What better use of printed graphics than for attention-getting posters and banners? The options are endless—from indoor advertising displays, to outdoor billboards, to vehicle and building wraps. The trick is to print them so that they still look good close up. Such large prints are typically the province of ink jet printers.

A few definitions might be useful. The term “wide format” usually refers to print media 24” to 99” wide. “Super wide” or “grand” format printing means anything over 100” wide. Although offset presses can be built in these large formats, today much of this printing is done on some type of ink jet system. The two leading technologies are thermal (or bubble) jet, employed initially by Canon and Hewlett Packard, and piezo-electric, which was developed and patented by Epson. Thermal ink jet applies heat to the ink reservoir, causing the ink to vaporize and create a bubble. The bubble pushes a drop of ink out of the nozzle. Piezo uses an electrical charge to vibrate a tiny crystal against the ink reservoir, and the vibration forces a drop of ink out of the nozzle.

In both types of systems, the technologies have evolved to the point that they can control the size of the drops of ink released in order to produce fine line and colour detail, as well as a broad spectrum of CMYK colours. Also, these drops of ink are so small, they’re almost microscopic. The printhead on a desktop bubble jet printer, for example, can incorporate 300 to 600 ink nozzles. A wide format ink jet printer’s printhead may have something in the neighborhood of 30,000, and all of them can fire simultaneously.

When wide format ink jet printers were introduced in the 1990s, they generally fell into two categories—dye or pigment—according to the type of ink used. Dyes completely dissolve in a water carrier and provide a continuous tone appearance. However, once printed, the images tend to fade quickly, and dye inks don’t adhere well to substrates such as vinyl, rigid plastic, or glass. Pigment inks are formulated with finely-ground powders to produce more intense colour than dyes, but the pigments have to be suspended in some type of liquid carrier for the jetting process and also for adhesion to a broad range of substrates. Whether pigments are suspended in a water-based or chemical solution, they never quite dissolve, but are absorbed into the substrate. Because of this, once printed, they hold their colour much longer, and the print film can be much more durable.

Pigment inks are the norm today, and they are further subdivided as to their solution—either aqueous (water-based), or solvent-based. The solvent inks can include different chemicals for use with a broad range substrates for both indoor and outdoor signage, banners, displays, point of purchase advertising displays, floor graphics, and billboards. The possibilities are almost endless.

Aqueous solvent inks work well for indoor signs and banners, displays and similar items, and are usually best for short-term displays. Though they last longer than dye inks, they will fade in sunlight and, unless coated or laminated, likely will not stand up well to rough handling or abrasion. By contrast, chemical solvent inks are formulated with resins to help the pigment stick to non-absorbent surfaces, such as the vinyls and synthetics typically used in outdoor and heavy-traffic applications. Outdoor solvent inks also are designed to withstand all kinds of weather conditions as well as providing an extra measure of rub- and scratch-resistance, and resistance to other solvents, such as cleaning fluids.

The above information explains why so many types of wide format ink jet printers are available, and serves as a tip for anyone looking to purchase a wide format printer. Ink jets are typically designed for optimal use with only one type of ink. The end use of the sign—indoor, outdoor, archival, photographic—dictates which model of ink jet to buy. But these are only the most basic issues to take into account.

Developments in solvent inks

When solvent inks are printed, most of the solvent evaporates, leaving primarily pigment, or colour, on the substrate. With aqueous inks, the solvent is water. In the case of chemical solvent inks, the evaporation process can emit VOCs (volatile organic chemicals) into the atmosphere. Most solvent ink jet systems must be operated in a well-ventilated production facility, which means installing exhaust systems. Health, environmental, and regulatory considerations have led manufacturers to develop inks that are described as “eco-solvents” or “mild solvents.” These are formulated with chemicals that are generally not harmful to humans, or give off a lower level of VOCs than the “true” or more “aggressive” solvent inks.

