January 2012 by PrintAction

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CONTENTS Volume 51, Number 1 Features

The Craft of Beer Packaging Victoria Gaitskell speaks with the LCBO and four thriving craft breweries to discover the label and packaging expectations within one of Ontario’s fastest changing retail markets

drupa Spotlight: Sheetfed and web offset presses In the first article of a series designed to examine technology trends leading up to drupa 2012, PrintAction focuses on advances with big iron

Products of the Year Thirty leading technology developers and distributors describe the market impact and potential of their most significant product from last year

NEWS Webcom adds an HP T350 to its BookFWD platform, Bertelsmann AG picks up McClelland & Stewart, and David Thorn of The Arthur Press passes away

CALENDAR February 2012 JDF-driven printers tour Mimeo in Memphis, the NAPL and NPES present Vision 3 in Florida, and printers prepare for Düsseldorf

EDUCATION Dscoop Goes Global Erik Hawkinson describes the meteoric rise of the Digital Solutions Cooperative, as the user group takes its place on the world stage

PACKAGING RyePack Gets Outside of the Box with Terence Tse Elliot Kwan and Andrew Wong describe the arrival of RyePack, a new student-led initiative to investigate the future of packaging

your link to print one world – one drupa may 3 – 16, 2012 düsseldorf, germany www.drupa.com

Columns

ANDREW TRIBUTE Does Kodak Have a Future? Weighing in on whether one of printing’s historic powerhouses can leverage intellectual property and emerge from bankruptcy protection

ZAC BOLAN Six Ways to Skin an Alien A review of Eye Candy and Photo Bundle software for the prepress professional looking for new methods of image manipulation and enhancement

Archive

Your link to more – experience drupa already now! Scan logo with the webcam. For smartphones/ the drupa tablet: install the free Junaio App, select the drupa channel. With PC-webcam: select drupa.com/augmentreality. For more help: www.drupa.com/help

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January 1972 HP debuts a world-first calculator, Sanford and Son debuts on NBC, and a PIA report finds the average Toronto printer generates $2.8 million in revenues

Resources 25 Services to the Trade Cover Photo: Clive Chan

36 Marketplace

Canadian German Chamber of Industry and Commerce Inc. Your contact: Stefan Egge 480 University Avenue, Suite 1500 Toronto, ON, M5G 1V2 Tel: (416) 5 98 - 15 24 Fax: (416) 5 98 - 18 40 E-mail: messeduesseldorf @germanchamber.ca

JANUARY 2012 • PRINTACTION • 3

The drupa Stage rintAction magazine this month is publishing the first of six feature articles, in a series called drupa Spotlight, to focus on technological strategies and developments as the Pprinting industry turns its eyes toward this May’s quadrennial tradeshow in Düsseldorf,

Digital Printing

Data Services & List Management

PERSPECTIVE

e-tools

Germany. We begin by looking at advances with sheetfed and web offset presses, which have always been a staple of the world’s largest printing exhibition. The drupa Spotlight series, in successive months, will look at key sectors like finishing, production inkjet, wide-format inkjet, toner presses, and then culminate in a dedicated drupa-review issue this June. After a series of lackluster North American tradeshows, which have certainly been hindered by a tough – and lingering – economic climate, some of the industry’s largest tech players are sure to use the drupa stage to introduce a new mindset for their future. This will certainly be the case for Heidelberg, which has undergone significant restructuring since 2008 and has once again committed to occupy its own exhibition hall at drupa. All 19 halls of the drupa grounds were booked up before the start of 2012, well over 1,800 exhibitors and 170,000 square metres of exhibition space. In August of last year, drupa organizers announced Bernhard Schreier, Chairman of the Management Board of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, as drupa’s new President and Chairman of the Exhibitors’ Advisory Board. They conducted an interview with him about drupa 2012 expectations and the future of print, in which Schreier highlighted emerging opportunities from the integration of print and digital (on-screen) media: “The latest smartphones and social media such as Twitter, Facebook or Google+ are currently experiencing an astonishing upturn because they are opening up entirely new opportunities for communication and interaction. They bring people together online who want to share their everyday life or digital media such as videos or music with one another. Print used to play only a subordinate role here, because printed media was virtually never used in this world of digital sharing. But this is precisely what is changing at the moment. “It’s also true to say that at present there are increasing numbers of publishers and media houses, Web agencies and designers implementing very successful print-to-Web projects. This is possible because with applications from the fields of augmented reality and smart tagging there are now bridging technologies that can be used to seamlessly combine the benefits of print and those of mobile and social media. What we are currently experiencing is not, therefore, a process of one thing replacing another, and certainly not a showdown between the Gutenberg world and the online universe. Instead we are at the beginning of a sweeping and exciting integration process that is opening up new perspectives and opportunities.” Schreier’s complete interview can be viewed at PrintAction.com, where our drupa Spotlight series is expanded beyond the magazine with Canadian-exclusive online articles produced by printing journalists from around the world. Jon Robinson, Editor

Variable Imaging 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, James Harvey, 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

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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.

Prepress, Printing: Sina Printing Paper: Starbrite Plus from Unisource Canada Youngblood Publishing Ltd. 610 Alden Rd., Suite 100 Markham, ON L3R 9Z1 Tel: 416.665.7333 • Fax: 905.752.1441 Email: info@printaction.com • www.printaction.com Publications Mail Agreement Number 40010868 • ISSN 1481-9287 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to subscriptions@printaction.com

LET’S EXPLODE SOME MYTHS

ABOUT THE PRICE OF KOMORI PRESSES Some people think KOMORI presses are expensive - as much as 20% more than the competitive makes. It just isn’t true. Most KOMORI models are within the range of other makes. Some even closer than that. It just happens that our presses have more features, perform better and look as though they cost a lot. But, when it comes down to price, they don’t. For example, we’ve unleashed the new GL40 platform machine that matches competitive brands on price and beats them on features. Next time you’re considering a new press, don’t automatically assume that a KOMORI costs more. Check with K-North. You could end up with the very best press, exclusive features and industry’s lowest operational costs along with a price that surprises you. That’s no myth.

PRINT NEWS

HEIDELBERG CEO Bernhard Schreier announced measures in the German press makers’ FOCUS 2012 plan to cut costs and improve profitability. The plan targets savings of around €180 million for its financial year 2013/14, which will include a reduction of up to 2,000 jobs worldwide (estimating 1,200 in Germany and 800 internationally) before the end of this year. The company also announced it will restructure individual markets by pooling various sales and marketing activities.

STANDARD FINISHING SYSTEMS made key management changes, including the appointment of Mark Hunt, who has been with the company since 1991, to a new Director of Strategic Alliances position. Don Dubuque, who joined Standard in 1998 as Product Manager, becomes Senior Marketing Manager; Paul Steinke has been named National Account Manager; Dan Desmond becomes Business Manager, VIVA Inspection and KAS Mailing Systems; and Jack Mathews joins Standard Finishing as Business Manager, Of- EFI acquired privately held Cretaprint S.L. of Castellón, Spain, to expand its fice Production Systems. inkjet developments with ceramic-tile printing. Cretaprint claims to have a global network of over 1,700 customers. “We have been tracking the swift transformation from analogue to digital technology in tile imaging for quite some time, and have been deeply impressed with the fast growth and global leadership position of Cretaprint,” said Guy Gecht, CEO of EFI.

ALEXIS AUBRE of Nustream Graphic, Claude Frénette, owner of Imprimerie Publidiffusion, and Julien Kervedez of Nustream Graphic, celebrate the installation of a Highwater Cobra II computerto-plate system at Publidiffusion’s Windsor, Quebec, plant. The printing company has operated in the Laval region for 40 years, including its continuous production of the weekly newspaper TERRY BROWN becomes a Field Techni- l’Étincelle. To support the Highwater cian for Canadian Printing Equipment. Cobra II, Publidiffusion also installed a He has been working with Winnipeg- Maya plate processor and Harlequin RIP. based Canadian Printing Equipment (CPE) for a number of years, primarily on the installation of Ryobi presses across Canada. Brown is to focus on supporting CPE’s activities in the province of Ontario and across Eastern Canada.

BRETT KISILOSKI has been appointed as Sales Manager, responsible for all sales across Canada, for Pressdown Services Inc., a distributor of new and used printing technologies, as well as parts supply. The Scarborough-based company carries computer-to-plate technology, such as the Inkjet-based PlateWriter 2000 system, rollers for most offset press models, and a range of consumables products like blankets, inks, and fountain solutions. 6 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

SINA PRINTING’s Donald Kirk, John Bain, Gary Murray and President Mike Meshkati celebrate the installation of a Heidelberg Speedmaster CX 102 6+L, which has been placed into the company’s new 60,000-square-foot plant in Markham, Ontario – a 40 percent growth in size from its previous location. The CX 102 joins Sina’s four existing Heidelberg presses, including two 6-colour CD102s, a 10-colour SM 102, and a 6-colour Heidelberg SM52. The new press features technologies first introduced on the XL 105, like Preset Plus Feeder and Delivery, Intellistart, and the XL 105 gripper and transfer system. Founded 14 years ago with a 2-colour press, Sina Printing now employs 65 people.

BALDWIN TECHNOLOGY of Florida, which develops process-automation equipment and related consumables for the printing industry, signed an agreement to be acquired by Forsyth Baldwin LLC, which is a new company controlled by Forsyth Capital Investors. The agreement also allows Baldwin’s board to solicit, receive, evaluate and enter into negotiations with respect to alternative proposals through January 28, 2012. If there is no superior offer, the Forsyth Baldwin transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2012.

DON TURNER and Alex Dandajena of Dejong Printing in Edmonton completed the installation of a 29-inch, 6-colour Komori Lithrone SX629C, with tower coater and extended delivery. Purchased through K-North Inc., the new press is equipped with features like Komori’s KHSAI system, fully automatic plate changers and Automatic Make Ready (AMR). The SX629C press is DeJong Printing’s third new Komori press in the last seven years. CLAUDE DURAND, VP of Sales; Barry Founded in February 1979, DeJong began Burke, General Manager; and Carmen to modernize its printing infrastructure in Rousselle, Sales Manager of the Burke 2004 with the installation of a Lithrone Group of Companies celebrate the instal- 628c, followed in January 2006 with a lation of a Komori GL640. Purchased new Komori Spica. DeJong also recently through K-North Inc., the new press is installed a new Kodak NexPress to boost its equipped with Komori’s KHS-AI, PDC- toner-based production capabilities. SX spectral density control (including the SX option), and PQA-S quality control. In addition to Douglas Printing, Burke Group also holds Douglas Xpress, focusing on 20-inch offset work; Maximum Imaging, focusing on wide-format inkjet; and Target Advantage, focusing on tonerbased product and mailing services. Burke Group CEO, Ian Burke, incorporated the operations back in 2008, after purchasing Douglas Printing in 2005. In that time, the company has increased its staffing level from 22 to over 70 employees. VISTAPRINT CEO Robert Keene announced PAPERLINX announced all of its operations the purchase Webs Inc., which develops in Canada will trade under the Spicers DIY Website building tools, in a deal name by the end of its first quarter, 2012. worth US$117.5 million. This marks Previously, PaperlinX had operated in Vistaprint’s second major purchase in Canada under multiple brands including two months, after the late-2011 purchase Spicers, Coast Paper, Roll-O-Vert and of European photo-book vendor UpLinX PreMedia solutions. The com- Albumprinter for €60 million. Founded pany’s three operating divisions in Toronto, in 2001 as Freewebs, Webs Inc. employs including Spicers, Coast Paper and Roll- 50 people and last year posted US$9 O-Vert, will be consolidated into a single million in revenues. The company also business unit within their current distribu- operates Pagemodo, a tool for small busition centre in Vaughan, Ontario. PaperlinX nesses to create attractive Facebook Canada operates 15 distribution facilities pages, and ContactMe, a communicaacross the country. tions tool for micro businesses.

IMAGERIE DB of Montreal, which focuses on large-format printing, acquired a 5-metre (16-foot) wide Durst Rho 500R. This 6-colour, roll-to-roll inkjet system, reaching a top speed of 3,750 square feet per hour, at 600-dpi resolution, joins a recently installed Rho 900 UV, which is an 8-foot-wide, UV system capable of pro-

ducing 72 boards per hour (4 x 8 feet). largest manufacturer of envelopes in Imagerie DB was founded by brothers the world, has now filed for Chapter 7 liquidation. The company had 14 manBenoit and Denis Paquette. ufacturing facilities, two distribution NATIONAL ENVELOPE CORPORATION, after centres and more than 3,000 employees filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the in the U.S. and Canada (Ajax, Ontario). United States back in June 2010, at a time National Envelope was founded in 1952 when the company described itself as the by William Ungar.

DAVID THORN, President of The Arthur Press and W.R. Drapers, passed away in Barrie, Ontario. He was 68. The Arthur Press is a Toronto-based commercial printing company founded in 1954, which has remained within the same family since its inception. WEBCOM, 14 months after announcing its HP T300 Inkjet Web Press investment, is spending a further $8 million to add an HP T350 to its BookFWD production platform. The new HP press, scheduled for a March 2012 start-up, brings Webcom’s total inkjet investment, including frontend and finishing technologies, to around $20 million, while doubling the platform’s capacity to two billion pages annually. Webcom claims the move makes it North America’s second largest book manufacturer in terms of inkjet printing. The HP T350 is a 4-colour press that reaches a speed of 600 feet per minute (fpm), while the company’s existing T300 press hits 400 fpm. MUTOH, a seller of wide-format printers, is celebrating its 60th year in business in 2012. The Tokyo-based company was founded in 1952 as a manufacturer and distributor of drafting products. Mutoh expanded to the North American market with the establishment of Mutoh America in 1963. Beyond drafting products, Mutoh Industries became a pioneer in CAD plotters in the 1980s and later expanded into commercial wide-format inkjet devices. It has since established manufacturing and distribution centres in Singapore, Germany, Belgium, China, and Australia. MCCLELLAND & STEWART becomes a wholly owned company of Random House of Canada, which is a subsidiary of Germany’s Bertelsmann AG. McClelland & Goodchild was founded in 1906 by John McClelland and Frederick Goodchild, who were joined by George Stewart in 1913. Jack McClelland, John’s son, joined the company in 1946. After trying times in the 1970s, the company was purchased by Avie Bennett in 1986. In 2000, Bennett donated his majority share (75 percent) to the University of Toronto and sold the remaining 25 percent to Random House. McClelland & Stewart represented Canadian literary icons like Margret Atwood, Stephen Leacock, Michael Ondaatje and Farley Mowat.

