December 2012 Preview

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CONTENTS Volume 51, Number 12

AGFA GRAPHICS

Feature

Hands up all those

:Azura

who could use

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Products of the Year Thirty top developers and distributors of printing technologies name their Product of the Year in this third-annual feature, which helps describe the near-future focus for some of Canada’s leading suppliers

Print

6

NEWS Random House and Penguin publishing houses plan merger, Ryerson GCM christens the Esko Premedia Wing, and Peter Nitchos joins Mi5 in Markham

8

CALENDAR January 2013 BCPIA holds part two of Lean Learn and Do, PAC presents Packaging Sales Best Practices, and EFI hosts Connect 2013 at the Wynn in Las Vegas

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SHOW Print World 2012 A pictorial report from the show floor of Print World in Toronto, which emphasized the entrepreneurial drive within Canada’s printing community

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EDUCATION Ryerson GCM Support Network Close to $100,000 in scholarships are presented to dozens of university students pursuing careers in graphic communications

The most popular chemistry-free thermal plate system available today. Innovative :Azura TS ThermoFuse technology: t Increases productivity and is easy to use; offers consistent, high quality platemaking t Is environmentally-friendly–requires no developer and virtually eliminates water usage, reducing waste and disposal costs t Delivers run lengths up to 100,000 impressions t Produces razor sharp images; holds 2-98% at 200 lpi

Columns

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ZAC BOLAN Adobe Gets Back to Business with Acrobat XI Pro Canada’s prepress guru fires up his Macbook Air – with OS X and Windows – to test-drive the new engine of PDF production

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TRISH WITKOWSKI Does Your Holiday Greeting Stand Out or Blend In? The folding fanatic looks through her archives to find some of the best holiday cards produced by North American printing and finishing companies

Archive

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That’s why :Azura TS is the best choice in chemistry-free platemaking–hands down.

Contact us at: 800 540-2432 x 858 0288 www.agfagraphics.com

December 1987 Construction begins on the Chunnel, Gorbachev makes his first trip to the United States, and Toronto police print their own annual reports

Resources 21 Services to the Trade Cover photo: Clive Chan

29 Marketplace DECEMBER 2012 • PRINTACTION • 3

PERSPECTIVE

Celebrating Print rintAction would like to thank our judging panel for spending a full day to comb more than 200 entries into this year’s Canadian Printing Awards program – Ptheover 7th annual. Each entry was scrutinized on a point system that considered project effectiveness, printing defects, production challenge and overall quality. The judges also took into account important printing information like the process used, finishing and run length.

In responding to a printer’s inquiry about their submission, one of our more technical judges wrote, “Speaking for all the judges of the Canadian Printing Awards, I would have to say that the entries this year are the best we have ever seen. There were several entries that just stood out above the rest and had us all in awe and admiration for a job well done.

“During the judging process, each judge makes notes on jobs that they feel are outstanding and later share this with each other. Once we have found the cream of the crop the judges scrutinize them very carefully in their own area of expertise and then consult with each other to determine the very best.”

Congratulations to Rhino Print Solutions for winning the 2012 Best of Show award for its production of the monochrome book South Korea: Memories of the Heart. PrintAction also congratulates this year’s outstanding Industry Achievement winners, including: George Kallas, Founder of MET Fine Printers, who received the John A. Young Lifetime Achievement Award; Mike Meshkati, President of Sina Printing, who received the Emerging Leader of the Year Award; and Ward Griffin, President & CEO of The Lowe-Martin Group, who was named the 2012 Printing Leader of the Year.

Please be sure to check out our January issue for a detailed breakdown of the winning print pieces – covering a range of categories from books and brochures to direct mail and display graphics – and business-development initiatives. As much as the judges were vital in creating a successful 2012 program, this important celebration of Canadian printing would not be possible without the sponsorship of Unisource, Fujifilm, Hostmann-Steinberg, KBR Graphics, Kodak, manroland, Presstek, Sustainable Forest Initiative, Sun Chemical, Agfa, Domtar, Epson and Heidelberg.

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.