For Carl May, owner and president of True Colours Ltd., located in North Vancouver, B.C., the environmental impact of solvent inks is a significant issue. The company was established in 1991 as a prepress shop, but has come a long way from those beginnings. True Colours now serves Vancouver’s Lower Mainland with a range of services that includes producing high-quality digital graphics for discovery centres, trade show displays, limited edition print-making, signage, Web-based and short-run digital printing, contract proofing, and drum scanning. As the business has evolved and expanded, the one constant has been True Colours’ commitment to sustainability.

“We waited a long time to get an eco-solvent system for outdoor displays that could provide the level of quality we need,” May said. “Though eco-solvent printers were available, they were less than [we] desired in terms of image quality.”

True Colours installed a 64” wide Mutoh ValueJet 1604 eco-solvent printer in December 2006. The system employs piezo printhead technology and uses Mutoh’s mild solvent Eco-Ultra inks, designed for the durability and scratch-resistance required of outdoor applications. The ink is fast-drying, odorless, and produces images that can last up to three years outdoors without lamination.

“The Mutoh is more environmentally friendly than a pure solvent system,” May noted. “There are no harmful vapors from the inks and no VOCs. The printer doesn’t have to be vented in a special way, and even with venting, you still get VOC emissions.”

And the Mutoh 1604 doesn’t sacrifice quality for sustainability. Mutoh utilizes a patented print technology called I² (pronounced I-squared), or Intelligent Interweave. Mutoh’s I² technology increases the consistency of dot size and dot release during printing to improve the image. The ink is laid down in a microscopic sine wave pattern to eliminate the colour banding that can occur with ink jet printing.

“The print quality is the best I’ve seen in any outdoor device,” May said.

Mutoh’s ValueJet models are offered in widths of 54”, 64”, and 100”, accept a wide range of media, and offer print resolutions of 540, 720, and 1440 dpi. Print speed is up to 185 sq. ft./hr. The ValueJets will print on both rigid and flexible substrates, with weights and core sizes varying depending upon the specific model.

High-volume, super wide

Eclipse Imaging, in Burlington, Ont., has over 100 employees and specializes in out-of-home advertising, including 14’ x 48’ billboards, signage and advertising for bus shelters, retail displays, and point of purchase advertising. General Manager Rick Steele describes this variety of work as “anything that can be run on a 40” or larger press.” In fact, Eclipse has 40” and 77” Harris offset presses, and initially printed much of its large format work in volumes that could reach thousands of copies. With changes in market demand, Eclipse Imaging now employs wide format ink jet to produce shorter runs, and also to eliminate some of the costs associated with offset printing, such as platemaking and press downtime for changeovers and makereadies.

The company has been using wide format ink jet printers for several years and recently replaced an aging installation with two Hewlett Packard Scitex XL1500 super wide format printers. Though best known for its desktop ink jet printers and full line of wide format Designjets, over recent years HP has invested heavily in expanding its digital printing product line, including acquiring Scitex Vision in 2005. The buy has allowed HP to offer solvent ink jet systems for industrial production.

“Primarily we use those printers for billboards,” Steele said. “One HP is designated for the vinyls. We have a vinyl feeder attached to the printer and we run almost exclusively vinyl on that press. It runs pretty much around the clock, printing 14’ x 48’ billboards. The other HP we use for printing digital paper. That would be for shorter-run billboards that don’t have the quantity requirements for litho. If a customer wanted 85 to 90 paper billboards, we would run that on the HP XL1500. If they said they needed 120, we would probably run it on one of the Harris offset presses.”

“That’s the beauty of digital print,” he continued. “It gives you the ability to do multiple designs without changing plates and all the expense of lithographic printing. That’s how digital has changed the business of outdoor advertising. It has made it so much more flexible.”

The HP XL1500 super wide format printer can print images up to 16.4’ wide, at speeds up to 1333 sq. ft./hr. It’s an eight-colour system using piezo printheads and HP’s Supreme solvent pigment inks. Resolutions can go to 370 x 740 dpi, and the XL1500 can print on almost any medium in any thickness, from paper to flexible banner, to fabrics and even carpet.

Eclipse Imaging is moving even further into digital printing with the installation of an HP Turbojet 8500, a digital screen printer that uses UV inks.