Sunday Presses Higher productivity. Lower costs. New opportunities. Step up to the most productive and agile presses available and open the door to new, more competitive web offset production possibilities.

www.gossinternational.com JANUARY 2012 • PRINTACTION • 7

PRINT CALENDAR

FEBRUARY 1

Automation Solutions Network ends its 2-day meeting in Memphis, after being hosted by Mimeo, which is a 200,000-square-foot (three facilities), template-driven printing operation, highly leveraged through cloud-based computing, founded in 1998. US$250*

Three months from today, printers and suppliers from around the globe converge in Düsseldorf, Germany, to open up the 13-day, quadrennial drupa 2012 print media fair. PrintAction, in conjunction with LM Travel Agency, is offering a special travel package (see page 14).

IDEAlliance hosts Primex 2012 Print Media Executive summit, described as a think tank for creative, media, print and publishing professionals, in Naples, Florida. Attendees focus on the convergence of media channels across all partners in the supply chain and envision integrated best practices, profitable workflows, and new business models.

Ricoh sponsors a Printing Industries of America Webinar, beginning at 2:00pm EST, called Color Management for Toner, WideFormat Inkjet, and High-Speed Inkjet. The event focuses on producing colour consistency across these various processes. US$99*

FESPA Digital 2012, described as Europe’s largest wide-formatprinting trade show, with around 400 exhibitors, takes place in Barcelona. The event also features FESPA Fabric 2012 to explore the latest trends and developments in apparel printing.

Allegra Network hosts a free, 1-hour Webinar on Cross Media Implementation with internal speakers Carl Gerhardt, Chairman, Bob Milroy, Chief Marketing Officer, and Dave Jones, President of Allegra Pittsburgh. The event focuses on pitfalls, critical resources and selling strategies.

Vision 3 Summit, described as a “mega networking and education event” for executive-level printers and suppliers, begins in Marco Island, Florida. The event features several economic, technological and strategic speakers through the co-sponsorship of the PIA, NPES and NAPL.

Joseph Marin, Manager of Training Programs at the PIA, hosts a 1-hour Webinar called Step-by-Step Color Correction in Photoshop. The event is billed as highly interactive, based on attendees downloading image files to follow along in their own seat of Photoshop. $99*

Naples, Florida, has among the most desirable beachfront properties in the United States and is home to a large number of Fortune 500 executives. Its 10-mile stretch of white-sand beaches, facing the Gulf of Mexico, were voted as the best beaches in America by the Travel Channel. Pricing listed at standard rates, with * denoting available member or early-bird discounts.

8 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

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PRINT EDUCATION

Monty Faulkner of HP leads a packed tips-and-tricks session on the HP Indigo press for Dscoop conference attendees in Orlando, Florida.

Dscoop Goes Global he Digital Solutions Cooperative (Dscoop) of HP Indigo and Scitex users began in a back corner of HP’s 2005 Graph Expo booth, where the notfor-profit organization initiated its first member. Dscoop now lists well over 6,000 members from 52 countries. Based on numbers from last year’s Orlando conference, Dscoop expects at least 2,000 members to turn out for the Dscoop 7 conference this March in Washington, D.C. (400 members attended the inaugural event in April 2006). Dscoop’s meteoric rise speaks to the dramatic shift in printing-technology investment over the past decade, as well as HP’s growing prominence in commercial printing since acquiring Indigo (US$630 million) in 2001 and Scitex ($230 million) in 2005. While HP executives sit on

Dscoop’s board, they do so as non-voting members, which means the organization’s approach to education is largely directed by the owners and technology evangelists of printing companies. This allows Dscoop to provide a healthy mix of innovation and real-world strategy to members who are eager to break free of the bogged-down printing market. “We are really good at providing topnotch education in terms of the future of digital printing and where can people find their next vertical market to conquer – where they can find ROI – in the future,” says Eric Hawkinson, Dscoop Global Executive Director, who estimates the organization’s membership count could reach between 7,500 and 8,000 people by the end of 2012. His ambitious target is based on three years of ground-

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March 22-24, 2012 Washington, DC 10 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

work for global expansion in Asia-Pacific and the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, as well as plans for a robust Dscoop 7 and the organization’s first drupa appearance with a 4-day program called Dscoop at drupa.

Brussels, the organization officially became a global one, including revamped bylaws and a new executive board with directors from The Netherlands and U.K., Australia and Japan. “You might think the newer regions we’ve expanded to have a lot to learn from North America, World partnerships but the creativity in Asia is Dscoop focused on the amazing,” says Hawkinson, North American market for “especially, if you look at the first six years of its exis- Eric Hawkinson, Dscoop tence, building primarily in Global Executive Director. India or Southeast Asia where they are pushing the the United States, while signing up key Canadian printers through boundaries of what you can do with the engagement of HP Canada’s Danny photo-books and packaging.” Because of the many different cultures Ionescu and Debra Swift. On November 1, 2011, however, during LabelExpo in and languages, Hawkinson expects a longer ramp up in EMEA, an initiative that officially began in September 2011, but Dscoop’s 2009 arrival in Asia and Australia met with immediate support. From March 22 to 24, Dscoop holds its 7th-annual By the following year, over 1,300 recently conference with four primary tracks, including educational initiated members came to the region’s sessions for business owners, technical professionals, first Dscoop conference, where Hawkinson found deep connections developing label and packaging printers, and wide-format production. among his global members and their Organizers are placing a strong emphasis on brand-owner multinational customers. relationships and how HP Indigo/Scitex owners can help “[End customers] want their branding them drive printing campaigns for the future – as described to stay consistent throughout the world, by the event’s Campaign for Next moniker. so we expect the forging of [Dscoop] partThe Washington event also features Alon Bar-Shany, nerships to happen more frequently,” says GM of HP Indigo, who will introduce some of the Hawkinson, who continues to describe New Jersey printers working with Japancompany’s latest innovations heading into drupa 2012 ese printers, Atlanta with Australia, and a this May. Dozens of HP technology partners will be in couple of U.K. members finding key U.S. attendance to address issues like workflow, finishing, partners. “They are actually sharing pages e-commerce, media and substrates. Keynote speaker, because they can now fulfill in a different Sally Hogshead, will share ideas and inspiration from her country. There is no user community that second book, FASCINATE, which has been translated into can do it other than Dscoop.” 14 languages and praised by marketing gurus like Seth Engagement with brand owners – helping printers reach the decisions makGodin and Tom Peters. ers who influence the purchase of print –

Dscoop Goes to Washington

More than 2,400 attendees packed the hall during the general session at Dscoop6, held February 2011 in Orlando, Florida.

has become a top priority for Dscoop’s future. This approach is clearly reflected among the 100-plus educational sessions planned for Dscoop 7, along with conference keynotes from marketing pundits like Sally Hogshead (author of Fascinate: The Shortcut to Persuasion), Chad Dick (How Challenger Brands Succeed), and The New York Times best-selling author Josh Linkner (Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity). “In 2012, we are going to be laying out some great initiatives for the public in terms of speaker lineups and with some of the verticals we are attacking,” says Hawkinson, “as well as our involvement with brand owners and how we can drive

creative professionals to HP Indigo technology.” Suppliers beyond HP have noticed the user group’s growing influence, as Dscoop’s partner program for the conference has sold out each of the past two years.

Approximately 1,350 attendees turned out for the second annual Dscoop Asia conference, held August 2011 in Singapore.

ponent – a customizable newsletter sent from your company to your prospects, explaining the value of digital printing in marketing campaigns,” says Hawkinson. Close to 170 members have joined the initiative and a handful have earned new printing contracts worth over $100,000 through the Power Pack program. ProPower Pack printers For an additional cost of around $995, on ducing a regular 8- to 12-page quarterly top of its $595 membership fee, Dscoop newsletter alone would cost thousands of last year introduced the Power Pack pro- dollars, which can be very burdensome gram, which provides 12 individualized on a small shop without dedicated classes (delivered by U.S. consultancy resources. “Essentially, I like to think of it InfoTrends) about how to actually reach is a pretty dynamic gift back to our memthe chief marketing officer or primary bership,” says Hawkinson, noting how the decision maker. “We write a case study $995 Power Pack fee is driven right back and a press release for your company, as into the not-for-profit organization for well as – maybe the most important com- future educational programs.

Hawkinson believes much of Dscoop’s success resides in its diverse membership, ranging from large-format startups to production conglomerates that run dozens of HP Indigos under one roof. “We are really just trying to help them, in some ways, survive, but more importantly grow,” he says. The education of Dscoop members, learning from likeminded printers of various sizes and countries, will reach a crescendo on May 1, 2012, when the organization begins its 4-day Dscoop at drupa event. “People from all over the world can talk about what is happening in other regions and hopefully find some new information to take their business to the next level.” – Jon Robinson

JANUARY 2012 • PRINTACTION • 11

PRINT PACKAGING

RyePack gets Outside of the Box with Terence Tse

Photos by Mary Tran, Andrew Wong and Michael Markieta

RyePack’s event marketing campaign goes through the glass window at the Heidelberg Centre in Toronto

The student executive team of RyePack: (back row) Paul Tarascio, Bobby Amoozgar, Elliot Kwan, and Andrew Wong; and (front row) Jessica Chiu, Eileen Chiang, Mary Tran, and Emily Wong. Left: Design visionary Terence Tse of Bridgemark Branding.

n late 2011, RyePack – a packaging focused student group from Ryerson University’s Graphic Communications Management (GCM) program – hosted its first event: an interactive seminar on creative packaging with Terence Tse, Account Director at Bridgemark Branding & Strategic Design in Mississauga. Close to 60 Ryerson students attended the seminar, which focused on various methods to effectively convey a brand’s core message through packaging. Using branding to change or reinforce a customer’s purchasing decision is crucial in today’s retail environments, where shelves are cluttered by dozens of product SKUs. Retailers often rely on gimmicks like store specials and tacky discount stickers, which can actually hurt a product’s perceived value. Brand owners should instead aim to leverage the emergence of modern, innovative packaging design and printing techniques.

Tse takeaways

As he worked through real-world examples, good and bad, Tse emphasized three packaging truths for designers and their printing partners to effectively meet retail-packaging challenges: Dramatic Simplicity, Creating Conversation, and Dynamic Duos. 12 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

Dramatic Simplicity: Creating a brand is not just about having a nice graphic; it should tell a story. To find your brand’s core message, look at its existing design and eliminate different elements until your brand cannot be recognized, then tailor the design around your brand’s most recognizable elements. (Tse’s takeaway: When your product is placed beside competing brands, there is only a two- to five-second window of impact on the consumer – make it count.) Creating Conversation: Branding is all about communicating with your customer. In the past, the focus was tailoring your brand message to different consumers. Today, social media has made brands more accessible. The conversation has shifted; pandering is no longer acceptable. (Tse’s takeaway: Be genuine to your brand’s core values, or risk losing the trust of your customers.) Dynamic Duos: Combining powers will give you punch at the shelf. Get opinions from diverse viewpoints and explore all possibilities before branding. In the end, the most important opinion is your customer’s, so make sure they understand your message. (Tse’s takeaway: Consumers drive the retail/packaging relationship.)

Tse concluded his seminar by asking students to break off into groups and brainstorm a quick ad campaign for an imaginary brand of water infused with reindeer velvet (extra hormones!). The ideas were innovative and appropriately tongue-in-cheek. The Student’s Choice Award went to “Wet Velvet”, by third year GCMer Trung Nguyen. The rise of RyePack

RyePack was formed in March 2011 to promote packaging education in the School of Graphic Communications Management, while fostering community amongst students, academics and industry professionals. The group’s mandate is to provide opportunities to explore packaging technology through tutorials, seminars, packaging design competitions and pure research. Several GCM students quickly gravitated toward RyePack, now led by an 8-person executive team. Planning for Tse’s workshop was led by Jessica Chiu, RyePack’s Marketing Director, and Paul Tarascio, Vice President. It must also be noted how instrumental PAC, The Packaging Association, was in securing Terence Tse as the group’s inaugural speaker. RyePack works closely with PAC for vital access to industry resources.

