink brand was honoured at the recent InnoBev Global Drinks Awards in Frankfurt, taking home gold for Best Juice Drink and Best New Brand against an impressive field of global competitors.

Today’s consumers continue to search for health and functional products to supplement their busy lives. There has been a 42% growth in the ‘health and functional’ segment in recent times and this trend shows no sign of abating. Bottled water is also showing continued growth as the importance of hydration chimes with consumers. Deep RiverRock, one of Ireland’s most iconic water brands, has been very successful in the last few years with a strong,

BELOW: Both Vegified (bottom) and Deep RiverRock R&R’s (below) striking final designs showcase a perfect collaboration between brand owners, designers and printers.

graphic refresh and increasing consumer recognition of its strong brand equity and simple yet impactful visual language.

The Deep RiverRock Revive & Relax (R&R) range has been specially created to meet the needs of today’s busy consumers who need help to achieve balance. Deep RiverRock’s ‘Revive’ range has two variants: magnesium to help reduce tiredness and zinc to help normal cognitive function. These unique combinations of still water and functional minerals will help consumers to keep going and stay ahead. Conversely, the ‘Relax’ variants of Lavender or Mint will help consumers to ‘stay in the mood’ or ‘simply relax’. And, as with all Deep RiverRock products, it starts with hydration, thanks to Deep RiverRock’s quality water sourced from the Glens of Antrim.

Creative Challenges, Complex Requirements To design such innovative products presents a number of creative challenges. We needed to respect the Deep RiverRock brand equity with prominence for the iconic logo. We needed to clearly communicate that this is not regular water and give clarity to the enhancements and their functions. Functional products need a clinical purity, but this needs to be achieved in a way that is not cold or forbidding. Our ultimate designs have a simple purity that perfectly balances all these complex requirements.

The bottle format is the iconic Deep RiverRock silhouette which, in 500ml, has an elegant, ergonomic form with great portability due to the ripple style grippers on the side with the branding proudly placed above. Distinctive bottle colours, which are unique in the category, ensure maximum stand-out in in-store coolers. The vibrant red Revive bottles have cues of action, confidence and strength to match the benefits of the minerals. The rich purple Relax bottles have cues of life balancing, calm and soothing, to complement the natural botanical ingredients of lavender and mint.

The Deep RiverRock logo is placed alongside a striking medallion, which contains the R&R motif. Encircling rings contain Revive and Relax. On Revive SKUs the ring is red while Relax is recessive in silver and on Relax the ring is purple while Revive is muted. This medallion creates strong visual cohesion across the range. An elegant paneled grid structure contains the variant information in an elegant and accessible manner. The variant name is in a strong colour-coded bar. This is supplemented by a tab with a graphic icon representing the benefit. On the Revive SKUs, text outlines the benefits of each mineral. On the Relax SKUs, vivid representations of the botanical sources are vibrantly represented. There is also a strong balance of transparency, underlining the purity and simplicity of the Deep RiverRock brand.

Wraparound Labels Specialist Venerable print house Americk Packaging in Enniskillen has nearly 30 years experience serving the international drinks industry and specialises in the production of reel fed OPP wraparound labels for the European soft drinks industry.

Advances in HD flexography and technology in recent years have resulted in steep rises in quality and sharpness, making Americk’s process ideal for the production of the R&R labels. HD Flexo plates allow for a smoother lay down and finer aniloxes. This results in less ink and solvent use, leading to quicker runs, shorter drying and finer highlights.

The flat top dot structure on the plates gives a stable and consistent dot structure, which is perfect for the finer detail we needed to achieve. We collaborated closely to achieve the best results. The printed labels are a testament to how far flexography has progressed in recent years and showcase the commitment to quality and precision championed by Americk.

The current market for enhanced or functional drinks is both challenging and exciting. To win in these categories, a fusion of great brand thinking and innovation is needed, combined with the highest standards of creativity and craft in both print and design. Both Vegified and Deep RiverRock R&R’s striking final designs showcase a perfect collaboration between brand owners, designers and printers. It is only by aligning all three that great results can be achieved.