Annual Subscriptions: Canada: $31.15 ($27.57 + $3.58 HST) United States: CN$69.99; Other Foreign: CN$139.99

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.

PrintAction is printed by Sina Printing on Starbrite Plus 70lb Velvet Text and 80lb Gloss Text available from Unisource Canada, Inc. 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 • DECEMBER 2012

DIAMONDS are a Printer’s Best Friend We all know that diamonds are one of nature’s hardest materials. The heart of the printing press is the gripper and the gripper pad. Unlike its competitors, KOMORI decided that gripper pads need to last. And last they do.

Most competitors use hardened steel, sintered alloys, carbide or even a urethane derivative. However, these all have a limited lifespan. Diamond-coated pads don’t. KOMORI presses do not require expensive pad replacements that other well-known brands do. Generally, after 75 million impressions, it’s time for an expensive revitalization that can cost over $100,000!

Along with the utilization of much larger cam followers, torsion bars instead of springs, KOMORI builds longevity and low cost of ownership that keeps on giving. Sure, diamonds are nice in a ring or a bracelet, EXW LQ WKH SUHVVURRPV RI &DQDGD GLDPRQGV TXLFNO\ DGG XS WR D SUR¿WDEOH HGJH WKDW LV XQLTXH WR KOMORI.

PRINT NEWS

PIERRE KARL PÉLADEAU, President and CEO of Sun Media, announced 500 jobs cuts which includes the closure of two printing plants. The corporation's Ottawa and Kingston printing presses will be silenced in part of an effort to shave off $45 million in costs per year. “This restructuring is regrettable but warranted by changes in our industry which force us to align our cost structure with the new reality,” said Péladeau, who is also CEO of Quebecor Inc., which owns Sun Media. Quebecor in November last year cut 400 jobs, some attributed to outsourcing of production to India. Sun Media is one of Canada's largest newspaper publishers with a circulation of over 15.1 million copies a week spanning 36 paid-circulation dailies and six free commuter papers. The Corporation also publishes 200 community newspapers, shopping guides and other publications.

WINGENBACK INC.’s Dennis Wingenbach, Executive Vice-President and Owner; Dean Wingenbach, Ontario Division Manager; Barry Emo, Vice President of Sales; and Wayne Wingenbach, President and owner welcomed customers to their annual appreciation event at the Hyatt Regency in Toronto. Founded in 1975, Wingenback – with locations in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto, and Halifax – is a diversified company providing high-end industrial moving services; ATM-related products; and safes, vaults, and locksmith services.

TRANSCONTINENTAL is to close its printing plant at 7743 Bourdeau St. in LaSalle, Quebec, by December 20th. The closure will result in the elimination of 150 jobs in the Montreal suburb. Transcontinental acquired the LaSalle facility – a heatset web operation – from Quad/Graphics in June of 2011, along with five other facilities. Transcontinental announced closures of the Dartmouth and Rivière-desPrairies plants for April and June of this year respectively. Before Quad/Graphics' purchase in 2010, the plants were owned

by Worldcolor/Quebecor.

6 • PRINTACTION • DECEMBER 2012

BERTELSMANN SE & CO. KGAA, one of the world’s most powerful media companies, based in Hamburg, Germany, is rebranding its printing operations under the name of Be Printers. This printing division of Bertelsmann was formed a few months ago after the international media company merged most of its worldwide print operations. Now, 17 production sites in six countries on three continents will operate under the Be Printers umbrella. The Be Printers group does business in what Bertelsmann describes as key markets in the Americas (U.S. and Colombia) and Europe (Germany, UK, Italy, and Spain). Be Printers generates annual revenues of €1.2 billion and employs approximately 6,800 people, producing magazines, catalogs, brochures, books and calendars for their clients.

THOMAS RABE, Chairman and CEO of Bertelsmann, announced plans to merge the trade book publishing operations of Random House, owned by Bertelsmann, with Penguin, owned by Pearson. Pending regulatory approval, the Random House and Penguin brands, while retaining their distinct imprints, are to be combined in most of the world by the second half of 2013.