Understanding how the Tse seminar presented a great opportunity to make an impression with the student body moving through the Heidelberg Center (the main building for GCM students), Chiu and Tarascio tasked the RyePack team to come up with an impactful, packaging-themed marketing campaign. Equipped with a Pakready cutting table, powered by EngView Software, the team constructed four paperboard boxes to hang in the Heidelberg Centre lobby. Each box was progressively bigger and lower than the one before it, with the last box designed to appear as if it was smashing through the lobby’s glass facade. The message was “Think outside the box”. At the bottom of each box were details about the Tse event, with a QR code linking to an Eventbrite (a free event organizing Website) listing. This allowed students to RSVP on the spot using their smartphones. Within two weeks, more than 60 students registered for Tse’s seminar. RyePack is now preparing for its next seminar in March; a hands-on workshop focusing on packaging structure. The team is also collectively researching and brainstorming ideas to enter various packaging design competitions. This collaborative approach to competitions enabled RyePack to place first and third in the 2011 PAC Sustainable Packaging Student Design Challenge, hosted by PAC, Walmart, and Unilever. – By Elliot Kwan and Andrew Wong, RyePack Executives If you are interested in learning more about RyePack, connecting with student members, or possible sponsorship opportunities, email ryepack@gmail.com

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Does Kodak Have a Future? he big news of the New Year so far is Eastman Kodak’s filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, which is a process used by companies with an end goal to restructure their operations, while receiving protection from its creditors. A Chapter 7 filing in the U.S. takes place when the company has become insolvent and ready for liquidation. The Chapter 11 announcement from Kodak on January 19 was not unexpected, as the company has been having financial problems for some time, and had appointed a specialist consultancy company late last year to evaluate its bankruptcy protection options. The reason that Kodak has reached this situation is not necessarily because it has been unsuccessful at selling products, but more because it is weighed down by huge debt generated from a fundamental change in its business. Kodak is a major player in the graphics communication industry with annual sales in excess of $5 billion, which is a number larger than what comes from companies like Heidelberg – the world’s largest press manufacturer. Kodak’s debt has come about in the switch away from being a film-based business. Since 2003, Kodak has had to close down 13 film manufacturing plants and 130 processing laboratories around the world and reduce its workforce by 47,000 people. This generated massive redundancy costs and huge pensions liabilities. The switch away from relying on filmbased business was predictable and began several years ago for many company’s in a similar boat, who also needed to steer toward a quickly forming digital marketplace. Up until the late-1990s, however, film continued to grow. To my understanding, 2001 was the biggest year ever for Kodak in film sales. Unfortunately for Kodak, the fall in film revenues was incredibly rapid from 2002 onwards. Much of the highly uninformed analysis of the Kodak situation in recent days has concentrated on the glorious days of the past, when Kodak dominated the photographic world. The mainstream media reporting on Kodak’s Chapter 11 filing totally fails to understand the current Kodak business. Most of this analysis states that Kodak failed to change, and that it misunderstood the switch to digital photography, despite inventing the technology. Kodak did not move fast enough, however, allowing major competitors from Japan and elsewhere to take control of this market. Kodak did have a good range of digital cameras, but it spent too much time and effort in protecting its still significant film business. This analysis failed to understand that Kodak has been transitioning its business to new areas for the past decade.

14 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

What most analysis fails to understand is Kodak has transitioned from being a business-to-consumer (B2C) organization to a business-to-business (B2B) organization. It still has a significant B2C operation in digital cameras and desktop inkjet printers, but it is a relatively small player in this market. It is still the world market leader in photo processing with kiosk and business operations around the world for printing of digital photographs. The primary business for Kodak today is aimed at the printing and publishing industries and major enterprise companies. One problem with this strategic switch from B2C to B2B is the huge costs of the transition in both R&D and acquisitions. This is particularly seen in the costs of bringing the Stream inkjet technology used in the Kodak Prosper presses to market. In the graphic communications markets, Kodak is a market leader in printing plates, digital workflow and high-speed inkjet printing, and is a major player in sheetfed toner printing. Kodak is also rapidly building a major presence in packaging workflow and consumables. In the enterprise markets, it is a world leader in image capture of commercial documents, and it is a major player in document outsourcing and consultancy. What therefore is the future for Kodak? Much of its future will certainly depend upon the next few months, as it attempts to restructure operations. Kodak has a major holding of intellectual property (IP) for which it currently obtains licensing revenues of around $300 million, and it is endeavouring to sell some of this IP portfolio. It is speculated that its IP interests could be worth in the region of $3 billion. If it can realize this sum, Kodak should be able to manage its huge debt and move forward and exit bankruptcy as a stronger company with a range of growing businesses. If it fails to sell this IP, then there is certainly a possibility that the company will be broken up, taken over or dissolved. For Kodak’s customers and prospects I believe that the future is good. Without the debt that is dragging the company down, Kodak has a very strong product and services portfolio, which will certainly continue to have a presence in the market no matter what happens to the company. In terms of its product breadth, Kodak is a different type of company than manroland, which filed for bankruptcy protection and is now being broken up. Subject to clearing its debt situation, I believe that Kodak will emerge as one of the core players in the growth of the digital graphic communications market. Andrew Tribute is the managing partner of U.K. consulting firm Attributes Associates.

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Six Ways to Skin an Alien Software: Alien Skin Software Photo Bundle Platform: Mac OS X, Windows XP/Vista/7 MSRP: US$595 Software: Eye Candy 6 Platform: Mac OS X, Windows XP/Vista/7 MSRP: US$249

learn about new software in funny ways. Years ago some friends and I wandered out of a bar in the SoMa district of San Francisco after a full day of cruising the halls of Macworld 2002. The cool January night did little to quell our spirits and along the way to our next destination our numbers were bolstered with the addition of other Mac people in town for Apple’s annual love fest. Among these people was a young lady named Charlotte who happened to work for Alien Skin Software. As many in the graphic arts, I knew of Alien Skin through an early version of its iconic Eye Candy plugin for Photoshop back in the 1990s. At the time there was nothing else like it on the market, as the plug-in actually rendered textures and effects rather than simply altering pixels. In retrospect the effects seem fairly basic by today’s standards, but Alien Skin soon expanded the scope of its image generation to meet the growing demands of a new generation of digital designers. With the massive growth of digital photography and video, the company seemed to move farther away from the print design community, gravitating towards the new reality of Web graphics and digital video. I then explained to Charlotte how I was still firmly rooted in print and for me Alien Skin had fallen off the radar. Charlotte insisted I come by their Macworld booth the next day so she could set me straight about Alien Skin. Outer space – inner plug

Founded in 1993, Alien Skin is the brainchild of Jeff Butterworth – a grad school dropout hoping to capitalize on some texture generation code he’d co-developed with partner George Browning. Inspired by people like digital media artist Karl Sims and Kai Krause, the developer of Kai’s Power Tools, they produced a product called Alien Skin Textureshop. The product was so-named because many of the textures it created looked like alien skin. The product didn’t last, but the name did. The next product out of the hangar was initially named The Black Box but presently evolved into Eye Candy, their first major plug-in suite for Adobe Photoshop. On the strength of Eye Candy’s popularity, Alien Skin was soon producing a plethora of plug-ins for both Photoshop and After Effects with confounding names like Xenofex, Splat, Eye Candy 4000 and so on. At this juncture many print designers fell off the wagon. Alien Skin’s (sometimes overlapping) plug-in collections were difficult to deconstruct for the average print guy or gal. Also, managing multiple plug-ins, worksta-

tions and Photoshop versions became a little overwhelming for many creatives, spurring some to opt for simpler design tools. Fortunately, Alien Skin has a sharpened focus these days and subsequently consolidated its creativity into two clearly defined product lines. For the design community, stalwart Eye Candy has reached a venerable version 6, fusing all of Alien Skin’s considerable rendering technology into a single plug-in. For the image professional – whether photographers, prepress techs or designers – the Photo Bundle combines five powerful tools for image manipulation and enhancement. More than meets the eye

Eye Candy is Alien Skin’s DNA and for good reason. This mature pattern and texture rendering application creates beautifully detailed and natural looking effects. Eye Candy is a set of 30 Photoshop filters, each fully customizable with multiple sliders and knobs. Additionally, more than 1,500 presets make the filters easy to use for neophytes. In Photoshop CS4 or later, the Eye Candy panel can be accessed through the Window menu, under Extensions. Once active the panel can be docked with other Photoshop panels for predictable access. The panel is separated into two sets of 15 filters – one each for Text/Selection effects and Textures. Using the Text/Selection filters, it is remarkably easy to add high-resolution special effects such as fire, ice, chrome, smoke or motion trail to any text, logo or selected object. As well, the many presets for each effect can greatly reduce tinkering time and produce stunning results in seconds. Texture filters can be applied to either the entire image or a selection within the image. These textures can be used to make attractive backgrounds for display ads or to enhance an image with a transparency effect. For example, the Ripples texture can make an image appear to be underwater, while showing liquid surface detail. However, its important to clarify that Eye Candy is not designed for fully automated image creation or conversion. If you select a photograph of a human face and apply the reptile skin filter, for example, the face will be completely replaced with the new texture. Interesting textures can be applied to specific selections assuming the designer is well-versed at building masks in Photoshop. Eye Candy delivers powerful rendering effects with minimal operator intervention. The plug-in is true 64bit and works with both CMYK and 16-bit images, tak-

ing full advantage of current multi-core CPU technology found in most computers. Additionally, all Eye Candy effects are rendered on independent layers within the user’s Photoshop file providing a non-destructive workflow for the designer. For the most part, the effects and textures are beautifully rendered, however, the odd texture looks a little cartoonish – the brick effect comes to mind. If is ain’t Bokeh, fix it

The Japanese have a word for the aesthetic quality of a blur – boke. In photography, the term bokeh is used to describe the eminence of the out-of-focus area of an image. Photographers often choose a very wide aperture lens to create a shallow depth of field, drawing attention to the sharply focused subject in the foreground. With the release of Bokeh 2, Alien Skin brings realistic lens characteristics and the ability to change focus to existing photos. Users can choose from a variety of lens simulations from all major glassmakers or can apply effects such as a spiral blur or the trendy tilt-shift effect that makes a life-size scene look like a model. As with Eye Candy, Bokeh 2 is simple to use, loaded with presets and provides all the controls necessary to fine-tune your images. Creative aperture effects can be applied to the blur areas, adding one of a variety of shapes to the highlights within the blur, simulating a starburst filter on a lens. Additionally Bokeh 2 provides motion blur and vignette controls. The Bokeh 2 plug-in is extremely useful when simply utilizing presets and default selection areas, but really shines when combined with advanced masking and selection skills. Once isolated, detailed objects can be literally pulled out of a background, simulating very shallow depth-of-field. This is a very powerful photographic effect in the right hands and works extremely well with sports or action photos. JANUARY 2012 • PRINTACTION • 15

Bokeh 2 brings creative aperture control to the desktop. Choose from a variety of pre-defined lens effects or create unique depth of field simulations.

A little Exposure is a good thing

Digital is perfect, but for many discerning individuals perhaps a little too perfect. Anyone who’s ever picked up a Time-Life coffee table book or poured over the luscious images in an old National Geographic magazine can attest to a certain quality in the photographs which can’t quite be put into words. That indescribable attribute is often the result of the wonderful imperfections of analog film. Alien Skin started with replicating basic film stock characteristics in Exposure 3, but at the request of pro photographers added many analog photo process simulations like cross processing and Daguerreotype to the plug-in as well. Besides examining and reproducing physical film characteristics, Alien Skin engaged in a lengthy consultative process with internationally renowned analog photographers to learn from their experience with archival films no longer

manufactured. The result is an easy-to-use workflow that makes a digital photo look as though it was developed in a darkroom. The Exposure 3 plug-in comes stocked with more than 500 presets simulating everything from obscure B&W films such as Kodak Tri-X 400 (pushed two stops) to Polaroid SX-70 Blend Film (with a magenta cast). Additional lens vignettes or added dust and scratches for that vintage look are only a slider away. This plug-in puts the human element back into digital photos! Colouring outside the lines

While I’ve always appreciated a well-crafted canvas, I’ve never had the patience to become an artist – all that paint mixing and mess just didn’t appeal to me. Of course, when Photoshop introduced its own artistic effects several versions ago, I converted many of my photographs into abstract oil paint and watercolour masterpieces,

Through research with professional photographers, Alien Skin has created detailed simulations of many common and obscure film stocks. You can see on the right side preview discolouration and film grain characteristics from Polaroid SX-70 Blend film.

16 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

largely through trial and error. While Photoshop’s paper textures and paint tools are useful, I found them awkward to configure and often producing unpredictable results. Alien Skin’s Snap Art 3 represents a quantum leap in adding artistic effects to photographic images. When adding an oil paint effect to a photo, I was immediately impressed by the realism of the result as well as the ease of use. On its own, this particular preset does a fine job, but with a little tuning I was able to control brightness, paint thickness and edge vignette for a truly unique effect. Snap Art lets users create layer masks to preserve detail in areas such as faces. While one could replicate many of these effects within Photoshop, Snap Art 3 really simplifies the process through its vast collection of presets and easy-toparse adjustment slider. I was very impressed with just how quickly I was able to produce an artistically rendered image, suitable for framing. And interestingly, the original photo used doesn’t even have to be a technically perfect image. As long as the image’s aesthetic composition is pleasing, Snap Art 3 can make a silk purse of it. Is there an Image Doctor in the house?

Thus far the Photo Bundle has been all fun and games, but working in the real world of image processing provides more opportunities to repair images than enhance them. Recognizing this reality, Alien Skin combined several powerful utilities in Image Doctor 2. This useful

plug-in collection combines dust and scratch removal for restoring vintage photos with contemporary skin softening, blemish removal and unwanted object removal. Again, many of these functions can be at least partially achieved within Photoshop – but Alien Skin’s prowess in simplifying and improving the process really speeds the workflow. Photoshop professionals specializing in restoration will particularly appreciate how much faster Image Doctor 2 Dust & Scratch Remover can achieve results. The Blemish Concealer and Skin Softener filters can be used in conjunction to fix many common skin imperfections found in head shots, quickly rendering a spotty snapshot into a pretty good simulation of a studio-quality portrait. Although Photoshop has cloning and blurring tools that perform similar functions, the Alien Skin filters add significant automation to the process. The Photo Bundle’s Smart Fill filter offers a few advantages over Photoshop’s inherent Content Aware fill in that once launched the user has greater control over how its applied through a variety of automatic and manual fill options. While Photoshop’s Content Aware fill does a fairly good job of removing objects from simple backgrounds, it has significant problems with complex images such as city skylines. Smart Fill gets around this by allowing the user to choose where the fill sample comes from. Lastly, Photo Bundle’s JPEG Repair filter nicely removes unwanted artifacts and distortions from low-resolution images – very handy for improving the quality of poorly encoded 72-dpi images for Websites.

