MetalFX has become very popular over the last few years and is now burnishing magazine covers, samples, and ads everywhere. MetalFX Technology, a company based in the United Kingdom, created the system that incorporates MetalFX colour palettes, a swatch book, and software plug–ins for Photoshop, Illustrator, Artpro, InDesign, Freehand, and QuarkXPress.

MetalFX has created Custom Photoshop actions to automatically add metallic silver to your masked images. The system also uses ink mixing available in Quark and InDesign as well as manual overprinting for vector artwork.

With the MetalFX system, you may add drama to images, create documents with hundreds of different metallic colours, and incorporate special effects. MetalFX Technology also has three SpecialFX available: LiteFX, HoloFX, and SecurityFX. The effects are created by knocking out metallic ink and using different tints of metallic ink.

1. It is important to combine light clean colours with metallic for best results. Bright red in a document is best left alone, the silver base won’t do it any favours. As such, you will notice that the swatch book doesn’t contain any bright red swatches. So rule number one for designing with MetalFX is to check the swatch book for the colour you want. If your desired colour is not there, run that colour without the metallic ink behind it.

2. The second rule of MetalFX is to remember that white space enhances the silver effect. High quality white paper reflects light, which allows the metallic to pick up the light. In contrast, dark or black backgrounds will absorb light, thus dulling the metallic effect of your piece.

3. Rule number three is to create your design in either InDesign or Quark with placed Illustrator and Photoshop files. MetalFX Photoshop files can be saved as PSD files for InDesign CS2 and Quark 7 or DCS 2.0 EPS files for earlier versions of InDesign and Quark.

When dealing with DCS 2.0 files from Photoshop, they must not be placed in an Illustrator file. The CS2 version of Illustrator will give you a warning if you attempt to place a DCS 2.0 file, but earlier versions of Illustrator will not, and you will likely finish with a low resolution image in your final product.

A simulated preview of your work can be achieved by using the Overprint Preview in Illustrator or the layers options in Photoshop, though these tools should only be used for initial proofing of items. I recommend creating a High Resolution PDF of the complete document and viewing overprints and separations from within Acrobat. Use the Output Preview palette under Print Production in the Tools menu.

4. The fourth rule for working with MetalFX is to always check your file in Acrobat. You can turn your MetalFX base separation on and off to see its effects. Check that there are no other spot colours in your PDF, only C, M, Y, K and MetalFX base. And zoom in on your document to ensure that your images are high resolution.

5. And finally, rule number five: Print separations to your laser printer. Using MetalFX is a process and spot colour job and if you have used any transparency, drop shadows, or opacity in Quark or InDesign, printing to your laser printer will reveal it. Pay special attention to your MetalFX base plate; if transparency is going to disfigure your spot colour it will do so by separating some of your metallic on to the Black plate instead. (Such separation won’t destroy the job, but it will ruin the effects you desire.)

Following the above five rules should make for a successful MetalFX project and will prepare you to work with MetalFX System 2 Gold, which is currently in beta testing. System 2 Gold is to be used as a 5 colour or 6 colour including Silver.

To find printers licensed to print MetalFX, check the advertisements in this issue, or visit www.metal-fx.com for more information.
MetalFX, LiteFX, HoloFX and SecurityFX are all registered trademarks of MetalFX Technologies.   

Andrea Mahoney  TriBay Enterprise
T: 416.729.9687
E: andrea@autoflowforprepress.ca
www.tribay.ca

When trying to evaluate colour and achieve some form of process control, we often neglect grey and its power. Grey is more than just a neutral, achromatic colour midway between white and black. Instead, think of grey as the foundation of colour. It is the first element you should look at when evaluating colour, and it is the most telling indication when things go wrong on your proofing device or press.

Grey balance and process control
Using grey balance for process control is easy, practical, and effective. One method of evaluating grey balance on press is to place two different grey patches side by side, as seen in the image to the right. One patch is a chromatic grey (CMY) and the other is a true grey (K). The goal is to get the two patches to look the same. Good grey balance is dependent on printing parameters that are influenced by at least four factors: the dot gain, the solid colour inking of the primary colours, overprinting, and paper colour. A pressman can make moves on press to correct for grey balance, but a full evaluation of the CTP curves may be required to ensure plates are created properly.

The human eye is very good at metering or evaluating colours that are directly adjacent to each other, and is particularly sensitive to colour differences within the greys. The example below shows how much easier it is to see variations in grey than in other colours.
Improper grey balance will quickly identify if the “spread” or deviation between colours is too great. When using process inks in offset printing, inking and damping fluctuations show up more distinctly in chromatic grey image areas than in coloured image areas, which makes grey balance patches in colour control bars instrumental in indicating printing process disorders.

G7™ and its role in grey balance
As a new calibration process that specifies a colour printing condition using tone reproduction and grey balance, G7 is a major departure from the previous implementations of GRACoL where only densities and dot gains or tone value increase (TVI) were specified for various substrates.

G7 is a new calibration method developed to support the GRACoL 7 specification. The “G” refers to calibrating grey values and the “7” refers to the seven primary colour values defined in the ISO 12647–2 printing standard: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (K), Red (M+Y), Green (C+Y) and Blue (C+M). Although originally intended for commercial offset printing, the G7 method is applicable to virtually any CMYK imaging process, and has been successfully tested on a wide range of processes, including coated and uncoated offset, newsprint, gravure, flexography, dye–sublimation, ink–jet, and electrophotography, as well as a wide range of AM and FM screening methods.

Resources
The ECI/bvdm Grey Control Strip is freeware available for download. You may use the ECI/bvdm Grey Control Strip at your own discretion for as long as you want, on as many computer workstations as you need, and in whichever country you wish. However, you are not permitted to distribute the ECI/bvdm Grey Control Strip or to change or modify it, in whole or in part, without written permission from European Colour Initiative (ECI) or the Bundesverband Druck und Medien (bvdm). You use the ECI/bvdm Grey Control Strip at your own risk.    

Angus Pady is the president of Digital Solutions. Complete colour control from desktop to press.

T: 905.764.6003 • Angus@ColourManagement.ca • www.colourmanagement.ca

The only way for packagersto stay profitable in the Canadian market is by continuing to find new solutions.
Canadian packaging printers face challenges distinct from those faced by commercial printers, as the package manufacturing process is longer and more complex than for straightforward commercial printers. Yet packagers are consistent in creating eye–catching, attention–grabbing, and problem–solving packages for their clients’ products.

Packagers, like all printers, are under constant pressure to reduce costs and improve quality. The challenges are getting tougher, and also more interesting, as consumers demand more variety in the products they buy, as competition from the U.S. and overseas gets faster, cheaper, and more prevalent, and as domestic environmental and safety concerns begin to affect manufacturing processes.

Soft market
“The market is a little soft these days, at least in Ontario and Quebec,” says Mark Spurgeon, President of Tri–Ad Graphics, a company that has both commercial printing and packaging divisions; packaging accounts for two–thirds of its total volume. He attributes part of that softness to greater competition from U.S.–based packagers. “The U.S. companies who would previously not be interested in shorter runs are now bidding on them,” he says. About 15 per cent of Tri–Ad’s volume is for U.S. consumption. Canadian packagers have also lost the once–great price advantage they had when the Canadian dollar was worth 70 U.S. cents or less.

“We’ve seen some significant changes in the market over the past two years,” says David Haslam, Director of Specialty Engraving for Southern Graphics in its Mississauga location. “Three or four companies have retreated from the Canadian market, but three or four new ones have entered. Some of the larger companies have consolidated their operations, sometimes moving production to the U.S. facilities or even offshore.”

