June 2013 by PrintAction

.com

Maximize Your Printing Proﬁts

PROVEN PLATE PERFORMANCE.

Canada’s Largest Graphics & Printing Show

KNOCKING OUT THE COMPETITION

25% OFF!

The New Peace of Mind: Saphira Consumables www.shop.heidelberg.com

International Centre Toronto, Nov 21-23

graphicscanada.com

PM40010868 R10907 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to 610 Alden Rd., Suite 100, Markham ON L3R 9Z1

1 800 363 4800

PRINT SMART PRINT WITH CONFIDENCE Â&#x2039; 4D Lenticular Prints Â&#x2039; (R\HMVPS Â&#x2039; )\ZPULZZ *HYKZ Â&#x2039; )\[[VUZ Â&#x2039; +VVY /HUNLYZ Â&#x2039; )YVJO\YLZ Â&#x2039; *HSLUKHYZ Â&#x2039; 2VYVRHYKZ Â&#x2039; ,U]LSVWLZ Â&#x2039; 3L[[LYOLHKZ Â&#x2039; )VVRSL[Z Â&#x2039; 4HNUL[Z Â&#x2039; 5V[LWHKZ Â&#x2039; 3PULU <UJVH[LK :[VJR Â&#x2039; 7SHZ[PJ *HYKZ Â&#x2039; 7VZ[JHYKZ Â&#x2039; 7\aaSLZ Â&#x2039; :PSR 3HTPUH[L Â&#x2039; :[PJRLYZ Â&#x2039; 7VZ[LYZ Â&#x2039; )HUULYZ Â&#x2039; )HUULY :[HUKZ Â&#x2039; ;LL Â&#x2039; 4\NZ Â&#x2039; -VPS >VY_ Â&#x2039; 9PNPK :PNUZ Â&#x2039; >PUKV^ *SPUNZ Â&#x2039; 9VSSLK 4V\U[LK *HU]HZ ... HUK TVYL

LOCAL

DELIVERY in select areas

CONTENTS Volume 52, Number 6 Features

Letterpress Revival Victoria Gaitskell speaks with Anstey’s Neil Stewart, Flash’s Rich Pauptit and book artist George Walker about how the renewed romance with letterpress fits a burgeoning craft-driven economy

Technology Report: Inks, Coatings and Application Some of the printing industry’s most-intensive research and development activities continue to focus on inks, coatings and the press systems needed for cost-efficient application

:Jeti 3020 Titan Unbeatable, upgradeable wide format solutions

NEWS Rhino Print moves east with its acquisition of Marcam Cross Media, USPS loses $1.9 billion in Q2 and Greg Blue becomes CEO of manroland web systems

CALENDAR July 2013 BCPIA hosts its annual golf tournament at Morgan Creek, printing takes centre stage in Shanghai and The Philippines, and the PIA troubleshoots extreme offset

10 12

FLEXO Rising to the Phoenix Challenge A team of students from Ryerson’s Graphic Communications Management program share their experiences behind the school’s first overall Phoenix Challenge win

PACKAGING Eskoworld Mirrors Company Growth More than 600 Esko customers traveled to Phoenix for Eskoworld 2013, featuring key new platforms like Full HD Flexo, Esko Suite 12.1 and the Kongsberg XN

t The only ﬁeld upgradeable, scalable unit– conﬁgure to grow with your business needs t Lowest UV ink consumption–save ink, reduce costs t Extremely accurate–photorealistic quality with 6C printing t Print multiple boards simultaneously, with maximum productivity of 2,433 ft2/hr

Column

Build your business with uncompromising image quality.

ZAC BOLAN Bright Likes, Big Tweety Part II In Part II of Bolan’s in-depth look at social media, Desperately Seeking Gurus, two marketing consultants describe the inner workings of Twitter, Youtube, Facebook and YouTube for business

Archive

June 1973 Paul McCartney & Wings release Live and Let Die, American Graffiti premieres in New York, and publishers ponder the electronic newspaper based on cable-TV printouts

t Endless applications with in-line white ink

Resources 21 Services to the Trade Cover photo: Clive Chan

29 Marketplace JUNE 2013 • PRINTACTION • 3

PERSPECTIVE

The Visual Newsfeed witter is celebrating its seventh birthday this July, which is surely to be marked with the Tcompany releasing new staggering statistics on the usage of its microblogging site. The latest available figures from late 2012 indicate more than 500-million tweets are made per day, growing by around 100 million since June 2012. If this growth rate is maintained, it will not be long before Twitter eclipses the billion-tweet-per-day mark – as opposed to the three or four days it currently takes for one billion tweets to be generated. Estimates suggest this equates to more than 9,000 tweets posted per second. There are around 550 million registered Twitter users, according to various sources citing company numbers, with about 135,000 new user accounts being activated by the day. Jack Dorsey’s 2006 blueprint sketch for Twitter’s annual advertising revenue has been the beginnings of Twitter, one of today’s growing inline with the increase in users: top 10 visited Websites. In 2010, ad revenue was measured at $45 million; $139 million in 2011; $259 million in 2012; and a projected $400 million for 2013. Since Jack Dorsey launched the social networking site in 2006, Twitter has become one of the world’s 10 most visited Internet sites. Interestingly, recent findings released by the company suggest that around 40 percent of all Twitter users do not tweet at all, meaning they use the platform primarily as a newsfeed. There are many valid reasons for leveraging social media for your business, including several addressed in Bright Likes, Big Tweety Part II, Desperately Seeking Gurus. Bolan – a venerable prepress veteran – has lived on the leading edge of digital publishing since the first Mac was born. If you are just now thinking of using Twitter, however, it may be best to join the 40 percent of people who employ the platform as a newsfeed. One of the unique advantages of Twitter is its ability to provide highly visual – relative to other short text messaging services – personalized news. This will allow you to keep up with the newest available information directly relating to your business and avoid unseen pitfalls. Your Twitter newsfeed should reach well beyond printing news and focus on mainstream business and communications content. Jon Robinson, Editor

Canada’s Graphic Communications Magazine. Proudly published for two generations. Editor Jon Robinson • 416.665.7333 ext. 30 • jon@printaction.com Associate Editor Clive Chan • 416.665.7333 ext. 25 • clive@printaction.com Contributing Writers Zac Bolan, Clint Bolte, Peter Ebner, Chris Fraser, Victoria Gaitskell, Nick Howard, Thad McIlroy, Gordon Pritchard, Nicole Rycroft, 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 Advertising Sales Sara Young • 416.665.7333 ext. 31 • sara@printaction.com Stephen Longmire • 416.665.7333 ext. 26 • stephen@printaction.com Circulation ADPIC Subscription Services • 800.363.3261 • subscriptions@printaction.com PrintAction is published by Youngblood Publishing Limited and is Canada’s only national monthly publication serving the graphic arts industry. ISSN 1481-9287. Annual Subscriptions: Canada: $39.99 ($35.39 + $4.60 HST) United States: CN$69.99; Other Foreign: CN$139.99

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

PrintAction is printed by Sina Printing on ChorusArt Gloss 80lb Text and 70lb Velvet Text available from Unisource Canada. Youngblood Publishing Ltd. 610 Alden Rd., Suite 100, Markham, ON L3R 9Z1 Tel: 416.665.7333 • Fax: 905.752.1441 www.printaction.com Publications Mail Agreement Number 40010868 • ISSN 1481-9287 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to subscriptions@printaction.com We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage. 4 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2013

DIAMONDS are a Printer’s Best Friend We all know that diamonds are one of nature’s hardest materials. The heart of the printing press is the gripper and the gripper pad. Unlike its competitors, KOMORI decided that gripper pads need to last. And last they do. Most competitors use hardened steel, sintered alloys, carbide or even a urethane derivative. However, these all have a limited lifespan. Diamond-coated pads don’t. KOMORI presses do not require expensive pad replacements that other well-known brands do. Generally, after 75 million impressions, it’s time for an expensive revitalization that can cost over $100,000! Along with the utilization of much larger cam followers, torsion bars instead of springs, KOMORI builds longevity and low cost of ownership that keeps on giving. Sure, diamonds are nice in a ring or a bracelet, EXW LQ WKH SUHVVURRPV RI &DQDGD GLDPRQGV TXLFNO\ DGG XS WR D SUR¿WDEOH HGJH WKDW LV XQLTXH WR KOMORI.

PRINT NEWS WALTER PALKA, known throughout Canada’s printing industry as one of its most dynamic and knowledgeable salespeople beginning in the late 1970s, passed away in Toronto on May 6. Palka – affectionately known to many in the industry as ‘Mr. Fudge’ – spent the formative years of his printing career with AB Dick, at a time when it was one of the most-powerful suppliers of printing presses and related products in North America. He began working with AB Dick in 1974 as DAVID ALLAN, President and CEO of a Sales Technician and became Sales Rhino Print Solutions, acquired Marcam Manager in 1980. Palka then took on a Cross Media of Toronto, Ontario. The sales position with Eskofot, which in purchase gives Rhino, headquartered in 2001 merged with Barco Graphics and Richmond, British Columbia, its first lo- eventually formed Esko. Palka then fincation in Eastern Canadian to better ished his long printing career with serve national clients. “Now, with opera- Graphic Whizard. tions in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto, we are uniquely positioned to provide high-quality, colour-managed, print-ondemand solutions to Canadian businesses nationwide,” stated Allan. Founded in 1971, Marcam evolved from its offset roots into a range of toner-based production, focusing heavily on multichannel marketing and related analysis. One of Canada’s most decorated printing operations, Rhino received the Best of Show Award at the 2012 Canadian Printing Awards. MINH TRAN and Brent Burns from First Copy, with Brett Kisiloski of PDS, oversaw the installation of a 4-colour DigiXpress envelope press into Toronto’s Women’s College Hospital, where First Copy is located. Purchased from PDS Pressdown, the DigiXpress is described as an envelope feeding system, but it works with a range of applications and substrates like post cards, labels, banners and card stock up to 14 point. It feeds sizes from 3 x 5 inches up to 12 x 18 inches. THE ELLIS GROUP, one of Canada’s largest independent packaging operations, installed a new 40-inch, 8-colour Komori LS with UV drying into its Ellis Paper Box location in Mississauga. The facility specializes in high-end packaging for pharmaceutical clients across North America. Sold and installed by K-North, the facility’s new Komori LS press is integrated with Komori’s PDC-SII, fully automatic plate changers and the AMR (Automatic Make-Ready) system. The company, with its main plant in Pickering and a third carton facility called Ellis Packaging West located in Guelph, traces its roots back to 1946, with Ellis Packaging being incorporated in 1983. M&T PRINTING GROUP added two new wide-format inkjet systems, including an Epson GS6000 and Fujifilm Acuity, as well as a Zund cutter to expand its sign division. The systems were installed at M&T Printing’s primary plant in Kitchener, Ontario. In addition to its large-format-inkjet investment in Kitchener, M&T Printing has been expanding sign services at its Brantford facility. The company also lists Ontario locations in Waterloo, Guelph, London, Cambridge and Conestoga College. 6 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2013

IAN BUDGE becomes an Account Manager with Toronto’s Flash Reproductions, which has been at the forefront of the region’s printing community since 1969. “For years, Ian and I have held a mutual respect for the work each of us produce,” said Rich Pauptit, President of Flash. “I am excited to now be able to put our collective wits to good use executing even more complex projects.” Budge brings more than 30 years of experience to Flash and fits the company’s craft-based approach to printing, including offset, screen, toner and letterpress processes that are often combined and applied in projects with foil stamping, embossing, laser etching, die-cutting, duplexing, among other specialty techniques.

said Carl May, President. “The 5 x 10-foot table saves us a tremendous amount of time in print finishing, as well as reducing much of our outsourcing of 3D lettering, plexi milling and specialty cutting.” Carl and daughter Lorna May are also leveraging the Kongsberg to diversify into short-run carton packaging work and prototyping. True Colours specializes in large-format production, digital scanning, Giclée printmaking and image retouching.

MICHAEL STOCK of ND Graphics, Dwayne MacKinnon from Auto Trim & Signs and Richard Juneau from Agfa Graphics oversaw the installation of an Agfa :Anapurna M4f into Auto Trim’s plant in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Established in 1989, Auto Trim runs an in-house graphic design department to produce posters, vehicle graphics, banners, general signage, and point-of-purchase displays. The company’s new :Anapurna UV flatbed system produces a top resolution of 720 x 1,440 dpi and hits production speeds from 75 ft²/hr to 150 ft²/hr. GREG BLUE becomes CEO of manroland web systems Inc. in North America succeeding Roland Ortbach, who continues with the organization as Vice President of Sales. The North American branch of manroland web systems was incorporated in March 2012, when it began business in the United States and Canada. “We are now ready to move forward and our next critical phase of growth requires the leadership of an individual who has spent much of his career in the service and customer support area of our industry,” said Ortbach. Blue brings 19 years JAY MANDARINO, Founder and CEO of of experience in the printing industry, C.J. Graphics in Toronto, purchased the including a range of knowledge gained publishing entity Design Edge Canada, from working in areas like application including its printed magazine and engineering, project and support associated Website and the Regional management, and aftermarket business Design Awards. “It’s important to us that development. this publication flourishes and continues its mandate to inform and inspire graphic designers, art directors and all other professionals associated with design in its many forms across Canada,” said Mandarino. Design Edge was founded in 2006 by North Island Publishing Ltd., which produces Graphic Monthly magazine.