With Snap Art 2, users can choose between presets or full control over artistic effects. The magenta hue shows the mask protecting the facial detail.

same result, thus providing significant efficiencies to high-volume image processing workflows. Additionally, all plug-ins are loaded with presets and are easy to use. My only small criticism is that all this functionality is spread over seven different Alien Skin menus and 40 sub-menus under Photoshop’s menu bar – I’m thinking there has to be a better way to consolidate these plugins for easier access.

Blow it up!

Software solutions for expanding pixelated images are nothing new. In PrintAction’s August 2010 issue, I reviewed onOne Software’s Genuine Fractals 6 enlargement application finding that it worked very well for maintaining sharpness as images interpolate to larger sizes. Everyone knows Photoshop does only a passable job of injecting pixels into images as they expand, so its no surprise that Alien Skin also brings a solution to the table – Blow Up. Now in version 3, Blow Up has matured producing results that rival the competitors. Interestingly, Blow Up 3 uses a unique method of interpolation when expanding images. The plug-in maps vectors to the bitmapped image, almost as if it were a RIP working in reverse. Once every detail has been mapped to a vector shape, the vectors are enlarged, each preserving the detail within its shape. When converted back into pixels, the resulting image is much sharper than a standard Photoshop interpolation. As with all Alien Skin plug-ins, Blow Up 3 provides a myriad of controls to ad-

So do I spend the money?

Alien Skin’s Blow Up 3 in action – Left to Right: 72dpi original viewed at 800% in Photoshop; 800% enlargement using Photoshop default Bicubic Interpolation; 800% enlargement using Blow Up 3 using default settings with minor tweaks to sharpness and grain.

just your image before committing to the enlargement. As well, the plug-in comes dressed with a number of size presets for near-automated enlargements to most common photographic or inkjet mediums. Alien Skin seems to be marketing Blow Up 3 as the ideal tool for producing very large, wall-sized inkjet prints of bitmapped images. Not having access to a printer of that scale, I’ll have to take their word for the results. Having said that, I made a few excessively large test enlargements and the results look impressive on screen. The detail within my images was far sharper than what Photoshop was able to produce on its own, and the process was simple and quick.

Pros ‘n cons

Alien Skin has done a commendable job of focusing its product line into two distinct categories, each targeting a different aspect of the creative community. Eye Candy 6 is a great tool for creating and mapping textures – a very good choice for designers working in a display advertisement or billboard market. On the other hand, anyone tasked with putting some snap into otherwise mundane photos would get a great deal of mileage out of the Photo Bundle. Personally, I see myself using Bokeh 2 and Exposure 3 on a daily basis, with the balance of the Photo Bundle used only slightly less often. I’ll reserve Eye Candy 6 for sprucing up online headlines and logos. As each plug-in offers a free 30-day demo, modular pricing, bundles and reasonable upgrade pricing, potential users have a variety of options for assessing the Alien Skin plug-ins for themselves.

Gone are the days when one would wonder whether Splat, Xenofex or Eye Candy would do the job. Alien Skin has done a great job of clearly defining the role of each plug-in. All plug-ins work with the latest edition of Photoshop and most offer native 64-bit processing, leveraging multiple core processors for speedy rendering. I was building test images on a 13-inch Macbook Pro (2.3ghz Intel Core i5, 8 GB RAM) with little perceptible lag, even when rendering very large files. Many of the plug-ins also work with Adobe Lightroom. And in every case, the plug-ins are blazingly fast when compared to conventional methods of achieving the Zac Bolan’s blog: blog.softcircus.com

JANUARY 2012 • PRINTACTION • 17

Photo by Clive Chan

The Craft of

BEER PACKAGING By Victoria Gaitskell

uring my trips to stock up on seasonal cheer at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), I noticed how fast the packaging and products

are changing on its shelves. My ensuing quest for more information turned up statistics from the LCBO showing that craft beers are Ontario’s fastest growing alcohol market segment. So I spoke to four of North America’s thriving microbreweries – Steam Whistle Brewing of Toronto, Muskoka Brewery of Bracebridge, Trafalgar Ales & Meads of Oakville (all in Ontario), and Flying Dog

Top: Sean Zaffino, Graphic Designer/Photographer; Elton Clemente, Creative Director; Jamie Humphries, Marketing Director; Chris Johnston, Director of Purchasing & Information; Nicole George, Graphic Designer; and Sybil Taylor, Communications Director at Steam Whistle Brewing. 18 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

Brewery of Maryland – to find out what’s new about the way they produce and package their specialty beers.

Steam Whistle Brewing – Canada’s Premium Pilsner

The three friends who founded Steam Whistle Brewing, Greg Taylor, Cam Heaps, and Greg Cromwell, were colleagues at Upper Canada Brewing Company, a microbrewery that produced premium beer in the 1980s and 1990s until mainstream brewer Sleemans Breweries Ltd. bought the company in 1998 and shut it down. Their entrepreneurial dream came true in 2000, when they produced their first batch of a new world-class pilsner, Steam Whistle – the company’s only product, now available in just five of Canada’s 10 provinces (Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.) “Steam Whistle Pilsner is the only brew in the nation, maybe even the world, with all-natural, GMO [genetically modified organism]-free ingredients,” says Sybil Taylor, Steam Whistle’s Communications Director (and founder Greg Taylor’s wife.) “Most craft breweries tend to brew ales they can make in seven days, but Steam Whistle takes a full 28 days to mature. We hire European-trained master brewers [a professional designation that traditionally has only been available in Europe] and put incredible emphasis on quality, including three quality-assurance technicians in a lab that’s probably second to none in the craft brewing industry, who test our product daily. This emphasis is reflected in our slogan, ‘Do One Thing Really, Really Well’.” Constant packaging innovation

Taylor explains: “Since we only offer one beer, packaging becomes very important. The way we attract attention on a shelf or from season to season is with new brand packs and different-sized can offerings. I relate us to Coca-Cola, who have been making the same high-quality, world-renowned product since the beginning but are constant innovators in packaging.” Steam Whistle’s standard 12-pack cardboard box, a retro retooling of a 1957 suitcase design, ranked 22nd out of CBC Canada’s 2007 “50 Best Canadian Inventions”. Although certainly more appealing and sturdier than flimsier cartons, the box also requires costly labour-intensive hand assembly to produce. In 2009 the brewery won two PAC Leadership Awards: Gold in the Paperboard Category for its four-500ml-can mini-suitcase pack and Silver in the Decorated Corrugated Fiberboard category for its Wall-mounted Bottle Opener packaging. Steam Whistle’s distinctive custom-made green glass bottle, based on vintage beer bottles from the 1940s and ’50s, with a baked-on-enamel label and pry-off top, comprises 30 percent more glass than other beer bottles and lasts for 35 uses (while the average beer bottle gets used only 12 to 15 times). Taylor enthuses: “Our bottle is really substantial, so

it feels great in your hands, plus we don’t have to worry about the label getting scuffed or dog-eared. It always looks pristine.” Another of Steam Whistle’s pioneering designs is a 24-pack carton with a zip tab. The carton allows for safe, practical shipping, while the zip tab creates an effective merchandising display on arrival. Taylor says this dual-purpose packaging is so convenient that other breweries are now copying it, likely with encouragement from the delighted LCBO. David Cacciottolo, Acting Category Manager, Beer & Cider, LCBO (Toronto) confirms that, instead of the brown 341-ml twist-off Industry Standard Bottle, more craft breweries are using unique proprietary bottles like Steam Whistle’s with silkscreen-printed labels instead of paper ones: “From a marketing perspective, it helps differentiate your beer from everyone else’s out there. It also has a certain badge appeal. When you’re holding it in a bar where everyone else is holding standard brown bottles, there’s prestige to that.” Cacciottolo says another innovation craft brewers use is an open carrier. The big brands use a sealed pack instead, because both Canada and Ontario require tamper-evident packaging that makes tampering readily noticeable by the consumer. Twistoff bottles are not tamper-evident, so generally the open carrier requires pry-off caps and is reserved for premium beers. Taylor explains that a steam whistle, once common on factories, steam locomotives, and steamships, symbolizes a time for personal reward. It blew at the end of the day to signal industrial workers that it was time for fun and relaxation. “Our customers tend to be people who are well educated, well travelled, and experimental about trying different things, including different cuisines. They’re opinion leaders, who like to reward themselves. They might not be wealthy – there’s no snob appeal to our brand, they might even be starving artists, but they are willing to invest in certain things: good coffee, good ice cream, good literature.” Steam Whistle has a 30-year lease on its historic premises, “The Roundhouse”, a restored National Heritage site that once served as a repair facility for Canadian Pacific Rail steam locomotives. Situated right beside Toronto’s famous CN Tower, the building not only accommodates the brewery’s full production line and 136 employees, but it has also become a popular site for brewery tours, weddings, corporate parties, charity fundraisers, and other special events. TripAdvisor.com, the world’s largest traveller review Website, recommends Steam Whistle Brewing as number one of 217 Toronto tourist attractions. “Our building used to be part of the railway system that built Canada, and we are intensely proud of being

Steam Whistle’s Packaging Powers Elton Clemente, Creative Director As one of the two key figures who bring Steam Whistle’s innovative packaging to life, Elton Clemente landed at the Toronto brewery in 2005, just after a decision was made to bring creative in-house. He had graduated a few months earlier from Seneca College at York University and began to establish the company’s creative department. Clemente now manages a department of three, including himself, graphic designer Nicole George and designer/photographer/ Web developer Sean Zaffino, while overseeing every aspect of Steam Whistle’s award-winning branding efforts. What Clemente sees as his primary role: “The title Creative Director is very accurate here in that our whole company does so much brainstorming and my responsibility is to carry it out – to make everyone’s ideas come to fruition.” Why he loves the beer industry: “There’s nothing like it for the environment and scope of work. It’s a highly competitive industry that demands constant innovation. It’s very organic with moving parts. The big question is always, ‘What’s Next?’”

Chris Johnston, Director of Purchasing & Information Soon after graduating from the University of Toronto, with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a specialty in Industrial Relations, Chris Johnston began working for Upper Canada Brewing Company in 1990. He then joined Vancouver Island Brewing in 1996, where he stayed until taking on the pivotal purchasing position with Steam Whistle in 2001. After numerous responsibilities with small-sized craft breweries for the past 22 years, Johnson is now one of North America’s foremost logistics experts in this sector. What Johnson sees as his primary role: “I am the facilitator between creative and manufacturing, working both with the industrial designers of the packaging companies, and the engineers and equipment manufacturers to bring to life brand ideas.” Why he loves the beer industry: “I’m in a fury when I’m not in a brewery.”

At the Steam Whistle Brewing plant, situated in the historic Roundhouse railroad yard in downtown Toronto, beer is not only brewed on-site, but packaged in multiple formats. JANUARY 2012 • PRINTACTION • 19

Canadian,” emphasizes Taylor. “All of Canada’s major mainstream breweries are owned by foreign interests.” Labatt Brewing Company Ltd. is owned by AnheuserBusch InBev, a Belgian-Brazilian company; Molson Coors Canada is owned by Molson Coors International based in the United States; and Sleeman Breweries Ltd. is owned by Sapporo Breweries Limited of Japan. So there’s a Canadian flag on all our bottles to remind people that we’re independently brewed in Canada.” Craft beer’s new customer

Cacciottolo says beer accounts for $640 million or 21 percent of the LCBO’s annual sales. Of that amount, craft beers only represent $33 million (about five percent), but they are growing in popularity by 30 percent annually. He adds that consumers of craft beer have become younger and are typically males aged 25 to 45. “People are graduating into more premium alcoholic products at a younger age because they want more intense flavour. Generally, it’s a culinary trend. People’s palettes are more sophisticated. They are more interested in exploring diversity of flavour and pairing alcohol with food, so they need products that deliver more taste.” Cacciottolo says another growing trend among craft brewers is to provide more product details on the package, including all the ingredients; for example, not just ‘hops’ but the different varieties of hops they use. “Consumers who are more knowledgeable are beginning to look for a lot more information, including when the product was brewed,” says Cacciottolo. Usually the fresher the craft beer, the better.

Single-serve and seasonal brews at Muskoka

Mike Laba, Director of Marketing at Muskoka Brewery in Bracebridge, Ontario, says his company has been reenergized in the last three years by a new investor, a new management team, and Laba’s own efforts to rebrand the company for a younger demographic of customers. Their recent marketing initiatives have included a new ad agency and a new illustrator who produces images of traditional Muskoka landscapes in a contemporary style for their packaging and Website. Laba says texting, e-mail, Twitter, and especially Facebook are positioned as their best vehicles for twoway dialogue with new customers (often amounting to conversations about where and when a certain product is available), as well as announcements of the brewery’s popular product launches and events. No fewer than five staff in Laba’s department are assigned to engage customers via social media. Additionally, Laba says all brewery staff are encouraged to make and post videos online. Laba himself researches and downloads tracks of the hottest music to play for the summer cottagers and year-round locals who frequent the brewery as a hangout. Single-serve cans

Laba reports his company’s packaging emphasis has switched to trail sizes: “At the end of 2011, the singleserve can represented 40 percent of overall beer sales at the LCBO. For the first time ever, people are starting to talk about beer. It used to be they pounded back a case of 24 on a Saturday night, but now they bring home 10 different single-serve cans to savour and discuss, or take them to friends and family to get their reaction.”