“You gotta fight for it, but business is out there,” says Gerry Richler, Chairman of Goldrich Printpak Inc. of Toronto.

The challenge of variety
Consumers today are demanding greater variety in the products they buy, and retailers and manufacturers are giving it to them. Twenty years ago you could buy one kind of Special K cereal—now there are at least three. This kind of brand variety is consistent in all sectors: candy, soft drinks, cosmetics, even medical and pharmaceutical products. And every different product requires a different package.
“The volumes might not change, but there are more SKUs [stock–keeping units] than ever before,” says David Haslam. That means smaller runs of different jobs.

Just–in–time manufacturing is also having an impact on packaging. “People use to print to inventory, then use their inventory of packages up. Not anymore,” says Haslam. Instead, customers want packaging to arrive exactly when they need it.

In contrast, Goldrich Printpak Inc. hasn’t found that clients are ordering short runs. “While some customers are trying to reduce inventory to save costs, they realize that they still need to achieve economies of scale with packaging,” explains Gerry Richler.

Packaging clients are getting more demanding. They want lower costs, faster turnarounds, and greater efficiency. And, of course, top quality.

“Quality...is a given,” says Richler. “If the package isn’t perfect, forget it.”
All packagers recognize the shrinking turnaround times they have to deal with, and the competitive pressures that keep a lid on prices. “Prices have eroded year on year. It’s something we have to find efficiencies in our operations to deal with,” says David Haslam.

Retailers are putting more pressure on their suppliers, and those producers and suppliers of consumer packaged goods are passing on a lot of the pressure back to the packaging companies. “For example, a supplier may ship goods to a retailer’s distribution centre, and the retailer would then apply shipping labels to individual cartons or skids to ship them to different stores,” explains Gerry Richler. “Now, they’re asking us, the packagers, to add those shipping labels.” It may not seem like a big request, but it makes a difference to the product supplier, and packagers that can add this service have a better chance of getting the job.

Innovative packagers see these pressures as opportunities to get more work. “Customers are looking for value–added services,” Richler says. Goldrich Printpak has responded by offering fulfillment services, not only making the packages but also inserting the products, and even shipping them. They’ve also added an e–commerce function, where their client’s customers will send electronic orders to Printpak, who will fill the order and notify their client about the orders, so the client can then process invoices.

Generally, packaging customers are looking to reduce the amount of product handling that they do, and are looking to other companies to do as much as possible. The packager is in an advantageous position to offer more services.

The use of radio–frequency identification (RFID) tags is slowly starting to take off, too. These tiny tags are attached to the outside of packages and broadcast data about the contents of the container they’re attached to; scanners pick up the information and feed it into an inventory or supply–chain management system. This automates much of the information processing in shipping and receiving and reduces errors: the identity, quantity, source and other information of incoming or outgoing products automatically enters a retailer’s or a supplier’s computer system. It can even be used on individual products at the check–out counter, as a faster alternative to bar–codes.

However, despite its benefits, the technology is not taking off very quickly. “The cost of the tags is an issue: if you’re selling a product for a dollar, and the RFID tag costs 50 cents, there’s not much economy in it,” says Richler. As a result, RFID tends to be used on skids, not on individual products.

Environmental pressures
Environmental activists are quick to highlight the waste produced by excess packaging and the thousands of tonnes of cardboard and plastic that regularly go to landfills. Recycling programs do reduce packaging’s environmental footprint, but there is still much government and environmental pressure to further reduce packaging waste.

“Boxboard is a renewable resource,” says Gerry Richler. “A lot of the content that we use is recycled, post–consumer waste, and most of what we produce can be recycled.”

“Customers’ concern about the environmental impact is steady, slowly gaining, but it’s not a huge factor,” says Mark Spurgeon. But that could change very soon. Wal–Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, has announced that it’s going to “measure” the ability of all its worldwide suppliers to develop innovative packaging that conserves natural resources. Wal–Mart is hoping to reduce the total amount of packaging it handles by five percent, starting in 2008.

Achieving Wal–Mart’s goal will reduce pressure on landfills, save about 667,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, and prevent the burning of 323,800 tonnes of coal and 66.7 million US gallons of diesel fuel.

Wal–Mart drives many trends in retailing and manufacturing. Their push to use radio–frequency identification (RFID) to speed up receiving of products has caused a major increase in RFID use and implementation in many industries worldwide. And if Wal–Mart is leading the way in reducing packaging on its shelves, other retailers and other kinds of companies are bound to follow suit — particularly since environmental awareness has both economic and PR benefits.

A five percent reduction in overall packaging produced will have a major impact on packaging producers—particularly when that’s compounded with the other trends affecting the industry.

Environmental concerns are also pushing printers and packagers away from using solvent–based inks. “Some of our clients have asked us to move away from solvent–based inks to water–based inks,” says Southern Graphics’ Haslam. They’re happy to oblige: not only does it make them better corporate citizens, but there’s little impact on the bottom line. “Water–based inks typically have more pigments, so they’re stronger, and we use less ink in the ink–water balance,” he explains. “With beer labels, it’s important to use water–based inks, because when the bottles are recycled, the labels wash off and the bottlers don’t want the solvent in the inks going into the water.”

Innovations
Packagers are creating innovative packages that use less material, yet provide more protection as well as space for promotional graphics. Goldrich Printpak won awards from the Canadian Packaging Association and a World Star award from the world packaging organization for its patented new box that sports fold–out side panels and presents only one point of entry. “It’s a book style box with ‘wings’ on each side that uses less material yet gives the producer more ‘real estate’ for promotional graphics,” says Richler. Also, since there’s only one way to open the box (many store–shelf boxes have two), it reduces the risk of pilferage.

Innovate for the future
Like commercial printers, packagers depend on emerging technologies to find new, more efficient production methods.
At the creative design end, Tri–Ad has started to use new three–dimensional design software from Esko and other companies to create realistic virtual mock–ups of packaging designs. “A three–dimensional model really does more to explain the concept and illustrate how it works for the customer,” says Spurgeon. “Not everyone can see how a flat design will translate into a solid box or package. And it’s not totally for the customers’ benefit — it also helps our designers.”

In the flexographic and lithographic sectors of the packaging industry, businesses are turning to many of the same technologies as commercial printers, particularly computer–to–plate output. “CTP has had a huge impact in terms of quality, efficiency, and speed,” says Goldrich Printpak’s Richler. “Some clients don’t want to use it, and insist on staying with film. But with CTP, if we notice an error in a file on press, we can produce another plate in 20 minutes. If we have to go back to film, well, it can take hours or even days.”

In the high–end gravure sector of packaging, Southern Graphics is starting to use laser systems to etch or expose images on their cylinders; this provides “offset quality with gravure capability” for very long runs and durability, says Haslam.

And in the pressroom, automation and digital increase efficiency in order that packagers may meet rising client demands. The Opaltone seven–colour process printing system, like the Hexachrome six–colour system, helps Tri–Ad reduce costs and boost efficiencies. “It’s not a fit for every job, but it can provide some savings in printing,” says Spurgeon.

Packagers are an innovative bunch. Eroding prices and rising raw material costs continue to challenge them, but successful packagers are finding new ways to innovate and provide more value for their clients.     

