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CONTENTS Volume 52, Number 8 Features

13

The Slingshot Effect After more than three years of development, Toronto-based Avanti Systems prepares to launch a new Management Information System platform for the modern printing world

18

Tech Report: Growth in Production Inkjet Technology leaders from Fujifilm, Kodak and Ricoh describe how they are working closely with pressrooms around the globe to transform print and foster the use of high-speed inkjet engines

Print

6

NEWS Antonio Perez announces Kodak’s executive team for Chapter 11 emergence, KBA moves deeper into packaging, and Pollard Banknote’s Rob Young to lead the Manitoba Print Industry Association

8

CALENDAR September 2013 The Sustainable Forestry Initiative hosts its annual conference in San Antonio, PRINT 13 kicks off at McCormick Place in Chicago, and Sydney Stone continues the eQuip 2013 technology tour in Ajax

9

AWARDS InterTech at 35 Printing Industries of America hands out its InterTech Awards to Aleyant Systems, Aproove, Arjowiggins, CGS Publishing, GMG, Heidelberg, HP, Kodak, MGI Digital, Scodix and Sinapse Print Simulators

Columns

10

VICTORIA GAITSKELL Inside Go Home Print Shanley Maguire and Emma Sharpe collaborate with artists and writers through Go Home Magazine to connect print with their digital generation

12

NICK HOWARD The Four Percent Dilemma Equipment realities emerge after presenting press values to a group of bankers at the American Society of Appraisers conference in Cleveland

Archive

26

August 1988 The Republican Party nominates George H.W. Bush, Heidelberg buys Harris Web Press Group, and Mario and Frank Giorgio introduce their CGI Network of companies

Resources 16 Services to the Trade Cover photo: Clive Chan

25 Marketplace AUGUST 2013 • PRINTACTION • 3

PERSPECTIVE

Legacy Transformation f there is one key measure of solace commercial printing companies can hold through times, it is that many of their largest technology suppliers carry with them decades Iofchallenging legacy knowledge. The industry is certainly witnessing some vendors lose interest in

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the commercial printer, and oddly enough in the relatively stable, albeit smaller sized and geographically diverse, Canadian printing market, but those who remain focused on commercial printers are finely tuned to understand both the technological and business pain points of their customers.

PrintAction last month focused on New Directions in Sheetfed by speaking with four of the largest offset press makers servicing the Canadian market, including Heidelberg, KBA, Komori (K-North Services) and manroland. All four of these historic manufacturers – with a combined knowledge base measured by centuries – were more eager to discuss new approaches in benchmarking and consultation rather than specific technologies. (Although, PrintAction next month will continue its New Directions in Sheetfed feature series by looking at how each company’s press advances fit with the need to transform sheetfed offset production.)

Both feature stories in this month’s issue of PrintAction, The Slingshot Effect and Growth in Production Inkjet, are abound with examples of how technology suppliers are leveraging their legacy knowledge to help commercial printers transform their businesses. Avanti, established 29 years ago, which is a relatively long history for a developer of print-specific Management Information Systems, is presenting its expertise in a new platform called Slingshot to help printers handle more daily transactions, without an excessive Information Technology burden.

In the feature Growth in Production Inkjet, Fujifilm, Kodak and Ricoh all describe how their legacy knowledge, in particular, is being used to help printing companies transform their businesses for today’s market realities. This movement involves decades of experience with vital imaging sciences like nanotechnology, fine chemistry, writing systems, data manipulation and colour space to not only migrate offset pages onto inkjet platforms, but to also foster what Fujifilm refers to as the creation of new demand for print.

As the summer of 2013 winds down, printing companies can also take some solace in the pending third-quarter return of Kodak, one of the world’s most historic imaging sciences companies, which is preparing to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after more than 20 months of restructuring. “Kodak is a company now that is of a single focus and that is commercial imaging,” explains William Mansfield, Kodak’s Worldwide Director of Marketing, Inkjet Printing Solutions, discussing the company’s Stream initiatives with PrintAction.

Kodak’s future, Mansfield explains, is to centre on SQUAREspot pre-media imaging and Stream (Prosper) inkjet imaging for the commercial, packaging and functional printing markets. “I think your readers should recognize that Kodak is a company that is really most aligned to their business,” he says. “We have the richest history in commercial print of any of the digital vendors and we have the single constituency of purpose around our future and their future, which is commercial imaging.”

For a unique take on this issue’s materialized theme of legacy transformation, Victoria Gaitskell, PrintAction’s prolific columnist who regularly profiles innovative Canadian companies, speaks with the two young founders of Go Home Print, who are employing analogue imaging processes – and a lot of social media – to connect print with their digital generation.

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 PrintAction is published by Annex Business Media 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

Tel: 416-438-4300 Toll Free: 1-866-827-0220 • Fax: 416-438-7404 E MAIL: info@rssuperior.com 30 Emblem Court, Toronto, ON M1S 1B1 www.rssuperior.com 4 • PRINTACTION • AUGUST 2013

Notice: PrintAction, Annex Business Media, 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 Annex Printing on ChorusArt Gloss 80lb Text and 70lb Velvet Text available from Unisource Canada.

PrintAction Magazine 610 Alden Rd., Suite 100, Markham, ON L3R 9Z1 Tel: 416.665.7333 • Fax: 905.752.1441 www.printaction.com Publications Mail Agreement Number 40065710 • 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.

Visit Komori at booth #1251

K-NORTH SERVICES INC. has been appointed as the new KOMORI dealer for Ontario and the Western Provinces as of August 1st. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m Steve Ranson and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been selling new presses in Canada for the past 20 years, the last 10 years as Vice President of K-North Inc. where we revitalized the presence of KOMORI in the Canadian market. Going forward with the new company, K-NORTH SERVICES and my new position as President, we will continue to provide the same KOMORI factory-authorized parts and excellent service.

Service is available to our customers 24/7, with factory-trained technicians and parts available in Ontario and across Western Canada.

If you are travelling to Chicago to see Print 13, September 8-12, be sure to visit the KOMORI booth, where the new press to see is the Lithrone GLX40 carton press, as well as the new Lithrone GL presses for commercial printers. Exciting new partners to KOMORI will be announced at the show, for further machine enhancement and productivity.

We look forward to greeting you on our booth and most of all we look forward to being your new KOMORI dealer! Give us a call; our new telephone numbers are below.

Tel: (905) 873-7070 Fax: (905) 873-7870 Website: www.k-northservices.ca 55 Sinclair Ave. Unit 9 Georgetown, ON L7G 4X4

PRINT NEWS MANITOBA PRINT INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION, a non-profit organization created to attract and retain individuals for the printing industry in Manitoba, announced its new Board of Directors, with Rob Young of Pollard Banknote to serve as President for 2013/2014. The MPIA Board looking after the group’s initiatives in 2013/2014 also includes: Vice-President, Gord Boultbee of Harris Printing; Past President, Glenn Buffie of Derksen Printers; Bob Harvie, Prolific Graphics; Jim MackTC TRANSCONTINENTAL and Resolute lin, Winpak; Andrea Read, TranscontiForest Products are among several nental; Tony Kasdorf, The Standard companies joining efforts to support Press; Herb Vielhaber, Cascades Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, following that Boxboard; Mark Davis, Corporate community’s tanker train disaster in Source; Greg Ward, Ward’s Printing; and which 47 people were killed. TC Jonathan Leech, Harris Printing Transcontinental has arranged with the Red Cross to make promotional space available (valued at more than $50,000) in its community papers, in Les Affaires, and in Métro Montréal newspaper to better publicize an appeal for donations.

“Our TC Media newspapers are a vital source of information in many communities and we are proud to be contributing to the network of support now being built across the country,” said Isabelle Marcoux, Chair of the TC Board.

Resolute Forest Products of Montreal has offered the municipality of Lac-Mégantic KBA, led by CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann, lumber valued at $50,000 and will work continues its push into the packaging sector with its partners and the municipality to with a move to take an 85 percent controlidentify specific projects. ling interest in Kammann Maschinenbau GmbH, a German manufacturer of presses BENCIS CAPITAL PARTNERS of Belgium and systems for container, label and technimoved to purchase a 65.68 percent share cal printing. Private-equity firm Perusa of interest of Xeikon, owned by Punch Munich, Germany, was the previous majorGraphix also of Belgium. The transaction ity shareholder of the company. In addition is expected to be completed by mid-Sep- to KBA’s 85 percent controlling interest, tember. The purchase price offered for Kammann’s two managing directors will the 18,856,298 shares held by Punch is continue to hold a 15 percent stake in the approximately EUR110 million or $150 company. The investment in Kammann folmillion in Canadian dollars. If the trans- lows KBA’s March 2013 decision to take mafer of shares is completed, Gimv, another jority control of Flexotecnica in Tavazzano, European investment company, is to Italy. Flexotecnica moves KBA into the acquire a 20 percent interest stake of flexible packaging sector, with an emphasis Xeikon. Founded in 1988, Xeikon broad- on films. Around 100 Flexotecnica employened its presence in the printing industry ees build central-cylinder flexo presses. in 2004 with the launch of the Xeikon Kammann Maschinenbau was founded in 5000 and Xeikon 330 toner presses. The 1955 and has a total of 175 employees. architecture of this product line remains In 2012, the company generated annual sales core to the company with its subsequent of over €30 million ($39 million). Kammann introduction of more advanced models, primarily produces presses and screenprinting systems for decorating hollow toners and front-end software. containers made from premium-quality TORSTAR moved to merge two of Canada’s glass, plastic and metal. leading online coupon platforms, Save.ca and Flyerland.ca, into a re-launch of NORMAN HUGHES, a long-time leader and Save.ca, which is used by more than two entrepreneur in Canada’s printing and million people on a weekly basis. “For the packaging industries, passed away at age first time in Canada, one site will bring to- 68. Hughes was the owner of Cardinal gether savings through coupons and fly- Corrugated Containers, which continues ers, and with our new shopping list option to manufacture most any box configura– the only one of its kind in Canada – we tion out of its Pickering, Ontario, facility, streamline the online deals and purchas- including custom corrugated boxes. ing process – something no other site does According to his obituary, Hughes took for Canadians,” said Doug Guan, Director, great pride in his company and valued his Digital Retail, Save.ca, which is a wholly extended family of Cardinal employees. owned subsidiary of Torstar. The new Born in 1944 in Toronto, Hughes was Save.ca site offers features like linking also very active in the local community brand deals to retailer locations; a print- by volunteering his time to the Markham able shopping list; and the option of Figure Skating Club and several hockey printing deals on the spot or mailing a associations. He was a part owner of the Markham Junior B Travelways. hard copy to a mailbox.