Bertelsmann will own 53 percent of the new entity while Pearson will take the remaining 47 percent. Bertelsmann is to retain control of Verlagsgruppe Random House, its Munich-based German-language publishing division. Bertelsmann has 100,000 employees worldwide through its media divisions and in 2011 earned over €15.3 billion in revenues. The company was founded in 1835 as a publishing house and print shop. London-based Pearson had revenues of £5,862 million in 2011 with over 37,000 employees.

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS has been awarded a multiple-year print management agreement by Scotiabank, which is both a renewal and expansion of the relationship between the two companies.

Under the terms of the agreement, RR Donnelley is to provide a range of products and services described as digital printing, forms, kitting and fulfillment services, and regulatory communications.

The new agreement is to also employ RR Donnelley's (RRD) proprietary CustomPoint system, which provides a configured suite of online services. Previous initiatives like instituting electronic invoicing and print management strategies to consolidate documents, according to RRD, have helped Scotiabank reduce consumption by almost 30,000 pages annually.

CANADIAN PRINTING INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION confirmed its executives are working to join forces with the Canadian Printing Industry Sector Council. Led by Executive Director Marie Eveline, CPISC was established in 2006 as a non-profit organization – through the Sectoral Partnerships Initiative of Human Resources and Social Development Canada – to tackle human resource issues within the allied printing sector. The CPIA, based in Ottawa, was founded in 1939 to represent PARKER MACDONALD, a technology sales interests of its member firms for policy veteran of Canada’s printing industry, formation, regulation and legislation. joins Ernest Green & Son Ltd. (EGS) as the company’s Regional Sales Manager for Central Canada. Self-described as the largest independent distributor of graphic arts products and services in Canada, EGS, in business for over 55 years, distributes a range of technologies, from laminators and cutters to RIPs and liquid-coaters, while specializing in flexographic, offset printing, CTP, toner and inkjet wide-format products. “I am proud to join the EGS in this new role and I am looking forward to leading my sales team to drive our market share in PETER NITCHOS, with more than 30 years Ontario,” said MacDonald. of experience working within Toronto’s printing market, becomes President of Mi5 Print and Digital Communications, based in Markham, Ontario. Nitchos spent time with Matthews Ingham & Lake, Quebecor MIL, Grafikom, and RR Donnelley MIL. “I look forward to working closely with CEO and Founder Derek McGeachie and the entire Mi5 team,” stated Nitchos. “This is a can-do company and has had the growth year over year to prove it… Steve Tahk, our Vice President and General Manager, and his team have done an incredible job of stayJEFF EKSTEIN, owner and CEO of Willow ing ahead of the technology curve that Printing Group in Concord, Ontario, will keeps the sizzle alive in our print.” continue to play a significant role on the 2013 Board of Directors for Printing JAMES DOWNHAM, CEO of PAC, The Industries of America (PIA), which claims Packaging Association, announced a doto be the world’s largest graphic arts trade nation of $25,000 in scholarships to Ryassociation. In 2013, Ekstein is to serve as erson University’s School of Graphic the PIA’s First Vice Chairman. He previ- Communications Management (GCM) ously served as the association’s Second at Ryerson University. The funding plan Vice Chairman, as an Executive Commit- begins in GCM’s 2013-2014 academic tee Member, a Premier Print Awards year and is to be distributed over five judge, and from 2009 to 2011 as the years in the form of 20 scholarships. The PIA’s Education Committee Chairman. awards will go to students who successEkstein is also the current co-chair of fully complete the first year of the proCanadian Printing Industries Sector gram, with special emphasis on the Council (CPISC), and has been a director packaging curriculum. These students of the Canadian Printing Industries will also be members of PAC, which has Association (CPIA) for several years. been working closely with GCM for the past few years, particularly in relation to NIGEL WORME becomes Chairman of the its RyePack student initiative.