Cacciottolo confirms that while packs or flats are in decline, cans are growing, and especially singleserve sizes are increasing in popularity at a rate of 8.3 percent annually. While the standard-sized beer can is 350 ml, most craft beers come in 473-ml or 500-ml tall cans sold as singles to allow consumers to try new brands without committing to a whole six-pack. “Some craft beers are only sold in cans. For the brewery the per-unit costs are a bit less than for bottles and they’re cheaper to ship. Also, once exposed to light, beer takes on negative taste characteristics. It goes skunky. Cans totally protect beer from light so are better for the beer,” says Cacciottolo. “Cans also have benefits for the consumer, because they are lightweight, virtually unbreakable, they chill faster, are easier to transport, and easier to store because they take up less room than bottles.” But while he advocates cans for packaging, Cacciottolo insists beer should be drunk from a glass: “Cans also do not impart a taste, because the inside is lined with a thin layer of plastic, so the beer makes no contact with any metal surface. If consumers detect a tinny taste, it only comes from putting their mouth on the outside of the can. “But they should actually pour beer into a glass, because it releases carbonation, so the beer is less filling. A glass also allows you to smell the beer and increase the flavour of your drink, since most of your ability to taste is through the olfactory sense. Using a glass also lets you enjoy the colour of your beer, and creates foam that protects the beer from oxidation and losing a lot of aroma.”

Craft brewers emphasize packaging far more when distributing to LCBO location, where customers can see and touch the products before they are sold. Product sold through the Beer Store is often only represented by a small label on the sales board. 20 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

Muskoka Brewery’s seasonal brews

Another of Laba’s new initiatives is a program of seasonal beers that are only available for limited periods of three to five months each. The brewery packages its seasonal brews in 750-ml champagne bottles with a resealable swing top. “I love the champagne bottle packaging,” he affirms, “because it’s festive, it breaks down the traditional perception of beer, and the bottle is identifiable as our seasonal bottle. You return to the LCBO when the season changes, and suddenly there’s a different one on display.” The seasonals tend to have higher alcohol contents and unusual ingredients. (In fact, Laba says his younger clientele are encouraging the brewery to get crazier with its ingredients for seasonal beers.) For example, Winter Beard Double Chocolate Cranberry Stout at $10.95 a bottle contains 70 percent dark Belgian chocolate, local cranberries from Bala, and eight percent alcohol. In 2010, Muskoka Brewery launched the product with 10,000 bottles. In 2011, they produced 90,000 bottles that sold out by the end of December. This year, they’ll distribute 120,000 bottles among more outlets. Although it’s usually best to drink craft beers fresh, Laba discovered that Winter Beard ages well: “In December 2011, we cracked open some of the reserve bottles from 2010, and the matured chocolate came out like velvet. It was awesome. This year out of the 90,000 bottles we produced, we’ve laid down 5,000 bottles to age for a year. I don’t know what we’ll do with them, perhaps sell them for $19.95 a bottle in the LCBO’s Vintages section. It’s groundbreaking for the beer industry.” Because seasonal beers are scheduled for a particular season, but must also first pass a long bureaucratic approval process by the LCBO, they often end up getting rushed to market, because their ingredients and other details, and therefore their labels, may not be finalized until as late as the week before release. For example, because LCBO insisted that their Winter Beard label not appeal to children, it had to be redesigned to show a figure who looks more like a lumberjack than Santa Claus. These sorts of last-minute manoeuvres require a strong partnership and nimble responses from Metro Label, Muskoka Brewery’s Toronto label supplier. Although previously Muskoka Brewery sold its products in Manitoba and Alberta, as well as Ontario, Laba reports they have decided to limit 2012 sales because they are having difficulty keeping up with growing consumer demand. In 2011, their sales increased by 72 percent and their staff has grown from nine people in 2009 to 50 in 2011. Strategic decisions at Trafalgar Ales & Meads

Mike Arnold owns Trafalgar Ales & Meads in Oakville, Ontario, a company whose core products are mainly light and dark beers modelled on traditional English

The challenges of seasonal labels

Flying Dog’s Raging Bitch beer label caused it to be banned by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission in 2009.

brews. Trafalgar also runs a second, small 1860s-replica brewery at Toronto’s Black Creek Pioneer Village. Arnold, who holds an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering, and a masters degree in nuclear engineering, used his severance package from a 20-year career in the nuclear industry to establish his brewery. He also teaches at Niagara College’s new Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management program. His 19 years of operation have seen Trafalgar Ales outgrow its third location, but although they are shipping 60 percent more product than last year, Arnold has decided not to expand his brewing operation any further. Instead, owing to excess capacity in the craft-beer industry, he contracts out the overflow to two craft breweries in other cities. Arnold confirms his company has followed a similar route to Muskoka Brewery’s by creating seasonal beers and packaging their products in $4-to-$5 single-serve bottles and $12-$13 six-packs. He explains how LCBO’s approval process for seasonal beers works: “LCBO plans a year ahead. By January 15, they’ll want to receive proposals for winter beers for 2013. So we will develop names and styles and submit them for consideration. After about a month, based on our reputation and the way we describe the new offerings, LCBO may ask for samples – even though the product doesn’t exist yet – and we’ll start developing a first set of samples via a pilot system. Then we’ll scale up to a bigger production system if LCBO decides to distribute the product in bulk.”

Competition among seasonal beers compels Arnold to put a lot of emphasis on labels, because “a good label will get you the first trial of the beer.” In a typical year he will stretch designer Lindsey Key’s artistic talents to create at least 10 or 12 different labels – even though, if LCBO requests samples of five new packaged products, they might end up deciding to retail only one or two. “That means a lot of the lovely labels we’ve designed don’t go anywhere,” Arnold laughs. Recently Key designed a label for a Hallowe’en-themed beer called Pickled Corpse, showing a skeleton holding a beer bottle. To avoid anticipated consumer complaints, LCBO’s Social Responsibility Committee ruled that the product had to be renamed Malted Corpse and the beer bottle replaced by hops in the skeleton’s hand. “There are no real rules for coming up with all these unusual beers and labels,” says Key. “We all come up with different ideas because we all travel a lot and see what the latest innovations are. There are hundreds of different beer styles out there, so we might combine different flavours we like or several characteristics we find attractive.” In a typical instance, if the LCBO orders a limited quantity of 1,000 cases, Trafalgar will need to print only 12,000 labels. Arnold’s Mississauga supplier, Cenveo MM&T, handles such problematically short runs of up to 35,000 pieces by ganging them together with other projects on toner-based equipment. LCBO or The Beer Store?

Arnold explains: “We can’t show off our labels in The Beer Store. Customers used to be able to walk around their cold room, but now The Beer Store restricts the public from seeing the beer they sell. Customers have to know exactly what they want and only get to see a little wall sticker representing each variety that gets lost among the other 349 brands. “But at the LCBO people go to shop for beer. They don’t know what they’re going to buy and are attracted by the various labels and packages on the shelves.” Additionally, Arnold reports that The Beer Store charges breweries $25,000 to sell a single SKU – say, for a single-serve bottle. Selling an additional six-pack of the same product would require another $25,000. For a bigger brewery these fees may be inconsequential – and even a good deal if they plan to distribute a product across all 400+ Beer Store outlets; but for microbreweries the fees are a significant entry barrier, especially since craft brewers would be hard pressed to produce enough volume to sell their products in so many outlets. Muskoka Brewery’s Laba says his company’s founder and president, Gary McMullen, is heavily involved in the Ontario Craft Brewers Association because of such difficulties microbreweries face against mainstream Continued on page 35 JANUARY 2012 • PRINTACTION • 21

By Jon Robinson

Sheetfed and web offset presses Heading into drupa 2012, the world’s largest printing exhibition taking place from May 5 to 16 in Düsseldorf, PrintAction is publishing a special section, called drupa Spotlight, to look at the direction of technology. While many companies will not be announcing specific booth details until just prior to the German tradeshow, the drupa Spotlight series begins with three North American leaders sharing their perspectives on the current state of sheetfed and web offset printing presses.

Ray Fagan Heidelberg Canada, Product Manager, Sheetfed & Digital Presses What should be a printers’ primary consideration if planning to purchase a new press in 2012?

How much has make-ready been pushed with today’s newest presses?

New equipment needs to offer more of a complete solution for a printer’s overall manufacturing, because, generally, they are not busier but can improve efficiencies. This means looking at new equipment that links to prepress or gives back collectable data on production workflows. Most of the time, we

Every press manufacturer has a form of auto-plate, a form of colour management, and most have a form of register control. Those are the three key components to makeready – as well as colour control during the production run. The ability to synchronize those automated processes is, to me, the only real thing left. Today’s equipment can also set every single air setting on the press, for example, so the feeder doesn’t have to adjust it. The delivery doesn’t need manual adjustment for air settings or the transfer of the paper between the printing units. It’s all done automatically based on the size and weight of the paper. Even though prepress has been able to send that information to a console of a machine for quite a while, it is only in the last year or three that the press, the physical piece of equipment, is able to utilize that information.

are now taking out older equipment and replacing two machines with one; or putting in technology so that data transfer is much more automatic. Then the printer is able to justify his business plan with a reduction in labour – really, that is what we see happening out there. What key components should a printer make sure to have on a new press?

A must on today’s machines is some kind of automated colour-control system. We offer three different levels of spectral measuring devices – Axis Control, Inpress Control and Image Control – and each one of them serves a purpose in a certain market. We actually have a fourth one now, called Easy Control, that is an entry-level device to go on a 52 or maybe a Speedmaster 74, in a budgetary type of environment. Inpress Control is the one that has taken off for us. We virtually do not quote a 40-inch press or bigger anymore without that component included. From there, we tell the printer they have to automate their processes, because all of the colour control systems are only as good as your standardized processes. It is critical for the success of today’s printer – big or small. 22 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

Are commercial printers becoming more interested in UV?

What can you share about Heidelberg’s drupa plans?

Five years ago there was a massive push for UV. That really changes the press configuration quite a bit and I just don’t think that the market was ever truly there for UV. The main reason is that we cannot pass the costs of UV printing onto the customer – they won’t accept it. There are some very good UV houses out there, but it is not as massive as some vendors thought it was going to be.

We are going to occupy all of Hall One and working with our partners in Hall Two, with Polar for example. We are going to have a faster long perfector and I think you will see some developments in the 75 market – in the 50 x 70 market. They are going to launch the XL 106 product line, so it is going to be faster and more productive, and will include straight and perfecting presses. We also have the wide-format portfolio [with EFI distribution] and the digital [toner] portfolio. The partnership with Ricoh is the beginning of something much bigger. I don’t know what it is going to be, but this wasn’t just done because we need to sell some digital boxes. There is a lot at stake and Ricoh really seems to be coming into the commercial market in a much bigger fashion in the last year or two. There is an endgame at play here. I am just not privy to it. We are going to show more than just equipment, such as lean production, packaging, green printing, and Web-to-print.

Are commercial printers still eager about the packaging sector?

For quite a few years now, the perception has been that the only growth in offset printing is in the packaging format, and a lot of commercial printers tried to fulfill a shrinking commercial sales portfolio. A large amount of them learned very quickly that packaging is a whole different ballgame: Just because your press can pass a 24-point board doesn’t mean you are a packaging printer. It is a completely different type of manufacturing. Are Heidelberg’s VLF presses allowing you to reach new customers?

The last time I was in Germany we went to see these Web-to-print printers who are actually using VLF presses to do this type of business. They are gang-running jobs. One customer showed how he was more profitable than digital printing, even with run lengths of under 200 when coming off of a VLF press, because of the amount of jobs on the sheet. This sheet can have eight to 10 different jobs Is the printer’s need for automation always on it – all 4-colour process. In this particular determined by the press? With our VLF presses, for example, it is easier plant, run by a company called flyeralarm, to package these automated processes with the they have three VLF presses and their average machine because the dollar value of the press job-change time is eight minutes. Their is already so high. You are already committing, average run length is about 470 sheets. so, instead of $5 million, it’s $5.4 – around Given the recent changes and challenges in eight percent more. On a 40-inch press, you the press market, why should a printer be might be adding 20 percent more on the comfortable purchasing from Heidelberg? investment to get all of the automation. The recent economic challenges have been difficult for many firms. Heidelberg has How has pricing of new presses changed over taken a proactive approach to stabilizing the the past couple of years? You pay less for a press today than you would company by adjusting capacities and reviewhave 10 years ago, for the same configuration. ing strategies. Our move into consumables Even though that configuration is much more more than a decade ago was a key factor in automated than the same piece of equipment creating stability in the capital equipment business. Heidelberg has also invested in the was 10 years ago, you are paying less dollars future with new products such as XL 75, for it. So in essence, they have declined 105, 145 and 162. These are state-of-the-art greatly. If you apply the ratio of costing and printing machines that will ensure our inflation and added automation, it really customers are well equipped to meet the has gone down. A bit of that is due to the production challenges they face. exchange rate being more stable.

How is Heidelberg pushing environmentally progressive printing?

When you purchase a press from Heidelberg now you can actually ask for a carbon footprint certification for the machine. We have set up an infrastructure where we have actually chosen a group of projects and organizations around the world, where customers can apply their credits if they want – and it can be regional. What is new with Heidelberg’s service offerings?

One of our board members is now in charge of services, which encompasses all service, parts, consumables, and business consulting. We are coming up with a lot of different ways to sell and offer services to customers. It will be a big part of our new corporate positioning at drupa, not necessarily selling service contracts but there are ways to help printers through a parts or consumables improvement campaign. Not every printer can afford new equipment, but we can also offer this on existing equipment to make you much more efficient. For example, a 2-roller coater system is not a very efficient way to apply coating to a sheet. If you use a chambered doctor blade, you are probably going to consume 20 percent less coating per thousand sheets and maintain the same gloss levels, just because of the application process.

Greg Norris Goss International, Marketing and Communications Manager What should be a printers’ primary consideration if planning to purchase a new press in 2012?

We are seeing that printers in Canada and the U.S. are looking for replacement capacity, rather than adding capacity, which enables them to produce at a much lower cost. There are a lot of presses running, web pressing running, that are beyond five, and even 10, years old. Printers can replace two or sometimes three of those presses with a single press and get the same output – or more. This means having a single crew, as opposed to two or three crews, and you’re running one paper web instead of three, and so forth. The savings from automation and advanced technology are often significant enough to justify the ROI. What key compenents should a printer make sure to have on a new press?