6 • PRINTACTION • AUGUST 2013

The Lindsay Daily Post (Ontario), The Midland Free Press (Ontario), The Meadow Lake Progress (Saskatchewan), The Lac du Bonnet Leader (Manitoba), The Beausejour Review (Manitoba), Le Magazine Saint-Lambert (Québec) and Le Progrès de Bellechasse (Québec).

The three free dailies are the 24 Hours publications in Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton. In November of 2012, Sun Media cut 500 employees and closed two printing operations in Kingston and Ottawa. In November 2011, 400 jobs were axed as some production was outsourced to India. The company still holds 36 paid-circulation daily newspapers and three free dailies producing a weekly circulation of 15.1 million copies. It also owns close to 200 community newspapers nationwide.

DOMTAR of Montreal, led by CEO John Williams, agreed to sell its Ariva business in the United States to privately held Central National-Gottesman (CNG).

Ariva’s Canadian operations are not affected by the transaction and are to be consolidated into Domtar’s pulp and paper division. CNG then entered into another agreement to sell the U.S. Midwest portion of the Ariva business to The Millcraft Paper Company, a family run paper merchant based in Cleveland, Ohio. CNG plans to integrate the remaining United States-based Ariva business into its Lindenmeyr Munroe division. The purchase of Ariva in the U.S. marks CNG’s sixth acquisition of a paper merchant in the past four years.

In mid-2012, PaperlinX, as part of a worldwide restructuring program, sold its United States operations, listed as Spicers Paper Inc. and Kelly Paper ELECTRONICS FOR IMAGING, led by CEO Company, to Central National-Gottesman Guy Gecht, released its financial results for the second quarter (ended June 30, for US$76 million.

2013) with a revenue increase of 10 percent when compared to its second quarter of the previous year. Revenue for EFI’s most recent second quarter rose to $180.3 million from $163.9 million (all figures in U.S. currency) in Q2 2012, which the company refers to as “all-time record revenue” for corresponding periods.

All three of EFI’s operating sectors experienced revenue growth in the second quarter of 2013, including its Industrial Inkjet segment which grew 10 percent year over year by generating $88.0 BOBST NORTH AMERICA repositioned three million in Q2 3013 from $79.8 million in key executives with news that VP Steve Q2 2012. In the Productivity Software Creasey is assuming a new management segment, revenue grew 11 percent to role as Zone Business Director in Greater $28.5 in Q2 2013 from $25.7 million in China. As a result, Doug Herr (pictured) Q2 2012; and EFI’s Fiery segment grew becomes BOBST’s Director of Sales, Fold- nine percent to $63.8 million from $58.4 ing Carton for North America and Latin million over corresponding periods.

America North. Brian Kentopp has been named Director of Sales, Corrugated Board R.E. GILMORE became the first printing for North America and Tom Phillips operation in Canada to purchase a Xerox becomes Director, Product Line Flexo CiPress 500 Production Inkjet System.

Folder-Gluers and Rotary Diecutters for The device will be installed at its Gilmore North America. Headquartered in Switzer- Doculink location in Ottawa and focus land, BOBST has a presence in more than on the production of trans-promotional 50 countries, runs 11 production facilities work. The CiPress 500 can print at 500 in eight countries and employs over 5,000 feet (9.5-inch web), or 2,180 full-colour pages per minute at 600 x 400 dpi. The people around the world. machine is designed to print on plain, SUN MEDIA, a subsidiary of Quebecor uncoated stock, including offset, recycled, Media, announced plans to shutter eight newsprint, or calendared paper. It uses a of its publications across the country waterless ink system that does not require and three of its free dailies. The move high energy dryer systems or other bondwill eliminate 360 jobs and save the ing agents to set. The Xerox CiPress 500 company $55 million annually. The and 325 Production Inkjet Systems made following publications have already their debut at Graph Expo in the fall of ceased or will soon cease publication: 2011. Xerox launched the Single Engine L’Action Régionale in Montérégie (Québec), Duplex version in February of this year.

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QUARK has announced that its latest version of QuarkXPress will begin shipping later this month. The software features numerous improvements, most notably it has had its code revised to run as a native Cocoa application on Mac OSX systems and takes advantage of modern Retina displays. The enhancements come via a major revision of code, with some 350,000 new lines written and more than half a million existing lines updated. A new graphics rendering engine named Xenon improves the rendering of both raster and vector images. Quark was purchased by Platinum Equity in August of 2011, six months after the release of QuarkXPress 9, a version which focused more on digital publishing.

GRAVURE CHOQUET, founded in Montreal in 1973, added a fifth Kluge EHD system for foil stamping, embossing and die-cutting, as celebrated by Douglas Lambert, Master Press Operator; Dominic Gendron, Press Operator; and Andy Dvorsky, Kluge Field Service Technician. Among Choquet’s five Kluge EHDs, the new system – with a 14 x 22-inch format – includes an optional pre-load magazine allowing operators to load sheets without stopping the press, which manufacturer Brandtjen & Kluge describes as being very useful when feeding thicker stocks and book covers.

Choquet was recently recognized by Brandtjen & Kluge within its 2013 Gold Leaf Awards program, receiving the Best of Show Award for a piece entitled Kurz Christmas Cards.

C.J. GRAPHICS completed the installation of its second Heidelberg XL 105, as celeMEREDITH CORPORATION plans to turn its brated by (clockwise from far left) Tony Allrecipes.com property into a print mag- Hyland, VP of Finance, Leslie Smith, VP azine to be published six times per year of Design Services, David Adams, GM of with an initial rate base of 500,000. The Colour Technologies, and Dave Monette, December 2013 premiere issue is sched- Director of Manufacturing. After installing uled to debut in mid-November, in time their initial XL 105 in 2009 shortly after for the holiday cooking season. Meredith it was introduced as Heidelberg’s new describes itself as the United States’ flagship platform, C.J. Graphics states it leading media and marketing company is now the only printer in Eastern Canada serving 100-million American women with twin 6-colour XL 105 presses, with through a range of mediums, including coaters. Founded by President Jay print, television, online, mobile, tablets, Mandarino in 1981, C.J. Graphics is one and video. The company, headquartered of North America’s most awarded comin Des Moines, Iowa, publishes powerful mercial printing operations. print titles like Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, Family Circle and Fitness. Meredith plans to circulate the new Allrecipes magazine with some of these properties.

A statement from the company about the Allrecipes print initiative explains, “This represents the media industry's first largescale digital-to-subscription magazine print brand extension.”

VAN SON HOLLAND INK is celebrating its 140th anniversary in 2013 and plans to commemorate the milestone with a new software program and a new logo. “We are very proud to have recently celebrated our 140th year in business under the original family ownership. We look forward to continuing this rare story of producing high quality printing ink products into future generations,” stated Joe Bendowski, CEO of Van Son Holland Ink Corporation of America. Van Son was founded in 1873 by Philip Van Son and is now led by his great grandson, Maurits Van Son. In the 140 years since, it has grown from a modest ink-making business to an international name in ink production. The company has offices in the Netherlands, U.S., England, China and Korea.

XEROX reported a one percent increase in revenue, up to US$5.4 billion, for its 2013 second quarter when compared to the corresponding prior period.

Revenue from the company’s services business was up five percent, as the total contract value of services signings was up 40 percent in its second quarter. Services revenue now represents 55 percent of the company’s total revenue. Revenue from the company’s Document Technology business was down five percent year over year. Equipment sales revenue, which is part of the company’s Document Technology segment, decreased by two percent when compared to second quarter 2012. Xerox’ equipment sales revenue declined 12 percent in the first quarter of 2013.

CATALYST PAPER of Richmond, BC, reported a net loss of $28 million for the second quarter of 2013, a period which the company describes as being heavily impacted by maintenance downtime.

Catalyst reported a 2013 first quarter net loss of $9.8 million. In comparing 2013 second quarter results to the same period of the prior year, Catalyst noted that newsprint and directory showed the steepest decline at 8.9 percent and 15.2 percent, respectively, while the decline in specialty coated at 4.9 percent and specialty uncoated at 1.3 percent was less pronounced.

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KODAK detailed its executive management plans for its pending move out Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which is scheduled for the third quarter, after the process began back in January 2012. Chief Executive Officer Antonio Perez is to remain at the helm of Kodak’s post-emergence executive leadership for up to one year or until the new Board of Directors elects his successor, whichever is sooner. Douglas Edwards is to remain in his role as Kodak’s President of Digital Printing and Enterprise. Brad Kruchten is to continue as President of Graphics, Entertainment & Commercial Films and Terry Taber is to remain in his current post as Chief Technical Officer, a position he has held since 2009.

AUGUST 2013 • PRINTACTION • 7

PRINT CALENDAR

September 8

PRINT 13 kicks off at McCormick Place in Chicago and will feature more than 60 co-located events, including CPP Expo. The show will also have more than 70 seminar sessions spanning all aspects of print production and management.

18

Finishing equipment vendor Sydney Stone continues its eQuip 2013 tour in Ontario with a stop at the Ajax Convention Centre. New machines from Matrix, Morgana and Watkiss will be demonstrated along with a selection of reconditioned equipment.