EFI added to its Management Information Systems portfolio, which fits under the company’s Productivity Software group led by Senior VP and GM Marc Olin, with the acquisition of printLEADER, a privately held developer based in Palm City, Florida, for an undisclosed sum. printLEADER technology was introduced 25 years ago and TRUE COLOURS GRAPHIC REPRODUCTION’s is currently installed at over 800 comCarl and Lorna May oversaw the instal- mercial and in-plant printing operations lation of a Kongsberg i-XN24 finishing across North America. The technology system, purchased through Fujifilm is to be integrated into EFI’s PrintSmith Canada. Established in 1991, True Vision product line. In addition to Colours recently moved into a 5,200- PrintSmith Vision, EFI’s MIS portfolio square-foot facility in North Vancouver. includes EFI Pace, EFI Monarch and EFI “The new space allowed us to construct Radius, which will not be altered after a custom tailored room for the cutter,” the purchase.

SAVE 10%

On All Our Products! Use the Pr omo code

ACTION when

ordering.

OutsourceYour Printingfor

Business Cards

Postcards

Flyers

Brochures

1 Sided, 14pt AQ, 1000 Cards

Full Color, 1 Sided, 14pt, AQ 1000 4x6 Postcards

Full Color, 1 Sided, 100lb 1000 8.5x11 Flyers

Full Color, 2 Sided, 100lb 1000 8.5x11 Brochures

$12.73

$30.38

$78.00

$88.00

Save even More with our

NEW Lower Shipping Rates

MATTE LAMINATION

BOOKS

Instant Online Quotes and Orders 24/7 Visit SinaLite.com and sign-up today.

POCKET FOLDERS

GREETING CARDS

COROPLAST SIGNS

VINYL BANNERS

1.866.899.2499 support@sinalite.com

Your Trusted Trade Printer

Prices are subject to change without notice. Prices exclude shipping and taxes. All prices in CAD. Extra charges may apply for Large Format items. Promotion code must be entered at time of purchase to receive discount. Promo code does not apply to Direct Mail or Custom orders. Promo code cannot be combined with any other promotion codes. Promotion ends March 31, 2013

Outsource Your Large Format Printing for

BIG Profits!

SAV%E 10

Products! On All Our o code om Pr e Use th ACTION ring. when orde

18”x24” 4mm COROPLAST SIGNS 1 Sign for $9.90 each 10 Signs for $5.28 each 50 Signs for $4.62 each

24”x48” 13oz VINYL BANNERS 1 Banner for $20.87each 5 Banners for $16.87each 10 Banners for $16.37each

SIGN UP AT SINALITE.COM AND PLACE YOUR ORDER TODAY! Business Cards, Postcards, Flyers, Brochures, Pocket Folders, Magnets, Variable Printing, Matte Lamination, Door Hangers, Letterhead, Note Pads, Greeting Cards, Tent Cards, Plastics, Posters, Tear Cards, Labels, Coroplast Signs, Pull Up Banners, Vinyl Banners, and More! Prices are subject to change without notice. Prices exclude shipping and taxes. All prices in CAD. Extra charges may apply for Large Format items. Promotion ends March 31, 2013

1.866.899.2499 support@sinalite.com SinaLite.com is Proudly Canadian SinaLite.com is a division of Sina Printing Inc.

an additional $5.6 billion on September 30, 2013. The postal service owes an estimated $17 billion on future workers’ compensation claims. The number of career employees decreased by approximately 25,000 in the second quarter and by 46,000 in the last year – its lowest number since 1966.

Photo: Lonnie Major

COLOR AD PACKAGING of Winnipeg, Manitoba, made a large investment with Windmoeller & Hoelscher and its subsidiary Garant Machinenhandel, including placing orders for a Heliostar gravure press, a Miraflex flexographic press, and three Triumph bag machines. Led by CEO Chip Batten, Color Ad describes itself as North America’s largest producer of pre-formed bags, as well as a major supplier of pouches and roll stock. Color Ad is to install the Miraflex CM 10 press with a 52-inch working width. The Heliostar SL 10 – to be installed this fall – features a 48-inch working width and is the first W&H gravure press in North America to include automatic wash-up. The three Triumph bag formers are to focus on producing a range of squarebottom bags.

XEROX, led by CEO Ursula Burns, recently released its results for 2012, which included earning US$22.4 billion in revenue and a net income of $1.4 billion. “With services now representing 55 percent of our total revenue and growing to two-thirds by 2017, we believe this is a good time to keep your eye on Xerox,” stated Burns. “Through services-led growth, profitable leadership in document technology, our cash-generating annuity-based business model and earnings expansion, we have the financial strength to invest in building value for Xerox and for our stakeholders.”

KBA, led by President and CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann, recently released its first quarter results and stated sales were behind schedule for this period in part due to customer postponements. The group faced a reduction of 15.5 percent in new orders, down to €200 million compared to €236.6 million in 2012. KBA posted an operating loss of €16.9 million for the quarter. KBA, however, predicts full-year revenues matching that of 2012 (€1,294 million) and a modest improvement in pre-tax earnings. KBA’s management bases its forecast on deliveries scheduled for the following months and a rise in sheetfed orders expected in May from the world’s second-largest trade fair, China Print, in Beijing.

We sell quality inks, that are known for their sharpness, runnability, colour strength, and mileage.

Ink that causes down time and wasted paper is no bargain. We have been making inks in Canada for Canadians for 44 years, meeting the needs of our customers. We offer an array of inks including: FAST TRAP FORMULA Formulated to dry on all types of hard to to dry non-paper substrates

DENNIS LOW, President of PointOne Graphics, purchased a new Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106-8P+L press. The Toronto-area printer also runs a Speedmaster XL 106-6+L, a Speedmaster SM 102-8P and a Speedmaster SM52-6+L for sheetfed offset production. The XL 1068P+L perfecting press has an extended cut-off sheet length of 29.5 inches, aqueous coating, and is also capable of printing up to .024 point board. PointOne Graphics has been in business for over 20 years and currently employs more than 100 full-time staff.

ULTRA QUICK SET FORMULA Formulated for quick back-up, excellent for high speed printing HIGH SPEED PROCESS COLOURS Positive drying, instant colour on make ready, can stay open in the fountain for at least 48 hours

905.738.2220 Toll Free: 888.738.4657

MICHAEL BRICE becomes VP of Offset Operations for INX International Ink Co., which involves facilities in New York and Illinois. He is one of three recently appointed VPs for INX, including Bill Giczkowski, who joined INX in 1998 and becomes VP of Information Technology, and James Kochanny, who becomes VP of Liquid Operations. Rick Westrom, who has worked at INX for 25 years, continues his role as Senior VP of Strategic Sourcing, and now takes on additional title as Research & Development Director. At the beginning of April, Craig Reid joined INX as Director of Global Strategy, Digital. INX International describes itself as the third largest producer of inks in North America with over 15 facilities in the U.S. QUAD/GRAPHICS of Sussex Wisconsin, led and Canada. It is an entity owned by by President and CEO Joel Quadracci, Sakata INX worldwide operations. reported a net loss of US$14 million for its first quarter ending March 31, 2013. The results include the company’s acquisition UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE ended the of Vertis, which took place in January 2013 second quarter of its 2013 fiscal year (to for US$237 million. This purchase, accord- March 31) with a net loss of US$1.9 biling to the company, led to taking on a $160 lion. The organization states this Q2 remillion increase in debt during the quarter. sult highlights an urgent need for Net sales for Quad/Graphics’ first quarter comprehensive legislation and that it 2013 were US$1.1 billion versus US$990 needs to save US$20 billion annually by million for the same period in 2012. 2016. USPS has already reached its debt Recurring free cash flow in Q1 2013 was limit of $15 billion. It has defaulted on US$120 million versus US$107 million for $11.1 billion due for retiree health benethe same period in 2012. fits in 2012 and also expects to default on JUNE 2013 • PRINTACTION • 7

PRINT CALENDAR

JULY

Shanghai International Printing Week gets underway with several related exhibitions, including: The 21st Shanghai International Print Pack and Paper Expo, Shanghai Printing & Packaging Products Fair, China Green Printing Equipment & Materials Exhibition, Shanghai Ad & Sign Technology Exhibition, and Shanghai Digital Printing & Digital Technology Exhibition.

The British Columbia Printing Industries Association presents its annual golf tournament at Morgan Creek in Surrey, BC. The event includes a dinner and chances to win raffle and table prizes.$840 per foursome, $215 for individual members.

The Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisconsin, hosts a six-day summer course on the topic of printing ink technologies. Presented in association with the National Printing Ink Research Institute (NPIRI) and ink companies, the course is designed to appeal to both experienced ink technicians and those new to the field. $1,900

The Association of Suppliers of Printing Publishing and Converting Technologies, (NPES) presents a 45-minute Webinar titled The Economy: A 2013 Reality Check, which reatures Alan Beaulieu, CEO of the Institute of Trend Research. His group proclaims itself as the oldest privately held economic consulting firm in the U.S.

The NBM Show, a trade event for the sign and digital graphics industries, hits Long Beach, Florida. It is a combination of three segments: Printwear, awards & engraving, and sign & digital graphics. The show features free training by exhibitors both on the show floor and in classroom. The last stop of the five-city tour will be Philadelphia in September.

Three printing related exhibitions descend on the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino in The Philippines. The event covers sectors like labels, digital printing, paper products, prepress equipment and even office machines. The gathering also includes a Printer’s Technology Forum which will include presentations by international vendors.

8 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2013

The Printing Industries of America presents a 3-day seminar in Pittsburgh aimed at allowing operators to optimize press performance. Titled Extreme Offset: Troubleshoot, Control, Optimize, participants will learn skills to control print colour and quality as well as slash makeready time and analyze root causes for problems. $1,195

The Philippines is a country with 13 distinct regions, of which Cebu is one of the most developed provinces. Cebu City is the oldest city in the Philippines, with a history spanning back to the 13th century. Along with a major industrial exporting trade, the city is one of the top 10 outsourcing destinations in the world. The Fuente Osmeña Circle, depicted here, is at the heart of this “Queen City of the South.”

32% REDUCTION IN MAKEREADY WASTE

27% REDUCTION IN MAKEREADY TIME

27% REDUCTION IN TIME TO COLOUR ON PRESS

PROVEN PLATE PERFORMANCE. exceptional high high quality, quality, consistency consistencyand andproven provenvalue value Fujifilm’s market leading LH-PJ plate delivers exceptional white paper to your business. It was the focus of a recent White Paper from noted industry writer John Zarwan who interviewed 25 25 printers printers who who switched switchedto toFujifilm Fujifilmplates. plates.In Inthe theprinters’ printer’sown ownwords, words,they theyhighlight highlightthe the interviewed waste, reduction in in time to to colour, positive impact switching switchingto toFujifilm Fujifilmhad hadininmakeready makereadytime, time,makeready makeready waste, reduction time colour, run length durability, run waste on restart, and savings in labour, ink, water and fountain solution use. deliver proven proven performance performancefor foryour yourbusiness. business,Download downloadJohn JohnZarwan’s Zarwan’slatest latestWhite WhitePaper Paper Fujifilm can deliver to to learn forfor yourself how “Plates in the Pressroom: Pressroom:The TheFujifilm FujifilmAdvantage” Advantage”atatwww.fujifilm.ca/zarwanpdf www.fujifilm.ca/zarwanpdf learn yourself how difference Fujifilm it can make for you. much of a difference can make for you.

We Can Help.

Fujifilm is a direct-from-the-manufacturer supplier of Graphic Arts solutions in Canada. We stock over 1,000,000 printing plates in Canada. We offer local sales and technical service with personnel who live and work in your Canada’s largest community across Canada. Our products are backed by Canada’s largest technical technical support support team.

Speak to us at 1-800-263-5018, gsmarketing@fujifilm.com or visit us at www.fujifilm.ca/graphics.

U E B E C

| M

O N T R E A L

| O

T T A W A

| T

O R O N T O

| L

O N D O N

| W

I N N I P E G

| E

D M O N T O N

| C

A L G A R Y

| V

A N C O U V E R

PRINT FLEXO

Rising to the Phoenix Challenge In late April, a team of students from Ryerson University’s Graphic Communications Management (GCM) program participated in the annual, college-level Phoenix Challenge competition. For the first time, Ryerson’s Phoenix Challenge team won the overall standing at the competition. Mark Corrigan, Nikita Kuzmin, Olivia Parker, Hannah Plavnick and Jay Wong, all members of the winning team, contributed to the following article to describe their innovative flexography print submission that impressed the competition’s judging panel and distinguished Ryerson ahead of eight other American colleges and universities.

he Phoenix Challenge is held annually in conjunction with the Flexographic Technical Association (FTA) Annual Forum and INFO*FLEX. This year, the Phoenix Challenge was held in San Diego, California, on April 27th. The competition seeks to encourage the further development of flexo professionals by motivating students from post-secondary institutions to participate. It provides students with the opportunity to develop complex packaging solutions while incorporating their flexographic print skills and knowledge. The FTA conference itself took place between April 28th and May 1st. The event was comprised of seminars in the mornings, discussing various topics like food safety certification, automated workflows, consumer product companies and print buyer demands, expanded colour gamut, optimizing plate and press technologies, skills training and reinforcement, and emerging technologies. In the afternoon, some 1,600 FTA attendees took part in INFO*FLEX, where a collection of vendors and industry professionals showcased the latest technologies and equipment in the flexographic print market.