When shooting in a studio setting, the meter of preference is of course the domed incident meter, which gives a reading from the subject to the camera. The camera is then set to the given exposure, and the picture is taken. In most cases your exposure quite accurate. But what about shooting outside the studio on those days when you forgot to drop your incident meter into your camera bag?
Your camera has a reflected meter, that is, it gives a reading from the camera to the subject. Unfortunately, reflected meters are not as accurate as incident meters, and whether the meter in the camera is spot, centre weighted, or averaging, it is still calibrated as a reflected meter.

When the camera’s reflected meter looks at a given subject, what it sees is 18% gray image, not the lovely full–colour view you have in your viewfinder. This greying is because  a reflected meter records the average amount of light reflected back from the scene to the camera. Compare that to an incident meter, which records light as it actually falls on the scene to be photographed. The reflected meter’s averaging does not account for the exposure needs of a scene that may have both shadows and highlights—instead, it takes an average that may represent a very uniform scene well, but more often than not is inadequate to account for the light variations in a given possible exposure. To put it a different way, think of a scene with light and shadow as akin to a man with a size 10 left foot and a size 8 right foot. While the incident meter would sell him a size 10 shoe for his left foot and a size 8 for his right, the reflected meter would try to shoehorn both feet into size 9 shoes. You can guess which would be more comfortable, and you can also see which meter makes for a better, more accurate exposure.

As I stated earlier, incident measurement is from the subject to the camera, and as I explained above, incident measurement also gives the best exposure. But if you are away from your incident meter, there are ways to get your reflected camera meter to read like an external incident meter. You can purchase a lens filter for approximately $100, though some of the larger lens filters cost a lot more than the $100. But if you don’t want to part with a hundred dollars, there is an easier and much more inexpensive way to convert your reflected meter into an incident meter. And all you need is a clean white Styrofoam coffee cup.

You might be chuckling right now, but I have measured the coffee cup’s success against my Minolta 4 meter, and I can assure you that it works, despite its almost embarrassing simplicity. Follow the instructions below, and you’ll never again need to panic when you leave your incident meter at home or in the studio.

Position the camera at the subject location and remove the lens hood (if applicable).
Place the white Styrofoam coffee cup over the camera lens.
Set the exposure by reading the light through the coffee cup.
Set the camera to the exposure corresponding to that reading.
Remove the coffee cup from the lens, place it carefully in your camera bag for next time,  and replace the lens hood.
Reposition the camera if necessary to be ready to take the photograph.
Do not change the exposure, and take the picture.

You may test the same lighting by using an incident meter if you have one with you. You will see that the exposures are the same, as your coffee cup meter reads the light falling on the subject, not the light bouncing off the subject. The coffee cup acts as a diffuser, just like the one found in the incident meter.    

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will have heard that Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at the Macworld Keynote on January 9, 2007. I did actually speak with someone a week later who hadn’t heard of the iPhone—so perhaps I may be wrong about a person’s dwellings. Macworld is huge—Apple’s largest annual gathering of the Mac-faithful and there were some notable new products and notable absences.

Before getting into the iPhone, I should apologize for joking that we would all eventually be doing our work on iPods – Apple’s ubiquitous portable media player. I’m sorry because it turns out that I may have been correct—the iPhone is the next generation iPod that will run Mac OS X and will eventually run applications. Apple had been expected to introduce a telephony device since they registered the domain name iphone.org back in 1999. In fact, I remember reading a criticism of the Apple Newton pda that said it should have also included a cellular phone 14 years ago. So I suppose it was only a matter of time. Many pundits knew Apple would most likely introduce a phone this year—but I don’t think that anyone fully appreciated how promising it would be. For those of you under the rocks, Apple stock rose quickly after the announcement and RIM and Nokia’s stock both dropped.

Once again Steve Jobs took to the stage and pulled a rabbit out of his hat. He had just finished introducing the AppleTV, a device that streams movies and music from your iPod and computer and displays it on your television—another product that will change the way we pay for and watch TV shows and movies. The AppleTV was quickly eclipsed by the iPhone, which combines a widescreen iPod, a cell phone and an Internet browsing device. But wait you say, “Aren’t there already cell phones that store music and can browse the net?” Of course, there are but the difference here is the way that Apple has combined them. (Go to Apple’s web site, http://www.apple.com/iphone , if you’re interested. The AppleTV and iPhone were also awarded Best of Show 2007.)

In a nutshell, the iPhone includes a widescreen display for viewing photos and watching movies which senses when the phone is rotated and rotates the image on the screen. The screen is also touch sensitive so that the buttons and controls can be arranged in many configurations—unlike current cell phones with small, fixed plastic buttons. Apple has also developed and copyrighted a gesturing technology called “Multi-touch” which allows the user to manipulate the phone with one or two finger gestures. Pinching and spreading your fingers zooms in and out. Scrubbing across the screen flips pages or scrolls up and down long pages.

The iPhone also introduces visual voice mail that displays voice messages like email—so you can pick and choose which messages you need to deal with first. Browsing the web is similar to browsing pages on your computer. Currently cell phones display the content on a web site unformatted. The iPhone displays a site in reduced size so that the formatting is maintained—you zoom in to view the content. The controls on the iPhone are based on “widgets”, which means that developers will be able to quickly create new applications and enhance the iPhone further.

Apple’s booth at the expo, about the size of a football field, showcased the AppleTV and iLife products—which are products targeted at consumers. Noticeably absent were Apple’s products for professionals—there were no Mac Pros or larger laptops. (One had to go three block north to San Francisco’s Apple Store to see the Pro Macintosh line.) The booth was dominated by theatrical presentations on the iPhone, Apple TV and the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 (aka Leopard). In fact, Apple changed the company name to Apple Inc. to further separate themselves from the computer market. The Macintosh, once a mainstay of the company, has been dethroned by the iPod and possibly soon the iPhone as Apple seeks to diversify its identity. Apple has also buried the hatchet with the Beatles (Apple Corps) whose music will be available for download on iTunes music store any day now.

I did see the device at the show that I’ve been hoping for—a Macintosh tablet computer—but it wasn’t at Apple’s booth! Other World Computing has teamed with the German engineers at Axiotron to bring us the ModBook—another  of  winner of Best of Show 2007. The ModBook is a modified MacBook with the keyboard, trackpad and LCD screen removed. Then they attached an upgraded Wacom capable touch screen and an anodized aluminum top. The screen is extremely tough and has a higher contrast ratio and wider viewing angles. Using a stylus as the input device, the slate-style computer enables Mac OS X’s handwriting recognition and true pen computing, with 256 levels of pressure sensitivity. They’ve also redirected the iSight camera so it focuses on the center of the screen. It’s just like the tablet Captain Kirk uses and it’s a Mac!

Another promising aspect of using Apple’s Intel Macintoshs is their ability to run Windows. We visited three of the third-party developers who have developed products for running Windows applications while simultaneously running Mac OS X. Apple has Boot Camp which lets you run Widows natively but without access to the Macintosh applications or files. Another Best of Show, Parallels Desktop runs the entire Windows XP ( and Vista) on top of Mac OS X and at the Expo they introduced the ability to hide the Windows desktop. It appears as if you are running the Windows application side by side with your Mac OS X applications. In fact running Windows this way is more secure as your applications are hidden from hackers by the Mac OS. Each application is also self-contained so that it is virus-protected.

One of the Canadian companies that were at the Expo was Xsilva, based out of Montreal. They were showing their point-of-sale application Lightspeed. Lightspeed is a tool for retail and inside sales developed to run on the Macintosh. It is very well thought out and utilizes the Macintosh’s ease of use. It is targeted at any company that is seeking to automate sales, call centers, small businesses or light manufacturing. Lightspeed can also get your products up onto the Internet with its integrated web store.