20

The Sign Association of Canada presents the CONSAC Sign Expo at the International Centre in Mississauga, Ontario. The show includes a golf tournament and a banquet dinner featuring the Annual Sign Competition Awards.

23

Held over three days, the Publishing Business Conference and Expo at the Marriott Marquis in New York will feature more than 100 speakers focused around four conference tracks: Books, magazines, tech, and scholarly publishing. $1,195

San Antonio, Texas is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. In the late twentieth century alone, its population doubled within 35 years. One storey beneath the streets of Downtown San Antonio, the city’s River Walk is a popular tourist destination, lined with restaurants, bars and shops, and connects to other tourist draws such as the Alamo.

8 • PRINTACTION • AUGUST 2013

17

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative hosts its annual conference in San Antonio, Texas, with a three-day program.

Aimed at conservation groups and parties dealing in paper and paper products, the conference includes in-depth discussions about forestry research and certification. $675

19

Held for the first time in New Delhi, the biannual Screen Print India show has already seen 10 previous editions in Mumbai, starting in 1994.

Organizers say the change in venue is precipitated by the need of more space to host vendors and visitors.

23

More than 26,000 packaging professionals are expected to gather in Las Vegas for PACK EXPO 2013, which will also feature more than 1,600 exhibitors. Show organizers say this year’s show will be the largest since its inception in 1995.

26

The PIA holds a 2-day G7 Offset Press Operator Training Program in Pittsburgh. This hands-on course will focus on implementation of the ideas presented in the G7 Certification program and is aimed at operators, pressroom managers and prepress technicians. $1,195

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PRINT AWARDS

InterTech at 35 Aleyant Systems

Aproove SA

Pressero with eDocBuilder

Aproove

Pressero is a Web-to-print, Cloud-based service and the eDocBuilder module allows its users to build variable data campaigns.

The platform is designed to integrate with third-party systems. Because it is marketed as a Software as a Service (much like the model being adopted by Adobe for its Creative Cloud software), adopters use a pay-as-you-go model, with a relatively low upfront cost.

Aproove describes its service as an online professional proofing and instant approval solution. It supports mobile platforms such as iOS and Android, letting its users sign off or annotate files anywhere. Annotations are pushed to all parties and versions are kept in a “Time-Machine”-like archive so beforeand-after comparisons are available. Major clients include the Hudson’s Bay Company and Dai Nippon Printing of Japan.

Arjowiggins Creative Papers

CGS Publishing Technologies International

Eastman Kodak

PowerCoat

ORIS Lynx

FLEXCEL Direct System

PowerCoat is a substrate for printed electronics that can be used for inkjet, screen or gravure printing. It is often used to produce RFID antennae components but can also be used to produce resistors, capacitors and other passive electronics. PowerCoat paper is FSC certified and is completely biodegradable because it contains no plastic content. The substrate has also received an award by printed electronics research firm IDETechEx earlier this year

ORIS Lynx is a Cloud-based colour management service aimed at commercial printers, service bureaus and brand owners.

Users download test charts for their devices and measurement data is sent back to the Lynx servers to generate a device profile.

CGS claims this leads not only to perfect grey balance, but ink or toner savings of 20 percent or more due to its algorithms.

Used for flexographic sleeve production, the Flexcel Direct system uses a high-power laser to directly engrave the image, leading to more affordable production of in-theround sleeves for package printing, which leads to faster setup time on press and more stable printing at high speeds. The system made its debut at drupa last year and was also shown at Graph Expo.

GMG

Heidelberg USA

HP

OpenColor

Speedmaster XL VLF Press with Twin-Gripper Delivery and Remote Fan-Out Control

Indigo 10000 Digital Press

eld since 1978, the InterTech Awards are described by the Printing Industries of America association as a barometer for the near future of printing technology. The PIA claims that more than 80 percent of its past award recipients over the years have gone on to achieve market success.

This year’s recipients will be formally awarded at PRINT 13 in September.

H

– Clive Chan

OpenColor is a system mainly designed to predict the appearance of printed colours, in particular spot colour overprints. Aimed primarily at the packaging industry where spot colour and multi-colour separations are used more than process colours, OpenColor can create accurate proofs for offset, gravure and flexo processes.

MGI Digital Graphic Technology

Heidelberg’s Twin-Gripper delivery system allows the company’s VLF presses to handle lighter stocks by gripping both the leading and trailing edges of the substrate at the same time. Assisting in handling the larger sheets is the company’s Remote Fan-Out control, which compensates for paper distortion at the rear edge of the sheet, eliminating the need to adjust the impression cylinder manually by means of clamping bar segments.

The HP Indigo 10000 extends the company’s electrophotographic offerings to a 29-inch format, spearheading a movement of digital presses into the B2 format size. The Indigo 10000 has a monthly duty cycle of up to 2.2 million sheets, producing print at up to 3,450 sheets per hour. The company also introduced a three-colour printing option called Enhanced Productivity Mode, which increases the top speed to 4,600 sheets per hour.

Scodix

Sinapse Print Simulators

JETvarnish 3D

Metallic with Scodix SENSE

France’s MGI first JETvarnish system was presented to the industry at drupa 2008, but has since grown to produce more threedimensional effects. The JETvarnish 3D UV inkjet coating system can produce both 3D or traditional flat UV coatings. 3D effects, using the Twin option, can be up to 200 microns thick, for a tactile feel. The JETvarnish 3D can process up to 3,000 B2 sheets per hour and produce sheets with 100 percent coverage.

Scodix’ S Series press produces special effects beyond that of a standard selective varnish. Able to produce points at up to 250 microns in height and at 99 gloss units (highest gloss available for print), the Scodix SENSE system can add these effects to sheet sizes up to B2+ and on paper weights from 135 to 675 gsm. The company says its Metallic system is an in-house alternative to foil stamping, able to add metallic colouring on standard CMYK prints.

Distributed Learning Management System With over 1,700 installations around the world, Sinapse’s print simulators cover commercial printing, newspapers, and packaging processes. The new DLMS allows the trainer to more easily manage the trainees by using a Cloud-based server to track progress and to benchmark the users with comparative reports.

AUGUST 2013 • PRINTACTION • 9

VICTORIA GAITSKELL

Inside Go Home Print lthough both are only in their early twenties, Shanley Maguire and Emma Sharpe are already dedicated to print. Maguire, 21, a native of Calgary, Alberta, is only two years into her four-year Graphic Communications Management program at Toronto’s Ryerson University. Sharpe, 24, a Toronto native, recently graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University (NSCAD,

A

Halifax). Together they launched, co-own, and manage their own Toronto-based enterprise called Go Home Print, whose main activity is publishing Go Home Magazine, a publication which has just released its third issue in June 2013. I caught up to both young women to learn more about their activities and the thought process behind their recent ventures.

Creative beginnings

Maguire and Sharpe first met in Toronto via a Craigslist posting that led to the two of them becoming roommates for a couple of years. They parted ways briefly, but eventually found themselves back together again socially during the winter of 2012 (Maguire’s first year at Ryerson), when they brainstormed about the possibility of a shared creative endeavour. As their plans for a mutual project developed, they moved back into shared quarters and began working from the studio they set up in the hallway of their apartment.

“After talking about my academic program, we decided we wanted to start doing something together – anything to get started,” recalls Maguire.

By summer 2012 they had decided on a name for their enterprise and purchased the domain name for a Website. “But we didn’t actually launch the magazine until November 2012 because it took us a long time to figure out exactly what we wanted to do and where to focus,” continues Maguire.

A return to print

“As our plans took shape, one of the things we realized was that we wanted to invest more time to create a better product, not just a photocopy, but a higherquality printed production,” says Maguire.

Sharpe continues: “Although we’re very aware of the digital age, we made a conscious decision to go into print. We want to embrace tangible things like books, photographs shot with film, bookbinding, and screen printing.

“Our idea is creating small-run, high-quality products, rather than mass-produced digital ones. Instead of trying to get a foot into the oversaturated digital market, we are riding a niche wave and trying to create a new approach. To some extent it’s a backlash of artists coming together to preserve traditional methods that are disappearing now. Many people will never tire of the feeling of holding a printed book or a magazine in their hands. We want to reach out to people who don’t want to get everything from their iPhones.”

Shanley Maguire is entering her third year at Ryerson University's four-year Graphic Communications Management program, from which she received support in starting Go Home Print.

A “lost” generation goes home

Emma Sharpe is a graduate from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University where she specialized in film photography before helping to co-found Go Home Print in Toronto.

Photo: Charles Yao

The name they chose for their enterprise, Go Home Print, is a reference to Sharpe’s family cottage on Go Home Lake in Ontario’s Muskoka region. Maguire liked the name because “it’s short and sweet, sounds cool and sort of cheeky, it’s recognizable, and it also creates a feeling of nostalgia.” For both, the idea of returning home refers to the return to analogue printing, as well as the return of their own generation of twenty-somethings, which they describe as “wandering”, or even “lost”, from the tangible creative enterprise.

Continued on page 22

10 • PRINTACTION • AUGUST 2013

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NICK HOWARD

The Four Percent Dilemma ack in 1996, my company needed additional short-term warehouse space, because our new building was not yet complete and the existing space was full of inventory. We found some industrial units and arranged a monthto-month lease, despite an odd smell emanating from the units. We learned the prior tenant was a spice merchant. No big deal we thought, the place looked clean.

A few weeks later, I visited the unit and noticed most of the saw cuts in the concrete floor were disturbed, as if someone tried to brush the dirt out of them.

It turned out that the spice merchant also attracted mice and when he left so did the food supply. The mice were rummaging in the cracks of the floor looking for food and eventually spread throughout the other units, causing a lot of angry calls to the landlord. It reminded me of the printing industry, analogous to what appears like a desperate skirmish of survival through attrition and the hunt for new revenue streams.

At a recent American Society of Appraisers (ASA) conference in Cleveland, I was asked to make a presentation on our printing industry. It was quite obvious everyone in attendance had received the mainstream memo since numerous questions afterward were about the viability of printing.