National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL), following the resignation CRAWFORD TECHNOLOGIES, which develops of Darren Loken, who made a career Enterprise Content Management tools out change and is no longer actively involved of Toronto, has been named as one of in the graphic communications industry. Canada’s fastest growing technology comWorme is the Chief Executive Officer of panies by the 15th annual Deloitte TechCOT Holdings Ltd. based in Christ nology Fast 50 awards, which recognizes Church, Barbados. The NAPL also ap- the country’s 50 fastest growing technology pointed Niels Winther, Managing Partner companies based on the percentage of revand Chairman at Think Patented, as As- enue growth over five years. In the past five sociation Vice Chairman, while Bill Gav- years, Crawford Technologies, led by Presigan, CFO at PDQ Print Center, joins the ident Ernie Crawford, reports a combined association’s Executive Committee as growth of 187 percent working with over 700 companies around the world.

Secretary/Treasurer.

MICHEL THERIAULT, Equipment Sales Specialist with Fujifilm, Patric Farand, owner of Infografilm, and Raymond Brideau, Account Manager with Fujifilm oversaw the installation of an Acuity Advance 2504 system, which uses UV piezoelectric variable-dot, grayscale heads to jet ink drops from six to 30 picoliters. This is Infografilm’s second Fujifilm Acuity Advance. The company’s VaudreuilSoulanges, Quebec, production facility focuses on providing graphic design, display graphics and finishing services.

ISYS LABEL of Calgary, Alberta, signed two international distribution agreements for its EDGE 850 & APEX 1290 printing technologies, including a deal with UK-based Impressions Technology Europe. The two manufacturers have paired up the EDGE 850 with Impressions’ Eclipse LF3 cutter, which iSys will now distribute in North America. Impresoras Digitales of Santiago, Chile, also became a new distributor in South America for the EDGE 850 & APEX 1290 label-printing technologies.

GLEN CHIASSON, former manager of the Graphics Canada trade show, died in mid-November following an automobile accident in Port Hope, Ontario. He was 43 years old. Chiasson was manager of the Graphics Canada trade show between 1999 and 2005 on behalf of DMG World Media. Since 2005, he had been working in the pharmaceutical market as Group Conference Director at Diversified Business Communications Canada.

BOB SZOKE of the Canadian Flexographic Training Committee (CFTC), Don Gain of the Canadian Printing Industries Scholarship Trust Fund (CPISTF), and Ron Schroder of the Canadian Flexographic Training Council celebrate a $17,500 donation made by CFTC. The funding is to be put towards one perpetual CPISTF Scholarship and two CPISTF Adopt a Student scholarships. “With the establishment of these scholarships, offered specifically to students with flexography in mind as their chosen career path, the industry is assured of obtaining many highly qualified future employees and potential customers,” stated Schroder, who also joins the CPISTF board of trustees.

JOHN MEYER becomes Vice President of Marketing for Presstek, after joining the Connecticut company in 2010 to help direct its CTP business. Meyer previously served in a number of sales and marketing roles at Fujifilm USA. In a related move, Presstek appointed Ralph Jenkins as Director of Sales, CTP and Indirect ChanMACMILLAN EDUCATION of Oxford, UK, nels. Jenkins joined Presstek in 2006 as stopped its production of printed dic- Director of Channel Distribution, after tionaries after the final edition rolled off spending 22 years at Agfa. The two apthe presses in November. Since 2009, the pointments were announced shortly after company started to transition users to its Presstek finalized its acquisition by MAI Macmillan Dictionary Online service. Holdings, an affiliate of American Indus“The traditional book format is very lim- trial Partners Capital Fund (AIP). iting for any kind of reference work,” said Editor-in-Chief Michael Rundell. “Books CLAUS BOLZA-SCHÜNEMANN, CEO of Gerare out of date as soon as they’re printed, man press maker KBA, was named as and the space constraints they impose Chairman of the 2016 drupa exposition. often compromise our goals of clarity Messe Düsseldorf, organizers of the and completeness. There is so much world’s largest print-centric trade show, more we can do for our users in digital drupa, plans to continue on its four-year media.” This news from Macmillan fol- schedule, despite some discussions about lows a March announcement from the going onto a three-year cycle. The next venerable Encyclopedia Britannica that, drupa, slated for May 2016, will be three after 244 years, it will no longer produce days shorter, however, spanning only 11 a print edition. days instead of the traditional 14.