Google was also at the Expo, with its much anticipated Google Earth for Macintosh. If you’ve spent much time on the web lately you have more than likely seen Google Maps on various web sites. Google Earth works in concert with Google Maps and provides satellite images of the earth. Apple used Google Earth to show the Washington Monument, Eiffel Tower and the Colosseum in Rome while demonstrating the iPhone.

Adobe and Quark were present at the show, as well as all of the printer manufacturers: Xerox, Brother, HP, Epson and Ricoh. Adobe was showing Acrobat 8’s new features and new collaborative web conferencing PDFs. On the side stations they were they were showing Photoshop CS3 Beta, as well as Premiere Pro – both winners of Best of Show and optimized for the Intel Macs.

If the Macworld expo had not been named after the magazine that sponsors it, this may have been the last “Macworld”. Even the rival magazine MacAddict has re-launched under the name Mac|Life, acknowledging how the Apple brand has evolved. Every second or third exhibiter was showing some form of iPod carry case or ear phones, mirroring the back page ads of the magazines, which have been focused more and more on the iPod. With Apple’s name change and obvious focus on consumer product offering, the Macintosh may have already become Apple’s “other” product. For the time being you can still use your Macintosh to manage the songs on your iPod. However, when the iPhone ships, you’ll be able to download your iTunes directly onto the phone. I wonder when we’ll see QuarkXPress for iPhone or when Apple will ship the iPhone with a two-page display?   

Tim Mitra, President
Mitra-tech.com  – Software Consultant
416.256.8609

This issue marks the beginning of the Graphic Arts Magazine’s 10th year. It’s hard to believe how far we’ve come in the past ten years—those of you who have some of our early back issues will know what I mean! We are very thankful to you, our loyal readers and advertisers, for partnering with us as we grow to serve you better.

2007 looks like a positive year for our industry, but also one where our competitive instincts need to remain strong. For example, 2006 saw over 25,000 printing and pre–press companies in the United States either bought out or sold—that’s five per cent of businesses in the industry. Clich's are usually coined because they’re true, and that old nugget that “the strong will survive” is certainly applicable to printers and pre–press companies. To increase the strength of our whole industry, we must together promote the value of print media and find concrete ways to increase margins.

We at the Graphic Arts Magazine are honored to again be a media partner at the Grafik’Art Trade Show in Montreal, which runs from 19–21 April, 2007. For more information on the show call 514.916.8102 or go to www.grafikart.ca. Fuji, Heidelberg, KBA, Komori, MAN Roland, Spicers and more will all be at the show, and it’s a great opportunity to showcase your wares and examine others’ ideas.
In this issue, take a look at John Zarwan’s article, which presents a fresh look at CTP on page 18. Although 2007 may present challenges as more “iron” becomes available and margins are challenged, we should always be looking at alternative ways to serve our existing customer base and at new ways of expanding that base. Promoting print as a valuable media is a win–win situation which helps both ourselves and our customers.

I would like to wish you all health and prosperity for 2007.
As always, stay positive and stay focused.

The speed with which the printing industry adopts new technology continually alters the qualifications and skills that printing companies require in their staff. As such, hiring qualified staff is often a great human resources challenge, as the definition of “qualified” can seemingly change from day to day. Being flexible in your hiring practices, if done knowledgeably, is one way to meet the challenge of your business’s changing technical needs. 

Flexible hiring criteria
We will first discuss only the relatively rare cases where a person with directly related qualifications for a position can’t be found.  At PrintLink, we can usually provide well– qualified candidates for each job we fill.  But it is occasionally necessary for us to encourage hiring managers to consider an alternative plan.

For instance, while the series of steps in print production workflow remains essentially unchanged, there is always an array of new tools to facilitate its every stage. And because the technology tools are both numerous and relatively new, there may not be a lot of people available who have direct experience with the specific tool one of our clients is using.  Although hiring managers of course prefer to attract people with directly related experience from the outset, it is not always possible to do so.

In such cases, we suggest that hiring managers can create some flexibility for themselves by implementing training programs. They should audit their current talent pool, assess their future staffing needs, then determine a strategic plan of execution that fits their budget. And when hiring, managers should select people who have the interest, aptitude, and motivation to participate in their company’s employee development program.

As another example, many companies come to us looking for supervisors and managers who already possess a number of years of like experience. But the employees themselves are usually seeking career advancement unavailable in their current positions. Unless they have specific issues with their employer or their jobs are at risk, employees are often reluctant to make a lateral move.

Similarly, employers may hold out indefinitely for an elusive “perfect” candidate, when, if they immediately hired a candidate requiring some training instead, they would quickly realize a return on their investment. By exercising some flexibility, hiring managers may just find a gem who is waiting for a chance to shine. Good candidates are often willing to make a long–term commitment to companies who recognize their potential and invest in their career development.

Flexible work arrangements
It is also increasingly necessary for companies to exercise flexibility in addressing the impending problem of large–scale retirement. Many organizations in our own and other industries offer phased retirement programs in which older employees work fewer hours as they approach retirement. You can maximize the value of such programs by assigning some training and mentoring activities to retirees. While younger staff may be better versed in today’s technology, the older employees have a solid background in the industry to pass along, not to mention their experience with your company and clients.

Other flexible staffing arrangements—ones that address not only the shrinking workforce, but also everyone’s need to balance work and home life—include job sharing, flex hours, vacation buying and selling, paid and unpaid sabbaticals, elder–care support, wellness accounts, unpaid time off for charitable work, and assistance with home technology purchases.

Additionally, many companies offer employees the option of working from home. While a work–from–home scenario won’t succeed for all aspects of print workflow, it can work for a surprising number of job functions. Sales is the most obvious, but some of the front–end workflow–management jobs could be facilitated off–site as well. While we don’t advocate implementing full–time remote access, working from home for a percentage of each week is a creative way to provide more coverage plus a benefit to staff.

Flexible compensation packages
Compensation packages are another area where flexibility pays off.  Since compensation is not just about salary, employers and employees who understand their flexible options better their chances of striking a mutually satisfying and profitable arrangement.

The potential “extras” may include company–paid benefits, capital accumulation plans, pension plans, stock options, bonuses and incentives, education allowances, personal days off, extended holiday time, a company car or car allowance, fitness programs, moving allowances, and company–paid social activities.

Next month’s column will discuss how flexibility can escalate your company’s sales and help aspiring employees navigate their own career path to success.     

Victoria Gaitskell is a placement specialist with PrintLink, a professional placement firm for the graphic communications industry. T: 1.877.413.2600 E: vgaitskell@printlink.com

During the last decade, thousands of printers have successfully and profitably adopted computer-to-plate. Initially viewed as an “unproven”, expensive, and confusing technology, requiring both substantial investment and infrastructure, CTP has not only matured but has almost become a requirement for most printers to remain competitive. We all have experienced more colour jobs, shorter runs, work increasingly submitted in digital form, and competition with other printing technologies. Printers must continue to improve their workflow and processes to take advantage of and utilize changes in their customers’ knowledge and expectations, as well as continuing improvements in technology.
The advantages and benefits of CTP are clear. Except for a few special cases, the arguments for CTP are compelling; there is very little reason not to adopt. For most printers, the principal driver was to save money from the elimination of film and labour. Most found that the ROI from that was enough. But they quickly discovered that the true economic benefits go well beyond that simple initial analysis. CTP provided significant improvements in print quality, faster turnaround, and increased capacity. The digital workflow provides improved control over the entire prepress process. With the shorter production process, there are fewer steps; fewer steps means less chance of error. Printers with CTP also have better on-press performance. Digital plates have sharper dots, offer better control of dot gain, and give the ability to incorporate CIP3/4 and preset the ink fountains. Printers find they get better registration, which leads to faster make-ready and less waste. Simply put, the press prints better. Indeed, perhaps the biggest surprise for the early adopters was the savings achieved in the pressroom, which were substantial. CTP offers faster turnaround, higher productivity, and better throughput.