As many of you know, sometimes messages to outsiders of print tend to be in the very least distorted if not flat-out false. In this particular case, all the attendees work in the banking or valuation field, and the questioning was based on machinery values and how to tabulate obsolescence in an eroding industry. The appraisers did tend to look at print in terms of newspapers, but I went to great lengths to explain that newspapers and the rest of the industry have little in common. Although struggles abound in both, print’s world includes many essential products not duplicated as of yet.

I brought along some facts and figures from an IBISWorld document entitled Out of Print: The industry struggles as printed media lose consumers to the web.

Although it pertains to the market in the United States, the report contains business validity for the printing world, as a whole.

Essentially, the write-up shows a 6.2 percentage drop in annual negative growth from 2007 to 2012, with a further estimated annual retraction of 1.8 percent from 2012 to 2017. With 2012 revenue of $76.6 billion, there was a profit of $3.1 billion. That is only a margin of four percent for the 26,000 businesses in the U.S.A. that classify themselves printers.

These figures won’t surprise many of us in the printing industry. For that matter, none of the capital equipment sup-

B

pliers should be stunned either. The reduction of print volumes and eroding profitability are key reasons for why the sales of machinery – new technology equipment – have not full recovered since the 2008 economic crash. The IBISWorld Out of Print report indicates to us that it never will.

There are still huge over-capacities of production equipment in an industry that is suffering at the ever-maturing hands of tablets, smartphones and the Internet.

With the majority of printing firms operating on slim returns, it is left to a select group of industry leaders who continually upgrade and add technology and services.

They seek to partner with the giant marketing industry in symbiosis.

does this sector need? I think not much.

These folks are buying machinery and often. Consider that four percent net return for a moment. If IBISWorld is correct, then four percent is a blend of all sectors, including packaging. This is disturbing considering the packaging sector has higher net returns and generally more stable customers. The question worth asking is: What is the net return average for the commercial sector without packaging?

In the late-1970s, the gasoline industry figured out a novel way to increase margins at the pump. They launched a campaign to have us fill our own tanks.

The carrot was lower prices compared to having an attendant do it for you. Eventually almost all North American gas stations went on to use intelligent pumps that could accept credit cards, were attendant free and had only one person in a booth to collect the cash.

Gas prices, of course, went back up after a while and everyone is still out there shovelling a spout into the back-end of a car on cold January days. Equality amongst the masses had arrived, and so did even higher profits for the oil companies.

The printing industry historically also leverages technology to drive profits. The hundreds of methods, practices and materials leading to the run-up of CTP clearly illustrated how print embraced change in order to remain relevant to our customers and control or reduce costs.

The big press builders have done amazing work to lower their prices and provide machines that can decrease costs. Heidelberg, being the bellwether press builder, has distanced itself from even a 2003 technological marvel. KBA and Komori have spent millions on new platforms that don’t look or operate anything like a press built 10 years ago. The builders aren’t asking you to pump their gas or their tires either, just buy their machines.

I went back into our trade magazine archives and pulled out two major U.S. trade journals. One from July 1976 and the other July 1996. I then listed all the advertisements in both years and broke them down into obsolete and valid today.

Here’s what I found: In 1976 of the 53 total ads to do with machinery and processes, 42 (79%) were obsolete for today and 11 (20%) were still valid. For the more relevant 1996 issue – of the 74 ads 48 (64%) were obsolete and 26 (35%) were still valid.

Considering the Internet had arrived by 1996 the fact that 64 percent of technology is out of date as of today, tells us all that we have been doing our best to maintain technology. But you can also see

Without a healthy appetite for machines and no possibility of adding value via reconditioning, machines under 10 years of age will continue to lose value faster each year.

12 • PRINTACTION • AUGUST 2013

Everyone connected to funding or evaluating assets in the print industry is concerned about its viability. This environment was made very clear in Cleveland by funders and valuators alike.

Veterans were also quick to pick up the serious issue of accurate forced sale versus orderly liquidation assessments. In 2007 there was a distinct difference, but not today. The reason is simple: Too much legacy equipment that can no longer be bought and sold in local markets. Without a healthy appetite for machines and no possibility of adding value via reconditioning, machines under 10 years of age will continue to lose value faster each year.

About the only bright light in the world of print is packaging. This term incorporates a lot of allied industries; labels, carton, corrugated, POS (point of sale), and flexible. There is no sign that packaging will retract in the future and that bodes well for board suppliers, mills and printers. But can we all get into packaging and, if so, would that not cause margins to fall, much in the way that quick-printing with toner devices and now large-format production have already started to lose their high margins?

Of all the print industry’s sectors, packaging is the closest to the true definition of manufacturing. From the 64inch format down to 41-inch format, the current volume will support most of the businesses currently playing in the sector, which is relatively small on a per-company count. How much more capacity

Continued on page 25

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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

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The

Slingshot Story: Jon Robinson Photos: Clive Chan

Effect

T

his September at PRINT 13

in Chicago, Avanti Computer Systems will launch its new

Management Information System called Slingshot. The technology, built on a completely new architecture over three and a half years, has been running under the radar in a handful of North American printing operations for the past nine months.

Patrick Bolan, President and CEO, Avanti

vanti, headquartered in Toronto, engineered Slingshot for the realities of today’s printing market, including the need to process more daily transactions as traditional commercial printers move deeper into toner, large-format, mailing, fulfillment, data manipulation and creative services. Slingshot is also designed to lessen the Information Technology burden on printers, enabling them to keep programmers focused on more direct revenue generating tasks.

With its new database architecture, Avanti feels Slingshot is a revolutionary product to shake up an MIS sector built on legacy systems that have difficulty implementing third-party software and new features.

In the early stages of Slingshot’s development, Avanti prioritized features like localization and multi-currency to expand its customer base outside of North America. This ambition is to be fostered by Ricoh and the Japanese imaging giant’s interest in deploying Slingshot following its multimillion-dollar investment in Avanti in July.

A

Avanti innovation in print

Dr. Richard Wallin, a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, founded Avanti in 1984 after a close friend in the printing industry complained about the difficultly of putting together accurate, consistent job estimates. IBM lent Wallin one of its new Personal Computers to spur application development for its

new computing platform. The original version of Avanti’s software ran on a DOS-based PC with two 5 1/4-inch floppy drives, one hosting the full application and the second for storing data – with a capacity of 360 kilobytes.

In September 2004, Wallin announced three new business partners, Patrick Bolan, Stephen McWilliam and Peter Funnell, had taken a majority interest in Avanti. Five years later, the Avanti Graphic Arts Management System was comprised of more than 1.5 million lines of code and 35 modules, including several unique applications that cemented the company’s software in printing operations across North America.

“We were the first company to bring Customer Re-

lationship Management, for example, into the print MIS space,” says Bolan, President and CEO. Avanti’s award-winning CRM application was the first significant new module, designed specifically to fill an obvious MIS void, deployed by the new business partners. “It was really well accepted because sales reps didn’t have a good way of controlling data on their customers and they didn’t have a good way of sharing it.”

Avanti was also one of the first MIS developers to bring executive dashboards to the market, providing automatic alerts and triggers when key events or an exception took place in the business. Avanti was also an early pioneer in providing MIS tools for toner production, which most every litho-based commercial printing company delved into over the past decade. Avanti is on its tenth release of digital estimating and order entry, and traces its roots in this sector back to 1999 when it began working with Xerox’ then primary workflow suite DocuSP. “We have brought a number of these modules to the marketplace,” says Bolan, including Avanti’s recent Advanced Fulfillment tool for the company’s existing MIS. “There are a number of other factors, but innovation is really what has brought us a number of new customers.”

In the nine years since taking control of Avanti, its three owners – with Bolan and McWilliam more actively involved in day-to-day operations – have tripled the size of the business in terms of both revenue and customer installations. Avanti is now North America’s second largest MIS provider, with Californiabased EFI sitting as the dominant force by size. EFI grew its MIS business over the past decade primarily through the purchase of a handful of competing systems.

Avanti’s Graphic Arts Management System platform currently active in the marketplace moved to version 12 in late-2010. Despite the arrival of Slingshot, Bolan envisions supporting and developing Avanti’s 12-series MIS for another five to 10 years. “Believe it or not, we have a handful of happy supported DOS customers, so we have never cut off support,” he says. “The goal here, and it has worked so far, is to make Slingshot so amazing that they are dying to get on it.”

Slingshot into the future

Beta versions of Slingshot have been running for several months in a range of printing environments in the United States and Canada, including smaller commercial printers and a few generating annual revenues of over $25 million, as well as complex in-plants like the operation at Arizona State University. “That group of six to eight customers agreed to take on those challenges and hurdles nine months ago,” says Bolan, “and now we are coming out with a very robust, clean product for PRINT 13.”

Without providing specific numbers, Bolan describes Slingshot as a multimillion-dollar investment with conceptual planning reaching back four years, beginning with a process to determine what would be the platform’s Top 50 features. The Avanti team entered its product

“Slingshot brings us a brand new opportunity to go global. It already has all of its localization and globalization built right into the architecture.”

– Stephen McWilliam, Executive Vice President, Avanti

14 • PRINTACTION • AUGUST 2013

development phase for Slingshot by spending the first three to six months building out the platform’s database.

“It is a completely new architected product from the ground up with a brand new database and that is huge for a lot of reasons. The main reason is that we can include features that are very difficult [for legacy systems] to put in,” explains Bolan. “Fifteen years ago, guys would have ideas and start hitting the keyboard to code it. Today software is architected.”

Slingshot’s structure can be advanced with new features over a matter of days or weeks, rather than months. “It is a revolutionary product,” says Bolan. “There is nothing like it in the marketplace today.” Coded legacy MIS platforms typically bolt on new features or acquired systems, which can create enormous hurdles during implementation and reporting.