GCM OPENS ESKO PREMEDIA WING Ryerson University’s dedicated Graphic Communications Management (GCM) building in Toronto opened its new Esko Premedia Wing in early November, following a large hardware-and-software donation from Esko North America, including packaging workflow tools for design, visualization, proofing and production, as well as a CDI flexo plate imaging system.

“Esko is very active in the Toronto packaging market and it’s seldom that we have a customer or client who isn’t connected to Ryerson University in some way,” stated Larry Moore, Esko’s Director of Software Services in North America. “Considering this, and the fact that Ryerson’s School of Graphic Communications Management is a leader in educating those in the packaging industry, donating this gift to Ryerson was a natural choice for us.”

The Esko technology is to be used by GCM students within related program courses, as well as by faculty engaged in packaging research projects. Ryerson states such research, while not yet determined, could involve areas like flexo plate quality, package design, and the printability of stochastic and other specialty Ian Baitz, Ryerson dot shape data.

GCM Chair (left to right), with Ron “This major Larry, Esko’s VP donation will of Software Busiallow our 500 ness DevelopGCM students ment, and Adam Kahan, Ryerson’s to learn Esko’s VP of University industry-leadAdvancement. ing packaging design and prepress systems,” stated Ian Baitz, Chair of the School of Graphic Communications Management. “We are thrilled to begin using Esko job management and automation modules, including tools such as DeskPack and ArtiosCAD. Our new Esko CDI Spark imagesetter will become a very important piece of equipment in our new prepress flexography workflow.”

A portion of the donation is earmarked for GCM's premedia platemaking lab for flexographic platemaking. The Esko CDI Spark flexo will help students to learn and practice platemaking processes using the Esko workflow system. All third-year GCM students will produce flexo plates on the new CDI. “We have focused on offset and digital printing for many years,” continued Baitz. “We added a flexo press three years ago, but our missing pieces were a packaging workflow and method to create plates. Cooperating companies in the Toronto area were kind enough to make plates for us, but we wanted students to see the workflow and platemaking process for themselves. Now we have access to the tools and students can evaluate their own plates for quality.”

Ryerson also intends to employ Esko-donated technologies within GCM’s robust extracurricular clubs, including the RyePack initiative.

RyeTAGA, an official student chapter of the TAGA organization, with over 60 members, will also use the new Esko equipment for research papers and the production of its annual TAGA student journal. RyeTAGA’s student journal has historically resulted in numerous awards for Canadian printing students when Larry Moore, Esko’s Director of Software Services North matched against America (left to right), with Esko’s Ron Larry, Sheldon others from around Levy, President and Vice Chancellor of Ryerson, and Marc Raad, Esko Account Manager, Canada. the world.

DECEMBER 2012 • PRINTACTION • 7

PRINT CALENDAR

JANUARY 8

The 2013 International CES will draw visitors worldwide to Las Vegas for the next generation of consumer electronics.

Over 140,000 industry members are expected to explore the four venues on the Vegas Strip.

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The deadline for the PAC Packaging Competition is on this date. The contest features new categories for corrugated containers, both graphic and structural enhanced, and in-store marketing, including display ready pallets and retail ready packaging.

15

EFI hosts its annual worldwide Connect 2013 Users’ Conference at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. The event is an opportunity for users to network, educate themselves on the latest in MIS and Web-to-Print technologies and get previews of EFI’s offerings, both in software and wide format inkjet.

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The British Columbia Printing Association holds the second part of its Lean Learn and Do seminar, which will teach printers efficiency strategies.

The conference will briefly review the contents of the first part before branching off into new advice.

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London will play host to the FESPA Global Summit which brings together the leaders of wide format printing to address key challenges, opportunities and threats to the industry.

Presenters include some of the top international brands and agencies such as Samsung and Unilever. €645*

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The Canadian Marketing Association holds its 2013 Analytics Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The conference aims to teach attendees the adoption of big data and some of the common pitfalls and how it can work to increase customer loyalty. $699*

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PODi presents the 2013 AppForum, aimed at new digital printing applications, at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. The event bills itself as a small, intimate conference presented by real users and not vendors.