The Phoenix competition

The Phoenix Challenge, sponsored by the Phoenix Challenge Foundation, is held annually a day before the FTA Forum. Each year, around 10 post-secondary institutions send a small, elite group of five students to present their flexographic solution for a predetermined printing problem. The teams are tasked with solving the problem over the course of their school year. Marks are awarded in four categories: Design, execution, research, and concept. What makes the competition unique is that students are not only graded on the quality of their printed submission, but also on their ability to present the benefits of their products and explain their project processes. Adding to the complexity of the problem, all of the schools must follow specific restrictions when producing their products and are limited by the capabilities of their print equipment. For example, the teams were only permitted to print using spot colours, and could only use a maximum of four print stations total. Ryerson GCM’s Phoenix Challenge team faced a unique challenge because our flexographic press has been installed at the school for a shorter period of time than many U.S. competitors. Ryerson GCM is also the only Canadian school to compete in this prestigious event, which is deeply engrained south of the border because there is a high school-based component to the competition. The team challenge

The annual INFO*FLEX Forum had one of the highest attendances in the past several years, hosting over 1,600 visitors. 10 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2013

Ryerson’s team was comprised of five core GCM members, including: Mark Corrigan, Nikita Kuzmin, Olivia Parker, Hannah Plavnick, and Jonathan Wong. With the help of two junior members, Li-Anne Chang and Elina Shafigullina, we spent well over 300 total hours preparing our solutions to the predetermined problem. The teams were given the choice of presenting the judging panel with a minimum of two and a maximum of three printed products for an art or music festival. The teams needed to present at least one packaging solution to be used at a concession stand, and another item that would serve as a promotional piece that could be distributed at the event.

A CUSTO ER F CUSED FULL-SERVICE TRADE PRINTER M

T .

Request a quote for your next print pr project! oject! 1.800.731.4MPI estimates@mpiprint.com

-VY `V\Y OPNO ]VS\TL WYPU[PUN ULLKZ Â&#x2039; ,_JLW[PVUHSS` MHZ[ [\YUHYV\UK VU [PTL ZLUZP[P]L QVIZ Â&#x2039; Â¹ /LH[ ZL[ ^LI WYLZZ ^P[O PUSPUL WLYMPUN MVSKPUN HUK NS\PUN

-VY `V\Y X\HSP[` ZOVY[ Y\U WYPU[PUN ULLKZ

-VY `V\Y J\Z[VT HUK ZWLJPHS[` WYPU[PUN ULLKZ Â&#x2039; /PNOS` J\Z[VTPaLK WYPU[PUN HUK MPUPZOPUN Â&#x2039; .YLH[ ZLSLJ[PVU VM ZWLJPHS[` Z[VJR Â&#x2039; :[H[L VM [OL HY[ LX\PWTLU[ Â&#x2039; ,_WLYPLUJLK [LHT

Â&#x2039; ,HZ` [V \ZL VUSPUL VYKLYPUN Z`Z[LT Â&#x2039; 9LSPHISL HUK X\HSP[` JVUZJPV\Z Â&#x2039; -YLL SVJHS KLSP]LY` Â&#x2039;Â°/\NL WYVK\J[ SPUL

Exceptional Customer Service

Free Local Delivery* O N

M P I

T U R B O

P R O D U C T S

MPITURBO.COM

8,> 3HRLZOVYL 9VHK

+=7

4HYROHT 9VHK

4PZZPZZH\NH 9VHK

4HQVY 4HJRLUaPL +YP]L

4PU VYKLY VM

:PTWS` LTHPS \Z `V\Y HKKYLZZ ^OPSL WSHJPUN `V\Y VYKLY

;LS! -(?! ;VSS -YLL! 470 PUMV'TWPWYPU[ JVT )HZHS[PJ 9VHK *VUJVYK 65 3 2 . MPI Turbo is a division of MPI Group | 4PUPT\T VYKLY VM ILMVYL [H_ VU 470;\YIV JVTÂ»Z WYVK\J[Z

Left: Ryerson’s Phoenix Challenge team receiving their first-place award, including (left to right): Joe Tuccitto, Flexographic Technical Association (FTA) Education Director, Ian Baitz, Chair of Graphic Communications Management at Ryerson University, GCM students Olivia Parker, Jay Wong, Mark Corrigan, Nikita Kuzmin, Hannah Plavnick, and Chairman of the Phoenix Challenge Foundation, Bettylyn Krafft.

Food labels are die-cut and separated on a ribbon for easy application by vendors.

The printed solutions

Ryerson’s Phoenix Challenge team produced three products: A reuseable water bottle with an ultra-clear poly label and laminate; a pressure sensitive food seal; and a Tyvek wristband with security perforation and Near Field Communications (NFC) capabilities. All of our products were designed and produced for a fictitious music festival, Quéforte. As lead designer, Jonathan Wong was responsible for conceptualizing the whimsical designs used in the printed products. He chose colours that represented nature and enjoyment, teal and yellow, and complemented them with a warmer shade of grey. The water bottle would be given out at a festival as a promotional item that could be refilled and reused. Its functionality is enhanced because the label features a map of the festival grounds for uses of hydration and other unique locations. The food seals were die-cut with the

The Near Field Communications (NFC) enabled wristband allows for social media check-ins and is incredibly durable.

matrix removed and separated into individual ribbons that would be given to vendors at the festival. The seals could be used by food vendors on virtually any type of concessional food packaging material, such as lined wax paper, cling wrap, and paper bags. The seals promote Quéforte without obscuring the vendor’s own packaging, and are an economical solution for maintaining event branding across different vendors and packaging types. The Tyvek wristband was also a perfect fit. The application of a permanent adhesive underneath the security patch prevents easy removal of the wristband. This avoids pass backs at festival events, which our research revealed as a major problem at most festivals. The addition of an NFC microchip would allow users to “tap to check-in” on a social media Website at specific locations around the grounds. The wristband would be individually programmed for each attendee, which removes the need for variable data printed on the wristband. In addition, it allows future point of contacts with the attendees because information gathered during registration and during the event could be datamined for other uses. A Quéforte water bottle with clear poly label containing a map of festival grounds.

The flexographic process

Ryerson’s Phoenix Challenge team had to consider the properties of our press and equipment, perform colour management across diverse substrates, conduct market research, select and source inks and substrates, and hone our presentation skills in preparation for the competition. Colour management was of critical importance across all three products. This was essential for strong, consistent branding, as the products were printed on diverse substrates that possessed different characteristics and white points. Tyvek is an extremely porous, uncoated substrate that absorbed a significant amount of ink. Poly on the other hand is a very smooth substrate with high ink holdout and no absorption. Finally, the label stock was a paper substrate with high ink holdout. To adjust the colour of the inks supplied by Siegwerk, we tested them on each substrate using a Harper Phantom Proofer. Each sample was then measured using an X-Rite spectrophotometer and the X-Rite ColorMaster software to determine the Delta E between the sample and the standard. Any deviations from the standard were corrected by adjusting the ink colour. The team managed to achieve a Delta E of 1.5 across all jobs as well as to the standard.

.com Advertise in PrintAction’s 2013 Buyers’ Guide and be included in the newly launched Online Edition ABSOLUTELY FREE! The Online Buyers’ Guide can also include company logo, display advertising, company profile and link to company website – all for one low price!

WEBSIT

MAP

PROF

ILE

LISTING L

BOOK YOUR AD SPACE NOW! Call 416-665-7333 x31 or email: tbg@printaction.com JUNE 2013 • PRINTACTION • 11

PRINT PACKAGING Esko has sold more than 600 Kongsberg XN since the next-generation cutting tables were first introduced at drupa in May 2012. With a growing interest in the sign and display market, Eskoworld hinted at the pending arrival of larger-size Kongsberg tables.

Eskoworld Mirrors Company Growth ore than 600 Esko customers traveled to Phoenix in mid-May for the four-day Eskoworld 2013 users’ conference, eclipsing last year’s record-breaking attendance by around 12 percent. Esko CEO Carsten Knudsen opened up the event by describing a strong 2012 for the company, which grew its annual revenues by around eight percent and gained 1,100 completely new customers. “There has been a lot of professionalization of packaging production in emerging markets,” explains Knudsen, during Eskoworld’s press conference. “Even here in North America you see it.” Esko is arguably today’s most predominant technology company driving the packaging sector, which is to continue for the foreseeable future with the recent introduction of key platforms like Full HD Flexo, Esko Suite 12.0 software and the Kongsberg XN cutting table. Around 70 percent of Esko’s customers are directly involved with the packaging supply chain. The company estimates another 15 percent of its clients are focused on the sign and display market, where Esko clearly intends to migrate more of its technology.

Kongsberg signage shift

“We were not very active in that market about six years ago,” says Knudsen, describing Esko’s wide-format presence. “It really stared with the Kongsberg tables and we have changed that [platform] towards being able to address the sign and display market, where we see high growth.” Knudsen continues to explain how this sector is becoming industrialized whereas sign shops three or four years ago were primarily small mom- and pop-businesses. Esko’s bourgeoning interest in wide-format manufacturing signals the company is to focus more on commercial printers, who represent substantial investment potential in the signage space, in addition to shortrun packaging applications, in their search for new revenue streams beyond traditional sheetfed offset work. “The [commercial printing] market is immensely President and CEO Carsten Knudsen has driven by the growth in led the growth of Esko wide-format flatbed digital since November 2005 printing and people realize they need more throughput,” says Jan De Roeck, Director Solutions Management, Esko. “So we need good software that drives the front end and we need something to digitally convert it as well, because we are printing digitally.” Esko, as expected, hinted new Kongsberg tables would be introduced in the New Year to address its signage interest. The company’s ArtiosCAD software has also helped to open up its presence in display graphics, but Esko is focused on pouring development dollars into its i-cut Suite software. The newest version of i-cut Suite – comprised of Preflight, Editor and Automate modules – includes new tiling functions to gang-run wide-format production for ultimate conversion on Kongsberg cutting tables. Eskoworld presentations about the upcoming i-cut Suite 14 release highlighted several pending innovations that unfortunately cannot yet be disclosed. 12 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2013

Full HD Flexo

It was clear at Eskoworld how much optimism Esko holds for the future of its core expertise in developing packaging technologies. In particular, company executives were bullish in their assessments for why Full HD Flexo, unveiled at drupa but commercially launched in April 2013, is ready to set a new quality standard for flexography. Full HD Flexo – building on Esko’s existing, successful HD Flexo product line – is designed to produce a Pantone colour control combination of smooth highlight printing and The continuing growth of Esko is supported by Washgravure-like solid ink densities. The platform leverages ington-based Danaher Corporation (2012 revenues of what Esko describes as the industry’s only fully digitally $18.3 billion), which purchased what was then called controlled platemaking workflow – a process it began EskoArtwork in early 2011 for approximately $470 mildeveloping back in the 1990s. Full HD Flexo, according lion. In mid-2012, Danaher then spent around $625 to Esko, moves the binary discussion of flat top or million to acquire X-Rite and its recently acquired Panround top dots to create the best possible print dot tone powerhouse. The trio of Esko, Pantone and X-Rite, structures on one plate. the latter of which also merged with measurement giant “I am happy to see that HD has become a standard, Gretag Macbeth back in 2006, establishes Danaher as a but Full HD is a game changer,” says Knudsen, during global power in control of colour – a unique core compethe Eskoworld press conference. “It is a leap forward in tency never before seen in the business world, with technology and something we expect a lot of. “ unlimited potential to drive key technologies and stanAt Eskoworld 2013, dards across countless industries. the company also unSeveral of the 100 educational veiled version 12.1 of sessions at Eskoworld 2013, inEsko Suite (available cluding 20 in Spanish, focused on July 2013) with a series colour management. The most inof new features, interesting session was a two-hour cluding automation presentation called A Colorful tools for gang-run Story, Color From Design to Print, printing on large-forwhich focused on the XRGA stanmat flatbed systems. dard, X-Rite’s push toward LCH With Automation from LAB, and the progress with Engine 12.1, multiple PantoneLIVE, a new cloud-based odd-shaped designs service providing access to digital can be automatically data certain to become the new ganged onto a single colour standard. print sheet layout. Esko PantoneLIVE is built around a Suite 12.1 includes a purely digital Master Standard for new set of Standard colour, derived from spectral data. Template Workflows Printing companies will never be for the folding carton, able to reproduce the Master Stanlabel and signage secdard, but will instead access what tors. In prepress editors Pantone refers to as Dependent PackEdge or ArtPro, Standards. These are colour-data Esko Suite 12.1 users libraries based on individual can now define areas printing processes and Pantone on a job for inline vihas currently set up 18 Dependent sual inspection sysStandards for PantoneLIVE. tems, which receives its Full HD Flexo, currently installed at over 30 production Facing the challenges of creatsetup data directly sites around the world, is described by Esko as gameing a digital cloud of brand technology driving the quality of flexography from Esko Automation changing colours, PantoneLIVE recently toward offset and gravure. Engine. received an important endorseCombiPress Support is another new feature found ment for its technological direction and progress with in Suite 12.1, which helps automate prepress tasks when the May 23 news that Procter & Gamble, which owns a job – particularly in the label sector – requires differ- brands like Gillette, Tide and Pampers, is implementing ent printing processes, such as offset, flexo, toner or the service. Printing operations will need to pay close screen. The Esko Viewer in Automation Engine 12.1 is attention to the development of PantoneLIVE as product now equipped with a barcode and Braille reader. In the giants like P&G come on board. Indeed, Esko and its software space, Eskoworld showed numerous advances parent Danaher are companies to watch in the evolution with ArtoisCAD, a staple in packaging software of modern packaging and signage technologies. currently celebrating its 15-year anniversary. – Jon Robinson

who can add a full line of innovative coatings to their lineup? you can. Differentiate your products with the help of Sun Chemical’s full range of coating solutions. Our coatings are designed with just the right finish or resistance to optimize your application. You can also enhance your image with our specialty coatings that engage the senses or provide a functional barrier. All that with the same high quality, service and innovation you’ve come to expect from Sun Chemical — your single source for inks and coatings.