People should focus on as much automation as possible. Digital inking is something we’re seeing a lot more interest in as opposed to an open fountain inker. For example, Solisco is going to have this technology on their new Sunday 3000 press, with a 75-inch width. It allows you to have much more precise control over the ink that is metered in the system. So you are having faster startups, less startup waste, and more consistent ink coverage throughout the run.

Why did Goss recently acquire Vits Print?

We have a lot of customers who now operate Goss presses with Vits inline finishing and sheeting systems. Particularly in North America for direct-mail work, which has been an area of positive growth over the last year or two. A sheeter and/or inline finishing configuration allows printers to get the best of both worlds, taking advantage of the web press for higher quality and higher speeds at a low cost, while sheeting and finishing for the customization and versatility to get a unique product in the mail. We will also be able to realize some good synergy as an OEM auxiliary supplier with the Vits Print operation and our existing Goss Contiweb operation, which manufacturers splicers and dryers. Given recent changes in the press market, why should a printer be comfortable purchasing from Goss?

We secured a very stable ownership structure a couple years ago with the purchase by Shanghai Electric. They are not a financial investor. They’re an industrial owner with a long-term perspective and that should give customers a lot of confidence in our long-term prospects. The strength and the diversity of our product portfolio is a plus. With newspaper, commercial, finishing and packaging products, we have leading technology in a number of different sectors. We’re also strong throughout the world and not depending on any one geographic region for our business.

Are commercial web presses still on the radar of printers?

Web presses are far more agile now and the application range is really expanding quite a bit, particularly in terms of shorter runs. Five or 10 years ago, web presses would never be used for run lengths under 20,000 or 50,000 and now we see a lot of printers running 5,000 or even sometimes less than 5,000 copies successfully on a web press – due to some of the automation in waste reduction features. Can you provide an update about Goss’ interest in the packaging sector?

At drupa, we will focus on the introduction of the Sunday Vpak press and this is something we are particularly excited about. Printers traditionally think about largeformat sheetfed for folding-carton and flexography for flexible packaging, but we’re offering a web-offset alternative with advantages in terms of cost, quality and speed. Vpak presses are based on our Sunday commercial press technology, but they feature a variable repeat, so that you can vary the cut off, which is essential for packaging. With the Sunday platform, we’re able to offer Vpak presses in web widths as wide as 75 inches.

Steve Ranson

What else can you share about Goss’ drupa plans?

We are going to have a substantial presence there like always, working cooperatively with our owner Shanghai Electric [in a neighbouring booth] and their range of printing products. We think drupa is extremely important. It’s the one truly international show where printers and publishers can really evaluate a globally diverse range of solutions. How is Goss ramping up its distribution in North America, following the Shanghai Electric purchase?

We are gradually adding products as they become available, as we modify them for Western markets. The ones that are applicable to the Western markets we are marketing already, such as Akiyama and Purlux, and we have had some initial orders. We will continue to expand the range in 2012 in North America and in other Western countries; and further integrate the Goss and Shanghai Electric sales and support channels to give our customers more options.

Has the debate of whether to be a full-size or half-size sheetfed printer died down?

In the past, a guy with a 28 or 29 would eventually buy a 40, but you don’t see that What can you share about Komori’s drupa plans? much anymore. Most of the guys in the halfsize segment want to stay in their comfort zone. The new Lithrone G40 will be a highlight. If you’re a 40-inch printer you’ll stay a 40-inch It has XY photo spectrometry as well as printer. If they are buying a half-size press, it’s closed-loop register and Komori’s newest generation of fully automatic plate changers. a supplement for some of their smaller work. It only takes about 2 ½ minutes to change There seemed to be a push a few years back to six plates, with no tail bend, and that is buy specially configured presses. Has this incorporated into the AMR one-button environment changed? make-ready process. There will also be The market is still there, but there is no doubt some other surprises and innovations that the 6-colour coater is still the most comintroduced nearer to the show. mon machine out there by far – 95 percent of printers don’t need anything more than a Why did Komori develop its H-UV system? 6-colour coater. Special configurations will The simplest way to describe it is that remain due to printers who primarily need to H-UV gives all of the benefits of convenincrease throughput for specific manufacturing. tional UV printing without some of the known hassles. For example, conventional What changes have been made to your service UV drying systems are typically very offerings? expensive, sometimes adding more than We don’t offer service contracts, because it half a million dollars to a quote, and therewould feel like stealing from my customers. fore cost prohibitive for a lot of printers. If I charge a printer $5,000, $10,000 or whatDepending on the system, conventional ever a month, they’re not getting the value for UV could use up to three times as much power as the press uses alone, along with all the money. I don’t have that many problems or issues throughout the year that it would kinds of little issues like cutting blankets, guarding the press differently because of the necessitate charging someone that amount UV lights, different cooling. On H-UV there of money for any kind of service contract or is no heat produced from the lamp and you insurance policy, so to speak. Our service is 24/7. We do not charge the printer to speak only need one lamp in the press to dry a to somebody over the phone. We have also 6-colour and coating job. So, from an developed K-North Connect that is available energy standpoint, H-UV a fraction of to online customers. what conventional UV is, as well as IR.

K-North, Vice President of Sales Why do you feel Komori has the highest level of automation in the market?

It’s a well-known fact that Komori How has the pricing of new presses changed has highest level of automation and the over the past couple of years? quickest changeover in sequencing of If you take a look at, let’s say 10 years ago, jobs. The Komori AMR coupled with a new 6-colour with coater might have KHS-AI self learning function allow for been north of $3 million. In the last decade, us to change over jobs in under 20 mina lot has changed because of issues like utes and within, in many cases, under 50 currency and economics, pressures on sheets. For the printer, an easier machine pricing, and how some press makers have to run means getting absolutely as much streamlined their manufacturing process production as possible – as quickly as to make it better. Six-colour coated prices possible. have dropped dramatically. Given recent dramatic changes in the press market, why should a printer be comfortable purchasing from Komori?

How has Komori’s streamlined its press manufacturing?

Komori proudly mentions how they mold themselves after Toyota – all the time – with just-in-time manufacturing. Stability of the company: Komori is not You wouldn’t realize just how inefficient going anywhere. K-North is not going anywhere. Komori is both a publically and other manufacturing facilities are until you’ve been to Komori’s plant. Instead of privately held company, so the only comseeing people everywhere, at Komori you petitor we can somewhat be compared to would be KBA. Komori also only focuses on see robots bringing parts around, dropping them off. It is a completely different one thing: They only build offset printing presses, nothing else, in addition to having philosophy of manufacturing. It is the whole Japanese way – the Komori way – the highest level of automated equipment in terms of automation and efficiency. out there today.

JANUARY 2012 • PRINTACTION • 23

PRODUCTS OFTHE YEAR rintAction invited technology vendors to share their insight on what impactful technologies their respective companies promoted in 2011. While products newly released in 2011 were encouraged, we also accepted technologies which have undergone substantial improvements over that period. A wide selection of products, both hardware and software, have been included on this list, our second annual. We also asked representatives from each company to say a few words on how their technologies fit into the evolving world of highly competitive print.

Technologies featured • Agfa: Jeti 3020 Titan • Allen Datagraph: iTech AXXIS • Avanti: CRM Automated Lead Management • BardBusinessSolutions: PublishingManager • Bobst: ACCUCHECK • Cascades: Rolland Enviro100 Satin • Dalim Software: ES2 • Durst: Rho 1000 • EFI: VUTEk GS3250lx • Epson: Stylus Pro 7700/9700 • EskoArtwork: WebCenter 10.1 • Fujifilm Canada: Inca Onset S40 • GMG: ColorProof 5.3 • Goss: Sunday 3000/32 • Heidelberg: Speedmaster CX 102

• HP: T300 • Inx: NW140 UV Digital Narrow Web • KBA: C16 Commercial Web Press • KBR: MGI Meteor DP8700 XL • Kodak: NexPress Photo Platform • Komori: GL40 • Memjet • Muller Martini: SigmaTrimmer • Océ: ColorStream 3500 • Pressdown: DigiXpress • Ricoh: Pro C651EX/C751EX • Sun Chemical: Dispenser Program • Sydney Stone: Morgana Autocreaser Pro 33 • Unisource Canada: Lenza PC100 •Xerox Canada: CiPress

OFFSET

PRODUCTION INKJET

CONSUMABLES

WIDE FORMAT

PRODUCTION TONER

FINISHING

SOFTWARE

K-NORTH Komori GL 40 with H-UV Komori intends for its all new GL 40 with H-UV curing to be the successor to its mainstay S-40 Lithrone. The new press was designed around Komori’s OffsetOnDemand concept with upgraded labour saving technologies including new fully automatic plate changers that only take 2.3 minutes to change six plates. New labour-saving technologies include an all new scanning technology in PDC-SX XY photo spectrometer with automatic register control. Since its recent introduction, H-UV drying that instantly dries ink has shown its success in the amount of machines equipped with it worldwide. The initial acceptance has been particularly strong in Japan where, according to Komori, close to 60 percent of new machines shipping from the factory are H-UV equipped.

“The Komori GL 40 with H-UV is a ‘green’ printing press that exceeds anything Komori has done before. The highest level of automation available in the industry with all of its ‘green’ initiatives truly make it the press that other manufacturers will want to replicate.”

Steve Ranson, Vice President, K-North

AGFA MULLER MARTINI SigmaTrimmer

:Jeti 3020 Titan with FTR option Agfa Graphics’ :Jeti 3020 Titan FTR is a high speed, grand-format UV-curable flatbed system with 10 levels of field upgradeability. The Titan’s modular format offers a base configuration of 16 heads and expands to 48 heads providing a spectrum of speed, image quality and colour capabilities. The machine’s colour range includes light cyan and light magenta which produces a more photo-realistic image; single white, pre- and/or post white for specialty applications; orange and violet to extend the colour gamut and hit more spot and Pantone colours accurately; and inline varnish for creativity. The FTR option offers printing on roll materials up to 126-inches wide without loosing speed. “We developed the modular functionality for the :Jeti 3020 Titan FTR in response to digital print providers’ requests for extra flexibility and productivity. The :Jeti 3020 Titan FTR’s field upgradability and flat-to-roll option allows our customers to leverage their competitive edge.”

Deborah Hutcheson, Director of Marketing Agfa Graphics, North America 24 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

Formerly exclusively part of Muller Martini’s SigmaLine, the company presented the SigmaTrimmer in a solo version last year. It is a threeknife trimmer designed to have zero makeready that can trim a variety of formats and thicknesses at up to 1,000 cycles per hour. Formatting specifications are ready automatically off barcodes as books are fed into the machine. It is aimed at printers who have a mixed job structure which can see them producing very small print runs, even down to a run of one. “The SigmaTrimmer is a revolution in book production providing the highest level of automation for variable digital book production. The automation provides book makers ‘deskilling’ of operators, enabling frequent product changes while ensuring industry leading book quality.”

Gary Hughes, President, Muller Martini Canada

USED EQUIPMENT

FUJIFILM CANADA Inca Onset S40 This latest addition to the Onset series, launched in April 2011, is the first Inca platform equipped with the new Fujifilm Dimatix Sapphire QS-256 “MEMS” printheads. The QS head features double nozzle density in the same compact space (256 inline nozzles), which Fujifilm describes as producing smoother prints than any existing high-volume flatbed printers in the market. While S40 achieves up to throughput of 94 full beds/hr onto substrates up to 2-inches thick, it is also capable of producing superb 600-dpi print quality. Onset S40 comes in four or six colours, and it is compatible with flexible automation system (manual, semi or threequarter automation). “The market/industry expectations for digital display graphics have been rising in terms of image quality, turnaround time and range of applications at lower cost. The Onset S40 addresses all these concerns. It can potentially replace costly short-run offset jobs that require fine details, such as POPs for fashion and cosmetic products, at faster turnaround time.”

Stefan Biasi, Vice President, Graphic Systems Division, Fujifilm Canada

HEIDELBERG CANADA

Speedmaster CX 102 Launched at IPEX 2010 as the “Next Generation” press, the Speedmaster CX 102 combines innovative technologies from the Speedmaster XL 105 platform, together with the proven Speedmaster CD 102 platform. The result is a press that can print on substrates from onionskin to .40 pt board at speeds of 16,500 sheets per hour. Heidelberg attributes the high production speeds to its sheet travel technology, automated paper settings and Preset Plus Feeder and Delivery. The Intellistart operating system presets new jobs while Prinect Inpress Control sets colour and register on the run ensuring the fastest make-readies possible. The Speedmaster CX 102 is available in a multitude of configurations for both the commercial and packaging markets. “Our customers clearly see the benefits that the CX102 brings to the shop floor. Utilizing advanced XL105 technology plus other important improvements, the CX102 is a real winner.”

Richard Armstrong, President, Heidelberg Canada

ESKOARTWORK WebCenter 10.1 WebCenter is a Web-based platform which manages the pre-production approval and project life cycle. It lets personnel involved in the packaging supply chain work virtually, to approve documents, thereby reducing or eliminating development cycles. Projects can contain any document type – from artwork to spreadsheets – while WebCenter automatically maintains versioning. WebCenter 10.1 features EskoArtwork’s Visualizer technology where 3D designs can be shared and viewed from every angle, to communicate realistic final packaging concepts with brand owners. WebCenter also includes the WebCenter iPad App, letting users apply WebCenter while on the move. “WebCenter 10 has proven to be extremely attractive to packaging converters, prepress bureaus and global consumer brands. The global install base grew 17 percent in just six months after the launch of WebCenter 10. It has improved the velocity of the packaging supply chain more significantly than any other product in the marketplace.”