The conference is split into five tracks ranging from business growth strategies to innovative packaging. $1,195

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PAC presents a seminar titled Packaging Sales Best Practices in Toronto, hosted by veteran trainer Brian Schiedel.

The course will teach how to identify key influencers, the selling process, tactical approaches, and new business development techniques. $695*

The “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign is one of the world’s most iconic pieces of signage. First erected in 1959 by Western Neon Company. The 25 foot sign, which cost $4,000 to install, is actually four miles south of Las Vegas city limits. In May 2009, the sign was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

The design, never copyrighted, has been replicated numerous times, including a version erected in 2002 to denote the actual downtown city limits.

Pricing listed at standard rates, with * denoting the availability of member of early bird discounts.

8 • PRINTACTION • DECEMBER 2012

© Kodak, 2012. Kodak and Sonora are trademarks.

THE BEAUTIFUL WORLD OF KODAK SONORA XP PROCESS FREE PLATES. Want to know where print is headed? There’s no better example than Kodak Sonora XP Process Free Plates. Now with mainstream print capability that helps ensure quality and robustness without the burdens and expense of chemistry, processing, or labor-intensive rituals. Better for every business. Better for our planet. That’s the future we’re building.

Learn more at kodak.com/go/sonora

Zero chemistry, water, electricity, and waste applies to the plate processing step only and is the result of Sonora XP Plates completely eliminating the need for a plate processor.

PRINT SHOW

Print World 2012 he biannual Print World trade show in Toronto may have been missing some of the industry’s largest international suppliers, but this helped to create an atmosphere familiar to the Canadian printing industry, which is driven by entrepreneurial companies. The following pictorial report captures a part of this entrepreneurial spirit from three days on the Direct Energy Centre’s show floor.

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Jay Nazir and Ken Krieger of EZ Trade Signs.

Fara, Oscar and Mike Meshkati of Sina Printing.

Michael Steele and Dylan Westgate of Sydney Stone.

Peter Cober of Cober Evolving Solutions.

Members of the 4over team.

Team members from Duracut Machine Knife, United Precision and Master Machinery Movers.

Vladimir Kirjakov and Jim Patterson of Zund Canada.

Ward Griffin of Lowe-Martin with Ryerson’s Abhay Sharma.

Derek McGeachie, Sheryl Sauder and Steve Tahk of Spectracolor Trade Printing.

Ralph Pike and Bill Kidd (centre), of the IAPHC Toronto, with students from Ryerson’s RyePack initiative.

Jeff Smith and Andrew Patrick of Epson Canada.

Doreen Gyamera and Stephane Dagenais of Unisource.

Pal and Robbie Dhanju (centre) with the MPI Print team.

Jack Lafler, Chantelle Bani, Gail Bullen and Steve Antoni of Avanti.

Soren Larsen and Eric Frank of KBA North America with Mark Norlock and Wolfgang Guenther of KBA Canada.

David Ferguson of GBC Canada with Wilfred Tang of Canon Canada.

Esko’s Robert Racine, Oscar Buenros, Mark Raad, and Jean-Francois LaCombre.

Steve Thistle of Robert E. Thistle, Paul Attew of Watkiss Automation and Donald Schroeder of C.P. Bourg.

Ted Schaffer, Nigel Woods and Mike Priest of Williamson Printing Materials.

Len Rivett with Jeff Ekstein of Willow Printing Group.

Steve McClinton, Don Anderson and Bernard Hellen of Cascades Fine Papers.

Rachel Dierolf of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative discusses the paper supply chain.

George Shaw of Primera Technology.

Ken Lunn of EFI VUTEk with Jim Stalford from Océ-Canada.

Bob Millsa and Suzanne Wakefield of INsource.

Irena Kuznetsova, Adriana Berrocal, and Ivan Herbert of Accenta Display.

Severyn Wiciak of Opus in Poland with Jackie Kisiloski of Pressdown.