Request your FREE sample at www.sunchemical.com/naicoatings or contact us at 1-708-236-3798.

working for you.

ZAC BOLAN

Bright Likes, Big Tweety Finding your way around the Social Media metropolis Part II – Desperately Seeking Gurus o you’re new in town, and you are hopelessly lost – what do you do? Seasoned travellers will tell you finding a friendly guide is a great way to get a local perspective on the lay of the land. After all, when dealing with the winding streets and avenues of any metropolis, the shortest distance between two points is rarely a straight line. As with bricks-and-mortar cities, navigating the constantly changing byways of Social Media City can be a daunting undertaking. And because social media evolves so rapidly, often the best way for a company tap into relevant digital marketing strategies is to seek the advice of a social media expert. So instead of just standing dumbfounded at the intersection of Relevance Avenue and Engagement Boulevard, I made the decision to learn more about the complex architecture and workings of Social Media City. And seeking the advice of those actively driving the social media paradigm seemed the best way to find my way around. I spoke with two social media leaders with different roles in this world, including: Trina Lo, who is a marketing consultant with a printing and publishing background, and Ernest Barbaric, who has been actively proselytizing and working in the social media world since the earliest days.

The Visionary, Ernest Barbaric

I first encountered Ernest Barbaric as he stood in front of a classroom full of inquisitive faces, each impatient and ready to learn about harnessing social media in a business environment. In 2010, Calgary’s Mount Royal University recruited Barbaric to develop the Social Media for Business extension certificate program, to address the dramatic shift of corporate marketing in the digital realm. Since implementation, the popular program has produced more than 100 graduates, each versed in the latest social media marketing stratagems. In addition to teaching, Barbaric works tirelessly as a social media consultant to both commercial enterprises and nonprofits on top of a busy public speaking roster. As he both teaches and actively works in the social media field, Barbaric provides valuable insights for businesses seeking to improve and leverage their online presence. In a recent conversation, I asked him to discuss his vision of a social media strategy for printers. Zac Bolan: Why would a printer want to embrace social media as a part of their marketing strategy? Ernest Barbaric: Look at what’s happening in the print industry, things are more challenging for brick-and-mortar commercial printers these days. Lower market demand as well as competition from offshore and 14 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2013

Creating content for your Website or social media campaign doesn’t have to be complex. When interviewing Ernest Barbaric (left) for this article a simple point and shoot camera was used to record video, which was later posted to YouTube. Once made public on YouTube, video content can easily be embedded into blog postings, tweets or Facebook pages.

online commodity print providers means a printer has to do more to stand out amongst the competition. But, if a company is willing to do the extra work, social media could be the extra step that places you above your competition. ZB: Do you find confusion in the business world as to what social media actually entails? EB: As with marketing in general, people tend to lump social media into this one thing, but it really isn’t. Social media can have a number of different avenues: A blog, for example; replying to reviews on Yelp; or engaging in a content marketing piece through YouTube. Companies come to me asking to ‘add some social media.’ That’s like asking to build a house when you have no idea how many rooms you need – it’s a very vague question. ZB: Like asking for spices to be added to food without defining the flavour you want? EB: It’s very much like that. You’re not actually looking to create new ingredients – instead, make the best recipe with the ingredients that are available. Meaning, for example, that it could be a mix of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube versus somebody who is focusing on, let’s say for example, Reddit [a social news Website], a blog, and a podcast. And that might work for each of them individually, yet they’re both using social media in completely different ways. ZB: What social media tools would you find most useful for a relatively inexperienced business? EB: First, invest the majority of your marketing dollars and time making sure your Website is really good and consumer friendly. Secondly, and this is really impor-

tant, research and implement Conversation Rate Optimization. You need to learn how many visitors you get on your Website and how many will convert into customers – a very important thing. Then we would look at moving more into the content marketing space. One of the ways you can do that would be through a blog. A blog gives anybody in your organization a publishing platform and this is an asset that you own. A blog is a great way to demonstrate thought leadership and let your customers get to know you before they actually purchase something from you. You can actually lay out a very compelling story through a blog that your potential customers can experience before they actually buy one of your products, services, or contact one of your salespeople. It also provides a very humanizing way to look at an organization. And finally, this is something that I’ve seen a really strong re-emergence of, e-mail marketing. Developing a database and an e-mail newsletter would probably be one of the most powerful things that any organization can do when it comes to digital marketing. Because, for example, if you and I are connected and if you’ve opted into giving me your e-mail address that gives us a relationship that we can connect at any point in time. So those would be the four things that I think are foundational digital marketing strategies. Once you have those dialed in, then we can actually start doing some outbound marketing. For example, it would be interesting for regular consumers to see what’s happening behind the scenes in a printing company and what better way to do that than through video! Continued on page 26

WEB PRESS

PERFECTOR

PERFECT

IN-LINE

ADVANCE

48 PAGE

12 COLOR

BINDING

SPOT UV & AQ

BINDERY

HEATSET WEB PRESSES PAGE

PAGE

48WEB 24WEB 4/4 Perfecting

6/6 Perfecting •Perf •Gluing •Latex

SHEETFED PRESSES

12 COLOR

10 COLOR

COLOR

Perfector

UV & AQ

WEB PRINTING

SHEETFED PRINTING

BINDERY & FINISHING

Heidelberg Sunday 4000 - 48 Page Printing 4 Units 57” wide Heat Set Web Gapless Cut off 44.5” x 57” Complete In-line Stitching, Folding & Finishing

12 Color Heidelberg Speedmaster Perfector 28” x 40” (6/6 Perfecting) with coating

5 Muller Martini Saddle Stitchers up to 12 Pockets & Cover

10 Color Heidelberg Speedmaster Perfector 28” x 40” (5/5 Perfecting) with coating

Perfect Binder 1152 page capacity 3” thick spine + 7 hole drilling

Heidelberg Sunday 2000 - 24 Page Printing 6 Units 57” wide Heat Set Web Gapless Cut off 22.25” x 57” Complete In-line Folding, Perfing, Gluing & Latex

8 Color Heidelberg CD 28” x 40” (with UV & AQ Coater)

4 Cutters up to 64” Inkjetting Poly Bagging 7 Hole Drilling Shrink Wrapping 7 Stahl / MBO Folders Gate Folding / Map Folding Tipping Machine Tabbing / Clip Sealing Machine Diecutting (Bobst Diecutter 28” x 40”) 3 Knife Trimmer Cylinder 22” x 32.25” Cylinder 22” x 30.25” Letterpress 10” x 15” Automatic Folder / Gluer

ADVANCE PREPRESS Stochastic Screening - This is a Hybrid NO DOTS screening (continuous tone). This will help enhance print Quality and bring out all details. CIP 3 & 4 - This allows us to transfer color Characteristics of a job directly to our presses allowing us faster make ready and more Accurate color matching to proofs Computer-to-Plate Technology up to 60” (CTP) Fuji Film Color-Art - Accurate Pressmatching EPSON Color Proofing System MAC & PC Platforms Electronic Imposition & Trapping Design & Layout File Transfer (FTP) 24/7 Online Softproofing

1-888-674-0266 ext 103 10 North Queen Street, Toronto, ON. M8Z 2C4 | Tel: 416-201-0881 | Fax: 416-201-8885 | Email: pa@west-star.com | Website: www.west-star.com

WEB PRESS

PERFECTOR

PERFECT

IN-LINE

ADVANCE

48 PAGE

12 COLOR

BINDING

SPOT UV & AQ

BINDERY

HEATSET WEB PRESSES PAGE

PAGE

48WEB 24WEB 4/4 Perfecting

6/6 Perfecting •Perf •Gluing •Latex

SHEETFED PRESSES

12 COLOR

10 COLOR

COLOR

Perfector

UV & AQ

WEB PRINTING

SHEETFED PRINTING

BINDERY & FINISHING

Heidelberg Sunday 4000 - 48 Page Printing 4 Units 57” wide Heat Set Web Gapless Cut off 44.5” x 57” Complete In-line Stitching, Folding & Finishing

12 Color Heidelberg Speedmaster Perfector 28” x 40” (6/6 Perfecting) with coating

5 Muller Martini Saddle Stitchers up to 12 Pockets & Cover

10 Color Heidelberg Speedmaster Perfector 28” x 40” (5/5 Perfecting) with coating

Perfect Binder 1152 page capacity 3” thick spine + 7 hole drilling

Heidelberg Sunday 2000 - 24 Page Printing 6 Units 57” wide Heat Set Web Gapless Cut off 22.25” x 57” Complete In-line Folding, Perfing, Gluing & Latex

8 Color Heidelberg CD 28” x 40” (with UV & AQ Coater)

1-888-674-0266 ext 103 10 North Queen Street, Toronto, ON. M8Z 2C4 | Tel: 416-201-0881 | Fax: 416-201-8885 | Email: pa@west-star.com | Website: www.west-star.com

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

Letterpress Story by Victoria Gaitskell

S OFTEN HAPPENS WHEN A SON takes over his father’s business, Rich Pauptit, President of Flash Reproductions since 2009, could have decided to modernize the most antiquated aspect of his 35-person shop, its letterpress department. Based in Toronto, Flash runs an advanced mix of offset, toner and prepress technologies required to compete in one of the world’s largest and most aggressive print markets; but the company’s letterpress department brings something exceptional to the table. This segment of the business employs two people and essentially the same relief printing process with cast-metal type (or alternatively molded plates) that Johannes Gutenberg first commercialized in Germany in 1440. In modern times, owing largely to the skill and timeintensive makeready letterpress requires, it has mostly fallen out of commercial use in favour of faster, cheaper processes that do a reasonable job – at least to the untrained eye – of simulating letterpress results. Yet alongside Flash’s versatile offset, screen, and toner machines, the company’s letterpress department continues to function five days a week and generates around 10 percent of the company’s total dollar volume in revenues. Similarly, President Neil Stewart of Anstey Book Binding, a company of 15 people, also based in Toronto, says the ancient process of letterpress contributes significantly to achieving the company’s goals and represents about 10 percent of their business. Tracing its roots back to 1882, Anstey was recently purchased by Specialties Graphic Finishers, which is owned by Norm Beange – one of North America’s leading experts in finishing, who has always focused on the business potential of craftsmanship. Both Pauptit and Stewart perceive a growing interest in letterpress printing among both their customers and the general populace. The process tightly fits today’s burgeoning craftfocused brand of consumerism, in which individualism and specialization have supplanted the bygone days of mass communications, in which inboxes are crammed with spam and multi-media messages are lost in a sea of unspecified advertising. Behind the reborn romance of letterpress, which is engaging a new craft-conscious

REVIVAL

generation, Stewart, Pauptit and book artist George Walker share their secrets of the ancient process’ commercial viability today. Flash Reproductions