“The Turbojet 8500 will be for signage—retail signage, transit signage, but not billboards,” Steele said. “It’s a totally different type of press, a drum press. The image size is quite a bit smaller than the XL1500. The maximum size is 1.5 x 1.8 meters, or 4.9’ x 5.9’. You can even do vehicle wraps with the Turbojet, for fleet printing, or P-O-P displays.” Steele mentioned another possible application as “hoarding construction,” which refers to panels that are raised around a construction site and often printed with advertising. These would be printed on Crezon, a coated plywood material about 0.5” thick.

The Turbojet has just been installed at Eclipse, but Steele is already anticipating its impact. “When the Turbojet is up and running, that will really change our business,” he said. “It will allow us to print shorter run jobs that would have ordinarily run litho. We’ll be able to move that work to digital, where our makeready time is 10 to 15 minutes instead of 2.5 hours, and the cost to run the equipment is less. That kind of completes the puzzle for us. Having the two XL1500s and the Turbojet provides a nice solution for our customers who desire shorter runs. They’ll be able to get both billboards and signage from Eclipse Imaging.”

UV ink jet

As with HP’s Turbojet 8500, other major manufacturers of wide format ink jet systems, including Agfa and Fujifilm, have been developing UV inks and wide format ink jet systems, primarily for signage and related applications. Ink jetted UV images must be cured under UV lamps after the image is laid down. UV ink chemistry is different from solvent inks, and the UV curing process, though it quickly dries the images, isn’t an evaporation process and doesn’t generate VOC emissions. The primary advantage of using UV inks is their eco-friendliness. Still UV inks can’t entirely replace the more aggressive solvent inks or the eco-solvents in terms of durability for long-term outdoor or other tough applications. UV inks also cost more than solvent inks, though manufacturers claim that the higher up front cost of UV inks is mitigated by their faster production time, as UV inks cure much faster than solvents dry. In addition, because UV inks form a thinner ink film, less ink is used in UV printing, so an ink cartridge goes a little farther.

Over the last two years, UV inks and UV ink jet printing systems have inspired more interest than anything else in the wide format display and sign segment. EFI-VUTEk may lead the pack in UV wide format ink jet printers with four models: the QS2000, QS3200r, PV200 and PV320. Widths range from 80” to 126.5”, and the number of colours these systems print varies with the different models. The UV ink jets are offered alongside EFI-VUTEk’s solvent product line, and two models that print using dye sublimation technology. VUTEk also provides its own line of mild solvent and UV-curable inks.

Last year in Montreal, Fujifilm launched the Acuity HD 2504, a UV flatbed printer with a zoned vacuum table, which can produce a maximum image size of 49.6” x 99.2”. The printer uses piezo UV ink jet printheads and can print at resolutions equivalent to 1,440 dpi and higher. At the same time, Fujifilm launched its Vybrant line of solvent wide format ink jet printers with models in three sizes: the Vybrant 1906 accepts media 76” wide; model 2606 prints media up to 102” wide; and the model 3606 goes to 130” wide. The Vybrants use Fuji’s Spectra Novajet printhead technology, and print at speeds up to 860 sq. ft./hr, with a Quality Mode production speed of more than 400 sq. ft./hr.

Agfa has long offered the Sherpa line of water-based dye ink jet printers primarily for proofing applications, not for signage, and also offers the Anapurna M and Anapurna XL wide format ink jet flatbed printers that utilize UV inks for producing items like posters, billboards, fleet graphics, P-O-P displays, exhibition panels, stage graphics, ad panels, and similar applications. The Anapurna M prints images up to 63” wide while the XL model goes to 98”.

The next big thing

The wide format signage industry has been named by some observers as the fastest-growing segment in the printing industry, even though trends indicate that at the lower end (read smaller and lower-cost) of the market, sales of wide format ink jet systems may be declining. With so many applications in wide format signage, wide format printing systems, technologies, and markets continue to evolve. The wide format products available today are so numerous, and in some cases so specialized, that a printer really must assess production requirements according to the specific market the shop plans to serve. Increasingly, there is no “one-size-fits-all” wide format ink jet printer.

