Blog Archives




 

  • Into the Belly of the Beast
    By Denise Gustavson - Wednesday April 6, 2011
    Last week I had the opportunity to head to Chicago for a press and analyst meeting with Océ North America. It was an interesting—and information-packed – meeting, focusing primarily on the technical documents market. We discussed many of the trends affecting the technical documents market such as: Increased decentralization as printing is pushed downstream, i.e. deliver digitally, print locally Increased use of electronic document workflow, primarily PDF Increased adoption of BIM and Integrated Project Delivery Transition from monochrome to color printing in AEC More complex GIS applications One of the topics we delved into in detail was about the ROI for measuring a realistic return through the use of color...

  • Designing "Wow"
    By Denise Gustavson - Wednesday April 6, 2011
    Okay. So how many of you are HGTV junkies? Raise your hands. I have to admit, I probably watch more HGTV than a single girl should. But how can you beat men working with power tools? But I digress. If you've been watching HGTV, you may have noticed how more and more, many of the designers have been turning to digitally printed projects to really turn their interior designs up a notch. Take for instance the new program "The Antonio Treatment". This show is a one-hour weekly docu-design series where he Antonio Ballatore will make over multiple rooms in various locations that are suffering from drab decor. In several episodes so far, digitally printed, wide-format graphics have taken center stage to the redesigns he's created. In...

  • Pioneers and Settlers
    By Bob Hall - Monday April 4, 2011
    Today is my birthday. Don’t ask which one because I won’t tell. Let’s just say it’s the new 40 or something like that. By no stretch of the imagination can I be counted among the elders of the industry—those folks who kicked the whole quick printing thing off many years ago. Sadly, many of them are no longer with us. Most recently we lost Frank Schochet, the founder of the Insty-Prints franchise system which was later folded into the Allegra Network. A couple of years back Karen got to spend time with Frank at a celebration in Shreveport, LA, for Jim and Gene Elliot’s 25th anniversary as Insty-Prints franchisees. She found him “ornery, challenging, and an absolute delight.†That sounds a...

  • Pricing Pressures Continue to Grow
    By John Giles - Wednesday March 30, 2011
    A visit to the grocery store or gas pump lets us know how quickly prices can change. Prices are going up quickly and not just for consumers. Printing companies are seeing their costs rise. The question is whether or not printers will react and raise prices or eat the rising costs and suffer the consequences. I’m continuing to get calls from printers who are complaining that their competitors are “giving work away.†They say they are forced into price wars because a few low-ball printers are messing up the market for everyone and making customers expect to get lower prices. I can’t agree. Printers are notorious for being poor salespeople. Most just wait for customers to call and then react by giving a price. Since...

  • Expense or Investment?
    By Bob Hall - Tuesday March 29, 2011
    Shortly after we climbed through 10,000 feet, I took out my netbook and logged onto Gogo to re-check some statistics for the keynote presentation I was to give the next day at the PostNet convention in Las Vegas. I usually don't wait until the last minute to finalize presentations, but I had been on the road at the Vision 3 Summit and On Demand in the days immediately prior to this late night flight. After confirming some numbers, I double checked a quote from NAPL's new State of the Industry report: "We must clearly distinguish between what's an expense and what's an investment in our business." While doing so, I realized that I had just spent nearly two weeks observing people who were investing in their businesses and in...

  • 20/20 Eyesight at Vision 3
    By Bob Hall - Monday March 21, 2011
    As any writer worth his or her salt knows, there can never be a “first annual” anything. There are only second, third, fourth, etc annual events – of course that hasn’t stopped giddy copywriters from crowing about first annual happenings. So, let’s call the Vision 3 Summit an inaugural event and then crow about it. Some 440 printers, vendors, and industry luminaries showed up last week at the Marriott resort in Palm Desert, CA. They were greeted with sunny weather. They also brought a considerably sunnier attitude to the event than I have seen for a while. The educational program was varied and meaty and the sessions were very well attended. Oh, sure, some folks played hooky for a couple of hours to get in some greens time, but...

  • Mix and Mingle
    By Bob Hall - Monday March 14, 2011
    Its going to be a busy two weeks. As you read this I am in Palm Desert, CA, at the Vision 3 Summit with Printing News editor Mark Vruno. After that wraps up, I’ll be taking a red-eye flight home for a couple of days before leaving for On Demand in Washington, DC. As soon as that finishes, I’m off to Las Vegas to speak at the PostNet convention. I’ll be returning home on another red-eye on Saturday the 26th and plan to sleep most of Sunday. Already this year I’ve been to printing events in Boca Raton, Houston, and Dallas. Others from the Cygnus Graphics Media group have attended events and meetings in Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Orlando and the year is not even one-quarter over. One of the reasons we do this much traveling is that it is...

  • Cross-Media at the Crossroads
    By Bob Hall - Monday March 7, 2011
    When On Demand first came on the trade show scene, digital printing was just getting up a head of steam. The debate over digital’s place in the printing industry was lively and the offset faction was aggressively defensive. Today, it is obvious that digital and offset need to co-exist and both need to face the reality of communication alternatives that don’t involve marks on paper. That’s what makes this year’s On Demand particularly interesting. The latest On Demand add-on is the Publishing Xchange Conference which, according to the promoters, will bring together “for the first time the full expanse of Digital Publishing, Digital Print, and Enterprise Information Management.†(I have no idea why...

  • Are Printers Going To Lose Out Again?
    By John Giles - Wednesday March 2, 2011
    Are printers going to let someone else make money off a cool communication idea and just sit around waiting to compete for the printing? It seems so as we see new social media support companies popping up around the country to handle the social media mechanics for businesses. These companies are charging premium fees and handling the print buying for their clients because print is important to use when creating followers and fans. Why can't printers offer social media services too? They already work with customers in creating and distributing the customer's message with print. They know how to manage a customer's printed brand. Why not use those same skills to help customers with their social media? The printing industry has let this...

  • Ricoh Emerges as Heidelberg Digital Partner
    By Bob Hall - Tuesday March 1, 2011
    Last week I noted that Heidelberg would soon announce a new hybrid offset/digital solution which “is expected to team a Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 52 with a digital color output device in the 80 to 90 ppm range—presumably from a current digital vendor.” We now know that the digital vendor is Ricoh and the digital device is their Ricoh Pro C901 Graphic Arts Edition. We also know where you can first see that solution – at the digi:media trade show in Dusseldorf. I’m not planning on packing my bags to get to the April show, but am interested in what the reaction will be to this new hybrid approach from Heidelberg. As I noted last week, this idea of paring digital and offset devices is nothing really new. In fact vendors from both...

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