One thing that can be said today is that computer-to-plate is a mainstream technology. It works, is stable, and is no longer a risk. Both an indication and consequence of that maturity is the decrease in number of manufacturers of systems and of plates. Nevertheless, there are still a large enough number from which to choose that printers can find a platesetter and a plate to fit both budget and printing requirements. Companies that sell both computer-to-plate equipment and their own branded plates include Agfa; FujiFilm; Heidelberg; Kodak; and Presstek. Platesetter manufacturers such as ECRM and Screen partner with various plate suppliers, typically FujiFilm or Southern Litho Plate. There are also more specialized equipment vendors, such as Krause, Basys, and Highwater, now part of Printware.

While the majority of larger and increasingly mid-sized printers have installed CTP, many printers have still delayed and not yet implemented computer-to-plate. The main obstacle for purchase, particularly for smaller printers, is cost, not only the initial capital cost of the platesetter itself but also the associated digital infrastructure and required prepress. But that has changed dramatically over the last few years.
Herb Wittig, President of DPI Graphics Group, a 25-year old Mississauga prepress service bureau, faced the same challenges of many film providers. Serving graphic artists; agencies; printers; brokers; and end users, they realized they needed to diversify. He first looked at CTP in 2000, but it was far too expensive at the time for him to justify. By 2005, however, Wittig says the prices had fallen dramatically to the point where it was now affordable, and DPI bought an ECRM system. With the installation, Wittig notes “We are one of the few plate-providing service bureau in the country, because everything has shifted to the printer and the one-stop shop approach. For printers who still don’t have in-house prepress, we fulfill their needs.”

“Without CTP, we’d be in trouble,” Wittig says. “It’s raised the quality of the print work we offer our clients. The benefits were immediate. “We wish we had bought the Mako a longtime ago. We were concerned about supporting CTP and determining what was right for us in terms of needs. But now that we’ve had CTP in-house, we see the opportunities we were missing and the value it offers.”

Kwik Kopy of Prince Edward Island moved from digitally made polyester plates to metal. With the installation of a 5-colour Heidelberg Printmaster 52 in 2005, they were able to do longer runs and work that is more complex. Still, most of the work of the 21-employee firm is short runs; with lots of plate changes, managing make-ready is critical. Co-owner and production manager Troy Mackenzie notes that polyester plates use more water and take longer to get up to color. Once Mackenzie and his brother Shawn decided to move to metal, they focused on thermal and chemistry-free plates to eliminate the time and cost of cleaning processors and disposing of chemistry. They settled on an Agfa :Acento thermal platesetter and :Azura plate. Although getting a good product was important, service and support issues were important to them. They were already running an Agfa front-end and felt if there were an issue with performance, the entire system came from one supplier so the solution would come from one organization. Service was also an issue, one common to many smaller printers in rural Canada. They already purchased paper and other pressroom supplies from the local Agfa dealer and felt they would be able to get good service.

Weller Publishing, a newspaper, magazine and book printer based in Etobicoke, recently added an :Advantage DL platesetter from Agfa to its production room floor. Weller was founded more than 35 years ago as a Hungarian-language newspaper publisher. While it no longer publishes, it does print more than a hundred local community newspapers and magazines, college newspapers, publications for not-for-profit groups, churches and healthcare organizations. The company also prints, in a variety of languages, books and telephone directories that are distributed in Canada and the U.S. Weller’s print projects range in circulation from 2,000 to more than 250,000 distributed copies.

With deadlines and short-lead times typical of newspapers, productivity was a key issue for Les Weller, company president and the grandson of its founder. “Agfa is a brand I have trusted for many years. I chose the :Advantage because it is not a complicated machine yet gives us all the functionality we need,” says Weller. “We save about a minute per plate, which is as much as two hours per shift. The elimination of most of our manual plate production has enabled us to free up manpower for other important tasks… The machine is set it and forget it. The installation has enabled me to spend more time with customers discussing plans and ideas designed to continue to grow their businesses through high-quality publications.”

Weller says he hadn’t planned on installing a platesetter, as their film workflow was “working fine.” However, the film workflow was getting expensive to maintain, he increasingly was having trouble finding analog plates, and digital “plate prices have dramatically decreased. Weller says “now we’ve been spoiled. I wouldn’t go back.”

It’s not only new accounts that are installing CTP. As a mainstream technology for more than a decade, some plants are putting in their second and third replacement systems. The benefits of CTP can be seen in the growth of Thistle Printing Limited, of Toronto. One of the first of the smaller printers to adopt computer-to-plate, Thistle installed their first system, a Cymbolic Sciences Platejet, in 1998. Thistle’s Director of Operations Sean Roseland-Barnes notes it “made huge changes to the way we did business. The first job we did saved approximately 40 man-hours in stripping and the press alone.”  In a few years, however, they were 100% CTP and had outgrown their first purchase. The Platejet was a manual machine. With no stacker, manual loading and unloading, and a manual processor, it essentially needed a dedicated operator. So in 2002, Thistle replaced it with a fully automated Fuji Saber. The automation gave the flexibility to have people working on other functions rather than loading and processing plates. The Saber, like the Platejet, was a visible light system; Roseland-Barnes notes that the thermal systems available at the time were still too slow for their needs. “We’re a quick-turn company… financial work comes in every night and we print and deliver them by 8.a.m. the next morning. We make 35,000 plates a year; we need lots of plates quickly... The technology in the Saber at the time gave us more than adequate quality, but at 32 plates per hour, it was the fastest on the market then.”
Since they first installed CTP, Thistle has more than doubled in sales, and with their recent purchase of the Printing Division  of University of Toronto Press, they will need even more capacity. So they recently purchased a new violet Luxel system from Fuji, not only to handle the additional volume but also as a back up. Roseland-Barnes expects to upgrade the older Saber to a violet laser within the next month. With the upgrade, he notes, “We will effectively have two machines running the same technology, the same chemistry, etc. For all intents and purposes, we will have two twin machines… That makes things much easier from a scheduling perspective.”
Without CTP, it’s unlikely that Thistle could have achieved its rapid growth and have some of the highest productivity in the industry (measured by sales per employee). “We’ve been doing [CTP for] nine years. It’s paid off in full.”

Bowne of Canada has been using computer-to-plate since 1999. In late 2005, they acquired a Heidelberg Suprasetter to augment their original Heidelberg Topsetter. Charlie Patane, prepress supervisor in the Don Mills plant, says they needed a second device as their business was expanding. Moreover, as they no longer do any film work, they felt they  needed a second system as a back-up.
Bowne is, of course, one of the largest printers in North America, and 400 Canadian employees in two plants, they felt they needed a highly automated system. The Suprasetter has a multi-bay cassette, which automatically feeds plates into the system. With the Suprasetter’s swivel table and moveable transport unit, “everything is internal,” Patane notes. This method separates loading and unloading procedures, which has a positive effect on plate throughput. “There is no handling of plates.” Moreover, “if there is a plate jam, some kind of error, or the plates go out of alignment, the machine fixes itself. You don’t have to get into the machine at all.” The Suprasetter also has an internal punching system that, according to Heidelberg, ensures that punching is performed with maximum register accuracy.

