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CONTENTS Volume 52, Number 2 Features

12

The SCSI Awards Zac Bolan picks his favourite prepress software in the categories of Best Supporting Utility, Best Media Manager, Best Font Manager and Best Imaging Suite

14

A Licence to Print Publishers and printers in Europe, North America and Asia discuss how they capitalized on producing pages for the 50th anniversary of the first James Bond movie

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Technology Report: Imaging Hardware Update Detailing the newest imaging and plate technologies introduced since drupa, by leading suppliers in the flexography and commercial printing markets

Print

6

NEWS Kodak sells pieces of its patent portfolio for $525 million, USPS tells management to prepare for liquidity conditions, and Avanti donates $75,000 to the University of Waterloo

8

CALENDAR March 2013 Print UV lights up the Wynn in Las Vegas, the CMA presents Marketing Now in Halifax, and Pacific Bindery’s Kris Bovay hosts BCPIA’s LinkedIn workshop

10

SHOW Scenes from CES A pictorial report on some of the imaging and computing trends driving communications at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas

Column

11

NICK HOWARD Jumping to Carton Conclusions World-leading press makers are leveraging relatively quiet, but significant, advances in sheetfed technology to fit the packaging sector

Archive

26

February 1973 Construction of the CN Tower begins, Hägar the Horrible debuts in North America, and TPH’s paper bikini contest hits some rough waters

Resources 19 Services to the Trade Cover photo: Clive Chan

25 Marketplace FEBRUARY 2013 • PRINTACTION • 3

PERSPECTIVE

Rare Printing Gems n late-January, a rare 159-year-old four-anna Indian stamp, with an image of Queen Victoria’s head upside down due to a printing error, was to be put on the auction block. Organizers were Iexpecting the stamp to fetch around $110,000, which is a staggering sum for such a small item.

With 20 to 30 of these stamps still in existence today, however, it pales in comparison to the rare gems philatelists like to describe as the world’s most valuable items by weight and volume.

By this measure, the Treskilling Yellow stamp from Sweden is thought to be the most valuable item in existence. Only one Treskilling Yellow has ever surfaced. Weighing just 0.02675 grams, it was purchased by an anonymous consortium in 2010 for an undisclosed sum, although it logically sold for well over the $2.3 million price it went for in 1996. Even at the $2.3 million price tag, the Treskilling Yellow (or Tre Skilling Banco) is worth around $85 billion per kilogram. The Telegraph reported the Swedish stamp was expected to fetch around $8 million at its 2010 auction.

The Treskilling Yellow was rescued by a 14-year-old who found it in his grandmother’s rubbish bin in 1885 and sold it to a dealer for just seven kronor. The three-shilling stamp was first issued in Sweden in 1855. This particular stamp was printed in yellow by mistake, when it should have been green.

Some of the world’s other most valuable items in existence includes The Inverted Jenny, a U.S. stamp issued in 1918 with what seems to be an inverted image of a Curtiss JN-4 airplane, but it is actually the frame that is printed upside-down. With less than 100 in existence, a single piece last sold for around $825,000 in 2007. The Benjamin Franklin Z Grill is a 1-cent postage stamp depicting Benjamin Franklin, issued by the USPS in 1868. With only two known pieces in existence, it last sold for $930,000 in 1988.

The Stamps of Mauritius (issued in 1847) were the first stamps issued in any part of the British Empire outside of Great Britain. Only one specimen is now known to exist today, which sold for over $1 million more than a decade ago. The British Guiana One Cent Black on Magenta (1856) was printed on poor quality paper with black ink magenta coloured. With only one piece known to exist, it was last sold in 1980 for $935,000.

The rarest Canadian stamp, with two in existence since production in 1868, is the 2c Large Queen on laid paper, which last sold for over $200,000 in the mid-1990s.

More information about these rare printing gems can be discovered at the upcoming National Postage Stamp Show taking place in Toronto this April.

Jon Robinson, Editor

Canada’s Graphic Communications Magazine. Proudly published for two generations.