The KBR Graphics team.

John Gallagher of Sterling Toggle, Rick Grannary of NOR-AM Graphic Equipment, and Enrico Ruta of FME.

Tony Mastromatteo and John Hall of TreckHall Wide Format.

Paul Wooding, Director and Secretary of PEFC Canada.

Helen Lu and Laura Maclean of Anstey Book Binding.

Chris and Cled Desouza of All Graphic Supplies.

Bruno Di Claudio and Gord Leah of RISO Canada.

John Yu of Ricoh gives a demonstration.

PRINT EDUCATION

First year GCM students receive their scholarships from the CPISTF. Photo: Scott Millward, GCM Instructor

Ryerson GCM Support Network n the days after one of the largest turnouts to celebrate the achievements of students in Ryerson University’s Graphic Communications Management (GCM), who received close to $100,000 in scholarships and awards, the future of the program was bolstered by three more significant partnerships.

First, Esko North American established a GCM Esko Premedia Wing through a large technology donation to the 4-year degree program (see page 7). Then PAC, The Packaging Association, and the Canadian Flexographic Training Committee (CTFC) presented GCM with more funding. PAC made a donation of $25,000

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to be distributed over five years in the form of 20 scholarships, beginning in GCM’s 2013/2014 academic year. These students will also be members of PAC, which has been working closely with GCM for the past few years, particularly in relation to its RyePack student initiative.

CFTC then announced it would donate $17,500 in scholarships to the Canadian Printing Industries Scholarship Trust Fund, which directs a majority of its funding to GCM – Canada’s only 4-year degree program dedicated to graphic arts studies.

(Visit PrintAction.com for more on CPISTF’s complete scholarship funding in 2012.)

– Jon Robinson

Kempenfelt Group Award Olivia Parker

College & University Print Management Association of Canada Melissa Binsted

Foundation of Flexographic Technical Association Scholarship Elina Shafigullina

Hans Müller Sr. Award of Excellence in Graphic Arts Finishing Tabea Lemcke

FFTA/Rossini Flexographic Scholarship Andrew Wong

Best Bound Book Award Erik Long

The manroland Canada Accounting Award Tabea Lemcke

Francesco Giorgio Memorial Award Eileen Chiang, Jessica Chiu, Mary Tran

The William Somerville Memorial Award for Excellence Olivia Parker

Mary Black Leadership Award Andrew Wong

Schawk Canada Award Terence Lo

Gary Hanna Graphic Communications Award Donica Willis

C.J. Graphics Award Leanne Fitzgerald, Marcin Korbut, Lara Vanderheide George Hurley Award Mark Corrigan

Xplor Central Chapter Scholarship Nathan Plavnick

Electronic Document Systems Foundation Awards (with support from Symcor and OutputLinks) Christopher Ambedkar, Mark Corrigan, Emily Wong, Jonathan Wong, Sommer Johnson, Tabea Lemcke Chia Tse Award (Toronto Craftsmen Club) Olivia Parker

Lynda Mullen of C.J. Graphics presents the George Hurley Memorial Award to Mark Corrigan.

Photo: PrintAction

Professor Martin Habekost presents the Clifford Hawes Award to Faris Abu-Kwiek.

Professor Art Seto presents the Best Bound Book Award to Erik Long.

Photo: Scott Millward

Photo: Scott Millward

Jeff Watson Memorial Award Keri Scott RB Tom Atkins Scholarship Sommer Johnson GK Teamwear Award Melissa Binsted The Clifford Hawes Memorial Scholarship Award Faris Abu-Kweik GCM Student Representative Award Ahmed Alabbas

Professor Jason Lisi presents the William Sommerville Award to Olivia Parker.

Photo: Scott Millward

Family, friends and the printing industry cram into the Cascades lecture room for GCM awards night.