Bowne initially went with the Kodak Thermal Gold plate because of the run lengths, high resolution and ability to stochastic screening. Their platesetting line includes an online processor, pre-bake and post-bake ovens. While allowing for long runs, baking has other important advantages. Bowne has five 40 inch presses, in a variety of configurations, from four different manufacturers, and each uses different fountain solutions. And though known as a financial printer, 80% of Bowne Canada’s work is commercial, so they print on a variety of substrates. The baking gives the plate the flexibility to hold up in different conditions, providing greater process stability. Patane says “nothing happens to the plate on press; it gives me a lot of security.” Rick Mazur, Vice President Commercial Segment Marketing at Kodak’s Graphics Communication Group, notes the “demand is very strong for preheat; it provides flexibility and holds up in different conditions. You run one process and can print with various fountain solutions and a variety of substrates…. It’s durable in those environments, you don’t have to worry. You control the process in prepress, and it’s not an issue in the pressroom.”

An important issue to keep in mind when buying a platesetter, says Nicky Milner, Vice President PreMedia, Marketing Products and Services Sector at Transcontinental, is having to make a decision on what technology to choose. Milner, who has been involved with CTP for more than a decade, points out that vendors are always pushing “the next great thing” and it is often difficult for printers to decide which technology will carry them through. Even if they make a decision based on current conditions, business requirements could very well change over the life of the machine. She feels that it is therefore important to select a technology that will carry one forward and meet unexpected changes in business.

Changes in work flow are probably most significant. Going CTP means the prepress process must be all digital, with digital proofing, imposition, and trapping. But even once CTP has been installed for years and all processes in place, there can be issues with upgrading or changing. For example, Forest City Graphics of London Ontario has been CTP since the late 1990s, using a Prinergy workflow. They’ve recently upgraded to a Screen Ultima 16000S VLF machine, which is faster and has more throughput than their eight-year old system. They did not change their Prinergy workflow, however, and they now send 1 bit TIFFs to the platesetter, which adds network traffic. As prepress manager David Revesz comments, “With a propriety system, once the file starts rendering, it starts plating. Now, once the TIFFs are done, it goes through the Screen RIP and [it’s] then plotted. It’s not just adding one step. But with the sheer speed of the output device, “once it goes, it outperforms what we had. But if you’re sending just one plate, the older machine could be faster.”

But Revesz, like others, has nothing but praise for the devices on the market. “They all work; they’re fast and accurate. Everything about them has improved. The technology has grown so fast and it’s so incredibly accurate, that we’re almost to the stage where you don’t have to look at the plates.”     

John Zarwan lives on PEI. He has been involved with CTP for nearly 15 years and has consulted with many of the manufacturers mentioned in this article. His white paper on CTP Plate Making: Understanding the Real Costs is available at no charge on his website www.johnzarwan.com. 

Out my Window

How will the printing industry fare in the coming year? It’s a question that every manager wonders about.

There is no shortage of pundits and prognosticators providing forecasts and advice, particularly in the U.S. Canadian forecasts are rarer, and statistics are harder to find, but generally follow U.S. trends. So it’s useful to read the statistical summaries and predictions, but it can also be confusing.

For example, PrintForecast.com predicts that total printing industry shipments in the U.S., after a number of years of growth, will be down by 11 percent in 2007 compared to 2006, to about US$82 billion. However, other consultants are predicting a flat, steady-state of shipments, staying around the $92 billion mark they hit last year. PrintForecast itself — the company headed by Dr. Joe Webb — explains that different statistical models and methods lead to different predictions, some more optimistic than others. Still, it’s not an encouraging sign.
The other major printing industry oracle in the U.S., the Industry Measure from Trendwatch Graphic Arts, also has some troubling news: it found that the number of commercial printing and prepress establishments in the U.S. declined by 6.5 percent over 2006. That’s 26,000 companies that closed or were bought out by larger firms.

TrendWatch points out that 48 percent of all the printing establishments in the U.S. are small commercial and quick printers, but they account for only 16 percent of all the shipments in the industry; book publishers, on the other hand, make up 19 percent of the number of establishments, but account for 44 percent of the revenues.

We can see some of the same trends happening on this side of the border, as well. The big guys buy out the small guys all the time — actually, it’s the larger medium-size companies that seem to be acquiring the smaller companies of late. For instance, last fall, Grafikom acquired Grenville Printing Ltd. of Toronto. On the other hand, Grafikom itself is a company formed by a buy-out of part of Quebecor World. So every trend has its counter-currents.

Where the major growth is happening, of course, is online. Consumers and businesses are spending more money through e-commerce, while print and broadcast advertising spending has been declining for many years.
What does this mean for Canadian printers? Dr. Webb advises all managers to have a plan for the worst-case scenario. Work on increasing volumes, but be prepared in case volumes decrease.

And go with the trends: the market is moving online, and many printers have embraced that trend with e-commerce sites of their own, either allowing customers to order printing online or even offering digital, online communications services.
It’s where communication is going.

Print World 2006 was held in Toronto from November 18-20 and, as usual, had something for everyone interested in the printing industry. Digital presses, direct imaging presses, and offset presses with sheet sizes up to 29 inches were featured at the show. Inkjet models in all shapes and sizes were again present everywhere. There’s much to talk about, but my focus this year was on the new laser digital printing devices. Here, in alphabetical order, are some of the highlights of the show.

Canon
Canon designed their new imagePRESS C1 model to produce outstanding image quality that is quickly approaching offset quality. Targeting the proofing, short-run, and production colour printing market, the imagePRESS C1 digital press will be built with a focus on print quality. The imagePRESS C1 offers several advanced technologies to improve print quality, including a much smaller toner particle size that averages 5.5 microns, which delivers vivid and detailed images. To maximize versatility, the system has saddle-stitched booklet finishing, hole punching, tab-feeding and high-capacity stacking. According the Canon Canada, the imagePRESS C1 will sell for around $46,000. For further details please contact me at pdulis@canada.canon.com.

• 14 pages per minute and oil-less fusing
• 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution
• Maximum sheet size of 13” x 19”
• Media weight range can vary from 64 to 256 gsm
• Recommended print volume is up to 50 000 pages per month

HP
If you are looking for a small- to medium-sized colour laser printer, then the HP Color Laserjet 4700 may be a good answer for you. The Laserjet 4700 offers colour workgroup printing with powerful performance, advanced colour quality, and flexible options. The prints offered at the trade show from the HP booth were very respectable for an inexpensive printer. This desktop printer has been PC Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Award winner for service and reliability for 15 years in a row. There are four models available ranging in price from $2 300 to $5 300.

• 31 pages per minute and 2-sided printing on the higher end models
• 600 x 600 dpi resolution with a 533 MHz processor speed
• Maximum sheet size is 8.5” x 14”
• Media Weight can vary from 60 to 220 gsm
• Recommended volume range is up to 10 000 pages per month

Ricoh
The Ricoh Aficio 5560 is Ricoh’s new colour flagship, offering high resolution, consistent colour printing, scanning, and copying. With this model, Ricoh targets professional users as well as office environments with serious colour demands. A vast selection of powerful network and finishing options is available, as well as a dedicated Fiery print controller for professional colour printing environments. The system comes with extended security features and allows clients to run customized software. The Ricoh 5560 produced an excellent print for a reasonably priced printer. The price varies from $40 000 to $90 000 depending on configuration.