“My dad, Carl, started our company in 1969,” recalls Pauptit. “He taught me everything I know, and when I started working with him about 15 years ago, I thought letterpress printing was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. It was the Norman Rockwell painting that everybody wants to live. “It would be very easy to say my dad’s approach was antiquated, and we should forget about letterpress. But that wouldn’t work for me. We need to find our niche with the people who still care about what printing was in the old days, not just a means to an end.” Recent examples of Flash’s letterpress work include foil-stamped business cards made “ridiculously thick” by duplexing several layers of different-coloured substrates together. One such spectacular job featured eight multicoloured layers die-cut with a window enclosing a loose cubic zirconium diamond. The top layer was clear plastic, allowing the viewer see down through six intervening layers to the chrome-mirror-finished base. Another recent job was a letterpress invitation to a high-end hotel, elegantly packaged and shipped with a wooden diorama box containing an exact dollhouse-sized replica of one of the hotel’s deluxe guest rooms. Pauptit says the rationale behind both products was to give their recipients the satisfaction that comes from owning beautiful, well crafted items: “Nowadays printing is not usually the most efficient means to give somebody information. Usually you do that digitally. So at this stage in history, if you don’t love something you’re printing, I almost do not see the point in printing it. Of course, this is an overstatement, but I do not want to do throwaway print but rather things people really care about and cherish.” Pauptit explains how letterpress is not only consistent with these values but also why its rarity makes it fit as an integral part of his current business model: “Although the print market is obviously shrinking, no one in their right mind thinks print will shrink to nothing. At the same time, only certain companies will

survive – the ones who are best at serving the market segment they’re in. Companies with a lot of press power will do all the large-volume print, because they’re the cheapest and fastest at it. Companies like ourselves will never be the cheapest or the fastest or have the most capacity, so we have to be something else. “Instead, we are focused on collaborating with creative designers and advertising agencies to produce specialized, high-quality work –things other printers view as a complicated pain in the butt. A significant percentage of our business also consists of doing hard stuff for other printers – and we’re comfortable serving that niche of the market. Our motto is: ‘If someone else can do it, then someone else can do it.’” Another factor encouraging Pauptit’s inclusion of letterpress in Flash’s business model is his own subjective reaction to the digitizing of print, which he thinks takes all the fun out of printing by dumbing down the specifics of each job. Clients, for example, can only choose the type of stock they want from a limited number of qualified substrates: “Digital printing turns a printer into a logistics company concerned with how quickly and cheaply the product can be delivered. It takes all the creativity and craftsmanship out of printing, all the little items of flair you can add to a job. Every project gets boiled down to four-colour process on either something glossy or something matte. “In the end, you’re just pushing the green button and something comes out the other end,” continues Pauptit. “I’m not going to be a proud member of this industry if I have the most green buttons to push.” In 2011 Pauptit specifically chose an MGI Meteor DP60 Pro because of its versatility and unique production capabilities relative to other toner machines on the market. His company can order and install parts themselves and tweak the press mechanically to handle an unusual variety of substrates – unlike equipment made by other manufacturers, who require users to restrict their stocks only to qualified brands on pain of voiding their warranties or service contracts. Even the rules governing the operating systems of some toner equipment can leave printing companies stuck in cycles of unwanted investment. Continued on page 18

JUNE 2013 • PRINTACTION • 17

“Service contracts that won’t let you take apart the equipment and put it back together yourself prevent you from knowing the machine as well. These types of limitations don’t allow you to be creative,” says Pauptit. “We consider ourselves craftsmen and presses the tools of our craft. We’re dead set on keeping that alive.” Anstey Book Binding

Rich Pauptit took over Flash Reproductions from his father in 2009.

In February 2013, to better connect craftsmanship with the Canadian design community, Flash Reproductions partnered with Unisource Canada to launch Wayward Arts magazine (waywardarts.ca), a publication highlighting the work of leading designers. Each month, a different award-winning studio is given access to paper and print craftsmen to produce the magazine of their dreams.

Anstey Book Binding is based on similar principles of craftsmanship and sensory gratification. “Anstey Book Binding is the epitome of low-tech and old-fashioned,” reads the company’s homepage. “We know that flawlessly finished print is a medium that emotionally resonates with audiences because what they hold in their hands connects with their mind and tactile senses.” In 1994, Neil Stewart bought and grew the company in partnership with C.J. Graphics owner Jay Mandarino and later a third partner, then sold it to Specialties Graphic Finishers in 2010. Stewart, who originally studied Fine Art at one of Quebec’s general and vocational colleges, followed by printmaking at Lake Placid School of Art (New York) and design at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD, Toronto), remained President of Anstey after the sale. After his studies, Stewart’s first enterprises in the 1980s were a hand papermaking mill and a letterpress shop he established in Toronto. His interest in commercial letterpress developed after he became disenchanted with the devaluation of typesetting that coincided with the rise of computer-generated design, as well as the regular huge financial outlays for technology that the digital alternative required. He says in those days he could obtain letterpress equipment easily and cheaply because commercial printers were ditching and replacing it with newer technologies. “Initially I was designing a lot of promotional material for photographers,” recounts Stewart. “Posters were trendy back then, so I suggested to my clients that, for the same amount they were paying for 1,000 posters, most of which ended up in a stack collecting dust under their bed, they could produce five beautiful books instead… give them as promotions to their five most important clients, and perhaps expect to receive two new jobs out of the five. “This idea proved successful and led to one of the approaches we still follow today: Using letterpress to embellish fine book binding. The combination produces showpieces that achieve a pretty deep penetration with clients because they are so beautiful to feel and look at.” Today Anstey’s letterpress equipment comprises three cylinder and three platen presses (mostly Heidelbergs), plus two proof presses (both Vandercook). “Because letterpress is very finicky, we have always had more capacity than actual work,” Stewart admits. “Even for the most experienced operator, letterpress requires a lot of trial and error. In the commercial

arena, time is the thing you have the least of, so it’s very challenging to do letterpress commercially and do it well. It’s also especially hard to scale it up in Canada, where the market is 10 to 20 times smaller than in the States.” Most of Stewart’s current letterpress clients are corporations located in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and some in the United States. He says the American clients love the fact that so many diverse graphic-arts services are concentrated in the GTA, whereas in their own country they might have to farm out each of the various processes required for a special project – say, letterpress, binding, and foil stamping – to several different businesses, each in a different state. For Stewart’s operation, letterpress serves both the functions of decoration and problem-solving. For example, for a set of 25 slipcases, Anstey might letterpress the labels because they would be harder and cost more to print in litho. Or if they are producing a small number of books for a bank or real-estate agent, Anstey might use letterpress to produce a decorative end paper, divider page, or box liner to enhance the piece. Stewart says that, although letterpress stationery has declined in popularity, the company still produces business cards, some part of full stationery programs with letterhead and envelopes, for clients like financial firms, architects, and interior designers, for whom a strong first impression matters. Their other letterpress stock in trade includes personalized diplomas for a prestigious college and engraved invitations costing $15 to $20 a pop for high society and corporate events and product launches. Youth movement

For about the last five years, Pauptit has observed the rise of an urban subculture interested in craftsmanship, a movement that is also prompting a renewed interest in letterpress. At age 37, he says he is about 10 years behind the people actually driving the trend, since his letterpress clients tend to be graphic designers of either gender in their twenties or thirties, most of whom work at ad agencies or studios but also have extra work on the side. “And they are designing mostly for a younger market, which makes it an especially interesting trend,” he says. Pauptit notes that, when local colleges bring their students to Flash Reproductions on tours, although the students are impressed by the company’s digital interface and multi-million-dollar presses, when they reach the letterpress department, they get really excited. He also concludes that people in general are becoming more interested in traditional letterpress process simply because lately his company is producing more of it. “People are bombarded with everything as virtual reality on a screen, but they don’t get as many opportunities to hold a well crafted object in their hands. As a reaction to the lack of real substance in our world, some people are craving a real connection to craftsmanship and physical handmade objects,” Pauptit the-

orizes. “For example, business cards are overwhelmingly unnecessary in this age of e-mail, yet people still connect emotionally to them. They even fetishize them a bit. Along with sewn hardcover books with head and tail bands, they are considered The Real Thing.” Stewart is encouraged by the growing number of young letterpress printers who are working out of small studios in their basements or garages. “I think it’s great that younger printers are interested in letterpress and forming their own little economies, because we need a larger market, even if it does push pricing down a bit. When I was that age and going around to print shops trying to get information about letterpress, printers told me it was a stupid idea, and no one would help me. So I just did everything myself. I even ended up building my own machine to make polymer plates.” However, Stewart hopes a market influx of letterpress products by inexperienced operators will not lower the public’s appreciation for the quality of the letterpress craft. He says that with letterpress it’s very easy for the uninitiated to produce some kind of printed result without knowing very much about the process, but it actually becomes more difficult to do well when your knowledge of the many variables and your eye for quality increase. “Three practitioners will have five different approaches, and that is what makes letterpress so interesting,” he says. For example, Stewart’s own brand of finessing the process includes adding multiple illustrations, multiple colour overlays, and exploiting the secrets of masterful platemaking and ink distribution to enable the use of very small, fine type. “Letterpress is a lot like offset used to

be in the days when you could really feel it, before all the computercontrolled presses and aqueous coatings,” he adds. “It is first and foremost a craft. Craft takes time and experience.” The book artist

George Walker, who studied at OCAD at the same time as Stewart, is now an accomplished Canadian book artist, wood engraver, and Associate Professor of printmaking and book arts at OCAD. Besides supplying creative direction and editorial work for two small Canadian presses, Walker produces limited-edition books in his garage letterpress studio, equipped with a Vandercook proof press, shelves of moveable type, and book-binding equipment. His recent works include two wordless novels, each composed of over 100 wood engravings: The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson (an influential Canadian landscape painter who lived from 1877 to 1917) and Conrad Black (accomplished by Internet collaboration with the media magnate while Black was serving a recent Florida prison sentence). The 13 signed, numbered, leather-bound copies that Walker produced of Conrad Black sold out to almost instantly to university, institutional, and private collections at a price of $1,500 each. Walker says that, although his collegeage students belong to the electronic age, they also feel the fascination of printed books as tangible objects: “They buy a licence to read an e-book, but they are also interested in creating and owning printed books that hold special meaning for them.

Neil Stewart, President of Anstey, has a fine-arts background from schools in Quebec, New York and Toronto’s OCAD.

Continued on page 28

A LETTERPRESS EDUCATION:

The Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum A valuable resource for anyone wishing to become reacquainted with the marvels of letterpress printing is the Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum, Canada’s largest working printing museum, located in the village of Queenston, Ontario (five km north of Niagara Falls). The jewel in its rare collection of letterpress, typecasting, and lithography equipment is a Louis Roy Press dating from the 1760s, Canada’s oldest press and one of very few original wooden presses remaining in the world. The museum occupies the restored Georgian home and print shop of publisher and political activist William Lyon Mackenzie, who lived and worked there from 1820 to 1824. The building was officially opened in 1938 by Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, Mackenzie's great-grandson. The on-site museum came later, in 1990, through a joint partnership between the Niagara Parks

Commission, that owns and operates the facility, and a seven-person volunteer Printery Committee, that maintains the collection and secures the necessary operating funds. PrintAction Publisher Sara Young, who has served on the Printery Committee for over 12 years, wrote me in a recent e-mail: “I do believe that it is very important, perhaps even more so today, to preserve antique presses and the ancillary equipment that pushed our industry forward and allowed the Canadian printing industry to flourish in Canada from the time of the war of 1812.” From May until Labour Day, the Mackenzie Printery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily (last tour at 4:30 p.m.). After Labour Day, it operates only on weekends until it closes for the season in October, either right after Canadian Thanksgiving or Hallowe’en, depending on its volume of visitor traffic. Besides special exhibitions and a dedicated library, the Printery

museum offers all visitors not only a tour of the facilities but also the unique opportunity to try their hand at setting type and operating two of its eight antique presses. Each visitor also receives a free poster and bookmark. In all, it’s good value for the nominal admission price of $5 (less for children under 12.) Additionally, for the second year running, in response to growing interest, the Printery offers two full-day, professionally oriented, hands-on letterpress seminars for $96 (less for students), six people per class. The museum is always collecting names of people who are interested in participating in their teaching programs with a view to expanding their offerings. The contact for this purpose is Harold Meighan: 905-684-7672 / haljan@gmail.com. For general information about the Printery, contact: 905-262-5676 / printer@mackenzieprintery.org

TECHNOLOGY REPORT Featured Technologies • Air Motion Systems LED-UV FLEXO Series

Inks, Coatings and Application Some of the most intensive R&D activities within today’s printing industry continue to focus on inks, coatings and the related press

• HP UL Certified Inks

• Colorific Lightbar

• Hostmann-Steinberg NewV news

• Drytac Prime Seal

• INX MSS Eco Solvent

• Durst Tau Metallic Silver

• KBA Hi-Flow

• Eco-Eagle Cold Foil system

• Kodak NexPress Gold Dry Ink

• EPG AutoKey

• MGI JETvarnish 3D

• Epson UltraChrome DS

• Prime UV RADMAX UV

• Flint Arrowstar Plus UV 8000

• Sun Chemical Streamline

systems used to apply such consumables. The following technologies

• Fujifilm VIVIDIA, Uvijet

• Trelleborg HUV Blankets

represent more recent technology introductions and upgrades in this

• Graphic Roller E-Tech, Trust UV

• Van Son VS SUPREME

arena of crucial pressroom supply. Ink

Coating

System

Colorific Lightbar Colorific’s new Lightbar UV curing (released September 2012) is described as a low-cost system that can be purchased as a printer or retrofitted to existing inkjet platforms with Epson DX4 or DX5 print heads. According to the company, the Lightbar unit has been developed to provide the colour vibrancy of solvent-inkjet engines with the fast drying and high gloss finish of UV-curable output. The system comprises an external standalone lamp kit that fixes to the front of any compatible wide-format printer. During the printing process, the pigment is fixed to the ink-receiving layer on the media and then a secondary cure – using the Lightbar system – fixes the droplet and provides an immediate cure and cross link on the media. Lightbar requires the use of its own UV-Light inks.