Photo: PrintAction

12 • PRINTACTION • DECEMBER 2012

ZAC BOLAN

Adobe Gets Back To Business with Acrobat XI Pro Software: Adobe Acrobat XI Pro System Requirements: Mac OS X, Windows XP, Windows 7, 8, Windows Server Tested: 11-inch Macbook Air 2GHz Intel i7, 8gb RAM, 256gb SSD MSRP: US$449; upgrades from US$199 ortable Document Format! PDF! Every one of us interacts with this three-letter-acronym on a daily basis whether we realize it or not. Few file formats have reached this level of ubiquity – perhaps only MP3 or maybe DOC can rival its prevalence in the cloud. And since day one, Adobe Acrobat has been the pre-eminent tool for poking, prodding, prepping and fixing PDF files.

Acrobat over the years has evolved with each successive release enabling the PDF to grow in both capability and usefulness. Acrobat XI Pro represents Adobe’s latest effort to elevate the pervasive PDF into a new paradigm of productivity. But many wonder, will Adobe once again re-define the role of PDF or has this aging file format peaked once and for all?

To better understand the future of PDF, it is important to recognize its past as few really fathom the business origins of the PDF and how it evolved to affect the way we create, consume and, most importantly, exchange information.

P

The Camelot Project

When Adobe founder John Warnock wrote his famous Camelot Project paper back in 1991, his altruistic goal was to confront what he saw as a major problem facing the business world of the day – the inability to communicate visual information between the dizzying array of hardware, software and operating systems defining the fledgling desktop computer. As Warnock saw it, although virtually every computer and software application could send information to a desktop printer, there was no universal way to view this information. And while Adobe’s powerful Postscript and Display Postscript seemed the logical development environment to create the digital Rosetta Stone, these powerful page description languages were far too complex for the job. They required significantly more processor and memory power than the average

Acrobat XI Pro’s subtle interface changes reveal powerful editing and productivity tools. q Custom tool bar sets can be created, saved and shared with other users. w New editing tools allow text to reflow within frames in addition to font attribute control. e By selecting frame corner-points and dragging with the SHIFT key depressed text can be automatically resized. r Acrobat XI Pro features Microsoft PPT export options. t New image editing tools allow users to rotate, resize, reflect, crop and edit images in Photoshop. y The Action Wizard steps users through common PDF workflow functions defined as defaults. Users can also create, save and share custom Action sets. u Acrobat XI Pro’s text frames don’t always break copy into logical blocks. This paragraph separates into four text frames when edited.

14 • PRINTACTION • DECEMBER 2012

home, education or business user could leverage at the time.

Warnock’s stated vision was “to provide a collection of utilities, applications, and system software so that a corporation can effectively capture documents from any application, send electronic versions of these documents anywhere, and view and print these documents on any machine.”

Then in 1993 the document world forever changed with Adobe’s publishing of the PDF 1.0 standard and the release of the first version of Adobe Acrobat. While other developers worked feverishly to produce a competing format, Adobe’s PDF quickly cemented the company’s position as the de facto digital document standard by releasing the specification to third-party developers alongside Acrobat Reader. Although freely available, the PDF specification remained Adobe’s proprietary technology until released as an open standard on July 1, 2008. The current PDF standard is published by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO-32000-1:2008 and is available to anyone wishing utilize the technology.

Since 1993, Adobe has maintained a regular upgrade cycle for Acrobat, introducing new PDF handling features as the file standard evolved to meet the needs of the various adoptive niche markets such as the graphic arts, which was suffering through its own digital growing pains. The print world stabilized around the PDF, as it became the standard file format for transferring graphic information. In 2007, the PDF appeared to reach the end-of-the-line for new capabilities with PDF v1.7 and, subsequently, Acrobat 9 Pro (2008) became the last must-have upgrade for printers. It is still widely used in prepress today.

With Acrobat X (reviewed in PrintAction January 2011), Adobe completely revamped the user interface, as well as adding several collaboration, workflow and productivity enhancements. Ironically, while many of these new features proved useful to prepress, few were considered must-have improvements. Now Acrobat XI Pro takes up the mantle of leadership, proclaiming, “An easier way to work has arrived.” As a daily user of Acrobat X that statement enticed me into giving the latest version a shot – after all who couldn’t use an easier way to work?

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