Editor Jon Robinson • 416.665.7333 ext. 30 • jon@printaction.com Associate Editor Clive Chan • 416.665.7333 ext. 25 • clive@printaction.com Contributing Writers Zac Bolan, Clint Bolte, Peter Ebner, Chris Fraser, Victoria Gaitskell, Dr. Martin Habekost, Nick Howard, Thad McIlroy, Gordon Pritchard, Josh Ramsbottom, Nicole Rycroft, Andrew Tribute, Trish Witkowski Publisher Sara Young • 416.665.7333 ext. 31 • sara@printaction.com Associate Publisher Stephen Longmire • 416.665.7333 ext. 26 • stephen@printaction.com Production Manager Anders Kohler • 416.665.7333 ext. 37 • anders@printaction.com Intern Tiffany Kay Garcia • 416.665.7333 ext. 34 • tiffany@printaction.com Advertising Sales Sara Young • 416.665.7333 ext. 31 • sara@printaction.com Stephen Longmire • 416.665.7333 ext. 26 • stephen@printaction.com Circulation ADPIC Subscription Services • 800.363.3261 • subscriptions@printaction.com PrintAction is published by Youngblood Publishing Limited and is Canada’s only national monthly publication serving the graphic arts industry. ISSN 1481-9287.

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Notice: PrintAction, Youngblood Publishing Limited, their staff, officers, directors and shareholders (hence known as the “Publisher”) assume no liability, obligations, or responsibility for claims arising from advertised products. The Publisher also reserves the right to limit liability for editorial errors, omissions and oversights to a printed correction in a subsequent issue.

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Youngblood Publishing Ltd. 610 Alden Rd., Suite 100, Markham, ON L3R 9Z1 Tel: 416.665.7333 • Fax: 905.752.1441 www.printaction.com Publications Mail Agreement Number 40010868 • ISSN 1481-9287 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to subscriptions@printaction.com We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

4 • PRINTACTION • FEBRUARY 2013

In today’s printing presses sheets are zipping through at ever increasing speeds. This means that as the sheets pass from one set of cylinders to another any slippage or shift will result in printing problems. Everything from slurring to doubling can result. KOMORI understands that a stable transfer is one of the keys to high quality print. Using diamonds that never wear is one of the solutions to this problem and KOMORI has it! As the totalizer increases, the wear and tear on grippers and pads show up in print problems and presents you with high maintenance costs to resolve.

Not so with KOMORI! Why? It’s also in the timing. At the transfer point, each set of grippers remains closed on the sheet for a period of time and this is measured in degrees. You may be surprised to learn that most leading press manufacturers build in only one to two degrees of closed travel. KOMORI took a different approach and employ four degrees. This means that taking into account rapid opening and closing times, KOMORI gives almost four times more time for the sheet to transfer. Consider the Relay race when the baton must be passed from one runner to another. If the runners had the ability to run together for a longer period of time, wouldn’t the potential for a dropped baton decrease? Of course, it would and that’s another reason why, over the life of a KOMORI, it just keeps on giving you incredibly lower operating costs!

Tel. (905) 286-5155 Fax. (905) 821-0055 Email: info@k-north.ca Website: www.k-north.ca

PRINT NEWS GARRY PROUDFOOT, described by the British Columbia Printing Industries Association as an industry pioneer within Vancouver’s printing community, passed away on January 4. Proudfoot was 67.

He founded Web Press Graphics in the mid-1960s with Pierre Péladeau as a business partner, an operation that continues today as part of Quad/Graphics in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia.

ANTONIO PEREZ, CEO of Eastman Kodak, announced the company sold part of its patent portfolio for US$525 million to a consortium led by Intellectual Ventures.

This consortium includes major tech players like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, RIM, HTC, Fujifilm, Huawei, Amazon and Shutterfly. As a result, Kodak agrees to drop patent cases against the purchasing companies, the most notable of which is a $1 billion suit against Apple filed last year. Kodak’s sale of these patents was a key condition to it obtaining financing worth US$793 million from bondholders. After the sale of these 1,100 digital imaging patents, Eastman Kodak still retains over 9,600 patents in other business areas.