McWilliam, Avanti’s Executive Vice President, describes the challenges of at least one current MIS on the market running three disparate internal databases for Web-toprint, order and estimating, and scheduling. “Trying to keep all of those in sync is a nightmare,” he says. The challenges of bolted-on kludged databases are multiplied when trying to integrate third-party software, which Avanti also struggles with on its 12-series platform.

The architecture of Slingshot, however, provides for what Avanti describes as a robust Application Programing Interface (API), critical for integrating external software to share information. Avanti positions itself as an MIS leader in terms of openness and interoperability. In the past six years, Avanti amassed 25 Job Definition Format (JDF) integrations, aided by Bolan’s involvement at CIP4, where he currently sits on the advisory board.

In Slingshot, Avanti is preparing to up the integration ante by sharing pricing tables, for example, and allowing users to leverage Web-to–print software like XMPie or PTI and then receive a pricing quote directly from the Avanti database.

“Web-to-print vendors are dying for someone to come up with this ability, so they do not have to be the pricing engine.

“Printers help in what direction we will go with Slingshot, every workflow analysis and every demonstration, so it is actually rewarding for both me and for the company.”

– Josh Perkins, Product Specialist, Avanti

“Slingshot is a revolutionary product.

There is nothing like it in the marketplace today.”

– Patrick Bolan, President and CEO, Avanti

Engineered over the past three and a half years, Avanti Slingshot is built on a new database architecture devoid of the typical bolt-on features that can create implementation challenges for legacy MIS platforms. For Canadian printers, Avanti’s new MIS contains multi-currency and landed-cost features for U.S. transactions.

COLOUR COPIES

s i ce Pr es t Canada’s B O

n

Co

l ou

rC e! op i e s & Mu c h M o r Bolan, McWilliam and Perkins in Avanti’s Toronto headquarters.

COLOUR

They want to be that sexy customer portal,” says McWilliam. “The heart of the shop is the print MIS – let it be the quoting engine.”

Slingshot’s JDF structure is being led

by Josh Perkins, Product Specialist with Avanti, who became Canada’s first CIP4certified JDF Expert about six years ago.

“One of our key strengths is the openness of the system and its ability to integrate with any of these other systems, whether that is the frontend, production or postpress,” he says. Perkins joined Avanti in 2004 in a support role after graduating with a Bachelor of Technology degree from Ryerson University’s Graphic Communications Management program, shortly before Bolan, McWilliam and Funnell purchased the company.

Perkins was an early advocate in steering Avanti toward the use of JDF and eventually moved from support into product management. In May 2010, PrintAction named Perkins, then 29 years old, to its list of Top 35 Under 35 to recognize emerging leaders in the Canadian printing industry.

In addition to working with Avanti’s established MIS community, Perkins now oversees the product management of Slingshot and demonstrates how printers can leverage its unique features in today’s printing market.

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www.CanadaCopy.com 16 • PRINTACTION • AUGUST 2013

Slingshot was shown to a number of customers at Avanti’s annual users’ conference held in early June at Toronto’s Island Yacht Club. Bolan took three key messages out of the conference, including his take that “some of us are doing really, really well,” particularly printers honed in on niche markets. As at past Avanti users’ conferences, the second key message is that many Avanti clients are moving more toward a definition as a marketing services provider, which includes offering creative and data services.

“Printers on the bleeding edge are starting to look more like us, a software company, than they are a printer. Some have gotten very, very good at handling data,” he says. Bolan continues to explain, for example, this can be the result of a programmer joining a commercial printer following its purchase of a mailing operation to move into new lines of business.

A printer might also have a couple of pro-

grammers on staff to handle Web-to-print applications or the toner production of variable data. “Four years ago we would have never seen a $5 or $6 million printer with three programmers on staff. Now it is pretty common,” says Bolan, who also stresses it is critical for Avanti to provide a sophisticated but simplified MIS. “[Printers are] definitely doing more with less,” says Bolan, describing the third key message to come out of the users’ conference. “They are under pressure to produce that same topline – and even grow – with the same number of employees, but with more transactions.”

Bolan explains the past dozen or so printers he has spoken with, both existing and potential customers, all described how they have – or plan to – move into new areas of business, beyond offset lithography and toner. To address this growing evolution of printing strategy, which Avanti refers to as adopting multiple lines of business, Slingshot can expand with various application modules to manage a larger number of transactions.

The environment of growing transactions hit home during a recent Avanti installation at a commercial printer in Western Canada. “He said, ‘I’m doing the same $7 million, only it is taking me 2 ½ times the number transactions to do the $7 million,’” explains Bolan. The shift from offset to toner predicates more transactions, let alone sectors like fulfillment and large format, which ultimately must be organized through software for a printer to realize the benefits such higher-margin work can provide.

“We are replacing older MIS systems that just don’t cut it today,” says Bolan.

“They do not handle the number of transactions. They do not do any of the integration to tie islands of automation together; and they do not [handle] any of the additional lines of business.”

Slingshot has also been purposely engineered to ease a printing company’s pain when installing an MIS platform.

“I would say it is the number-one thing keeping people from moving forward with this technology,” says Bolan. “Avanti had an extremely robust product when we bought it nine years ago and we have been keeping the sophistication, but trying to make it easier to install.”

USED EQUIPMENT

Photo courtesy of Ricoh

Avanti’s ease-of-implementation ap- and multi-currency features in the Top 10 proach was first introduced in version for printers to better handle business 11.3 of its Graphic Arts Management Sys- transactions, both internally and extertem, when the company turned to a nally. “It is especially key for the Canaquick-start database using available dian customers, who are not only selling printing-industry standards. As a result, into the U.S., but actually sourcing things instead of a customer taking 250 to 300 in the U.S.,” explains McWilliam. hours to install an MIS, which Bolan “Landed cost and multi-currency are describes as a typical timeline for most really big pain points for them.” Bolan toolkit-like systems, Avanti’s 11.3-series has not seen another MIS product that allowed customers to install an MIS in 60 handles landed cost, which may be a to 80 hours. Slingshot aims to shorten result of Slingshot’s Canadian roots. that timeline to between 30 and 40 hours Currently, a mere one percent of Avanti’s – “It shouldn’t be a hardship to put our clients reside outside of North America, product into play.” with a scattering of systems anywhere from Slingshot is also following recent Soft- The Philippines to Belgium. The MIS ware as a Service moves by imaging market in Europe, where Bolan expects to giants like Adobe and X-Rite. “It is begin Avanti’s global expansion, is more entirely browser based and users can have disjointed than in North America because it hosted in the Cloud,” explains Perkins, of the language barriers between countries. who notes some customers will opt to “You get two or three really great MIS host Slingshot on their premises to lock products in the U.K. and then two or three down internal databases, for example, in France or Germany.” “but it is still browser In mid-July, Avanti’s based so there is no mainglobal ambitions received a tenance [including supboost from a multimillionport and version updates] dollar investment by Ricoh, for clients.” which took a minority Slingshot in the Cloud share in the company. As removes several time-inone of the world’s mosttensive burdens from powerful imaging compaoften-stretched printing nies, Ricoh generated 2013 company staff, such as consolidated net sales of dealing with servers and 1,924 billion yen ($20.3 support. “It is important billion) through the efforts for folks to know that it is of over 107,000 employees a modular system, so they operating in more than 200 can get going inside of countries and regions.

Chris Reid, Director, Slingshot for about $25K, Software Product “We were looking for but once they start nar- Management, Ricoh technology to help cusrowing on the modules tomers, especially in the you are looking at about $50 to $75K,” commercial print space, deal with one of says McWilliam. “With a move to Soft- their biggest challenges, which is managware as a Service, [Slingshot] can become ing ever-growing numbers of evera monthly recurring charge that doesn’t smaller jobs,” says Chris Reid, Director of have to come out of their capital expen- Software Product Management for Ricoh ditures, it can come out of their operating Americas. “They need more automation expenses.” to do that. We have lots of automation McWilliam explains Slingshot as a tools and a great partnership with PTI Cloud-based service also allows a print- that will bring jobs in… but we really ing company to forego dedicated IT staff didn’t have internal solutions to provide on the MIS. Along these lines, Avanti has advanced MIS capability across the entire established a professional services arm to commercial print business.” consult on workflow optimization. “I’m The move to take a minority position doing a lot of workflow analysis, building in Avanti marked Ricoh’s second investcustomer relationships,” explains Perkins, ment in a printing-software company whose work can help clients redeploy over the past year, following its August staff to areas, again, more directly related 2012 investment in PTI Marketing Techto revenue generation. “Printers help in nologies, which develops both Web-towhat direction we will go with [Sling- print and marketing personalization shot], every workflow analysis and every applications. Avanti reached an integrademonstration, so it is actually rewarding tion agreement with PTI and its Marfor both me and for the company.” comCentral solution in June 2010.

“We already have a deep integration with PTI,” says Bolan. “We are on a track Global MIS ambitions When working through the early days of with them, in conjunction with a number Slingshot development, and determining of customers, to make the integration the Top 50 features to include, Avanti probably the deepest in the marketplace narrowed the list to a select group of 10 and we are going to release that at PRINT that would ultimately help grow their 13, as well.” business. “Slingshot brings us a brand Bolan, McWilliam and Funnell remain new opportunity to go global. It already the majority owners of Avanti, which will has all of its localization and globaliza- continue to operate as an independent softtion built right into the architecture,” ex- ware developer, focused on building more plains McWilliam, who notes it is critical innovation within Slingshot. “There is for the new MIS platform to easily adopt always software development to do as a foreign languages to move beyond North software development company,” says America. “From day one, we have built Bolan. “There are at least two or three Avanti Slingshot to go global.” modules that we will be coming out with The company included multi-plant that nobody in our industry has.”

AUGUST 2013 • PRINTACTION • 17

TECHNOLOGY REPORT

Growth in Inkjet Production Beyond the spike in drupa 2012 inkjet and liquid toner press prototypes, some of which are still showing few signs of true commercialization, Fujifilm, Kodak and Ricoh are among a handful of companies working closely with pressrooms around the globe to foster the migration of offset pages onto inkjet platforms. PrintAction spoke with a North American inkjet leader from each company to find out more about the current state of high-speed inkjet production.