The next breakthrough in the wide format field—for just about any application—may already be on its way from HP. The company has begun promoting a new type of ink called latex ink, which it recently launched at the Scitex facility in Israel. Latex ink is described as being water-based, and it will work with HP’s thermal inkjet technology.

Watch drupa for more details on this and other expansions of the wide format horizon.

The large format inkjet business is unquestionably a great business opportunity for commercial printers, quick printers, and graphic arts firms, and the profit margin can be excellent if you produce good work, develop your customer account base, and deliver goods reliably.

The expanded use of large format inkjet printers has been due to the fact that they can be used in the graphics, photography, fine art reproduction, sign, and display markets, where the demand for shorter runs and quicker turnarounds continues to dominate. Large format inkjet printers have also been expanding their share of the screen and digital print markets, and are seen in many sign shops. But which inkjet printer do you invest in? With so many options on the market it all depends on your application and the volume of prints you want to produce. Here is a break down of inkjet printers under the 3 main classifications.

Aqueous inkjet Printing

With all of the attention placed on solvent and UV inkjet printing over recent years, one might think that the days of wide-format aqueous inkjet printing are numbered. But the bottom line is that aqueous inkjet technology is not extinct, nor is it quickly disappearing from the wide-format market. The trend toward environmentally friendly printing processes and the sustainability of print has also been gaining momentum through 2007, and there are no signs that it’s likely to stop any time soon. Therefore, environmentally friendly aqueous based inkjet printers have accounted for the majority of inkjet printing. I.T. Strategies reports that the worldwide retail value of wide format graphic prints was forecast to grow to almost $30 billion by 2007. Of that $30 billion, inkjet printing accounted for $29.5 billion, and of that $29.5 billion, aqueous printers accounted for $22.8. (77% of all inkjet printing is done by aqueous printers). Historically, the sales of aqueous based inkjet printers for wide-format technical applications (such as engineering /architectural printing) have been more than four times the sales volume of printers sold to produce conventional graphics. Today, the ratio of aqueous inkjets for graphics to technical printers on a worldwide sales basis is nearly one to one. InfoTrends expects the technical colour inkjet printer market to continue to grow as the applications that demand colour printing continue to grow.

The leading wide format aqueous inkjet manufacturers are Canon, Epson, and Hewlett-Packard, and each of these manufacturers have their own strengths. Large format aqueous inkjet printers are the most common printers available on the market today. Their name reflects the fact that water is the primary “carrier” which carries the pigment or dye to the printed substrate. Aqueous inkjet inks require a treated substrate for best ink receptivity. From all the reports I have read, it is expected that the worldwide market for large format aqueous inkjet will continue to grow, driven by trends in photography, giclée art reproduction, technical documents, digital graphics, and the general office/business environment.

Wide format aqueous inkjet systems provide the fastest output with—typically—the highest resolution, yet with the lowest capital investment. Aqueous inkjet printers are used mainly for indoor printing, but with certain types of media, they may be used for short-term outdoor printing. With lamination, their outdoor longevity can be substantially increased. Aqueous printers rule the market in photographic and fine art printing, as well as trade show printing, graphic design, and prepress proofing.

The advantage of aqueous printers is their ease of use. The new Canon iPF series of printers boasts 12 colour / 12 bit printing, while the new HP printers offer a built in spectrophotometer. Epson has the K3 Ultrachrome ink set, which has been very popular. These printers will appeal to commercial printers, designers, advertising agencies, and poster printers, as well as architects, engineers, prepress/proofing departments, photo labs, professional photographers, and internal marketing departments. The new Canon iPF printers have targeted general office printing needs as well by including a variety of software applications such as PosterArtist, a template-driven poster creation software which allows just about anyone without experience to create beautiful posters.

Over the past couple of years we have seen the price of wide format systems decline significantly, down to as low as $1500 at the extreme low end, which makes it possible for corporate marketing, creative departments, and everyday office/business environments to invest in a wide format printer. At the high end of the aqueous inkjet market, Canon, Epson, and HP offer 24”, 36”, 44” and 60” printers geared to production oriented printing. The Canon iPF9100 12 colour, the Epson Stylus 11880 9 colour printer, and the HP Z6100 8 colour printer all sell for around $16,000.