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PACKAGING

Visitors to the Interpack exhibition (May 4th to 10th) in DĂźsseldorf learned how to better manage brand colour accuracy and consistency across the global supply chain, from proof to package to display, with the ability to leverage the benefits of fixed colour palette printing using dedicated colour solutions.

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sko exhibited alongside its sister companies, including X-Rite Pantone. Using X-Rite Pantone’s ColorCert Suite, brands and converters can remotely monitor colour consistency in real-time across a global base of suppliers, reducing rejects and the need for on-site press checks and improving overall colour quality. By taking advantage of PantoneLIVE, brands can provide access to a cloud-based library of digital colour specifications to authorised stakeholders to remove ambiguity from the communication of colour, across even the most complex supply chain, and converters can better manage ink inventories and colour consistency.

Esko colour solutions can be deployed in all packaging and label print technologies: flexo, digital, offset and gravure. At interpack, Esko was featured in the HP stand, demonstrating how Esko solutions integrate with HP SmartStream and the HP Indigo workflow to ensure accurate reproduction of brand colours using a fixed palette of digital toners, as well as offering HP Indigo customers the ability to print colour-accurate files using CMY only, without the need to use black toner, increasing throughput and reducing cost.

3D Design for Faster Approval Brand owners and retailers can experience the highest possible realism during the packaging development process by using Esko’s 3D technologies, including ArtiosCAD, Studio and Store Visualizer, to present hyper-realistic 3D images of packages from design through consumer testing to palletizing and positioning on store shelves.

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PACKAGING Visitors to the Esko stand also learned how to reduce costs with sustainable packaging by using Esko Cape solutions to optimize packaging logistics throughout the supply chain, including secondary packaging, palletization, and loading of trucks and containers.

Next Generation Flexo Packaging converters visiting the Esko stand could see the stunning results that are achieved with labels, folding cartons, and flexible and corrugated packaging using Esko’s broad array of flexo tools and solutions, including its award-winning CDI Crystal 5080 XPS flexo platemaking solution that reduces the number of steps and overall footprint required to produce the highest quality flexographic plates. About 10 months ago, Esko introduced a range of innovations for flexo plate making and demonstrated these at drupa 2016: the CDI Crystal 5080 XPS, the new XPS 5080, a UV LED exposure device that adds increased consistency to the established Esko quality standard, a complete integration of flexo plate making and workflow software with the new Automation Engine Device Manager, which monitors jobs status and controls and drives flexo platemaking operations, and a screening technology that brings digital flexo to an even higher quality level.

The XPS Crystal 5080 is a UV LED exposure device that combines UV main and back exposure in a single operation. The CDI Crystal 5080 is the new digital flexo plate imager based on the industry leading CDI. The devices can be connected with each other to act as one single plate production line, the CDI Crystal 5080 XPS, thus combining plate imaging and exposing into a single operation. This solution cuts the number of manual handling steps by 50% as compared to other technologies.

Plate consistency is one of the key drivers to standardize the flexo print process and achieve and maintain optimal print quality. UV contact frames using fluorescent tubes will never deliver the level of energy control required for the best result.

“With more than a year of experience, we can now confirm that a simultaneous and optimally controlled UV main and UV back exposure using UV LEDs produces the highest consistency for digital flexo plates,” says Esko’s Vice President Hardware, Thomas Klein. “In traditional exposing with fluorescent tubes, one of the uncontrolled variables is the time between front and back exposure.

This causes the so called ‘dwell-effect’ or changes in the floor-shape of the individual dots. As these dots become variable in shape and strength, the print result is negatively affected. Flexo average run lengths are getting

BELOW: Esko technology allows brand owners and retailers to experience the highest possible realism during the packaging development process.