William Mansfield, Worldwide Director of Marketing, Inkjet Printing Solutions, Kodak

Kodak As Kodak prepares to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, scheduled for sometime around its 2013 third quarter this fall, the

WILLIAM MANSFIELD – KODAK What is Kodak’s primary advantage in the production inkjet market?

Our customers really trust in us because of Kodak’s rich heritage. Going back to 1967, we have been engaged in commercial inkjet and both helped to create as well as define the category of high-speed inkjet. They recognize that we have been leaders in transforming the commercial inkjet business and bringing forth some of the most demanding applications that are on the market today. Secondly, they look at our more recent technology and see that what we have is different from everything else. We are the only vendor that has Stream inkjet technology, which is very unique relative to any other high-speed commercial inkjet technology on the market.

How is Kodak’s Stream technology unique?

It provides for the fastest speeds in the world.

Stream is also unique because of its ability to print on glossy substrates. Unlike DOD [drop-on-demand inkjet], it does not suffer from the same issues when printing highcoverage applications. The commercial print market is all about high coverage, high quality on a wide range of papers and substrates and that is why we invented Stream.

We looked at every other technology available on the market and recognized, that for us to truly partner with our customers and transform commercial print, we could not do it utilizing office-based DOD technologies or even by using our own CIJ [continuous

technology company will do so with a singular focus on commercial imaging. This new face is to manifest itself primarily around two technologies with SQUAREspot (prepress imaging) and Stream (inkjet imaging).

The company’s unique Stream inkjet platform is active in the market through two subgroups, including the Prosper Press product line, which includes complete monochrome and colour systems, and the Prosper S Imprinting Systems, which are print head components for mounting on offset presses or finishing equipment.

In February 2013, Kodak

introduced its next-generation, field upgradable Prosper 5000XLi press with new internally developed inks, paper paths, and a series of hardware and software components collectively called the Intelligent Printing System (IPS). The IPS is a self-learning system to adjust press characteristics when facing challenges like printing colour books with a combination of light and heavy coverage pages.

Kodak’s Prosper 1000 press is a dedicated monochrome system, while the expanding Propser S series now includes S5, S10, S20, and S30 products.

Kodak’s Propser S30 Imprinting System, designed for mounting on offset presses and finishing lines, runs at 3,000 feet per minute.

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inkjet] legacy technologies. Stream is extremely beneficial for the commercial print market in its ability to migrate pages from offset to digital.

Where is the Prosper press currently enjoying its greatest market success?

The publishing market has recognized they need to have an offset substitution for their shorter runs lengths so they cannot get by with the DOD-like quality and printing on a limited range of papers. We are seeing Prosper presses having very good traction in book printing for both monochrome and colour.

Kodak is really one of the few vendors out there with a purpose-built monochrome [inkjet] solution for book printing. The Prosper 1000 is a very compact system, easy to use, yet with very high throughput and very high quality. It is really an offset-substitutiontype device.

Where does Kodak expect more growth for the Prosper press?

We are seeing some growth as well in transactional and direct-mail applications. Not all countries really have a direct-mail market as it were, but virtually all countries do have a book printing market. In some markets, there is an increase in the use of our equipment for catalogue production, in particular, for some of the business-to-business or industrial-type catalogues. It makes sense because they really follow the form factor of book publishing.

They can be perfect-bound documents in page counts as high as 200, 300 pages.

DIGITAL PRINTING

What is Kodak doing to deal with growing data-management demands in production inkjet?

The frontend for the Prosper press is the Kodak 700 Print Manager and it is a purpose-built Digital Front End and press controller that we created by combining really the best of breed from our Kodak IP catalogue. We have taken all that we know and all that we acquired from Scitex and Creo and built with our understanding of how to handle variable data, how to handle large files and how to manage them efficiently for RIPping and production.

We combined all of this with everything we know about colour management and colour science to create the 700 Print Manager. Kodak has a 40-year legacy in handling high-speed variable data ranging back to lottery systems. About 80 percent of the world’s lottery tickets are printed using Kodak technology – so talk about a variable data application.

What major post-press challenges do you see with Prosper users?

The biggest challenge I am seeing right now with the newspaper printers is ensuring they have the ability to handle micro-zoning output, so when the papers are coming off in bundles that are micro-zoned and ensuring the right bundles get on the right trucks for distribution. It is that last mile that is really the biggest challenge for them.

If we move that into commercial print, it is often a similar issue. The bottleneck is in finishing… often times the press is constrained to the speed of the finishing equipment, which means the customer is creating excess inventory in front of their finishing line.

Why should commercial printers begin looking at Kodak Stream?

When you talk to the other vendors, you are going to hear that the majority of the presses being sold today really are falling into direct-mail solicitation letters and transaction documents. That is the low hanging fruit of the inkjet business. The true goal is the digitization of offset and we feel Stream is uniquely positioned because of our differentiated writing systems, our ink sets, and how those manifest themselves to provide for the greatest substrate latitude and the greatest cost efficiency for high-coverage, high-quality applications.

Every commercial printer needs to understand the capabilities and limitations of inkjet today, before they make any investment decision. Is it right for every printer – No, it is not. It really depends upon the application mix that printers have. The greater their use of variable data, the greater their likelihood of finding an inkjet system that makes sense for them today.

Why should printers be comfortable with the colour-quality promise of Prosper?

It all starts with droplet generation.

Stream is a thermal binary deflected continuous inkjet technology, that is where it falls on the family tree of technologies,

and we are able to create drops at a realized speed that is easily 10 times faster than any of the other inkjet technologies on the market today. That speed manifests itself into benefits in two ways.

The speed allows us to have extremely precise droplet placement. The faster the drop is coming out the faster it reaches the paper the less interference it is going to have from outside influences. That speed also allows us to keep the drops at a very round uniform size, so again this gets into the issues of dot creation on paper being much more uniform and predictable, which helps with registration and overall accuracy.

The Prosper S30 is the world’s fastest hybrid printing system Secondly, Stream is also always firing, so we do not suffer from the same DOD challenges in having the inkjet head dry out. When a DOD device is not printing, the ink naturally will tend to dry out in the nozzle. To overcome that, ink manufacturers will put organic compounds into the ink known as humectants, often referred to as a wetting agent. Those wetting agents add cost to the creation of the ink and, number two, slow down the drying of the ink on the DOD orifice plate. But it also slows down the drying of ink on the paper, which limits the types of paper that DOD devices can print on to get optimal results. Stream overcomes that because we do not need the same level of humectant wetting agents in our inks because we are always firing ink out of the nozzle.

What one recent Stream-related technology impresses you most?

It would be the Prosper S30 that we introduced at drupa 2012. The Prosper S30 is the world’s fastest hybrid printing system and when I watch this print head in operation it is just mind blowing to realize it is able to run 100 percent variable data at 900 metres a minute. That is 3,000 feet a minute… and our controller is handling data accurately at those speeds.

What gives Kodak confidence that inkjet will fulfill its promise of digitizing offset?

It is the scalability and flexibility of a nonimpact printing technology that gives me the greatest confidence. Electrophotography does produce absolutely gorgeous work that today can exceed the print quality of inkjet. If you take a look at what NexPress can do with five colours and spot varnishing, it is just stunning. The scalability of inkjet for the future is far greater. We have been at this for 40 years and we have really just begun in terms of what we are going to be capable of doing in migrating offset into inkjet.

Continued on page 20-21 with Fujifilm and Ricoh interviews AUGUST 2013 • PRINTACTION • 19

Fujifilm’s J Press 720 is a 4-colour, cut-sheet inkjet press with a top speed of 2,700 B2 sheets per hour.

Fujifilm Fujifilm first previewed its pioneering J Press 720 platform in 2008 at the drupa.

The inkjet cut-sheet press was then commercialized before the following drupa – a quadrennial tradeshow – in 2012 with a production speed of

STEPHEN SANKER – FUJIFILM Director Inkjet Presses, North America

What is Fujifilm’s primary advantage in the production inkjet market?

Stephen Sanker: We have a very strong foundation in the commercial printing segment because of Fujifilm’s heritage and what we continue to do for our customers in terms of designing world- class solutions and developing world-class products. As it relates specifically to inkjet, with regard to the [J Press], we own all of the intellectual property and develop all of our own core intellectual property for this device. The J Press 720 is a pure Fujifilm product.

Fujifilm Dimatix is a wholly owned Fujifilm subsidiary, and developed the Samba print head that is at the core of our projection inkjet solutions. The ink is Fujifilm ink developed using our own pigments along with our RCP [Rapid Coagulation Primer] that we use to pre-coat the sheet prior to printing. So integrate all three elements and the result is extremely high image quality, a true 1,200 x 1,200 dpi image.

The characteristics of that sheet are benchmarked against the highest standards in the industry, which we consider to be offset printing.

How will Fujifilm’s printing legacy help commercial printers adopt the J Press?

It has to do not only with our machine designs and solutions, but also our business model for production inkjet and how that relates to supporting the business of the commercial printer. A key differentiator is that our inkjet solutions do not have any click charges.

Printers understand inkjet and the Total Cost of Ownership components of what they have to look at as they become more exposed to this technology, but three components – the characteristics of the sheet, image quality and our business model void of click charges – really put us in a 20 • PRINTACTION • AUGUST 2013

2,700 B2 sheets per hour.

The J Press platform is squarely aimed at not only migrating offset pages to an inkjet platform, but to also provide commercial printers with an ability to create new print demand for customers.

The press platform is supported by the Fujifilm’s inter-

very positive light from the standpoint of someone having to implement the technology and put it to work in their shop.

What has been Fujifilm’s greatest challenge in pioneering cut-sheet inkjet production presses?