Solvent inkjet Printing

InfoTrends is projecting fairly strong overall market growth in the wide format solvent inkjet market, but mostly in the low end market. Because of the dramatic improvements in UV-curable inkjet printing equipment, higher end solvent printers will show a decline in sales. There are many suppliers of wide format solvent-based inkjet printers today. These include companies like Agfa, Colorspan, HP, GandInnovations, Mimaki, Mutoh, Océ, Roland, Vutek and Seiko, which are all continuously improving their solvent-based inkjet printing technologies. These printers can print on media from four feet up to 16.5 feet wide and have the ability to produce durable outdoor graphics at a reduced cost. The cost savings is three-fold: Solvent-based inks are less expensive than aqueous inkjet inks, media is less expensive, and in some cases you can eliminate the need for lamination, which saves both time and consumables.

Solvent inks are a versatile, long-life ink that are classified as hazardous, yet milder versions are available that produce less noxious odors. Since solvent-based inks are classified as hazardous they will require special ventilation to be installed. Eco or mild solvent-based inks are less hazardous but may not be as durable as true solvent inks. While it is certainly possible to produce indoor graphics with solvent-based equipment, we increasingly hear that certain types of print buyers resist solvent-based inkjet output, especially for indoor retail environments, because of the off-gassing that can occur from solvent-printed media.

It is unlikely that a corporate end user would invest in a solvent inkjet printer since these are not the kind of printers you would put in an office environment. From 2004 to 2009, the worldwide retail value of print produced from wide format solvent-based inkjet printers is expected to grow from about $9 billion to $18 billion. This represents a compound annual growth rate of almost 17 percent. Prices can range from $17,995 to $275,000 depending on the size and features.

UV-based flatbed printers

The technology that we believe is developing and growing most rapidly on the industrial side of inkjet printing is wide format UV-curable inkjet. InfoTrends is projecting better than 20 percent annual growth in the UV-curable inkjet market, with all segments seeing double digit growth over the forecast period. Indeed, there is no doubt that UV-curable printers are changing the world of industrial digital printing. These high production ink jet printers allow you to print on both flexible and rigid substrates up to 3 inches thick and use ink that dries instantly, which reduces your production times and ultimately saves you money.

With UV-curable printers, the drying mechanism for the ink is completely different than that used in solvent inkjet printing. When ultra-violet light hits curable liquid ink, it transforms it from a liquid to a solid on the substrate chosen. The downfall of the UV-curable technology is that the inks are not as flexible as solvent or aqueous based printers, so there might be a concern when printing on rolled media; we are still in the beginning stages of this new technology, however, and ink formulations are constantly being improved.

UV-curable printers offer many of the same features as solvent inkjet printers yet operate with less expensive ink sets. Users can print directly on materials such as wood, metal, ceramic, plastic, and glass, which opens a host of new possibilities in terms of applications and revenue streams. Agfa, 3M, Colorspan, DuPont, Durst, Gandinnovations, Gerber, HP, Inca, Mimaki, Nur, Scitex, Vutek, and Zund, among others, have jumped on the UV bandwagon with new machines designed to print on everything from wood to glass to vinyl.

UV-curable will have to improve its reliability and performance with flexible substrates if it’s going to overtake solvent printing in the roll-to-roll application. New UV printers can range in price from about $75,000 to over $500,000.

Assessing the Data

As we can see, there are many printing options available with many different suppliers. The key is getting the right printer for the right application and then investing in a manufacturer who will continue to invest in research and development to keep the products on the cutting edge. Inkjet printing technology is here to stay. Volume of work will grow for these printers as it takes over from print volume which may have been produced using other methods, either offset or screen printed, cut vinyl or hand painted.

Wide format digital printing will provide new revenue streams for those that adopt this technology. While there will be challenges along the way, wide format digital is a large and profitable market. Those that partner effectively and apply their creativity and expertise will reap the rewards.

There are times when a designer or production artist needs to know the limits of their software. Large Format signs, banners, and murals are an example of just such a time. You need to know which software packages can handle the size of the job and do your math ahead of time so you don’t need to rework your files.