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ABOVE: Esko CDI Crystal 5080 XPS

With more than a year of experience, we can now confirm that a simultaneous and optimally controlled UV main and UV back exposure using UV LEDs produces the highest consistency for digital flexo plates...

shorter, and the industry needs ways to produce those shorter runs faster and more effectively. A considerable part of the solution consists of rethinking flexo platemaking, so far a complex and highly manual process, often involving up to five different hardware devices and six process steps. Integration of process steps and more automation - and thus standardisation - improves quality, consistency and ease of use, and enables customers to more efficiently manage the digital flexo platemaking workflow.

Esko is moving operational control further upstream to the prepress department, tearing down silos and better integrating flexo platemaking with the prepress workflow.

These innovations make it easier to meet challenging lead times.”

A series of popular plate types from the primary flexo plate vendors (DuPont, MacDermid, Asahi and Flint) have already been certified for the Esko XPS Crystal to accommodate most of the flexible packaging print applications. As a next step, together with its partner Vianord, Esko is further innovating and automating the flexo platemaking process. The next step toward a fully automated flexo platemaking process without manual touch points will consist of a bridge between the CDI Crystal 5080 XPS and a plate processing installation. Flexo plates will be imaged, exposed simultaneously from the back and through the mask, and processed in a single streamlined production line, taking even more manual steps out of the process.

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PACKAGING

Tresu Group demonstrated the productivity of its iCoat flexo coater for applying addedvalue varnishes to digitally printed folding cartons and synthetic materials, inline with a HP Indigo 30000 digital press at Interpack.

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resu iCoat applies Tresu’s private label iVarnish range of UV-curable or aqueous varnishes to adhere on both plastic as well as board substrates.

Like the HP Indigo 30000 digital press, Tresu iCoat has a maximum speed of up to 4,600 sheets per hour (3450sph in four colours), handling substrates of maximum format 750mm x 550mm in paperboard, and metallised boards between 250µm and 600µm. It accommodates PVC and polypropylene substrates up to 630µm, and PET substrates up to 400µm. The coater also comes with quick-change sleeve technology and automatic chamber cleaning, enabling varnish change-overs within minutes. Live daily demonstrations of the HP Indigo/Tresu digital printing line gave visitors a real-time impression of the quality and efficiency achievable for applications including food, beverage, pharmaceuticals, personal care and industrial products. “Coating is a vital post-print stage in the digital packaging printing process, ensuring that the finished

product is both resistant and aesthetically appealing,” says Kim Krintel, Vice President, Tresu Digital Solutions.

“The Tresu iCoat coater integrates perfectly with the HP Indigo digital press, applying full and spot varnishes in perfect register with minimal makeready time, and the result is a high-speed single-pass line with minimised waste or logistics. Its efficiency means converters can efficiently offer a host of added-value short-run or variable-data solutions that reduce supply chain costs, including targeted promotions, multi-versioning, unique package designs, serialised data, and samples ondemand.”

Meanwhile, following a successful collaboration at a number of events this year, Infigo Software and HP Indigo joined forces to deliver a live technology integration at Interpack. And, in an unusual move, the product demonstration was shown on a mobile phone to highlight the importance of delivering a user experience that is fit for the digital first generation! Infigo Software and HP have been showing how Infigo’s Catfish e-commerce platform provides the portal to integrate with hardware and software applications, and enable new levels of brand engagement. The demonstrations, which took place throughout the six day event, showed how the mobile optimised front-end user experience of Catfish and Infigo’s MegaEdit design tool allows users to quickly and easily personalise a product, even when they’re on the move. The print ready artwork was then output via the cloud-based production management solution, HP Print OS Site Flow. The personalised package was printed on the HP Indigo 30000 digital press live on the show floor.

Visitors also saw Infigo’s enhanced 3D preview tool deliver a true-to-life visualisation of the end product, including finishing touches such as foiling, embossing, spot UV and coating. “Many packaging and label suppliers have not yet adopted a digital print solution that will enable them to keep pace with the growing demand for short print runs, variable packaging solutions, on-demand personalised print, and exciting brand engagement opportunities,” says Infigo’s Managing Director Douglas Gibson. “We believe that now is the time to act to avoid falling behind. Our collaboration with HP delivers greater efficiency, speed to market and new levels of brand engagement, which brand owners are demanding more and more. ”

The HP Indigo 30000 digital press with Tresu iCoat coater at a print company in Germany.