CHRIS BURKE and Sean Learney, press operators at Prime Data, oversaw the installation of a Presstek 52DI press. In business for over a decade, Prime Data of Aurora, Ontario, focuses on a range of direct-mail marketing services, particularly around fundraising campaigns, including data analytics, email integration, VDP and fulfillment. Prime Data creates a large volume of offset shells to run through its Konica Minolta toner presses for shortrun customization. The company states the Presstek 52DI will allow it to handle longer, more cost-effective runs of offset shells, as well as more versioned runs.

MONIQUE HANIS becomes COO and VP of Marketing and Communications for the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. She has more than 20 years of varied communications experience, including a previous position as Director of Communications for the Solar Energy Industries Association. She also held top strategic roles at America’s Community Bankers, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and Independent Community Bankers Association, as well as with revenue-generating publishing operations. Hanis has spent the past three years on the Board of Directors of the Washington, D.C., metro chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.

6 • PRINTACTION • FEBRUARY 2013

TC TRANSCONTINENTAL signed a contract extension to provide flyer-printing services to Best Buy and Future Shop until 2015. As part of the new contract, TC Transcontinental is to also provide new distribution services in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces for the two retailers. TC Transcontinental claims the contract extension is to provide around $30 million in incremental business.

AVANTI COMPUTER SYSTEMS made a $75, 000 donation to Ontario’s University of Waterloo. The donation was made in large part because Avanti’s three owners, Stephen McWilliam, Patrick Bolan and Peter Funnell first met while attending the University of Waterloo. The trio later formed a partnership to purchase Avanti in 2004 and have since tripled the size of the company and expanded its reach well RÉMI MARCOUX, founder and member of beyond Canada’s borders. the board of directors of Transcontinental ROBIN HAVLICEK, owner of RAD Printing Inc., is donating approximately 160,000 of Calgary, celebrates the installation of Class A Subordinate Voting Shares of the a new Xerox 550 system, which she has company to educational institutions. The nicknamed Carmen. RAD Printing is donation is being made through Capinabel celebrating its eighth year of business this Inc., a corporation that is controlled by February. According to Havlicek, the Xerox Marcoux. He founded Transcontinental 550 allows her company to handle heavier in 1976 and was Chief Executive Officer stock, while increasing speed. The Xerox until 2004, when he became Executive 550 will also increase RAD’s ability to print Chairman of the Board; he remained in on envelopes, which boosts an existing that position until February 16, 2012. strong presence in producing wedding packages, as well as stationary packages and promotional items.

ART SETO, a professor with Ryerson University’s Graphic Communications Management (GCM) program, received the Dean’s Award for 2012. This marks the first time that a GCM faculty member has earned the award. He was chosen from amongst approximately 100 instructors employed within Ryerson’s Faculty of Communication & Design, which includes GCM – Canada’s only 4-year degree-level program dedicated to graphic arts studies. Seto was chosen for his transformation of the two semesters of JOEL QUADRACCI, CEO of Quad/Graphics, bindery courses, which are now regarded as completed the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Vertis Holdings for a GARY HUGHES, formerly the long-stand- some of the most-popular courses with net purchase price of $170 million. This GCM students.

He was also recognized for ing President of Muller Martini Canada, assumes a purchase price of $267 million becomes Director of Global Packaging his teaching of the estimating course. less the payment of $97 million for current for Muller Martini, which initiated a new assets that are in excess of normalized workcommitment to the sector in 2009 when ing capital requirements. Quad/Graphics it acquired patents for the Variable Sleeve used cash on hand and drew on its revolving Offset Press (VSOP). Muller Martini credit facility to finance the acquisition. “We now has over 100 presses operating in have strengthened our retail ad insert, direct various packaging sectors. The company marketing and in-store marketing solutions, also announced Werner Naegeli, forand have expanded our support services to merly President of Muller Martini USA, include media planning and placement, and becomes President of Muller Martini marketing services,” said Quadracci. The North America, which includes Muller combined company will employ approxiMartini Canada. mately 25,000 employees from more than IPEX, long one of Europe’s largest printing tradeshows, to be held next year in London, faced further setbacks with separate announcements that Komori, Xerox and Landa will not be exhibiting. This follows similar announcements made in summer 2012 that Heidelberg, Agfa and HP will not participate. In an interview with UK publication PrintWeek, Benny Landa states that his company will not participate in any trade show currently on the calendar, save for the next drupa in 2016.