I would say that it is no different from any other launch or any other development of a new technology and that is the [learning] curve in general. What is good for us in that context is that we have the global resources for sales support, technical support and the integrated colour management components essential to support and develop the inkjet production marketplace. It is not just the solution design, but also the supporting elements around the solution: What do you need, when do you need it, and how do you support the customers when machines hit the floor. Fujifilm has committed to a long-term sustained investment to develop this market.

Is Fujifilm satisfied with the adoption rate of the J Press 720?

We are pretty happy with the adoption rate of the commercial installations that we have so far. It is a new technology that we are bringing to market. It is also a new technology that print service providers are implementing into full-fledged production. These devices are not just ad hoc or a me-too with regard to what else they may be using to service their customer base.

These machines are primary print production devices, so we are pretty happy with the adoption rate. We have been deliberate and methodical when it comes to rolling these machines out around the world.

Fujifilm is not going to bring a substandard product to market or provide a print service provider with a substandard level of output. That is also part of our heritage, rock solid R&D and continuing to invest in new tech-

nal development of VIVIDIA inks and new-generation SAMBA print heads that are precisely fabricated in a MEMS environment through Fujifilm Dimatix. The J Press 720 is also based on an offsetlike paper transport system for registration accuracy and the ability to run a range of

nologies. We have quite a horizon at which we look at things. We have deployed this commercialized product in all three hemispheres, throughout North America, in Europe and of course in Asia, where it started.

What have early J Press adopters taught Fujifilm?

Printers are wonderful integrators.

Amid other industries out there, think of all of the elements that the commercial printing operation needs to integrate in order to make everything work according to plan. They do a wonderful job of integrating how the technology is going to be utilized. And so we are learning how printers are going to use this device to print different types of applications and then how we need to support them.

This technology allows printers to create new types of print demand We have really developed a new product category. Our machine is a half-size sheetfed press that utilizes inkjet-printing technology. It is not a half-size digital device with EP [electrophotography]. It changed their perspective with the service offerings and the capabilities afforded by adopting the J Press technology. There are very few products in our industry offering that offer that kind of value. This technology allows them to create new types of print demand, a key driver of high profit revenue for them.

What differentiates the colour quality of the J Press?

It is fundamentally the combination of all of the Fujifilm components that I referred to earlier, including the Di-

coated and uncoated substrates using Fujifilm’s Rapid Coagulation Primer.

With working J Press 720 installations around the world, Fujifilm continues to push its inkjet press platform with a new web-fed version called J Press 540W (100 metres per minute at 600 x 600 dpi) and a new foldingcarton version J Press 720F. Introduced at drupa 2012, the new J Press systems are scheduled for a late 2013/early 2014 commercial launch.

matix heads with two picolitre drop size and four levels of greyscale combined with VIVIDIA ink, which are our own pigments designed and engineered to work in conjunction with those heads, and then our ability to jet directly onto the standard offset paper that has been prepared with Rapid Coagulation Primer. It is why we are able to produce such a high-quality product.

What new technologies has Fujifilm developed to control colour on press?

Keep in mind we are fundamentally an imaging company, so we deal with imaging products and one aspect of that is ink on paper, but we also have quite a variety of technologies in the manipulation of colour space and the management of colour within that process.

The XMF ColorPath product has also been implemented on the front-end in order to maximize the gamut and the repeatability and the consistency across a variety of substrates.

How is Fujifilm approaching the challenges of data management in high-speed inkjet environments?

We are not able to tell you too much because the announcement is being made around the PRINT 13 show, but we would encourage your readers to follow the announcements that both Fujifilm and Adobe are making around that timeframe. We certainly put an enormous amount of effort into implementation technology and into RIP workflow technologies, because of this new digital inkjet space.

We are actually in the midst of rolling those out as part of the PRINT 13 announcement so what we can tell you is that we have made very significant strides in working with Adobe and we are a market leader in that. We are the first partner that Adobe has to implement a lot of their core technology for the fast manipulation of this type of data stream into digital presses.

MIKE HEROLD – RICOH What is Ricoh’s primary advantage in the production inkjet market?

Mike Herold: We identified a pretty significant gap in the marketplace in terms of what customers wanted to do and the technology that was available in order to address that. Looking at the colour production space at one end of the spectrum at that time, 2006/2007, you had Kodak Versamark technology with very fast linear throughput, but I do not think anybody was really crazy about the image quality that it produced, and then on the other end of the spectrum you had graphics arts systems like the iGen3, NexPress, Xeikon technology with slower throughput but higher image quality.

We saw a gap right in the middle.

We felt if you brought a product to market that had a good balance of image quality, throughput reliability, ease of use, media handling capabilities, all of those types of things, it would satisfy a lot of market demand.

That is what we saw when we brought [the InfoPrint 5000] to market and there was growth year over year in the market on the system.

What advantages did IBM Printing Systems bring to Ricoh in the 2007 merger?

I came from IBM and there is still a good portion of us who were at IBM Printing Systems who are now a part of Ricoh Production Print Systems. We brought a lot of skills and capabilities with us and that is why Ricoh wanted to invest in us as a business, because we had that core capability from a production print perspective, both in a continuous forms hardware capability, but also all of the software, workflow and data management skills for controlling development.

Really, it was as close as you can get to a hand-and-glove merger, meaning when the merger came together there was not a lot of overlap and that is why it made a lot of sense for both companies. It has worked out well for us because we have been integrated into a company that is exclusively focused on print. Because even though we were always a very successful division for IBM, we all recognized we were not a top priority.

Are most Ricoh high-speed inkjet customers focused on niche applications?

We position our products, and this is especially true with the GP platform, which has the most installs amongst all other platforms, by concentrating on flexibility and the ability to run different applications, different media types and the ability to change back and forth in a very reasonable amount of time so there is little changeover that occurs and there is not a lot of resetting up the engine.

We have invested a lot in terms of making it run a variety of media types, a variety of applications. It is very typ-

ical when we have engagement with a customer that they identify an anchor application… making them confident for investing in a new solution. But, whether it is a commercial printer or an in-plant at a financial institution, all of them are looking for their technology to do something different from what they are doing today.

We can run very nice marketing pieces on more difficult, heavier, coated medias Why should commercial printers look at Ricoh production inkjet?

The commercial space hasn’t been our core customer set, but it is quickly becoming an area where we are having success and we have the same conversation about the flexibility of the system, the capability and the way we are investing in terms of features like the advanced media dryer option that came out last year right after Graph Expo. It allows us to print on some coated stocks and heavier stocks and we have recently made modifications that allow us to take the weight of the media up even higher in the system.

Are Ricoh’s inkjet systems being used more for marketing collateral?

There is the high-end automotive brochure that has to be pristine for Porsche, Audi or Ford, and then there is a lot of the other volume where we see growth, which can include some level of variable information that is hopefully going to solicit some kind of a response from the end user. This is where our legacy does help us, because customers are really chasing variable information and critical communication terms like precision marketing and trans-promo…. leveraging those one-to-one pieces and we have a longstanding history to do that.

How often does Ricoh turn multiple engines into single configurations?

We probably have in the field 40 different supported configurations, right now… We see that getting more significant going forward because customers have become very comfortable with the capabilities of the engine. Now the conversation tends to shift to, “Alright, I get that the engine produces very good print quality, media handling, flexibility, ease of use, now let’s look at how do I use the data up front and how do I finish on the backend.”

Is the AFP Colour Consortium still critical for the development of high-speed inkjet?

Now, there are around 38 vendor companies on the consortium and we happen to have a Ricoh employee who is President. It does continue to be a crit-

ical component of full-colour inkjet printing, especially as you look at data and variable data and data mining becoming even more critical for valueadded print pieces. So I think it will become even more relevant in terms of managing data and information, because all of that capability really exists in AFP and IPDS, and it doesn’t in PDF. Granted there are changes being made to PDF as well, but all of the capabilities exist today in AFP and IPDS. What one or two recent inkjetrelated technologies introduced

by Ricoh impress you most?

The Extended Media Dryer option is a significant innovation we applied to the engine that allows us to run a variety of media types and it has really extended the capabilities of the engine further. On the software side, we have also invested significantly in our ink suite management tools. We have a variety of tools that help our customers with ink estimation and with monitoring real-time ink consumption on the engine. We have a tool called Ink Savvy, which is our newest tool. It actually looks for ways to reduce the

amount of colour ink in some applications that has little or no impact to the document’s appearance.

How are paper makers paying more attention to production inkjet?

When I first started it was difficult telling the paper mills what changes we needed in the paper to make it work for inkjet. Today, we have so many systems in place around the world and they see huge growth opportunity and now we literally have conversations with paper mills every week. They are making modifications in their formulations and coatings. Those types of things can be difficult for a customer to identify exactly. We help them through that process with the growing number of options. Now we can run very nice marketing pieces on more difficult, heavier coated medias that six months ago we wouldn't have had a chance to run. It is a sea change really over the past 12 months.

Ricoh Ricoh, with a professionalimaging history dating back to the 1930s, began its push into production-strength printing shortly after the turn of the new millennium. The company cemented this position in 2007 with its $735 million purchase of IBM Printing Systems, which developed high-speed inkjet hardware and software.

In 2006, IBM Printing Systems previewed the InfoPrint 5000 as a simplex continuous forms press at Graph Expo and commercialized the system in 2007.

As the merger with Ricoh was taking shape in 2008, new InfoPrint systems gained traction in the marketplace by filling a production gap between lowquality inkjet and high-quality electrophotography. IDC, a research consultancy, has named the InfoPrint 5000 as the United States’ high-speed inkjet market share leader for the past five years.

Mike Herold, Worldwide Product Manager, Inkjet Technologies, Ricoh

Today’s InfoPrint 5000 portfolio, directed by Ricoh Production Print Solutions LLC, consists of the InfoPrint 5000 GP for general production; InfoPrint 5000 MP, which stands for multi-purpose as smaller footprint engine; and the newest InfoPrint 5000 VP product for high volumes. Each of the InfoPrint 5000 GP, MP and VP platforms consist of three models based on application, supported by Ricoh’s new Critical Communications software portfolio introduced in February 2013.