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31/05/2017 13:00

All about Crush Crush is an eco-friendly range of papers by Favini, made by replacing up to 15% of virgin tree pulp with the process residues of organic products.

Crush paper includes by-products from citrus fruits, grapes, cherries, lavender, corn, olives, coffee, kiwi fruits, hazelnuts and almonds.

These natural raw materials are saved from landfill and used to make these distinctive and vivid papers.

In true Favini style, Crush is produced and designed with creativity and care for the environment – using an eco-friendly manufacturing process that’s far more advanced than standard recycling processes.

Crush is available from PREMIER PAPER, 54 Park West, Dublin 12, D12 HW83 t: (01) 620 5555 e: sales@premierpaper.ie www.premierpaper.ie Other FAVINI brands available from stock including: Biancoflash, Majestic, Laguna, Dolce Vita, Prisma, Astralux, Burano, Sumo, Remake, Twill, Twist, Softy www.favini.com

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INTERVIEW

JOINS

Fine Print recently acquired the business of Prontaprint on Tara Street in Dublin city centre.

Maev Martin talks to David Graham, Managing Director of Perigord Group and Fine Print, about future plans and his take on the Irish market.

Fine Print sells printing services to the pharmaceutical, corporate and financial services sectors. A sister company of print management and design operation Perigord Group, Perigord and Fine Print share an executive management team and employ 60 people at a 30,000 square foot printing facility in Damastown.

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Why did you decide to acquire Prontaprint?

Fine Print have a strong commercial print clientele, including high end and corporate clients within regulated industries, to whom we provide high quality digital and lithographic print. I’ve always liked the Prontaprint brand and felt that we could offer more services to the existing clients of the business in Ireland.

Being a well-known brand, Prontaprint has a loyal

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following of blue chip clients. We see a great opportunity to both continue and develop these existing relationships into the future and build on the success of the brand

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Are you planning further acquisitions, either in Ireland or abroad?

Our current focus is on growing our pharmaceutical print business, both in the UK and in Ireland, and this may involve acquisition, although that is not our primary focus in this space. Parallel to that, we are interested in acquisitions in Ireland that will add additional value and complement our existing offering to our corporate print, financial services, and creative design clients.

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Has Fine Print moved into any new markets recently?

Over the last three years we have been successfully growing our creative design offering and we are currently recruiting for additional headcount in that area, specifically for someone to fill the position of Artworker.

We are finding that more and more of our clients require this service and, with our automated workflow solutions and digital asset management software offerings, this is becoming a key growth area of the business that will lead to additional revenue streams. We have also seen strong growth in dealing with financial services clients who

31/05/2017 13:02

INTERVIEW

are looking for services that go beyond merely providing print.

They are looking for experience in processing variable data, in line with all relevant regulations, and for a company that can provide a service that is integrated with their own and makes the entire experience far easier for them. For that reason, we are also recruiting for a Data Driven Communications Team Lead & Project Manager position. There is also a demand from our customers for more efficient processes in the creation of high volume artwork and personalised communications delivered in both print and digital formats. This involves the use of data to create finished artwork or drive content in marketing or transactional communications. To meet this demand, we are expanding our data driven communications department and are currently seeking applications for the position of Variable Data Programmer.

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Have you made any capital investments?

Our key sectors are pharmaceutical, financial services and FMCG, and these sectors are performing well for us. Over recent years we have invested in our technology department, to bring efficiencies to our customers, and in our quality systems to ensure that we have the appropriate levels of quality and compliance required by our customers in regulated industries.