PREMIER PRINTING’s Phil Calverley, Press Operator, and Tom Bennett, QCR Manager, oversaw the installation of a new waterless RYOBI UV-DI press into their Winnipeg facility. It is the first such press installed in Canada. Purchased through Canadian Printing Equipment, the UV-DI press allows Premier Printing to offer 16-micron production on a range of substrates including plastic, PVC, Polypropylene and various synthetic papers.

70 print-production facilities in North America, Latin America and Europe.

VERTIS shut down its plant in Fort Erie, Ontario, following the completion of it being purchased by Quad/Graphics. The plant, one of three that was not part of the Quad/Graphics acquisition, was the only Canadian operation owned by Vertis. It employed around 100 members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union Local 425G (Niagara region).

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track and distribute marketing assets. The FlowMaster RS Flex inserter can process a range of materials and sizes, including letters at speeds of up to 16,000 pieces per hour and flats at a speed of up to 12,000 per hour.

With the new system, Interlinc states it is anticipating an increase of inserting efficiencies of around 40 percent.

HEMLOCK PRINTERS installed a new 40-inch, four-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster 102 perfecting press on its production floor in Burnaby, British Columbia. Hemlock describes the installation as a first of its kind in Canada, because the press itself was manufactured in a 100 percent carbon neutral process through the purchase of climate-protection certificates in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol. The company’s new press joins existing eight- and 10-colour perfecting presses, while also filling what the company describes as a need for more efficient production of one-, two- and four-colour print work.

INTERLINC DIRECT, based in Mississauga, installed a Pitney Bowes FlowMaster RS Flex inserting system to boost its production of personalized marketing materials. Interlinc operates a fulfillment and print facility integrated with its Web-based management information systems to manage, control,

NANCY SOBHY has been appointed by Unisource Canada as Senior Marketing Manager, Paper and Wide Format, for Canada and the USMA region. With more than 10 years of product management and marketing experience, Sobhy most recently spent three years in Australia as a product manager for a global merchant. She previously worked within Canada’s printing industry focusing on printing ink and commercial production. She holds a Bachelor of Technology degree with a minor in Marketing from Ryerson University’s Graphic Communications Management program.

CANON resolved, through a New York District Court, a patent infringement dispute with Zinyaw LLC (TonerPirate.com) concering certain toner cartridges and photosensitive drums. This includes any toner cartridges containing such photosensitive drums, sold for use in Canon or HP laser-beam printers. As a result, TonerPirate is prohibited from making, using, selling and offering such products for sale in the U.S. TonerPirate will also make to Canon a payment of an undisclosed sum in connecSTEPHANE FORTIN becomes President of tion with the resolution.

Technorol Inc., a manufacturer of rubber DAVID ALLEN was confirmed as the new rollers for printing and industrial Chief Executive Officer of PaperlinX, markets since 1995, based in Granby, based in Australia. He had been serving Quebec. He previously worked for as Interim CEO since August 2012, dur- ACTEGA Kelstar over the past 12 years. ing the paper distributor’s significant Fortin has also appointed Real Gratton as restructuring process. Joost Smallenbroek a Technical Representative for Technorol has been promoted to the position of in the Ontario Region. Over the past 35 years, Gratton has worked for companies Chief Financial Officer. such as AB Dick, Western Lithotech, BRIAN GOTT becomes Chief Financial Offi- Mitsubishi Chemicals, Lastra and Agfa. cer for manroland Inc. and manroland Technorol also distributes a range of Canada Inc. Gott joined manroland Inc. in consumables for the printing industry. late 1999 as its Accounting Manager and most recently held the position of Con- CORRECTION NOTICE: In the Canadian troller. He earned a BA from the University Printing Awards gallery, PrintAction Januof Illinois and an MBA from Benedictine ary 2013 issue, we incorrectly identified University. In late-December, manroland’s Brad McDonald as Parker MacDonald. parent company, manroland sheetfed Brad McDonald is a Senior Sales Executive GmbH in Germany, announced the deliv- with Presstek, while Parker MacDonald is ery of its 100th press since the company the Regional Sales Manager with Ernest began trading on February 9, 2012.