Durst Tau Metallic Silver Described as a “digital foil UV ink,” Durst’s new Tau Metallic Silver (released September 2012), is designed for metallic label and packaging applications. Durst describes Tau Metallic Silver as the world’s first solvent-free silver UV ink. It can be laid down in a single pass and is designed to run with Durst’s recently introduced Tau 330 inkjet system, as well as with previous Tau models such as the Tau 150-8C. The ink and printing system together hit speeds of between 65 and 95 linear feet (20-30 linear metres) per minute. Durst also recently demonstrated a new Premium White HD set of inks for printing with the Rho P10 Series. The white ink is designed for better coverage at high print speeds. Durst Rho 1012

20 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2013

USED EQUIPMENT

Graphic Roller E-Tech, Trust UV Graphic Roller recently introduced two new roller technologies, including the Trust UV Roller system and the E-Tech Series compounds. The Trust UV line is used extensively in Japan and is now Trust UV available in North America. Benefits of the Trust system, according to Graphic Roller, include: Improved ink transfer (by eliminating roller surface tackiness and resistance to chemical intrusion); shorter washup time (less solvent required); less ink glazing (ink permeation resistance, which is often a challenge with EPDM- or Nitrile-based roller compounds); and strong dot reproduction (because the UV ink monomer does not penetrate into the surface of the Trust compound). Within the Trust UV line, printing companies running UV DI or waterless presses can utilize the R Series Trust WL technology, while the R Series Trust Z is designed for presses in the label, tag or plastic-card sector. The E-Tech Series (first introduced in December 2012) is described as a European solution to North American changes in inking requirements with higher speeds, wider formats and shorter runs. Three new compounds are being introduced in this series, including E-Speed for conventional inks, EVR for UV printing, and E-Mix for mixed UV/conventional printing. (ESQ is also available in this line for dampening distribution.) The Trust and E-Tech products can also be applied in combination as required by mixed pressrooms, which often relates to applying one system for water rollers and another for ink rollers. For example, companies running straight UV on difficult substrates, or in a high-speed printing environment, can also leverage the new EVR material of the E-Tech Series or Trust Z.

Epson UltraChrome DS ink Epson for the first time (January 2013) entered the dye-sublimation market with the launch of two roll-fed transfer printers (44-inch SureColor F6070 and 64-inch SureColor F7070) jetting the company’s new UltraChrome DS ink. Developed over a three-year period, UltraChrome DS, according to Epson, produces vibrant colours, strong blacks, sharp contours, and smooth gradations. The technology exhibits strong light- and wash-fastness, as well as resistance to alkaline and acid perspiration. UltraChrome DS is jetted by the Epson MicroPiezo TFP print head, which together produce a top resolution of 1,440 x 720 dpi on transfer papers.

F-Series ink

64-inch SureColor F7070

44-inch SureColor F6070

Flint Arrowstar Plus UV 8000 Flint’s new Arrowstar Plus UV 8000 product (released January 2013) is a UV offset ink for high-speed printing. One of its main attributes, according to the company, is strong rub-resistance, which makes it suitable for a range of folding carton, commercial and label printing applications. The rub-resistance functionality is based on a unique resin and photo-initiator chemistry. Flint also recently released CombiScreen, which are UV rotary screen inks designed specifically for combination printing – with narrow web ink technologies – formulated for what the company calls extreme overprinting. For printers running both UV flexo and UV rotary screen, Flint also introduced Flex2Screen technology, allowing for the conversion of Flexocure FORCE, UV flexo inks, into UV rotary screen inks. This allows printers to create UV screen colours as needed. JUNE 2013 • PRINTACTION • 21

DIGITAL PRINTING

Mackenzie

Printery & Newspaper Museum

Golf Tournament

18TH 18TH ANNUAL ANNUAL CHARITY CHARITY

W E D N E S D AY, S E P T E M B E R 1 1 t h , 2 0 1 3

NIAGARA PARKS COMMISSION WHIRLPOOL GOLF COURSE NIAGARA PARKWAY, NIAGARA FALLS ~ TEE TIMES START @ 11:40 A.M. ~ REGISTRATION FEE $14000 Includes: Golf, Cart, Five Star Prime Rib/Smoked Salmon Buffet Dinner, Prizes for Every Golfer ($4500 tax receipt issued)

~ NOTE: GOLF FORMAT “BEST BALL” WILL BE PLAYED AGAIN THIS YEAR ~ EMAIL: HALJAN@GMAIL.COM HAROLD MEIGHAN 905.684.7672

22 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2013

COLOUR COPIES

Trelleborg has developed printing blankets (introduced May 2012 at drupa) designed to enhance results when used in combination with the HUV printing process. HUV is an emerging UV printing method in which inks are dried immediately on the surface of the paper using high-efficiency UV light, which requires fewer lamps and energy than conventional UV. Trelleborg also recently released a new Axcylox protection sleeve for flexo printing. Axcylox is designed to protect the fragile anilox roller surface, increasing the anilox lifespan. The Axcylox protection sleeve has been designed to slide onto the anilox on press once the printer has completed a job. Then, under air pressure, both the anilox and the Axcylox sleeve can be removed and stored until required for future use. The Axcylox protection sleeve also indicates the colour, volume and screen ruling of the anilox

s i ce Pr es t Canada’s B

Trelleborg HUV Blankets

l ou

rC e! op i e s & Mu c h M o r

Sun Chemical Streamline Sun Chemical recently added products to its Streamline program of aftermarket inks with the new Streamline TX range, which is a direct sublimation textile ink for polyester media within soft-signage applications. The Streamline program was first introduced in July 2012, including the solvent-based Streamline ESL HPQ and Streamline Ultima HPQ inks. The program now also includes the Streamline Optima HPQ range as a solvent-based ink for wide format printers. For the flexography market, Sun Chemical also recently introduced SunSpectro Sunsharp solvent-based inks, which are high gloss, resistant to water, fats and oils, and formulated for low odour and low viscosity. The company’s newer SunVisto Hydroking PHS water-based inks are PH stable. For metal decorating, Sun Chemical recently introduced SunDuo, SunTrio and SunAltec for the printing of steel and aluminum cans.

COLOUR

Prime UV RADMAX UV Prime UV’s new RADMAX lamp system (released April 2013) is designed for newspaper presses – primarily coldset web. RADMAX cures UV inks printed on coated, supercalendered, and newsprint stocks at high speeds. The lamp systems are customized for an individual press, from 36 to 120 inches, for full cure of the web, which includes integration on double-wide and triple-wide newspaper presses when running at speeds exceeding 3,000 feet per minute. Prime UV states that the company pays close attention to its processor development to help eliminate the need for heatset ovens.

This Month’s Special: 15% Discount On All Services. (Coupon Code: Action15)

Van Son VS SUPREME Van Son Holland Ink developed its new VS Supreme ink (released October 2012) for use on both straight and perfecting presses. It is designed to handle a range of printing conditions and substrates in a quick turnaround environment. Van Son states the ink delivers a pigment range to meet tolerance set forth by GRACoL 7. In addition to its press stability, VS Supreme is also noted by the company for super fast setting, hard drying and ease of use.

www.CanadaCopy.com JUNE 2013 • PRINTACTION • 23

STEEL RULE DIES

PRINTING & EMBOSSING

QUALITY & PROMPT SERVICE to the trade for over 30 years Foil Stamping / Embossing / Die Cutting Printing / Numbering / Finishing / Etc.

6 & 7-1440 Graham’s Lane Burlington, ON L7S 1W3 Phone: (800) 547-8848 Fax: (800) 705-9881

Superior Service Progressive Technology FREE Daily pick up & delivery in the Western G.T.A. Visit www.petersdies.com to learn more!

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. Tel: (905) 780-8680 Fax: (905) 780-8682 E-mail:

61-556 Edward Avenue Richmond Hill, Ontario L4C 9Y5

INFO@AZPRINTERS.COM

LETTERPRESS & FINISHING

Fujifilm VIVIDIA, Uvijet

EPG AutoKey

Fujifilm, in line with its development of production-strength inkjet systems, has recently introduced the VIVIDIA and Uvijet ink sets. VIVIDIA ink is designed for specific use on the company’s inkjet web press, Jet Press 540W, that was introduced at drupa and commercially launched into specific world markets in March 2013. VIVIDIA ink, according to the company, allows high-density images to be printed at high speed, with less ink transfer from sheet to sheet, on thin substrates. Fujifilm developed its new generation of Uvijet UV inks for wide-format printers. Uvijet OZ, designed for the new Onset S40i, is engineered for flexibility, enabling users to fold, crease, cut, drive and route printed media. The eightcolour Uvijet QN ink set is developed for the new Uvistar Pro8 wide-format printer (display, POP and outdoor advertising markets) and the Uvijet KA ink set is designed for the Acuity Advance HS hybrid system, using both rigid and flexible medias. Uvijet LL was developed for the new Acuity LED 1600.

EPG’s new AutoKey (released February 2013) is a scanner interface system, fitting into the company’s overall KeyColor remote ink control system. It is compatible with Tobias Associates’ recently introduced SDT-78 scanning densitometer for presses up to 78 inches. KeyColor systems are retrofitted onto presses in the commercial, packaging, metal decorating, and newspaper printing sectors. The AutoKey system adjusts ink keys to conform to the density measurements of the scanner, repeating the process with each scan, and helping maintain colour consistency throughout the press run. Printers operating a press with a non-EPG ink control system can use EPG’s Adelphi AutoKey closed-looping system to interface with a range of scanning densitometers.

INX MSS Eco Solvent

PRINTING & EMBOSSING

Canada’s Largest Trade Finishers Specializing in: • FOIL STAMPING UP TO 50” • HOLOGRAM STAMPING • EMBOSSING • DIE CUTTING • FOLDING AND GLUING • UV COATING • SPOT UV COATING • FILM LAMINATING

POCKET FOLDERS

Presentation Folders from File to Finish Freeeous

$77500

Eco-Eagle Cold Foil system

Aqouatinlogur Con 4-Ccoess Pro

1 or 2 Sides

• HEAT SEAL LAMINATING All the above services are done in our 50,000 square foot building

PRINTING & DIE CUTTING UP TO 40” - 6 COLOUR + AQ

t /FX .BOBHFNFOU t-BSHFS 4IPQ t .PSF 1SFTTFT 5 Bodrington Court, Markham, ON L6G 1A6

Tel: 905-940-4900 • Fax 905-940-2066 1-800-334-5150 24 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2013

INX Digital’s new MSS Eco Solvent inkjet inks (introduced May 2013) fit into the company’s Triangle line and are designed to be used in conjunction with Mimaki JV33 and JV34 wide-format printers. INX has formulated the MSS inks to be colour and chemically compatible with Mimaki SS21 inks, as well as a range of vinyl banner media. INX also recently introduced three new ink systems (April 2013) for metal decorating, including the TP Plus Base System, INXCure TP UV Plus Base System, and AP Retort II. The TP Plus Base System inks are formulated for fast makeready and, according to the company, feature a wide water balance window and abrasion resistance. The INXCure TP UV Plus Base System is designed for use on crowns, caps, closures and two-piece DRD cans, as well as welded aerosols and decorative tin applications. The AP Retort II thermoset inks for two-piece metal decorating feature improved ink rheology and misting capability.

Trad W e EnveloPrices pes

Tel: 416-231-1475 or Toll Free 1-866-292-1475 Fax:416-740-3054 www.tradepocketfolders.com

The recently released Eco-Eagle Cold Foil system is an add-on system for retrofitting onto sheetfed offset presses, in format sizes ranging from 28 inches up to 80 inches. Spot or overall foil coverage is printed inline and then overprinted at standard press speeds. The process accepts most printing plates and, according to the company, requires setup times of less than 10 minutes. It allows users to apply a single 40-inch width of foil or multiple widths of foil, in any combination, as narrow as two inches, which helps users reduce foil consumption. According to Eco-Eagle, the system operates on the same amount of electricity as an average 1,500-watt hair dryer – reducing energy demands.

Kodak NexPress Gold Dry Ink Kodak new NexPress Gold Dry Ink (introduced May 2012) is actually a toner-based consumable designed for their printing system’s fifth-imaging unit. The technology adds a gold metallic, sparkle effect for applications like direct mail, magazine and catalogue covers, certificates, photos, tickets, and similar special projects. Also for its fifth-imaging unit, Kodak recently released its NexPress Red Fluorescing Dry Ink for security and fraud protection on print. The Red Fluorescing Dry Ink can print inline on a range of substrates and appears clear until it is illuminated with an ultraviolet light source. The intensity of the red ink can be controlled by the amount of ink applied during the printing process, but it appears virtually invisible to the naked eye.