We recently purchased the latest Ricoh digital print equipment which gives us the capability to print digitally on a sheet size up to 700mm and up to 400gsm, with the option to print in white or clear toner for a spot UV effect. For our pharmaceutical business, we have purchased the latest Eye C scanning system, which will allow our quality team to inspect and compare our printed multilingual pharmaceutical leaflets against the original file to ensure that our products have no deviations. We are planning to invest further in our equipment, both in printing and finishing.

This will form part of a longer-term plan to service the ever increasing and critical needs of our pharmaceutical clients with some additional specialist print and finishing equipment.

ABOVE: Fine Print Eye C scanner.

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Are you concerned about the impact that Brexit will have on your business?

Certainly - there was an immediate impact following the UK voting to leave the EU. Our export business was affected by the drop in Sterling and we experienced a temporary impact in confidence across Ireland.

However, while we may need to tweak our short and long term business plans when developments outside our control occur, we pride ourselves on being robust and adaptable enough to make quick changes where necessary.

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Do you think that confidence has returned to the Irish print industry?

In certain sectors, yes, although it is critical to be able to innovate where required in order to stay relevant to and understand our clients and their ever-changing needs. In our experience, diversification is critical to the future success of the business. We are always looking at new opportunities for additional revenue streams that we can introduce to the business and we will continue to offer our clients more products and services.

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MAIN IMAGE (OPPOSITE): Enda Casey (left), Commercial Director of Fine Print Ltd and Perigord Group Ltd, with David Graham, Managing Director of Perigord Group Ltd and Fine Print Ltd. BELOW: Dave Curtis inspecting product in Fine Print’s quality inspection room.

In your opinion, what are the major trends in the global print space that are likely to impact on the Irish market?

The transition from a printed output to a digital output for marketing communications is continuing and there is a requirement from clients for vendors that can supply both channels. Examples of this are where our clients supply one data list and want us to provide the same marketing communication to their consumers in a digital (email, social) and print format (direct mail), or where we now supply annual reports in a flip book format and a digitally printed format, where previously these would have been supplied in a high volume litho format. Obviously, the 38% increase in postage costs is on our minds and we are far down the road on alternative solutions for clients who need to mitigate some of the impact of this rise. Both global and pan European agreements will have an impact on some businesses that don’t have scale.

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Irish print jobs continue to be printed outside Ireland. Have you noticed any significant contracts, including State contracts, coming back or has the situation got worse?

The answer is both! While some contracts are being printed outside Ireland, we have managed to win some accounts which were previously printed outside the island. Again, Brexit will continue to have an impact here, as it can be hard for some Irish print companies to compete against bigger organisations outside Ireland that have a wider captive audience and the benefit of the drop in Sterling.

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What are the big issues facing the Irish print industry?

There is continual price pressure due to overcapacity, especially where there is no value added element to a print job, such as variable data or the requirement for compliance and quality with pharmaceutical print. This is accentuated by the ongoing paper price increases, which are making it very difficult to have a viable print business where price is the only differentiator.

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WHAT’S NEW IN PRINT

Serialisation Software Secures Supply Chain

Serialisation and track and trace software provider Adents showcased its latest solutions to secure the pharmaceutical supply chain at Interpack in Dusseldorf (May 4th to 10th). Adents’ two primary products, Adents Seriza and Adents Prodigi, enable marketing authorisation holders and contract manufacturers to comply with laws and regulations on drug traceability. Adents claims that the advantages of Adents Seriza, a serialisation solution for drug production, lie in its ease of implementation into pharmaceutical manufacturing and packaging operations, and in maintaining comparably high levels of overall equipment efficiency for continued high capacity production. This is particularly important in view of the approaching deadline for binding compliance with the EU Anti-Counterfeiting Directive (2011/62 / EU) in 2019. The recent collaboration between Siemens and Adents creates a new approach to the market for track and trace solutions, one comprising the integration of a fully configurable software suite into the full range of standard hardware, all supported and serviced by an extensive network of global integration partners.