Green. We apologize to both gentlemen.

FEBRUARY 2013 • PRINTACTION • 7

PRINT CALENDAR São Paulo is the largest city in the southern hemisphere, representing the second largest largest GDP. The city features a subtropical climate deemed by locals as among the most unreliabile in the world, where one can experience all four seasons in a single day. The city also has over 30 daily newspapers serving its more than 11 million citizens.

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Self-described as the only event focused exclusively on the UV printing market, the spotlight for Print UV 2013 is on sheetfed printing.

Held at the Wynn Encore Resort in Las Vegas, the event will include tips on how commercial and packaging printers are “making UV happen” as well as how to sell UV. $1,495

San Francisco plays host to the annual National Postal Forum, an educational and networking event for mailing professionals.

The four-day event features more than 100 workshops and 100 exhibitors, as well as an opening address by the U.S. Postmaster General. $950

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The BCPIA continues its LinkedIn Workshop which educates printers on how to better employ the social networking tool to connect with 20,000 industry members in the Greater Vancouver Area alone. The seminar is presented by Kris Bovay, General Manager of Pacific Bindery. $100

8 • PRINTACTION • FEBRUARY 2013

The Canadian Marketing Association looks East as it holds its Atlantic Marketing Conference in Halifax titled Marketing Now. It will focus on the evolving channels of communications to consumers, including social media and mobile marketing. $299

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers presents its Printing Summit 2013 in Hamburg. The event will feature international speakers in the newspaper field, including Adrian Norris, Creative Director of The Globe and Mail.

EUR 1,875

FESPA for the first time will bring its trade show to the Brazilian market with the four-day FESPA Brasil in São Paulo. The event will be collocated with ExpoPrint Digital, the largest digital printing show in Latin America. With this new addition, the event aims to surpass its 35,000 visitors it had in 2011.

Extreme Offset: Troubleshoot, Control, Optimize is a workshop put on by the Printing Industries of America as a first step to implement a colour-managed workflow. The three-day event promises to help press operators slash makeready times, and quickly diagnose root causes for problems. $1,195

KBA Sheetfed Offset technology

Why KBA?

Printers are asking ”Why KBA?“ Here is why…

KBA has the worlds fastest printing presses, the world’s shortest make ready times, the most versatile presses that can run the widest range of substrates…and we are easy to do business with. Since we are so financially strong so we can invest in R+D; we are growing, hiring and investing in our industry, all like no other!

Our brand new ground up presses like the Rapida 106 runs at 20,000 sph, has no side lay, can change plates while the press is running and has so many synchronized make ready features we could not list them all. Also, as the world leader in packaging our new Rapida 145 is the fastest and most automated in its class.

It is time to rise to the next level of productivity and to grow your company’s profitability, call us at 800-522-7521 and one of our experts can discuss how KBA can help you. Let us show you how easy we are to do business with!

KBA Canada phone: 800-522-7521, na-marketing@kba.com, www.kba.com

Photos by Zac Bolan

PRINT SHOW

Scenes from CES

q he Consumer Electronics Show gives the world a peek at trendsetting gadgets, gizmos, and cutting-edge communications tools, coming to a retailer near you.

The 2013 show moves us further away from traditional computing with more wearable and portable innovations.

T

q Intel still holds the prime CES real estate

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e

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in spite of the fact they announced little of interest at this year’s show. Interestingly up-and-coming Chinese electronics manufacturer Hisense occupied the spot traditionally assigned to Microsoft who were not exhibiting at this year’s show.

w Thousands visit the Qualcomm booth at CES 2013, most oblivious to the company’s controversial and digerati-deprecating keynote presentation in which everyday users were depicted as vacuous social-media addicts.

e Intent on joining the personal POV action cam market, Panasonic introduced their version of the wearable video camera.