• 55 colour pages per minute
• 600 x 600 dpi resolution
• Maximum sheet size of 13” x 19”
• Media Weight can vary from 60 to 256 gsm through the bypass tray
• Recommended volume range is up to 40 000 pages per month

Xerox
The Xerox iGen3 110 Digital Production Press with SmartSize Technology features automatic make-ready and collation, the ability to mix stocks within a run, and built-in intelligence to maintain colour fidelity and registration. The options for customization and personalization with the iGen3 110 are virtually limitless. You can use customer data captured from CRM databases, Web sites, and call centers to drive variable text, images, and graphics in marketing communication materials. Variable information printing enables you to support high-value customer marketing programs, which can in turn increase customer loyalty and response rates. Xerox-patented dry inks provide for excellent fine line rendering and benchmark colour gamut. Key applications include short-run, on demand printing of brochures, books, flyers, postcards, newsletters, catalogs, manuals, Point of Purchase materials, and sell sheets. This basket of options comes at a price, though—the Xerox iGen3 110 starts around $750 000.

• 110 colour pages per minute
• 600 x 600 dpi resolution with a 8-bit depth resolution
• Maximum sheet size ranges from 7” x 7” to 14.33” x 20.5” (extra large option available, length 22.5”)
• Media Weight can vary from 90 to 350 gsm
• Recommended volume range averages 200 000 – 1 200 000+ pages per month

Peter Dulis, Wide Format Printing Specialist  T: 647.895.3315 E: pdulis@iprimus.ca

There’s a Spanish proverb that says, “Since I wronged you, I have never liked you.”

The twisted logic of the above proverb is too–often employed by fraudulent individuals to explain their reprehensible behaviour, and if you are in business, I am sure you have been exposed to such behaviour and its justifications. You have either been victim to villainous behaviour, known someone who has been victimized, or have done some disgraceful thing of which you never thought yourself capable. It’s an ugly part of the human condition—if you don’t believe me, you can look it up in a book you may have heard of called The Bible.

Individuals under extreme pressure, particularly under financial pressure, will do almost anything to fix their immediate problem, often without regard for long–term consequences. Individuals in such a situation are like addicts looking for a fix—there is no hurdle too high to dissuade them from their destructive behavior. Unfortunately, those “individuals under pressure” could be part of your organization, and you could be the victim of their desperate fraud. So how can you protect yourself from the inevitable misconduct of employees you trust?

There is no simple answer to that question, but I do have some tips that will help to minimize your risk. Tip number one: Complacency can destroy your business. Business owners often continue to employ under performing individuals because it appears costly to replace them. Of course there’s the time to interview new hires, training, a new employee on the benefit plan, the uncertainty of a new individual in the company, and many other costs associated with a new employee. But more important than these costs is the truth that, if an individual in your organization is dragging down the company, it is never to soon to excise that individual.

Employees are often more aware than owners of such problematic individuals, as they likely have more day–to–day contact with other employees than you do. But ratting out a colleague is rarely a good strategy for fostering office harmony, so they often just endure bad behaviour on the part of co–workers. As an employer, you must be attuned to employee performance and enforce benchmarks. Be aware that poor performance is often the first indicator of a greater problem.

Tip number two: Lock the cookie jar. Implement basic internal controls which will protect your company from waste, fraud, and inefficiency. Generally, the simplest controls are the best. They are easy to understand, easy to implement, easy to comply with, and most important, easy to monitor.

Give some thought to your business and the rules that are circumvented by your staff under the banner of expediency. Then think about how much your staff’s expediency is costing you. Each time a transaction is made into special case, it inevitably needs more time, more attention, more record keeping, and is inevitably susceptible to error or worse. These special transactions may mask improprieties that, left unchecked, will allow a fraudster to rob you.

Tip number three: Lack of respect is fraud’s midwife. If your employees don’t respect you as the business owner, and show disdain for you to your face or behind your back, you’re really in trouble. Remember that Spanish proverb. In their eyes, it’s your fault! You left the cookie jar unlocked and conveniently situated, so it was inevitable that they should dip into it. And when you didn’t notice a few cookies were missing, well that was tacit permission for them to dip in some more.

See how lack of respect can quickly spiral into a disaster? If you have an employee who consistently exhibits disrespect, my advice is to lay them off now. Such a layoff serves many purposes, not the least of which is increasing your remaining employees’ respect for your decisive action.

As with any advice, the tips above only have value if you practice them. Often, just a bit of guidance, like lines on the highway, is enough to keep employees moving in the right direction. Don’t give your employees the opportunity to wrong you—put a lock on the cookie jar.   

Sid Karmazyn is a Chartered Accountant, author and speaker, who lives and works in York Region.
Your comments are welcomed.
T: 905-771-3813  F: 905-771-3810

As one looks forward into this still-new year, it is only natural to wonder what’s in store, both personally and professionally. While I can’t pretend to predict your future, I am confident that our industry can look forward to a continuation of trends from 2005 and 2006.

Overseas and online print
31% of U.S. corporate design departments said they had worked with an overseas print provider sometime in 2006, and overseas production seems poised to continue gaining North American market share. There are of course both opportunities and threats present from this market reorganization. Printers could outsource large jobs to international printing companies while still making a profit and providing the customer with a high quality product; however, Canadian suppliers could lose market share as consumers go directly to international printers.

Online print shops will continue to gain market share. With thousands of templates to use, ridiculously low pricing structures, and quick turnaround times, consumers can purchase items such as business cards and brochures from the comfort of their own homes, have them delivered, and pay securely online with their credit cards. Online outfits are here to stay, but offering friendly service, reasonable rates, paper samples, and in–house coupons will encourage your clients to continue visiting a “real live” print shop.

In–house printing and print–on–demand
Companies and individuals will continue to invest in in–house design and print capabilities. Design programs are continually becoming more user-friendly and colour printers are decreasing in price, and these two developments are together enabling more consumers and small businesses to create professional printed materials themselves. Consumers need to be educated that visiting a printer can often result in a lower per–unit costs, as well as decreased stress levels – an executive should be off doing his job, not making copies or binding books.

Print–on–demand, a result of the just–in–time inventory theory, will be a popular choice among marketing personnel. The ability to print smaller quantities is appealing to businesses that are constantly growing, developing, and changing, as anyone who has ever printed five thousand business cards and then gotten a new email address can attest to! Marketing personnel are often on a limited budget and find the lower total costs (albeit higher per-unit prices) attractive. Offering lower quantities can be a great way to meet your customers’ needs and can often result in increased profitability.

Variable data Systems
Variable data systems will also continue to grow.  As companies streamline their marketing efforts, there is a growing desire to advertise specifically to potential customers who fall into particular categories. Addressed admail, for example, had given marketers the ability to send mail directly to a target demographic. With the advent of variable data systems, marketers can use these systems to create increasingly personalized offers. 

How you can adapt
With these continuing shifts in the graphic and print industry, how can you prepare your business today for the changes of tomorrow? Specialization is one option. Choose a product or service—such as envelopes, overnight printing, or pocket folders—and master it. Become the leading company in your area for this product or service, which will allow you to fully develop the market.

Providing great customer service is always important, and it is one thing that international printing companies and online services often lack. Develop a strong relationship with your clients, be understanding of their needs, and accommodate their requests. When possible, be flexible within pricing structures and delivery dates to assist your client.

Updating your equipment is another way to stay on top of the game. When investing in a new piece of equipment, such as a large format printer, make sure to organize a marketing campaign to let your customers know about your new service. Although equipment upgrades can be costly, they are often necessary investments in the future of your company.