Hostmann-Steinberg NewV news Hostmann-Steinberg’s latest UV series of inks, called NewV news, are specifically designed for the newspaper market, allowing such printers to work with a wider choice of substrates ranging from news to coated stock. Suitable for presses with brush, spray dampening and over-shot and under-shot ink knife systems, the NewV news ink series was developed in partnership with existing UV newsprint customers in Canada, Europe and Switzerland. The technology is being used to produce higher-quality advertising and front pages, as well as commercial jobs like ad circulars, special sections, and booklet covers that might otherwise go to a heatset press. As the inks are dried after passing through UV lamps, Hostmann explains the ink technology helps to eliminate build up on path rollers or former board, page-to-page set off, bleed-through, VOCs and associated odours. The UV process also provides strong rub and mark resistance, while colour reproduction is improved with higher gloss and there is lower penetration relative to standard coldset inks. Available in 25 kg or 200 kg drums, the NewV news series can be tailor made with specific requirements.

LABELS

KBA Hi-Flow KBA recently introduced its Hi-Flow blade chamber to apply coating at maximum press speed, which applies to the company’s recent drupa press introductions in the Rapida 106 (20,000 impressions per hour) and the Rapida 145 (17,000 impressions per hour). The filling volume of the new Hi-Flow blade chamber has been reduced by approximately 70 percent. KBA explains the correspondingly higher coating flow velocity serves to prevent coating starvation and improves the handling of coatings susceptible to foaming, which helps to form the basis for maximum production speeds – beyond 15,000 sheets per hour. The rounded cavity of Hi-Flow was designed to make the fluid cavity of the chamber more similar to a round pipe, KBA’s AniSleeve system explains KBA, allowing for fluid flow with less restriction than the shape of the previous chamber cavity designs. This less restrictive flow allows fluid to travel though the chamber at a high velocity while maintaining a lower overall fluid pressure in the cavity. Higher fluid flow through the cavity means the chamber is replenished with fresh fluid more often, and less air (foam) is introduced to the fluid from the Anilox roller. As well, KBA’s new DriveTronic coater with DriveTronic SFC (Simultaneous Form Change) provide the ability to change the coating form during plate changing or washing processes on the printing units. If only one tower of a double-coater press is actually being used, for example, coating make-ready can be completed A semi-automatic form change on the second tower.

Drytac Prime Seal

MGI JETvarnish 3D

Drytac’s new Prime Seal product (released January 2013) is a UV curable liquid coating that is described as an ink-adhesion promoter. It includes a new low-viscousity liquid for printing on hard-to-stick surfaces. Applied by hand or with a roll coater, Prime Seal is also noted for enhancing colour density and clarity. The technology is aimed at traditional screen printing ink systems, as well as digital and UV curable ink systems. Although it is not a top coat, it can be used to stabilize inks after they are printed, according to Drytac, and it also allows for a UV coating to be applied without transferring inks back to the image.

MGI Digital Graphic Technology’s recently introduced JETvarnish 3D inkjet spot UV coater features spot UV coating at speeds up to 3,000 20 x 29-inch sheets per hour and new 3D raised effects up to 100 microns in thickness. The JETvarnish 3D’s digital operation requires no plates, screens or extensive makeready, making it suitable for runs of one. Other key features of JETvarnish 3D include the ability to handle sheet sizes up to 20 x 42 inches, full variable data capabilities, MGI’s ARC camera system registration to printed pages, plus 3D effects compatibility with most toner or offset prints with no lamination required.

HP UL Certified Inks

Air Motion Systems LED-UV FLEXO Series

HP’s A50 Inkjet Web Press Inks and Latexbased inks, are and described by the company as the world’s first water-based inkjet inks to achieve Sustainable Product Certification from UL Environment, a business unit of Underwriters Laboratories (UL). The certification indicates an ink meets a range off criteria related to human health and environmental considerations. Originally created for offset, letterpress, flexographic and gravure printing inks, this standard now includes criteria to certify water-based inkjet inks, screen printing inks and UV-curable inks.

Air Motion Systems new LED-UV FLEXO Series (introduced April 2013) curing system is specifically designed for high speed drying of newly available LED inks and varnishes in the flexographic printing industry. The multi-lamp LEDUV FLEXO Series system can reduce press electrical consumption by over 50 percent for converters, according to the company. Because the system is instantly activated, there is no energy generated in standby mode. It is designed for narrow and wide web printing, packaging and converting machines.

Need Labels? SATISFACTION SA ATISF T FA ACTION

100% GUARANTEED

New customers save 15% on their first order! orrd der! Mention discount code 7015 when hen ordering.* orrd dering.* *One time use only only,, some conditions apply apply..

Trade T rrade Only, Only y, winner winn of the Labels and shrink sleeves in quantities from 1000 to several million: 1-8 Colours | CMYK | Over 2000 Dies To Choose From For samples, contact our customer service vice staf staff: fff: 1 (800) 311-2363 | info@cambridgelabel.com cambridgelabel.com

TRADE PRINTING

JUNE 2013 • PRINTACTION • 25

TAGS & LABELS

Bolan Continued from page 14

ZB: How do you differentiate your e-mail marketing efforts from spam? Everyone hates spam! EB: I think that you must ask yourself one question before you publish anything on your blog or Website: What value does this bring to the person receiving this? For example, if we’re using e-mail marketing to shoot out specials, that’s not necessarily email marketing, that’s spamming. But if we’re using e-mail marketing to show other business owners some case studies or provide answers to frequently asked questions, this provides value to the reader. That’s the check and balance your e-mail marketing must have. ZB: So it’s to engage and inform rather than just sell. And hopefully the sales will come with that. EB: There is always room for a call to action. For example, when somebody sees an e-mail, there should be a clear path to ‘If you’re interested to find out more contact us here.’

AllCan Label One of the largest in-stock selections: ctions: 8.5”x11” & 11”x17” label sheets 50+ sizes of laser and pin feed EDP label Thermal transfer & direct thermal labels Process colour, UL & CSA labels Label printers & thermal ribbons

As low as $73/1000 laser label sheets. Same day shipping for most products.

1-888-661-6110 Tel:

905-944-9555 Fax: 905-944-9525 www.allcanlabel.com 235 Hood Road, Unit 3, Markham, ON, L3R 4N3

WEB TRADE PRINTING

ZB: Then hopefully, because people have opted in to the e-mail, they’ve given you permission to market directly to them, right? EB: That’s a very good point. When it comes to specific e-mail marketing, there’s something called a double opt-in, which is what most organizations should actually use. It is unethical, for example, to grab somebody’s business card and then add him or her to your e-mail list because that could land you in some pretty hot water with Internet Service Providers and you might even have your domain blacklisted. ZB: Is the true marketing value of a social media asset actually measurable? EB: Through analyzing metrics it can be. For example, if using your social media presence to sell things, you want to measure how many people have gone from Twitter to the Website. And out of those people, how many have contacted one of your sales representatives. This gives you a clear path for measurement. ZB: What do you think of LinkedIn as a business-to-business marketing tool? EB: LinkedIn can be a very, very powerful tool. However, one of the common misconceptions is that you can create a profile for yourself or a company page and just leave it. The true value of LinkedIn is in some of the lesser-utilized features such as Discussion Groups and Forums. This is where the real power of LinkedIn lies. Rather than just stating, ‘This is who I am, this is the print shop that I own, and here’s our print shop company page,’ actually engage in some of the local business community discussion groups. For example, if you want to target small businesses find a small business group within your region on LinkedIn. Become a member and actively participate in discussions and answer questions. By giving people a way to get to know you and your company, the conversation has the potential to become a business relationship later. Also, LinkedIn ads can be very effective. They are more expensive than Facebook or Google ads; however, they’re very, very good because you can precisely target companies, industries, and even specific positions within an industry.

26 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2013

ZB: What do you think about Twitter? EB: Twitter can be a very powerful tool. The one thing that’s often misunderstood is you don’t actually have to be on Twitter to use Twitter. For example, if you have a blog with a ‘Tweet’ button, a visitor could share your content to their followers, without you actually being on Twitter. Twitter is also great for listening to your target market. For example, through Twitter you can perform advanced searches for conversations that are happening in your area, about your industry, or people even mentioning your own brand name – find out what people are saying about you. The next step above that would be to actually just start engaging. So this is where you’ve found that there’s enough conversation, enough people that you want to connect with. It could be different organizations that you might want to work with or have a relationship with eventually. Twitter can be really good for relationship building.

and share new content. Within a month they grew from having 100 likes to more than 800 because people are very passionate about their cause. That would be an example of something I consider a success because their passion becomes action to do things in social media. To gain insights on the impact of social media on print, I next sought a marketer with a background in the graphic arts and conventional publishing who has grown her consulting business to include these new online tools. The Practitioner, Trina Lo

I met Trina Lo through Twitter while searching for local consultants actively working in social media. Coming from a print background, Lo represents the emerging generation of graphic artists, designers and marketers who have evolved their strategies to include social media. Preferring to work with small, owner/operator businesses, she brings years of ZB: Is there any value in growing your Twit- graphic arts design and production expeter followers artificially, buying followers on rience to her clientele coupled with social media planning and management. eBay for example? Lo considers herself as an advocate for EB: It makes your number look better, which is kind of an interesting thing be- change and communication, whatever cause then you have this aspect of social form it takes. As well as consulting, she proof. If the content isn’t there to justify the also organizes and teaches intensive threefollowers, you have no social proof. When day social media workshops for small people figure this out it would backfire on business in addition to running a social you and reflect really, really poorly on your media module for Momentum, a Calgary reputation and your organization. To be ef- non-profit providing education and trainfective on Twitter there is a certain social ing to budding entrepreneurs. proof that must come with a large number Zac Bolan: You come from a background of followers. in print, why did you broaden your scope to ZB: How valuable is it for a business to be include social media? represented on Facebook? Trina Lo: I’ve been through the frightenEB: My opinion on Facebook has shifted ing evolution of the Internet coming significantly over the last few years. What I about and the notion that those of us would say is that it is invaluable if you are working in print are all going to be jobless a local business. So for example, it might be pretty soon. That was well over 10 years a really good opportunity to have some of ago, so it’s interesting to see that print is that hyper-local content for just a specific still around. I came through the other side of that scare and I love technology anyway. group of people in your region. After working for a variety of magaOn the other hand, if you are an international brand such as Red Bull or Target, zines both as graphic designer and proit provides your demographic with an eas- duction manager, I left and started ily accessible place to find you. Target is one FreshInk Communications, bringing these of the examples that I use for how Face- services to small businesses needing marbook marketing should be done right. They keting help. engage their followers. They have huge amounts of engagements to their posts, ZB: What was your first exposure to social their pictures, and all the rest of that kind media? TL: Back in 2007, two of my friends, who of stuff. The reality was, five or six years ago, if were early, early adopters of all things artsy you were one of the early adopters to Face- and weird, were moving to Toronto. My book, it was really easy to stand out. Now, friend said, ‘Don’t bother e-mailing us, we almost every business has a Facebook page, don’t do that anymore. From now on, so it’s really hard to get noticed. Rather contact us on Facebook, or Twitter.’ After than spending a lot of time, effort, and that, I just started playing with social money on Facebook marketing where media, and I caught on right away. As time you’re competing with hundreds of other went on and more and more people got companies, it might be smarter to create a onto Facebook it became a lot more fun. I started figuring out that I was able to Facebook group. A small business group for example. Or to move that effort into engage and get reaction from people LinkedIn, where you can participate di- through these social media portals. So, as I was already helping people with their rectly with your target audience. Websites, I started incorporating more ZB: Is there a standout social media success and more social media. I thought it’s a totally different space and is easily modified, story for business that comes to mind? EB: I’ve recently worked with a non-profit ‘So it is easier, right?’ Well not exactly, but called Breast Friends – a group of six I would say social media is more fun. By women from Saskatchewan that have de- using social media a company can go with cided to band together and create and sell the flow and create a different voice for cookbooks to raise money for breast can- themselves any old time they want. Users cer research. Together we worked to opti- can organize their thoughts in different mize their social media presence on ways using many different social media Facebook by following a schedule to post tools. I think it’s fantastic.

somebody taking the time to set it all up. And marketing consultants can take the stress and frustration out of the process and eliminate much of the guesswork.