The camera records to an arm-mounted drive (and makes you look like a wanna-be cyborg).

r Once known for their instant photo technology, Polaroid moves into the growing mobile audio market with their Mondrian-inspired speaker line launched at CES.

t y

u

t In a bold move imaging giant Fuji shows their latest in consumer photography tech – a point-and-shoot camera the produces instant prints. After snapping, the print emerges from the camera and develops before your eyes in just a few minutes… déja vu!

y Attending CES 2013 to moderate the Digital Health Revolution conference supersession, Arianna Huffington takes time to meet the public at the HeartMath booth.

u The Tat’z Nail’z Imaging System brings on-demand inkjet printing to the lucrative manicure esthetics market with this innovative device. Users can choose from more than 50,000 designs or upload their own.

i Is a Segway a little too complex for you?

i 1!

o 1@

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An Inventist model demonstrates their gyro-stabilized electric unicycle people mover – the Solowheel.

o Vancouverite Jenny Lai of Catalyst Lifestyle products shows of her company’s new waterproof iPhone case, crowd-funded into existence through kickstarter.com.

1) Casio demonstrates their new point-of-sale retail video signage product. Shop owners can upload any facial image in JPEG format, write some copy and send it to Casio who will animate the sign. The video animation is projected onto a carved, frosted glass screen.

1! Crowds gather to see the stunning Samsung OLED Smart TVs at their stadium-size booth.

1@ Nano-coating of smartphones can make devices virtually waterproof as demonstrated

by P2i, one of several molecular waterproofing technologies on display in at CES 2013.

– Zac Bolan

NICK HOWARD

Jumping to Carton Conclusions ntruths often metastasize into reality all presses recently introduced around drupa.

“It isn’t a board press,” he replied. “We until after the war when the old English dearound us. Politics arguably provides In fact, any press printing to 1 mm (0.40 need a board machine here, not a paper signed Mann Fast Five was duplicated and the most consistent train of falsehoods inches), which has skeletal transfer cylinders, press.” sold as a PZO and PVO series press. This becoming dogma, or perhaps it is the reli- double-size impression cylinders, air in I just had to shake my head – double-size design did not have any inherent positives gious zealots of all faiths who polarize fol- transfers, and carton-attachment options cylinders, 40-point capacity and skeletal for running carton. The Variant changed all lowers into believing we’re right, you’re like receding non-stop deliveries, large di- transfers – bingo! – This is a board press. that. wrong. The world of print too is not im- ameter in-feeds, press up-lifting features or Harris, meanwhile, a US-based press mune from basing opinions on guttural as- UV capabilities, can be considered a pack- Unexpected surprises maker from yesteryear, did have a unitized sumptions, particularly when it comes to aging press. All five of the world’s major in the laboratory press with double-size transfer cylinders, advances in press technology. press makers can deliver such machines During the late-1960s to 1990s, Planeta but also single-size impressions. NonetheThis is an environment created by all of today within a very close measure of com- was long the most-common sight in the less, Harris was able to run board on all its today’s press makers, as they compete for petence – depending, of course, on which world’s packaging plants. The press maker presses, especially in the 60-inch and tightening market share with highly ad- features a printing company values most. became an unexpected carton favorite 77/78-inch formats. The same held true vanced offset press lines and assowhen printers discovered for the American-built Miehle machines. ciated workflow. For the past that, particularly following During this period, Roland, Harris, decade, printers have watched offthe launch of its Variant se- Miehle, Crabtree and Nebiolo were the set-press innovation – often not ries in 1965, how good they prime competitors to Planeta in most of fully appreciated, because of the were at running thick mate- the +3b sizes. marketing dollars and future inrials (in sizes from 4 to 8).