The advent of overseas printing in other countries makes it possible to find suppliers in other areas. If you are a reseller, there could certainly be a lot of opportunity there. Take some time to investigate and research the possibilities online.

It is important to read industry publications, visit trade shows, and become active in the printing community to stay up–to–date on industry trends and forecasts. Knowing and understanding the environment in which you work will allow you to make more educated business decisions.

All the best for 2007!

MPR Communication is a design and print company located in Lachine, Quebec. Jasmine Brooks is MPR’s Project Coordinator. E: jbrooks@mprcommunication.com

There seems to be a lot of confusion among digital camera neophytes about the differences between RAW, JPEG, and TIFF files.

This article is intended to be a very basic guide to these file types and how they are related in a typical digital camera.

Because of the digital camera industry’s relative youth, each camera maker has developed its own RAW formats. And as camera sensors improve, manufacturers change their formats accordingly, usually creating a new format for each new camera model, with the result that, as of mid-2005, there are more than 100 different RAW formats in existence

RAW data
When a digital camera makes an exposure, the imaging chip (whether it’s CCD or CMOS) records the amount of light that has hit each pixel, or photo site, which is recorded as a voltage level. The camera’s analog-to-digital circuitry then changes this analog voltage signal into a digital representation. Depending on the camera’s circuitry, either 12 or 14 bits of data are recorded.

Incidentally, if the camera records 12 bits of data then each pixel can handle 4 096 brightness levels (2^12), and if 14 bits, then each pixel can it can record 16,384 different brightness levels (2^14). (To my knowledge no current imaging chip records a true 16 bits worth of data).
What happens after you’ve taken the photograph now depends on whether you have the camera set to save images to the memory card as

RAW files or JPEGs.
If you’ve saved the file in RAW mode, when it is subsequently converted and saved to a TIFF or PSD format file, it can be exported in 16-bit mode, which means the 12 or 14 bits recorded by the camera are then spread over the full 16-bit workspace. If you’ve saved the file in-camera as a JPEG than it is converted by the camera’s software to 8-bit mode and you will only ever have 256 brightness levels to work with.

A second advantage of shooting a RAW file is that you can also perform the conversion to an 8-bit or 16-bit TIFF file. TIFF files are larger than JPEG files, but they retain the full quality of the image. They can be compressed or uncompressed, but the compression scheme is lossless, meaning that although the file gets smaller, no information is lost.

Lossless compression is a tricky concept, but an example should make it clear. Take this string of digits:
14745296533333659762888888356789

Now let’s see a way to store this string that doesn’t lose any digits, but still takes up less space:
1474529653[5]6597628[6]356789

Here the string “33333” has been replaced by “3[5]”— meaning a string of 5 3s, and the string “888888” has been replaced by “8[6]”—meaning a string of 6 8s. You’ve stored the same data, but the compressed version takes up less space. This is similar (but not identical) to the way lossless TIFF compression is done.

Professional photographers and other creative professionals are moving to RAW camera workflows because of the outstanding creative control they get over digital images However, clients and publishers have difficulty working with disparate RAW file formats and nobody can be sure that today’s RAW formats will be supported ten years from now.

Final thoughts
There are professionals who shoot in RAW and there are professionals who shoot in JPEG, and both do wonderful work. The decision to shoot in one or the other is a matter of preference, time, space, and desire or need to have the extra flexibility of RAW format. I personally take the extra time to work with RAW, as I think the extra image quality is worth it as you can see from the images accompanying this article.
The two images accompanying this article were taken with a Nikon D2Xs, moments apart, without any adjustments made to exposure settings (shutter speed, aperture, etc).  The photo on the left (1) was taken with the camera set on RAW format.  The photo on the right (2) was taken with the camera set on JPEG format.  As you can see, (1)  is much more eye pleasing and is a more accurate representation of the object.   

My wife and I recently needed to renew our mortgage for another term. The last time our mortgage was due, our bank called several months in advance and offered a good interest rate, so we renewed with them without shopping around.
This year was a bit different. We decided to do some research before speaking to our bank so that we would be well-positioned to negotiate a better rate. We then found a lender who offered an extremely attractive interest rate—almost two full percentage points below our bank’s posted rate.

Armed with this information, my wife called our bank directly but was transferred to a call centre. Here’s a summary of the telephone conversation.

Call Centre Agent (CCA): Hi, may I help you?
My wife: Yes, our mortgage is coming up for renewal and the last time our mortgage was due someone contacted us several months beforehand but we haven’t heard anything from you yet.
CCA: No problem. What branch do you bank with? I’ll contact someone there and they can probably renew your mortgage over the telephone.

My wife waited several minutes until the agent came back on the line.

CCA: I’m sorry ma’am. They don’t want to talk to you. Your mortgage isn’t due for six weeks so we can’t renew it right now.
Wife: I don’t want renew it yet. I just want to get some information.
CCA: There’s nothing they can do—it’s too early.
Wife: So no one will talk to me about this?
CCA: No ma’am.
Wife: My husband and I have received a quote from another mortgage company and they’re offering a good interest rate. Are you saying that we should go with them?
CCA: I guess so.
Wife: You really want us to transfer our mortgage to one of your competitors?
CCA: There’s nothing we can do.
Wife: So you’re saying that you have no interest in keeping our business and renewing our mortgage?
CCA: I guess so.
Wife: Okay, I guess we’ll take our business somewhere else.

My wife and I were flabbergasted when she hung up the telephone. It was evident to me that no one had taught this particular call centre agent how to effectively deal with this type of situation. He clearly had no idea that his actions were costing his employers thousands of dollars. Or perhaps he was just doing what he had been taught to do. Our experience may have been an isolated incident, but I doubt it.
I realize that banks make most of their money in the first half of a mortgage, but it still astounded me that they were willing to give their competition our business so easily. Nevertheless, we started to transfer our mortgage to another lender.

Most large lending companies invest millions of dollars in advertising in an attempt to attract new customers. What if they took a portion of this money and taught their call centre agents how to properly deal with every type of situation? Imagine the return on that investment.
So, how does my banking story affect you? If you run a business and rely on other people in the organization to make contact with your customers, you could be losing business due to their actions and behaviour. Invest the time and resources to teach your team exactly how they should behave, what they should say, and how they should respond to specific situations. A throwaway comment made by an untrained employee could cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars in sales. If you are a sales rep, think of how your actions and behaviour could cost your employer money in the form of lost sales and market share.

By the way, we did receive a call from our bank—four weeks later. It went something like this: “Hi Mr. and Mrs. Robertson. It’s Debbie calling from your bank. I’m calling to remind you that your mortgage is coming up for renewal and I’d like to talk to you about the options you have.”
Obviously, the conversation we had with the call centre agent was not forwarded to the mortgage agent at our bank. And once we told her about that conversation, her shock, frustration, and concern were quickly apparent. The actions of her colleague in the call centre cost her our business.

Don’t let what happened to our bank happen to you. If you rely on other people to help you reach your sales targets, take the time to show them exactly how to handle tricky situations. Don’t let other people cost you money!    

© 2006 Kelley Robertson, All rights reserved.
Kelley Robertson is a professional speaker and trainer on sales, negotiating, customer service, and employee motivation.
Visit www.RobertsonTrainingGroup.com.
He is also the author of The Secrets of Power Selling and Stop, Ask & Listen—Proven Sales Techniques to turn Browsers into Buyers. Receive a free copy of “100 Ways to Increase Your Sales” by subscribing to the free newsletter available at his website.