Mark Quinlan, President, EskoArtwork Americas JANUARY 2012 • PRINTACTION • 25

TRADE PRINTING

KBR GRAPHICS MGI Meteor DP8700 XL MGI’s Meteor DP8700 XL is described as having the largest sheet size range of any cut-sheet digital press, from 3.93 x 5.82-inches to 13 x 47-inches. It also prints on a range of substrates, from standard papers to specialty plastics. Infrared substrate treatment, offset feeder table and an airfeed system are among the Meteor’s exclusive features. The Meteor DP8700 XL prints at up to 3600 dpi using 20 traditional linescreens (from 95 to 275 lpi) or from one of five preset stochastic modes. “Today’s graphic arts professional is looking for the ability to differentiate themselves, and the Meteor DP8700 XL allows them to break into new markets and expand their product offerings. The worldwide success of the Meteor series is a testament to this fact and shows that end users are looking for more than just a ‘me-too’ digital press.”

Karl Belafi Jr., Vice President, KBR Graphics

HP CANADA

Indigo T300 HP touts the high-volume capacity of its Inkjet Web Press series as a key selling point of its machines. The T300 produces up to 70 million pages a month, while simultaneously increasing the number and type of profitable titles a publisher can offer in print. According to HP, environmental advantages, such as the elimination of chemicals and better power consumption helps the publishing industry reduce its carbon footprint. “HP’s Indigo Inkjet Web Press and Latex Printing portfolio are two of our leading technologies in 2011. Each product brings benefits to print service providers whether they are working in the signage or publishing industries. Additionally, both products reflect HP’s commitment to productivity and quality while reducing environmental impact.”

Kevin McKay, National Marketing Manager, GSB, HP Canada

BARD BUSINESS SOLUTIONS Publishing Manager Toronto-based Bard Business Solutions created Publishing Manager for the Book Publishing industry. This management software is designed for processing orders, warehouse management, inventory control, invoicing, collections, sales and marketing initiatives, and contact management. It also tracks and reports on all aspects of royalties.

AVANTI SYSTEMS CRM Automated Lead Management CRM Automated Lead Management is a sales tool that provides automated realtime communication from a printer’s corporate Website to its CRM system. With CRM Automated Lead Management, information about visitors to the printer’s Website automatically creates a new contact and follow-up activity in a sales rep’s ‘Leads’ tab within CRM, (where they manage their sales funnel). Sales reps now have access to real-time information on prospects that have shown an interest in the company’s products/services and can follow up with them immediately. “With so many printers vying for the same business, how responsive you are can be the difference between winning and losing the deal. For many printers, Website visitors often go untracked and completed forms get sent via email and then into the ‘black hole’ for follow-up. With CRM Automated Lead Management, this process occurs automatically, ensuring that there is no point of failure and, most importantly, new opportunities are not overlooked.”

Stephen McWilliam, EVP, Avanti Systems 26 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

TRADE PRINTING

SYDNEY STONE Morgana Autocreaser Pro 33 Morgana invented the flat-sheet creaser, the Autocreaser MK I, in 2001. With an original speed of 2,700 sheets per hour the machine developed a following amongst digital printers as it directly addressed the issue of toner cracking. The MK II increased the speed to 3,950 sheets per hour in 2004, followed by 5,500 sheets per hour in the Auocreaser 33 in 2007. The latest Pro version Autocreaser now operates at 8,500 sheets per hour and incorporates the 7-inch Smartsceen touch screen controller, which controls all of the main functions of the new Autocreaser Pro. Operators simply key in the sheet size along with the desired fold and the set-up is done automatically. “The New Autocreaser Pro has now become the new benchmark for high speed flat-sheet creasers and this unit is currently our best seller. The speed increase to 8,500 sheets per hour has now made it a viable option for both digital and offset printers alike."

Michael Steele, Sales Director, Sydney Stone

EFI

VUTEk GS3250LX The EFI VUTEk GS3250LX is a production-level LED UV-curing hybrid printer that extends the range of supported substrates with a new ink curing technology. Like other qualifying GS Series printers, the VUTEk GS3250LX integrates with EFI’s Web-to-print and MIS solutions with native JDF connectivity between the Fiery XF RIP and VUTEk system. The system can produce up to 55 4 x 8-foot boards per hour and also has continuous board printing capabilities. The GS3259LX produces no VOCs and has the ability to print on recycled papers without warping or head strikes.

KODAK NexPress Photo Platform The NexPress Photo Platform is targeted at photo specialty printers, photo labs, commercial printers, and others who serve customers in the photo space. Kodak claims the platform supports more than 700 qualified substrates that range from standard offset papers to synthetics, magnets, foils, textured stocks, photo and specialty stocks. It can also now print at up to 131 ppm on longer sheets–up to 26 inches or 660 mm–which enables larger book covers, posters, panoramic prints, or simply more impositions per sheet for higher productivity. "The demand for high-quality photo products certainly is on the rise. The business opportunities for photo service providers are exciting. With the advanced features of the NexPress Photo Platform, printers are able to deliver unique services that differentiate them and open new revenue streams."

Vince Ferraro, Worldwide Vice President of Marketing, Digital Printing Solutions, Kodak

GMG AMERICAS ColorProof 5.3 ColorProof is an award-winning proofing software for producing digital contract proofs. The company claims its 4-D colour-transformation engine is able to assure the highest possible quality and reliability. Version 5.3 adds a number of features to make the proofing software easier to use. A web client lets multiple users operate GMG ColorProof simultaneously to remotely check job status, submit jobs, or track printer status (ink, paper, errors). New tools also include one-click paper tint de-activation, creating proof standards and spot colour libraries for printer families, and setting manual jobs as templates. “Proofing is still a very important facet of the print workflow, and GMG ColorProof continues to be a preferred proofing solution for accurate contract proofing. What makes version 5.3 even more powerful is its ease of use and breadth of features that make remote proofing, calibration, and implementation into workflows effortless.”

Joe Varone, VP Sales, GMG Americas JANUARY 2012 • PRINTACTION • 27

DIGITAL PRINTING

GOSS Sunday 3000/32 The Sunday 3000/32 web press, with a 2 x 8 (32-page) cylinder configuration has established itself in North America for highly efficient publication and catalogue printing applications. While the machines were first installed in 2004, additional Sunday 3000/32 press features installed for the first time in 2011 include Goss DigiRail digital inking and an extended 75-inch web width. The wider configuration allows more high-quality pages per impression and greater product pagination versatility, without corresponding increases in labour or makeready effort. Automation in areas such as plate changing and folder set up, as well as advanced presetting, closed-loop controls, and smart inkers mean that new Sunday presses can run continuously, completing job or version changes on-the-fly with minimal manual intervention. Sunday 3000/32 presses in one- or two-web configurations produce up to 3.2 or 6.4 million magazines pages per hour, presenting an attractive replacement option for traditional 16-page presses.

EPSON CANADA Stylus Pro 7700/9700 The Epson Stylus Pro 7700 (24-inch) and 9700 (44-inch) incorporate the company’s latest MicroPiezo TFP print head technology, which is almost twice as fast as Epson’s previous generation. It also contains inkrepelling and auto nozzle verfication technology which virtually eliminates clogged nozzles. The nozzles produce variable-size droplets as small as 3.5 picolitres. The two machines use Epson UltraChrome with Vivid Magenta pigment ink technology which is archival-quality, lasting up to 200 years. Each printer includes Epson’s Print Artist software, which contains over 16,000 project templates and numerous graphics. “The Epson Stylus Pro 7700 and 9700 printers are a breakthrough in ease-of-use, performance, and value for our customers. Corporate users can now quickly produce persuasive presentation graphics on demand with significantly less cost than using an outside print provider.”

Timothy Check, Product Manager, Professional Imaging, Epson

INX NW140 UV Introduced at Graph Expo 2011, INX promotes the NW140 Narrow Web press as a way to address the needs of the short-run label printer by its integration of a high-speed, seven station variable data inkjet print engine with inline laser die cutter. This combination of features allows a printer to create fully finished and cut labels, including clear over-varnish and/or white ink with minimal makeready, material handling or waste. The NW140 can switch from one job to the next with the push of a button, revolutionizing a short-run label printer’s capability to respond to tight deadlines while still delivering a full-featured label product. “This press is our Product of the Year because it is very unique and unmatched in the marketplace. Not only does pre-treatment open the door for all materials, but the NW140 also combines printing and conversion in one machine when using the Spartanics laser cutter. This means you don’t need to remove a printed roll from the machine and put it on another device for conversion.”

Jim Lambert, VP and General Manager of INX International Ink Co., Digital Division 28 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

BUSINESS FORMS

RICOH Ricoh Pro C651EX/C751EX Launched in August, the Ricoh Pro C651EX/C751EX has speeds of 65 and 75 pages per minute respectively. It touts a first-in-class liquid cooled developer system, which ensures consistent operating temperature, even for extended periods of production. The machine also features what Ricoh calls Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser technology, which allows for resolutions of up to 1,200 x 4,800 dpi. Registration, front to back and sheet to sheet, has a tolerance of +/0.5 mm. Another feature touted by Ricoh is the reduction of downtime through the use of customer-replaceable components so that users will no longer need to wait for a trained service technician. “This series of products is so successful, so popular with customers, that we actually struggle to keep enough inventory on hand to satisfy the orders. Customers fortunate enough to already have this technology working for them, all have a variation of the same comment – they tell me, ‘this is the best colour product in the marketplace, no exceptions.’ With these kinds of reactions in a market as tough as this one, our choice for Product of the Year has never been easier.”

Edward Robeznieks, Vice President, Ricoh Production Printing Canada

DURST

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Rho 1000 The Rho 1000 transports and prints on a wide variety of sheet, heavy rigid and roll media at production speeds. Designed for flexibility and versatility in the high-volume environment, it reliably produces high-quality output in a continuousfeed workflow that eliminates load/unload delays and requires minimal set-up time. The Rho 1000 operates 24/7, prints up to 5,380 square feet per hour and can apply a wide range of inks – including light colours, white and gloss. In addition to its standalone digital applications, it can be integrated into screen and offset printing workflows, becoming a key step in the overall image process. “Our customers tell us that before they had a Rho 1000, they were unable to produce such a wide range of high-quality output at such high speeds. Rho 1000 users can handle more pieces of an integrated print project, satisfy more customer requirements, and get far more product out the door on time and on budget.”

Christopher Howard, Senior VP Sales & Marketing, Durst Image Technology U.S.

ALLEN DATAGRAPH iTech AXXIS Digital Label System

TRADE PRINTING

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Indigo Digital & Heidelberg Offset (NNYLZZP]L 7YPJPUN -HZ[ 8\V[LZ ;VW 8\HSP[` (NNYLZZP]L 7YPJPUN -HZ[ 8\V[LZ ;VW 8\HSP[` 6U +LTHUK 7YVK\J[PVU *VTWSL[L 0U /V\ZL -PUPZOPUN 6 U +LTHUK 7YVK\J[PVU *VTWSL[L 0U /V\ZL -PUPZOPUN

The iTech AXXIS Digital Label System consists of the iTech AXXIS Digital Label Printer, a high-resolution rollfed CMYK print engine and the iTech AXXIS Digital Label Finisher. Printing on a variety of pressure sensitive substrates, the system images ‘consumer quality’ labels up to four feet per minute – with the option to print variable data. The finisher laminates, die cuts any vector shape from Adobe Illustrator, strips, slits and rewinds to finished rolls of labels. The complete iTech AXXIS Digital Label System is small enough to fit on a tabletop. “No other label system can offer the features of the iTech AXXIS Digital Label System for anything close to the low cost of acquisition. The system enables every converter to never have to walk away from their customers’ short-run label production needs again.”

Mark Vanover, Allen Datagraph VP, Marketing and Sales

ALL ACCOUNTS TRADE PROTECTED 30 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

ENVELOPES

KBA C16 Commercial Web Press KBA’s new 16pp C16 press is touted for its high net output, fast job changes, low levels of start-up waste, enhanced production flexibility and reduced operator, energy and maintenance costs. The automated KBA C16 (C stands for commercial) will be offered in two performance classes: 55,000 and 65,000 cph. At under 60 seconds, the C16 has what KBA claims to be the fastest plate change in its class. It also features KBA’s EasyTronic software for fast, low-waste start-up and rundown. The optional LogoTronic Professional module allows for automatic presetting, job management and JDF process integration. “The technological and economic benefits of the new KBA C16 16-page web press for the commercial and magazine sectors make this our Product of the Year. This highly automated 65,000 iph press has the ability to output multiple short-run magazine titles with a minimum of makeready. The new C16 provides greater production flexibility and faster job changes for those sectors that are confronting diminishing print runs, demands for enhanced product quality and diversity, as well as price constraints and rapid turnaround.”

• TRADE ONLY Brokers and printers protected • 1-4 colour process • 500 to 5 million • Overnight and weekend service NO EXTRA CHARGE

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UV, PRESENTATION FOLDERS, ENVELOPES

Mark Hischar, President and CEO of KBA North America

High Quality over all UV OFFSET & DIGIT AL

MEMJET

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Memjet is primarily an OEM supplier of high speed printing systems. It specializes in MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) and holds over 4,000 patents in that area. Memjet claims its process as not only being fast, but also affordable and environmentally friendly. The company is providing its technologies, through its various partners, for the home and office, labels, photo retail, and wide-format segments. Last September at Graph Expo, Memjet partner Xanté released the Excelagraphix 4200, a 42inch wide machine that delivers over three billion drops of ink per second. "This has been an impressive year for Memjet as we commercialize globally with some of the world’s leading brands including LG, Lenovo and our other solutions partners. We look forward to 2012 and our continued strong growth in the printing industry by offering disruptive technologies to fuel a new category of fast, affordable colour printing powered by Memjet."