These historic companies over time were terests poured into toner and Based in Soviet-controlled either absorbed or decimated by today’s inkjet platforms – redefine tradiEast Germany, with a cash- modern press makers. Planeta was scooped tional run-length boundaries. up König & Bauer, The new Rapida 145 (introduced at drupa, May Today, offset press makers are known today as KBA. 2012) is described by KBA as a popular investalso leveraging significant Before purchasing ment with packaging printers because of its sheetfed advances, in particular, to Komori GLX: The design concept of very large impression and Planeta, KBA was fospeed and large sheet-size format. At 17,000 redefine application boundaries. transfer cylinders are key to a packaging press, as are in-feed cused as a web-offset sheets per hour, the Rapida 145, with its 41.73 x Their main target is the packaging designs and delivery slow downs that are beefed up for heavy manufacturer and be57.09-inch format, is 13 percent faster than any Planeta was the trailblazer in design of the large cylinder of its competitors in the VLF space. sector, more specifically longer- stock. ginning to make its and also skeleton transfer design, beginning in run carton production, which is 1965. Today every manufacturer has this to some mark with finely traditionally a field ruled by large- extent. Beginning in 1981, Komori was the first tuned Intaglio maformat sheeted presses. KBA con- company after Planeta to build presses this way. chines for currency tinues to lead this production. sector and has conKBA also had a trolled a 50 percent very popular stable of market share, globally, letterpress machines, in large-format offset as well as a range of for well over a decade. smaller sheetfeds like In 2012 alone, KBA the KRO and SRO, held more than a 65 but these were mostly percent market share 72 cm (28-inch) main North America’s chines. Early experilarge-format sheetfed manroland’s ROLAND 700 HiPrint HS is ments with the 3b Heidelberg’s designed for producing long-run jobs in sector. format brought out an array of Speedmaster CX It came as no great both the high-quality commercial and odds and sods, one press in par102, introduced packaging sectors, reaching up to 18,000 surprise during a re- sph. It features the AutoPrint smart control ticular drew upon the Heidelberg at drupa with production cent conversation that system for quick-change job, automatic Rotaspeed’s mirror image platspeeds of up to a printer suggested, start-up sequencing, self-learning ink slide form. KBA then introduced a 16,500 sph, can “There is only one pre-set and network software with inline unitized RA104 press in the handle substrates company that makes a colour control and IntegrationPilot plus.

1980s. The purchase of Planeta such as flimsy packaging press.” Most every production or provided the company with the Okay – not every papers, stiff operations manager holds strong opinions press maker builds mamarket to advance its developboard, and a wide range of about the offset machines they run, chines with stock transment of the 104, and subsequent plastic materials. whether it is the result of a close – often his- fers exceeding 1 mm, larger sizes, into a respected toric – relationship with their press sales- but it is of little conseworldwide sheetfed line. person or mechanic, or just a general quence for 95 percent of all packaging ap- strapped Deutsche Demokratische RepubToday, KBA’s RA142 (now RA145) and likability of the press architecture itself. plications anyway. Even the most lik (DDR) government, Planeta needed especially the RA162a have done exceedThere are a myriad of reasons why press- experienced press operators tend to ignore western hard currency and sold presses to ingly well in carton shops, building on rooms becomes entrenched in machine this fact because they are so deeply rooted the market at prices significantly lower years of expertise that began with the Varibrands and their perceived positions in the in tradition and cannot see the forest for than their real value. ant series. manroland, with its past link to market.

Big double-size cylinders were unheard Roland Ultra and 800, has also enjoyed histhe trees, which became crystal clear on my These historic positions, however, once recent visit to a high-end cosmetics printer. of at the time and it even became possible torically significant placement in carton so clearly defined in the printing world by These types of plants – where double to use these innovative presses for printing shops when it comes to large-format application and run-length, and therefore hits, overprint varnishes and unique com- on micro-flute (F-flute up to 1.8 mm). De- sheetfed. press format size, are shifting more than binations of inks and coatings are part of a spite struggling with poor Robotron In late-2007, Heidelberg opened its new ever. Large-format sheetfed will continue press operator’s everyday life – are always electrics and associated quality-control is- €45 million Wiesloch-Walldorf assembly to dominate high-volume packaging for pushing the print-production envelope. sues, the Planeta design still presented an hall, measuring 375,000 square feet, to proyears to come, but today’s innovations in This particular cosmetics printer had just enormous advancement over all other duce large-format sheetfed presses (Speedsheetfed – not to mention recent advances bought a new press that would soon arrive. competitors – even if it took a while to im- master XL 145 and Speedmaster XL 162) in in toner and inkjet technologies – mean al- I was there to inspect a used press on its part the true potential of these presses to an effort to eat into the size 6 and 7 market most any modern press format size can im- way out the door and so I asked the lead the marketplace. share controlled by KBA and manroland. pact packaging, which was certainly the pressman for his thoughts about the older Prior to 1965, Planeta, an old established This is a second large-format-sheetfed effort case with several modern 40-inch sheetfed machine. builder, did not really find its sales imprint Continued on page 24

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FEBRUARY 2013 • PRINTACTION • 11

A

quiet hush falls over the massive auditorium as the lights dim and the last few tuxedoed gents escort their bejeweled ladies to their seats.