Developed in partnership with Microsoft, Adents Prodigi is a cloud platform for unique product identification (UPID) and track and trace. Based on Microsoft Trusted Cloud Azure platform (selected by the European Medical Verification Organization), Adents claims that Prodigi is currently the only solution that provides tools and applications for data analysis and data processing. In this way, pharmaceutical companies can make use of the immense amounts of data that accumulate during the serialisation and track and trace processes.

Paper for Perfectionists

The Perigraphica portfolio of premium uncoated fine papers from Mondi is designed for the exacting needs of the creative and commercial print industries.

FSC and EU Ecolabel certified, Perigraphica is a Mondi Green Range product. It is also the only design paper brand included in the WWF’s ‘Check Your Paper’ resource for third-party audited, environmentally friendly pulp and paper products (checkyourpaper.panda.org). Its producers, the Mondi Neusiedler mill in Austria, claim that it provides excellent printability on a choice of textures, shades and weights. Perigraphica is called ‘Paper for Perfectionists’ because it fulfils the most demanding requirements for sophisticated and elegant printed documents. Graphic designers, advertising agencies and fine book publishers are just a few of the creative industries that will appreciate Perigraphica's variety of options: two textures (Rough and Smooth), three shades (High White, Classic and Natural) and six grammages between 90 and 300 g/m2. As a hybrid paper, Perigraphica works well with offset or digital printing technologies. It is also well-suited to a variety of post-print processing such as cellophaning, embossing, creasing, and die-cutting.

New Swatch Book From Mondi

A new swatch book for Mondi’s BIO TOP 3, designed with the needs of creative industries in mind, is now available in Europe. BIO TOP 3 is a premium uncoated off-white paper. The new swatch book, with the theme ‘by Nature,’ shows off the BIO TOP 3 portfolio. The offset printed book provides beautiful examples of colour printing and blind embossing in a section entitled ‘inspired by Nature’. Another section called ‘versatile by Nature’, which is stitched to the cover of the swatch book, explains the applications and benefits of BIO TOP 3 in areas such as corporate communication, book printing, and packaging. Mondi offers ‘BIO TOP 3 next’ in folio and reels for professionals in digital, preprint and offset printing, ‘BIO TOP 3 highspeed inkjet’ in reels for full colour high-speed inkjet applications with special surface treatment for dye and pigment ink, and ‘BIO TOP 3 extra’ for sustainable office printing needs with matching BIO TOP 3 envelopes. In addition to its off-white shade and high bulk, BIO TOP 3 is totally chlorine free and made without optical brightening agents.

BIO TOP 3 is part of Mondi’s Green Range and carries the EU Ecolabel.

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PLA CE

FLYERS A4 e 1,000 60 2,500 80 Order 170g gloss/silk flyers before 12 noon and receive delivery the following day! 5,000 130 10,000 225 Usual credit terms apply – this is NOT a prepay website.

15,000 335 Simply ring Micheál to set up your login details on the Walsh Colour Print website.

20,000 430

M

Y DA

SAME DAY DISPATCH DISPATCH

R S B E F ORE

ID

SAME DAY

O

E RD

A5 e 40 55 80 130 190 240

DL e 40 50 60 90 130 160

A6 e 40 50 60 80 120 130

Please contact us for any quotation or to set up an account on our website!

Freephone: 1800 613 111 Email: sales@walshcolourprint.com *Orders must be submitted through the Walsh Colour Print website before 12pm – delivered next working day NOTE: Artwork must be supplied as a print ready PDF and will be printed as received.

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14/06/2017 15:12

Ahead of the game

ColorPath XMF XMF ColorPath Cloud-based system to manage colour

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XMF Workflow Complete and highly automated crossmedia print production workflow

XMF Workflow XMF Powerful tools for print production Fujifilm’s XMF is a suite of workflow and print management tools that streamline and enhance many aspects of print production. Collectively it is one of the most comprehensive and advanced systems available, bringing wide-ranging productivity, quality and efficiency benefits to business systems, job planning and production.

Setting the standard for print production.

For more information contact Richard Styles, Litho Supplies 087 2342881

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12/06/2017 10:38