Len Lauer, President and CEO, Memjet

OCÉ CANADA ColorStream 3500 The ColorStream 3500 is an inkjet printing system for the transactional, direct marketing and commercial printing market segments. Initially launched in November 2010 in Tokyo, it was released for the North American market mid-2011. The ColorStream 3500 joins the JetStream family of high-volume inkjet colour presses. The machine has a print width of 21 ¼ inch, speed of 75m per minute printing from 1/0 to 6/6, including MICR, and a choice of dye or pigment inks from its 600-dpi (1,200 perceived) DigiDot inkjet heads. “As global leaders in high-volume inkjet colour production printing, we understand the need for change and flexibility. The ColorStream 3500 reflects our commitment to the demanding changes in our industry.”

Alec Couckuyt, Vice-President of Sales, Production Printing Systems, Océ Canada

80 lb - 100 lb coated

Sizes: 12x18 • 13x19 • 14x20 WE CAN UV LABELS & MAGNETS

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Special: Round corner matte lam b/cards 1000 - $97 UV & Bindery Services T 905.370.1875 F 905.482.9428 E UV_UBS@yahoo.ca 95 East Beaver Creek Rd. Unit 6 Richmond Hill ON L4B 1L4 JANUARY 2012 • PRINTACTION • 31

TRADE PRINTING

EQUIPMENT SERVICES & REPAIR

XEROX CANADA

X-PRESS

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416-410-9006 • Three Didde Webs • 5-colour, 26” Komori • 6-colour, 40” Komori • Two Jet Envelope Presses • Digital Printing • Two AB Dicks • Bindery • Pre-Press • Direct-to-Plate

Graphic Arts Specialists for installations, maintenance & repairs on all equipment

Leslie Electric Ltd. Servicing the printing industry since 1914 • SHEET FED PRESSES • WEB PRESSES • BINDERY EQUIPMENT • SPRAYER SYSTEMS • ELECTRONICS • ELECTRIC MOTOR REPAIR

24 Hour Emergency Service (416) 259-6385 Fax. (416) 259-6387

Wades PRINTING & EMBOSSING QUALITY & PROMPT SERVICE to the trade for over 30 years Foil Stamping / Embossing / Die Cutting Printing / Numbering / Finishing / Etc. STATIONERY, POCKET FOLDERS, BOOK COVERS & MORE...

• Sheet Sizes from: 2”x3” to 28”x42” • Specializing in Short to Medium Runs • Most stocks from light to heavy weight

A-Z Printers Ltd. 61-556 Edward Avenue Tel: (905) 780-8680 Richmond Hill, Ontario L4C 9Y5 Fax: (905) 780-8682 E-mail: I N F O @ A Z P R I N T E R S . C O M

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The CiPress Production Inkjet System, which made its debut at Graph Expo 2011, uses waterless inkjet technology and delivers predictable high-quality colour, even on low-cost offset paper. The CiPress employs Xerox’s patented solid ink technology to print bright, vibrant images without ink soaking through. Cockle and curl are also reduced because no water is used in the printing process and high energy, costly dryer systems are not required. Self-monitoring and auto-correcting production controls result in a device reliable enough to print tens of millions of pages every month. The CiPress 500 prints 500 feet or 2,180 full-colour pages per minute, creating personalized marketing, transpromo and publishing pieces. ““The Xerox CiPress 500 Production Inkjet System builds on our history of innovation and commitment to the continuous feed market. The waterless system enables the industry to produce more jobs with consistency, predictability and reliability, while offering a distinctive combination of flexible low-cost plain paper options, unique patented waterless inks, rugged piezo print head technology and an innovative print process.”

Steven Connor, VP Marketing, Xerox Canada GLUE SYSTEMS * Moll * Pafra COUNTERS * Batch Counters * Moll Counters * Microtronics MISC. EQUIPMENT * Stitching Wire * Moll Products * Joggers & Padding Presses * Both Lift Table & Pallet Truck * Rebuild Kits

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SUN CHEMICAL Sun Chemical Dispenser Program In partnership with GFI Innovations, the Sun Chemical Dispenser Program was created to help manage what has typically resulted in an overabundance of spot colour inventories at print shops and to reduce the possibility of using the wrong spot colour. The program provides in-house ink dispensing for both commercial and narrow web tag and label print shops, and gives printers the ability to mix the exact amount of ink that they need, when they need it, and eliminate excess inventory. According to Sun Chemical, the selected customers in Canada that participated in the Sun Chemical Dispenser Program have seen their spot colour ink inventories reduce by approximately 20 percent, “At Sun Chemical, we recognized that many printers frequently end up with more spot colour inks than they need that just sit on their shelves. So we offered an answer that not only allows printers to mix the exact amount of spot colour they need, but saves them a significant amount of money.”

Wades Bindery Repair Service Ltd. IT’S OUR JOB TO KEEP YOU RUNNING

Rod Staveley, President, Sun Chemical Canada

TRADE PRINTING CANADIAN ANADIAN PRINTING RINTING RESOURCES INC.. ESOURCESINC See our ad on page 32

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PRESSDOWN DigiXpress According to Pressdown, demand for short-run, 4-colour envelopes has been growing, leading to increased interest of its DigiXpress system. Introduced two years ago, the machine has since been improved to accommodate different substrates such as magnets and labels. The feeder that is attached to the copier makes it simple to produce 60 coloured or monotone envelopes per minute at very little cost and very little manpower. For some, this means that envelopes can be produced while their customers wait. "Digital shops want to be able to produce a variety of printed matter with ease at very little cost and that's what we are offering to them with the DigiXpress."

David Kisiloski, President, Pressdown

TRADE PRINTING

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TRADE PRINTING CANADIAN ANADIAN PRINTING RINTING RESOURCES INC.. ESOURCESINC See our ad on page 32

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TAGS & LABELS

BOBST GROUP ACCUCHECK Bobst launched ACCUCHECK in November 2011 as the world’s first built-in zero-fault quality control device for folding and gluing machines. It uses a high-definition camera based on the Registron quality control system to detect a range of print and print-related defects such as hickeys and spots, physical defects of the carton such as scratches or rubs, inaccurate diecutting and problems with the control of colour variations before it enters the folder-gluer by comparing the real-time image against the reference image. ACCUCHECK has been designed for the extremely high rate of data flow received from the camera during production, enabling it to interface perfectly with the host folder-gluer to ensure that any non-conforming carton is logged in the management system and ejected.

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“The launch of ACCUCHECK demonstrates our commitment to zero fault packaging – we believe the application of this technology will revolutionize the quality control process for packaging manufacturers.”

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Jean-Pascal Bobst, CEO, Bobst Group

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DALIM SOFTWARE ES2 Dalim’s ES2, a streamlined customer-facing environment, combines prepress tasks with the business logic of project planning, with milestones and sophisticated approval processes. Sharing joint projects with workflow participants from creative to print production is easy, through any standard Web browser. All users are involved at the appropriate stages of the production cycle, including review and approval of corrections and revisions. Optional TWIST automation features add prepress tasks such as milestones – assigned to any project aspect whether a single file or a user group – anywhere between the first artwork draft and final imposed form. “More efficient business processes and a higher degree of technical automation are the keys to cost and time-savings. ES has been the ‘glue’ between those two worlds.”

Graham Blanks, Director Business Operations, Dalim Software North America

CASCADES POS COMPONENTS NUMBERING MACHINES

Rolland Enviro100 Satin Launched in February 2011, Rolland calls its Enviro100 Satin a hybrid fine paper, combining the print quality of coated paper with the rich texture and environmental characteristics of uncoated paper. Due to its satin finish, this uncoated paper is ideal for printing vibrant and colourful images. In fact, the surface treatment of Rolland Enviro100 Satin allows for remarkable print quality. The paper contains 100 percent post-consumer fiber and is FSC, EcoLogo, and Processed Chlorine Free certified. It is manufactured using biogas energy, which allows a greenhouse gas reduction of 70,000 tonnes per year. Overall, using one short ton of Rolland Enviro100 Satin rather than virgin paper saves 17 trees, 16,546 gallons of water, 5,437 lb. of air emissions and 2,092 pounds of solid waste. “In a mature market such as paper, innovation is the key to survival and Cascades does it with the utmost respect for the environment. This new paper stands out in the market and offers a unique solution to customers.”

Daniel Parrot, Vice President Operations, Specialty Papers

UNISOURCE Lenza PC100 Unisource says this FSC 100 percent Post-Consumer Recycled Uncoated paper has one of the lowest carbon footprint in the world. It obtained an “Excellent” rating in the WWF Guide to Buying Paper Rating with a “Five-Star” (out of 5) mark on forest, climate and water performance. The Lenza PC100 offers a brightness of 92, high opacity and is available in wide range of basis weights. Sold in Europe under the brand Lenza Green, Unisource introduced it to the Canadian market this past year. 34 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

POCKET FOLDERS

Gaitskell Continued from page 21

competition: “On paper the association’s 30 members are all competitors, but in practice we’re all friends and allies. Collectively, we represent no more than five percent of the market share, so if we try to steal business away from each other, we’re not going to get that far. But combined, if we educate consumers about the merits of buying craft beer, we can tackle the big, mainstream breweries.” Laba continues: “The Beer Store – Canada’s number-one, incredibly profitable sales channel for breweries – is collectively owned by the three largest

Presentation Folders from File to Finish

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breweries, Labatt, Molson, and Sleeman. In other words, the biggest channel to sell beer is owned by our biggest competitors. It’s definitely a David-versus-Goliath situation: 30 craft brewers going after the 95 percent of people drinking mainstream beer.” Flying Dog: Beer meets philosophy

Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick, Maryland, is one of multiple enterprises founded by George Stranahan, an heir to the Champion Spark Plug fortune with anti-establishment leanings and a Ph.D in physics. In 1990, Stranahan and a business partner opened their first beer-making operation as an Aspen, Colorado brewpub (a dining establishment selling

beer brewed on the premises). His inspiration for the name Flying Dog came from a painting of a winged dog he discovered in a Pakistani hotel bar after a Himalayan mountaineering expedition. The brewery’s Website explains: “Flying Dog became George's life philosophy because, as he personally discovered, ‘it is amazing what you can achieve if nobody tells you that you can’t.’ Flying Dog stands for not only extraordinary beer, but also for standing tall, doing great things, and not letting anyone make you eat shit.” Stranahan’s brewpub expanded first to a Denver brewery, then in 2007 to its present facility 1,600 miles away in FredContinued on page 36

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quotes@theprintingklub.ca | www.theprintingklub.ca JANUARY 2012 • PRINTACTION • 35

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Gaitskell Continued from page 35

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PRINTING EQUIPMENT

36 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

erick, Maryland. Flying Dog’s Creative Director, Adam McGinnis, explains that the long-distance move occurred, first, because a large percentage of the brewery’s business already came from the mid-Atlantic region, which offered even more growth potential; and second, because a large, modern brewing facility became vacant in that target area. Since relocating to Maryland, Flying Dog’s sales have increased 77 percent. Like the other microbreweries, McGinnis reports that their recent expansion includes venturing into experimental brews and limited-edition one-offs: “This year we’re doing a 10-part series called Brewhouse Rarities where everyone in production has the option to pitch a beer they think we could make that would defy convention. Then we choose the best suggestions and create them. “For example, traditional Hefeweizen is a very light, citrusy, thirst-quenching, summer beer with a low alcohol content of around four or five percent; but we’ve just released a stronger version with 7.3 percent alcohol. The other innovations are still top secret, but we’re rolling them out slowly each month.” They will also begin packaging their beer in cans for the first time ever starting in April 2012. Labels as works of art and political activism

A major influence on Flying Dog’s labels was Stranahan’s friend Hunter S. Thomp-

son, the now deceased American journalist played by Johnny Depp in the 2011 film The Rum Diary, who wrote in so-called “gonzo” style – a subjective, exaggerated, even crazed approach to reporting that in Thompson’s case was fueled by liberal doses of recreational drugs and alcohol. In turn, Thompson introduced Stranahan to British artist/cartoonist Ralph Steadman, who illustrated much of Thompson’s work and who since 1995 has also been the source of all Flying Dog Brewery’s label art. Recently, McGinnis spent nine months redesigning the brewery’s packaging in a way that displays Steadman’s original artwork as faithfully as possible and removes distractions added in previous years: “When I arrived here two years ago, I felt the revisions to [Steadman’s] artwork had cheapened it by adding bright colours to the background and thickening the lines. They made the packaging look KoolAidish – not an appropriate image for a premium product.” Besides eliminating loud, extraneous colours from Flying Dog’s labels and bottle caps, McGinnis has switched the label substrate from a glossy stock to one with a matte finish more closely resembling the watercolour paper on which Steadman produces his original pen and brush drawings. Wording is also a crucial component of Flying Dog’s label design. On his first commission for the brewery, a label for Road Dog Porter, Steadman expanded on Stranahan’s excremental theme by appending the words “Good Beer, No Shit” to his artwork. This slogan has stuck despite considerable controversy, as the brewery’s

Website recounts: “As soon as [the slogan] hit the shelves, the Colorado liquor board deemed it profane and removed all Road Dog from the market. Temporarily replacing it with "Good Beer, No Censorship," we fought with the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] to get the original text reinstated for over four years. In 2000, it was decided that art should not be censored. From then on "Good Beer, No Shit" proudly adorns all labels for our Road Dog Porter.” In a 2007 interview with the Rocky Mountain News, Stranahan confirmed that his risqué beer labels are actually trying to spread a specific political message: Challenge authority. Considering that Flying Dog persists in assigning such provocative names to its products as InHeat Wheat Hefeweizen, and that each American state has its own system for regulating the sale and distribution of alcohol within its borders, it is not surprising that the brewery has again landed up in court. Erin Biles, Flying Dog’s Public Relations Manager, e-mailed me: “We're currently suing the Michigan Liquor Control Commission for their arbitrary ban of Raging Bitch Belgian-Style IPA. The ban occured in September 2009 and we filed suit in March 2011. In June 2011, the Commission reversed its ban on the beer in the state, but our lawsuit, to deem their original decision as a violation of our First Amendment rights, rages on.” Victoria Gaitskell is keen to exchange ideas with readers at victoria@printaction.com

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