TAGS & LABELS

ZB: What are the biggest mistakes you see businesses making with social media? TL: Most businesses are not posting to their social media assets nearly enough. Once a week won’t do it – at minimum, it should be twice a day. And without enough posting you won’t get that good solid base of followers or likes. Also, many businesses come at people with the hard sell before getting to know their followers. ZB: That’s like talking about marriage on the first date! TL: Exactly, I have kept reminding businesses to humanize their message because they’re selling to other humans. ZB: How has the rise in social media affected print in the marketing strategies you prepare Founder of Calgary-based FreshInk Communications, Trina Lo has added social for clients? media to her portfolio of print and marketing services. TL: There are some businesses that won’t put the same emphasis on print because ZB: So if some aspect of social media mar- without taking into account that they have they’re involved in social media. Often keting isn’t working out, you’re not tied to a only 20 Twitter followers and 10 people lik- they can’t understand how they’re supmassive campaign with tangible assets that ing their Facebook page. You might as well posed to tie in print and social media tobe sitting in the room by yourself, at that gether. I have to remind them that while would be expensive to change, right? TL: Exactly – For that reason I prefer to point. You have to build your audience. social media is good for introductions, I use pre-posting tools such as Hoot- businesses still need a leave behind or diwork with smaller owner/operator clients because they don’t have a lot of capital for suite to deliver timely updates to Face- rect mail piece – print should work in tanmarketing. Increasingly, I started recom- book pages in addition to Tweeting on dem with social media. mending social media because it was more a regular schedule. Continual activity in affordable, and you could see results social media naturally attracts followers. A process, not a product When planning a social media marketing In speaking with both Barbaric and Lo, quickly. campaign for a smaller owner/operator one message became abundantly clear: SoZB: Yes, social media offers tangible metrics. business, we take Twitter, Facebook, and cial media is a process, not a product. TL: That’s right. For the first time, small LinkedIn as a whole to build a better picBusiness owners thinking that opening a businesses could gauge their marketing ef- ture of their company. Consumers don’t Twitter account or adding a bit of original forts by counting how many people looked necessarily want to do business with content to a Facebook page will make at their Websites and see what traffic comes a company; they want to do business with them social media savvy overnight will be from which social media assets. a person. They want to know who you are disappointed. Building an engaging social ZB: What do you feel is the best social media and know that your company is trustwor- media presence relies on real people makthy and has some experience. ing regular contributions of timely and platform for business? TL: I would say that absolutely depends on ZB: Are you finding that you’re getting the relevant content while actively conversing your business. If I had to pick one in gen- best benefit for your clients just using the free with their audience. Canadian superstar astronaut Chris eral, I would have to choose Facebook, tools on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, or Hadfield showed the world just how effecwhich I consider to be a very strong asset. through the paid ads? But if you are a retailer, a bar, a restaurant TL: I think it depends on what they’re sell- tive social media could be at unifying and or any public-facing service business I ing. I mean you can’t easily sell certain serv- inspiring a large number of people. When would say Twitter is really a strong alterna- ices with integrity online, so if you are a Hadfield departed for the ISS back in Detive. As long as you use it to really inform corporate lawyer, for example, having a cember 2012, he had a mere 20,000 foland engage with your followers it can be Facebook ad might seem strange. So for lowers on Twitter. As he was nearing powerful. However, if you just open an ac- that type of client and service offering, it’s 1,000,000 followers at press time, it is clear count and Tweet randomly once a week, often better just to have an engaging pres- Hadfield was not just tweeting to Canadians during his stint in space. His entertainyour message goes nowhere. ence rather than to directly market a serving and informative social media bursts ZB: One of the services FreshInk Communi- ice. via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube garcations offers is Facebook page management ZB: What other social media platforms do nered him a worldwide audience. One for clients. How much demand is there for a you recommend? might think that Hadfield’s engaging conservice like that? TL: Pinterest is another social media plat- tent alone was responsible for his meteoric TL: The demand is strong and growing. form that’s really making a big splash. For rise in popularity, but the reality is that his Businesses all recognize that they need to certain demographics, Pinterest can be very two earth-bound sons tirelessly worked a get on with social media, but they don’t effective. Currently, the majority of users social media marketing program to grow necessarily know how to do it. I hear clients are female, so if you are going after that their father’s audience. say, ‘I’ve got my Facebook page all set up, market, Pinterest is a good space to be in. Social Media City is densely packed and I have a Twitter account, but nothing Also, it’s easier to post because you don’t with an ever-expanding population of inis happening!’ It takes someone who un- have to think of things to say; it’s all just dividual users and businesses, making it derstands marketing and not just the me- pictures. And you can post pricing if you more difficult to get noticed as time goes chanics of Facebook to direct an effective are selling a product. on. Many social media experts argue that campaign. Facebook is a social media tool, as the number of businesses leveraging and on its own it won’t do anything for ZB: How have your small business marketing this marketing strategy increases, effectiveyou. Users must work with the tool in order strategies changed since the rise of social ness diminishes for all but the biggest to make something happen. media? players. When networking with potential As a small business owner, you don’t TL: In the small business space, print used clients, business needs something more have enough time in the day to learn a to be one of the most cost-effective ways to than an online profile to differentiate whole new thing and keep it current with get a marketing message out there. How- themselves, and increasingly social media viable, engaging and timely updates. We ever, now the free tools available through marketers are returning to print to make create the growth strategy that is really, I most social media assets are taking over that difference. think, the critical piece businesses need. that space. For the business there’s no heavy Often businesses just start posting madly financial investment, it’s more a matter of Zac Bolan’s blog: blog.softcircus.com

SPECIALTY PRINTING

OUR SERVICES s s s s s s

Foil Stamping Embossing Die-Cutting Foil Labels Scratch-Off Letterpress

T 905.827.6009 F 905.827.5228 E andy@houseoffoil.com www.houseoffoil.com V Visit isit our letterpress letter pr ess division

passionletterpress.com

JUNE 2013 • PRINTACTION • 27

TRADE PRINTING

Gaitskell Continued from page 19

Best deal on time on budget

When you have deadlines to meetâ&#x20AC;Ś

Fast turnaround & competitive trade pricing NEW 8-Colour Mitsubishi 40â&#x20AC;? w/ Perfector

NEW Over 50,000 sq. ft. Facility 24/7 Production Full In-house Bindery and Finishing Fully Automated Process Books, Magazines, Catalogues, Posters, Brochures, Flyers, etc.

6-Colour Mitsubishi 40â&#x20AC;? w/AQ 5-Colour Mitsubishi 40â&#x20AC;? 4-Colour Heidelberg 25â&#x20AC;? w/AQ State of the art CTP & Film Output

Prompt estimates

416-299-8568

416-299-3977

E: bestdeal@bdprint.ca 30 Production Dr., Scarborough, Ontario M1H 2X8

www.bestdealgraphicsprinting.com Toll Free:

1-866-719-3339

BROKER / ACCOUNT PROTECTED ENVELOPES

Quality Digital & Offset '() ! &

!! ' !% 6 && *+ ,-( &4 () )

Now! & *+,- .

& *+,- .

! " #!$%

! " # ! # $ %

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 28 â&#x20AC;˘ PRINTACTION â&#x20AC;˘ JUNE 2013

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Having a signed copy of a book by an author who has influenced us but has passed away helps people feel a closer human connection to that author. That connection is lost if we just look at a Webpage. The simulation is not as good as being in the presence of the primary source. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why original objects like Michaelangeloâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sistine ceiling persist in culture. The colours and spacial relationships of the original cannot be reproduced in the same way.â&#x20AC;? Walker predicts it will become more and more expensive to produce fine books, allowing the gulf to widen between e-books and cheaply printed paperbacks versus handcrafted collectors editions created to last and be handed down to future generations. As someone who produces the latter, Walker is in an ideal position to vouch for the printed bookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to preserve the past. He points out that the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s archives still possess incunabula (books made before 1501) that look like they were printed yesterday. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Unlike electronic communication, the book is a proven vehicle to travel through time,â&#x20AC;? he emphasizes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone with the equipment to decode and run a book stored on an obsolete five-inch floppy disk. And the entire U.S. 1960 census was lost because it was archived on magnetic tape and moisture corroded the tape.â&#x20AC;? Along similar lines, Stewart recalls how in the past century the manufacturers of microfiche data-storage equipment succeeded in persuading public libraries and governments that microfiche was the best way to preserve their archives; but because microfiche records were later found to deteriorate and the equipment proved expensive and cumbersome, the microfiche process has largely been replaced with digital-data storage systems. Popular appreciation of letterpress

Pauptit believes people like the experience of holding a piece of analogue letterpress printing in their hands, because the antique processâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; slight embossing effect allows them to understand quickly how the letters were pushed into the stock. Walker agrees that the appeal of modern letterpress includes the tactile quality of the type. He says, although oldtime letterpress printers laboured to make the type just kiss the paper, contemporary letterpress printers push the impression deeper into the substrate so viewers will recognize that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s created with letterpress. (On a technical note, Stewart recommends that practitioners avoid Bold Slab type if they want the impression to remain visible.) Pauptit identifies one social factor contributing to a new appreciation of letterpress as the fact that in relative terms consumers are no longer bombarded with unwanted print. Consequently, he says, consumers are not as sick of print

and can appreciate it better, especially when itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s well done. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Letterpress is the pinnacle of this phenomenon because the actual process of making it is beautiful. The ritual of setting type has something calming about it,â&#x20AC;? says Pauptit. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People like it in the same way that thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a huge popular interest in coffee shops. Instead of just grab and pour, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an interest in the special machinery and all the steps, craft, and human connection involved in producing a physical, aesthetically pleasing thing created Just For Me.â&#x20AC;? Photo by Michelle Walker

Trade Printing

Pauptit believes that other social factors prompting a revival of interest in printing and letterpress are changes in our interactions with electronics and in the workplace: â&#x20AC;&#x153;When I was a kid, everybodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s parents were hung up on making sure we understood computers and emerging technologies. Everybody was pushed into university with the goal of landing a white-collar job that made money by sitting at a desk, not sweating on a production line like me. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But now weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re ruled by electronics. At work many people sit at a desk and interact with a computer, and their jobs have become complicated and abstract. If somebody says theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a software QA engineer, many others probably donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even know what that means. Now people see it as desirable thing to do a job like printing that produces a beautiful, tangible object.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to turn into a crusty old geezer lamenting the loss of the good olâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; days,â&#x20AC;? concludes Stewart. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I just want to share what I know to help people understand letterpress and use it most effectively.â&#x20AC;? vicg8.blogspot.ca @vicg8 ca.linkedin.com/in/vicg8

PRINTING EQUIPMENT

Email: classifieds@printaction.com • Tel: 416.665.7333 x37 • Fax: 905.752.1441 Printing Press • Cutters • Bindery • Prepress • Repair Service • Electronics • Support Your cutter specialist for parts & electronics Buying and selling used printing equipment for over 25 years

2001 SM74-4 H+L

ing anc Fin

le ilab Ava

“Cutter Parts for all makes are available and can be customized or made to spec at a fraction of the retail cost!”

Office: 450-442-4779 | Fax: 450-442-3374 | Email: Can_am2001@yahoo.com

Visit us on the web at www.ddprintequip.com NUMBERING MACHINES

PRESENTATION FOLDERS

PRESENTATION FOLDERS Prepress, print and finishing all in house. Four colour and PMS colour mixes proofed and printed accurately. We have in stock over 350 standard and custom sized folder dies. Fast turnaround - 3 days available.

PREMIER PRINTING LIMITED 32 Goodmark Place, Unit 1-2, Toronto, ON, M9W 6J4 Tel: 416-675-2920 Fax: 416-675-2930

info@premierprintinglimited.com

POS COMPONENTS

___________________________________

EXPERIENCED FIELD SERVICE TECHNICIAN WANTED Experienced Field Service Technician, Large Format Display Graphics required to provide comprehensive technical service support for all display graphics equipment sold by Fujifilm. For additional details and to apply, visit www.fujifilm.ca and click on “Careers” ___________________________________

OFFICE SPACE AVAILABLE Office space and storage available in Markham (Steeles & Denison). Suitable for print broker or graphic artist. Email brian_gilker@rogers.com ___________________________________

CANON C6000VP FOR SALE Canon C6000VP, Fiery A2100, Saddle Finisher, POD. 300GSM 6000sh. 60ppm. Low mips. Under Canon service contract. $24,000. Contact andre@pikto.com ___________________________________ HP INDIGO 5500 AND BINDERY OPERATOR WANTED Calgary based direct marketing company seeks experienced press and bindery equipment operator. Full time evening shift required. Please send resumes to langus@sharpercards.com ___________________________________ FOR SALE Time for early retirement, this Toronto offset printing company was established in 1983. All equipment & accessories stock & supply inventory and very loyal clientele are for sale. Annual sales 200k approx. Call Joe at (416) 766-8519 ___________________________________

WANTED URGENTLY FOR EXPORT USED OFFSET PRESSES KORD 64, SORDZ,SM 74-2,KOMORI L-426

EQUIPMENT SERVICES & REPAIR

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

X-PRESS

We Buy Heidelberg: K-Line/S-Line/ Speedmaster/GTO/MO Komori: 1,2,4 or 5 colours & any size Adast: 714/715/724/725 Mitsubishi: Any model Ryobi:: 2800CD/3200CD Itek: 960/975/985 Hamada: 500/600/700/800 Polar: 72/82/90/92/107/115 CM Horizon-BQ: 220/240/260/440/460 Any model surplus printing machines, paper cutters & bindery equipment.

IMMEDIATE DECISION We buy one piece/entire plant $$$$ TOP PRICES PAID $$$$

ELECTRIC SERVICES LTD.

416-410-9006 Graphic Arts Specialists for installations, maintenance & repairs on all equipment

Buy & Sell Used Printing Equipment

Call: (416) 824-0236 (647) 835-6224 33 Denison Ave., Brampton, Ontario L6X 0H2 E-Mail: gr_trade@hotmail.com Tel/Fax: (905) 450-2748 JUNE 2013 • PRINTACTION • 29