Centre stage, a lone figure steps into the spotlight and clears his throat…“Ladies and gentlemen, tonight the Academy of Premedia and Prepress Software Arts and Sciences would like to welcome you to the 1st Annual Software Academy Awards – The 2013 SCSIs.” The crowd goes wild and rises to their feet in anticipation of the pending announcements. Who will win best Supporting Utility? Best Media Manager? The suspense is palpable. Disliking long, drawn-out award shows I fidget, trying to get comfortable in my formalwear while hoping the acceptance speeches are mercifully short!

Let’s face it, 2012 wasn’t exactly a banner year in the premedia software multi-verse. Aside from the much anticipated launch of Adobe CS6 back in May 2012, most new software releases during the past year tended towards incremental improvements rather than life-altering features. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – after all, modest progression is better than entropy in the software world.

And at some point we have all been guilty of neglecting to keep our collection of aging software current, stoically holding the status quo. It’s easy for busy professionals to miss incremental improvements in their favourite applications, especially given the evolutionary nature of the software industry. Consequently, it’s good to catch up with old friends in the software world once in a while – even if that means wearing an ill-fitting rental tux to some cheesy awards ceremony.

The usher leans over me and asks me to quit mumbling as the emcee makes his first declaration.

has undergone substantive changes to reflect the new digital content landscape.

Perhaps most significant of these is support for Web fonts in Fusion 4.0.

When embedded within a Webpage or specified in a cascading style sheet, Web fonts enable the display of fonts not present on the end-viewer’s computer. Fusion users can now access the entire Google Web font collection through Suitcase, enabling greater typographic control of online content. Similarly, Suitcase Fusion connects

Suitcase Fusion's Font Panel shown here in Adobe Photoshop.

to WebINK, Extensis’ commercial Web font site with thousands of fonts from well-known foundries. Users can browse and utilize the entire WebINK collection free of charge while designing online assets, only paying the appropriate licensing when the site goes live. This added capability to work with Web fonts ensures that cross-media designers will be able to better match their print and online work.

Also new in Fusion 4, Extensis Font Panels bring font browsing and management to Adobe Creative Suite applications including InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. Besides being able to search and preview typefaces without leaving the host application, users can also activate new fonts. Custom Font Digests enable users to build font collections containing fonts from any source including both local and Web fonts that will work within any of Extensis Font Panel. When a designer builds a Font Digest in Photoshop for example, it will be available in both the Illustrator and InDesign Font Panels.

The Suitcase Fusion 4.0 application features user interface improvements including the addition of new toolbar commands, custom preview colours and the ability to create font sets from selections within the Fusion interface. Additionally, users can now specify particular fonts as “Favourites” for easier access. Similarly, users can create automatically updating Smart Sets of fonts determined by a variety of states and attributes, similar to the Apple iTunes Smart Playlist feature.

All in all, the newest version of Suitcase Fusion delivers an enhanced user experience, streamlined workflow for Creative Suite users in addition to full cross-media font management and production tools.

Thankfully that went fairly quickly; sometimes those font people can go on and on. The emcee steps back into the spotlight as the applause subsides.

“In the category of Best Font Manager, the winner is…”

Suitcase Fusion 4.0 www.extensis.com Full version US$99.95 Upgrade US$49.95 Free full function 30-day trial Extensis has been around for nearly 20 years and some version of Suitcase has resided on my prepress workstation for nearly as long. The current incarnation of this respected font manager was born of a synthesis of Diamondsoft’s Font Reserve and Extensis Suitcase back in 2006, validating the ‘Fusion’ suffix. Last reviewed in the July 2008 issue PrintAction, the 2012 incarnation of Suitcase Fusion Suitcase Fusion's Mac interface (left) and web font integration mean designers can embed fonts into Webpages, ensuring design consistency between on-line assets and print.

12 • PRINTACTION • FEBRUARY 2013

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