Ricoh’s InfoPrint 5000 GP platform, reaching up to 420 feet per minute, can be equipped with the new Extended Media Dryer to expand its substrate range.

AUGUST 2013 • PRINTACTION • 21

TAGS & LABELS

Gaitskell Continued from page 10

Photo: Vince Vining

“We’re a really weird generation,” says Maguire.

“A lot of us don’t have very defined paths because of the way our education systems are set up. It’s a generation that sometimes needs help and a voice.

“Go Home Magazine is intended to help [our peers] by showcasing their artwork. We’re interested in reaching out to artists of our Maguire and Sharpe selling magazines and branding merchandise at a community event. own generation who will probably never get a chance to be financial, sales, and management aspects published by a bigger publishing com- of running a business.”

Maguire adds Ryerson has also been pany and who don’t know a lot about getting things published. We want to helpful by providing a strong support help turn their ideas for things like nov- system and a wide variety of resources els and photobooks into a reality by for their enterprise, including faculty who can help answer her business quesprinting and promoting them.

“We want to bring people together tions when they arise and provide referthrough collaboration, as well as bring- rals to numerous bursaries for which ing their work together physically in the young entrepreneurs are eligible to apply. magazine,” continues Maguire. “A magazine is actually just like a literal, tangi- Go Home Print’s operation ble compilation of a bunch of different The hallmarks of Go Home Print’s operpeople. So that’s sort of what we wanted ation include extreme receptiveness to to do to pull together the people and other people’s creativity and the staunch their creativity to make an actual thing pursuit of collaboration over competiyou could hold in your hands at the end tive approaches (which they reject as pretentious.) of the day.”

“Working together makes us all While studying for her interdisciplinary Fine Arts degree at NSCAD, stronger,” explains Sharpe. “We attract Sharpe concentrated mostly on ana- young artists who are supportive of logue photography using traditional one another and we’re excited by the film versus digital technology and at- opportunity to showcase other people’s tempted collaborative work in a lot of talents.”

In their quest to connect with other different media. After graduating, Sharpe started doing research in an effort to fig- creative minds, Maguire and Sharpe ure out how to put what she had learned regularly attend and support art shows, at art school into practice. Her collabo- launches, and other events in local artisration with Maguire brought balance tic, photographic, crafts, comics, zines because, “The approach I learned at art (noncommercial, often homemade or school is more conceptual and involves online publications, usually devoted things like creative writing and curating to specialized or unconventional suband managing a large pool of content.” jects), and other independent publishing By contrast, Shanley provides a huge communities.

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collaborating artists, including stickers, campaign-style buttons, patches, t-shirts, tank tops, tote bags, photographic prints, postcards, and posters featuring material from their magazine.

(Their tote bag line quickly sold out of a product designed by Cody Swinkels that read “Go Home and Make Shit”, while only a few samples remain of Rhodi Iliadou’s Go Big or Go Home and Kerry Maguire’s Go Home and Read a Book designs.) Although Maguire and Sharpe have already invested over $2,000 each of their own money to support the magazine (cash they earned mainly from working in coffee shops), their goal is to earn back enough money from magazine and merchandise sales to meet costs plus do bigger and better things with each issue.

outrageous, but that’s what printing costs are.”

Thanks to their widening network of contacts, they have previously sold the magazine on consignment at independent book stores, comic stores, and other retail locations as remote as Glasgow, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver, Halifax, Calgary, and Montreal. More recently, for financial reasons and also because they prefer to support the local economy and businesses, they have decided to limit sales to the geographically closer locations and the Website Magpile (an online community that enables independent magazine producers to set up an e-storefront).

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A-Z Printers Ltd. Maguire and Sharpe, with Rhodi Iliadou, Senior Designer and Art Director of Go Home Print, promote the inaugural issue of Go Home Magazine.

Thus far they have succeeded in effecting incremental improvements: Their first issue contained only photography; the second issue expanded to include poems, illustrations, and short writings.

And in contrast to their first two issues, their latest third issue incorporates more colour and a greater variety of stocks and production methods, including offset, toner-based, and Risograph – a process they chose specifically because it contributes a more “handmade, artistic look.” A 64-page compilation of writing, interviews, photography, illustration, design, and collages by over 30 youthful contributors, their third issue sells for $15.

Maguire told a videographer from The Eyeopener, Ryerson’s student newspaper: “The most challenging thing for us is meeting our printing costs. To actually create 250 copies of a magazine is not cheap, because we choose to take the work to established printing houses rather than doing it ourselves. People don’t realize how much printing costs.

The retail price per magazine for our first issue was $6 and for the second one it was $9. Now that we’re charging $15 for the third issue, people think it’s kind of

switch to producing the magazine biannually instead of quarterly in order to focus on as many other collaborative projects as possible beyond the magazine.

Relying on social media

Besides their own Website, Go Home Print’s main marketing channels consist entirely of social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, plus self-promotion videos on Vimeo and YouTube.

Maguire explains: “Social media is the best way to build up your business and get people to believe in you. Before we had any product or created the first issue, we had already established an identity and a history for ourselves through social media. Although our activities are focusing on traditional print, our use of social media is the one way we are embracing the modern digital age.”

Despite this slight paradox in methodology, Maguire and Sharpe are emerging as compelling evangelists for print to their own generation. vicg8.blogspot.ca @vicg8 ca.linkedin.com/in/vicg8

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Howard Continued from page 12

it’s a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, with 35 percent of technology from 1996, still useful – it’s still print remember – and there is only so much one industry can do to change.

Our industry is not an “App”. We have hard costs that can only shrink so far. We will also embrace anything that HP, Xerox, Landa et al want to come up with that provides a lower cost product. The same is especially true with sheetfed presses. As mentioned in earlier columns, until digital offers same the same speed and quality for well under $1 million it’s going to be awhile.

Although the great hope of digital print technology is starting to play a bigger role, will it be enough to keep us all employed? The answer is simply no. Not all will remain and the four percent profit return proves it.

The once mighty industry that employed more people than all of the US automakers combined, is taking a beating.

Huge factories in Germany and Japan that built printing presses just as Henry Ford did the Model T, find themselves trying to diversify and grab revenue from all sources including the once scoffed at consumables business. Our industry’s dilemma is one of unfortunate consequence just like the radio broadcasting industry when it found itself up against new disruptive television broadcasting technology. That’s simply progress. Managing ourselves through rapid changes and lower costs will remain and intensify even with new digital offerings. Compare ourselves to the machine tool industry. And CNC basic benchmark tools built in 1996 do not have near the obsolescence as print.

Tablets will continue pilfering eyeballs from print in ever increasing numbers.

Airlines no longer send upgrade certificates or plane tickets. They send e-upgrades and e-tickets. Look around you and see just how many people are staring at a screen. Every time they do, it moves the goalposts for our industry and in order to compensate we not only need the latest technology but also products that don’t have anything in common with on-screen. Mergers are not always the answer. Solutions are found with the Madison Avenue creatives. Getting MadMen to buy into your new technologies or finishing abilities are the keys that our most successful commercial printers are using to open doors.

Regardless of the outcome, the world still has a need for print. One look at the growing direct mail (DM) business shows that print has a niche that can be taken advantage of. Just like VLF and packaging, DM will be relevant until the next generation further embraces online handheld technologies that strip away more of print’s proprietary abilities.

Even then, a simple ad on a refrigerator cut out of your local paper or magazine brings news and information to a household that otherwise would have missed it.

Nick Howard has been involved in the printing industry since 1976. He manages Howard Graphic Equipment Ltd., which has been involved in the supply, sale, rebuilding and appraisal business since 1967. Nick can be reached at: nick@howard-direct.com

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ARCHIVE

August 1988 The Republican Party nominates George H.W. Bush for the Presidential race, Enzo Ferrari, patriarch of the famous sports car brand, passes at age 90, and the worst air show disaster in history kills 75 in Germany.

Heidelberg Buys Harris Web Press Group The Web Press Group of Harris Graphics, a subsidiary of AM International, has been purchased by Heidelberg for a reported US$300 million According to a statement issued by Heidelberg’s head office in Germany, a definitive agreement was signed in New York on July 27.

Komori Printing Machinery Co. of Tokyo had previously announced that it signed a non-binding letter of intent with AM International in a bid to purchase Harris’s Web Press Group for a cash payment of US$181 million and the return of almost four million shares of AM common stock.

Harris’ Web Press Group is reportedly expected to have total sales of more than US$350 million for 1987/1988. Heidelberg states it intends to operate the Web Press Group as an independent business, retaining the existing product range, personnel, sales and service organiza tions. Heidelberg’s own WEB 8 and WEB 16 offset presses will continue to be manufactured in Wiesloch, West Germany.

The CGI Network: Building a Graphics Superstore The West Beaver Creek business development in Richmond Hill, Ontario, just north of Toronto, still bears evidence of the rural landscape which, until very recently, it was. It is here, in a brand new 100,000-square-foot building, that the rapidly growing CGI Network of companies has set up shop – an event heralded recently by a gala two-day open house attended by hundreds of suppliers, customers and friends, as well as a sprinkling of local dignitaries.

Together with his younger brother Frank, Mario Giorgio controls a complex of four companies aimed at covering every aspect of the graphics production cycle, from typesetting through to finishing and binding: Consumer Graphics, Web Direct, Corp-Text Graphics and CGI Sprint-Ink. Each operates as a separate corporate entity.

“If you want to call yourself ‘full service’ in every sense of the word, you have to specialize so that each operation you do is done by experts,” Giorgio tells PrintAction. “By operating four separate companies in one network, we’re able to specialize in this way, while still taking advantage of the benefits of being under one roof.”

26 • PRINTACTION • AUGUST 2013

CGI Network President Mario Giorgio, Miller Printing Equipment President Ray Harrison and CGI Vice President Frank Giorgio toast the new Miller CW68 27-inch five-colour perfecting web press installed at Web Direct, one of four companies in the CGI Network.

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