Here is a list of standard software packages and their limits.

QuarkXPress 7.0 (and earlier versions)

Quark will you allow you to create a 48” x 48” page as long as facing pages is OFF. Type can be created at a maximum of 720 pt and the frame and line strokes can go as high as 864 pt. Of course the 48” page size is the biggest hurdle, which causes many designers to create their art at ¬Ω or ¬º size and then blow up the file at the printing stage.

Adobe Indesign CS2 and 3

Indesign can create a page that is 216” by 216”—which is great, but there’s a catch. Try to export your file to a PDF and you will find out that the PDF maximum is 200” x 200”, including any bleed, marks and slugs, so you will need to cut the size down accordingly. Indesign can go up to 1296 pt type and 800 pt strokes.

Illustrator CS2 and 3

Illustrator is often the software of choice for single page projects. Artwork can be created at ¬º or ¬Ω size and blown up 400% or 200% at the printing stage. Curiously, Illustrator has its limits but sometimes exceeds them. When this happens, you’re only guessing if it will work in the printed piece. For example, you can create a line with Illustrator’s maximum stroke weight of 1000 pt. It can then be scaled with the option to “Scale Stroke Widths”. The scaled up item looks larger, but the stroke palette still says 1000 pt, leading us to believe that will print smaller than on screen. Illustrator’s type size is the same as Indesign: 1296 pt. A larger canvas size—at 227.5416”—can be created, but don’t bother. If you want to save your file as a PDF you still have the 200” maximum and Illustrator will give you an error until you reduce the document size.

Photoshop CS2 and 3

Photoshop won’t create a file larger than 30,000 pixels at 10 dpi. Those of you who would like to try to create something this big better have a big empty drive for a scratch disk. Photoshop work can be done at reduced size and the resolution should be calculated by the amount of scaling to be done in the layout. Remember to set the type in the layout program to keep it crisp and sharp—the resolution used in large print items will not be enough for Photoshop type. Type layers just make Photoshop files bulky and you have much more control over type in Illustrator, Quark, or Indesign.

The main point is to do the math ahead of time and decide how you want to proceed with a large format project. Planning to work at a reduced size and blow up later works great for proofing and PDF proofing, but make sure your software is set up properly for scaling later. These limits will still be there and you should know where to look when checking your final printed piece. Check the Stroke sizes, Type Sizes, and Resolution, understanding that you may not be able to go beyond these set maximums.

The Printing and Graphic Arts Committee (PGAC) of the Pulp and Paper Technical Association Canada (PAPTAC), organized a technical session during Paperweek International on February 6, 2008 in Montreal. I attended the afternoon session and, as a manufacturer of pressroom chemistry, I was impressed with not only the expertise of the speakers but with the content and style of their messages as well.

The session chairman, Mr. Jean-François Cuillerier of Quebecor World, asked each of the five panelists to make a brief presentation, which was followed by a question and answer period with the audience. The panelists were Mr. Patrick Gane, Omya; Jean Hamel, FPInnovations; Mike Thibault, Unigraph International Inc.; William Munden, MG Technologies; Lorenzo Morandini, Quebecor World.

Mr. Gane, Head of R&D at Omya and professor of printing technology at Helsinki University, explained the different mechanisms of micropermeability of a fountain solution in various porous paper structures. Mr. Jean Hamel, who works in pressroom runnability at FPInnovations, spoke on tools to improve performance. He focused on the impact of cost, performance and production losses of web breaks. The tension variation and strength distribution determine the number of breaks. He encouraged us to evaluate paper strength, work with printers to reduce draw variations, improve roll consistence in terms of roundness and improve handling practice of rolls. He also spoke on the importance of machine direction tensile strength for optimum runnability and the importance of roll tension uniformity and roll structure.

Mr. Mike Thibault, Unigraph International Inc.’s Vice-President technical services, stimulated questions on fountain solution and paper issues, such as what happens when paper contaminates a press and what can be done to decrease the impact. Are you ready for stochastic screening and can your press handle it? Are the new technology inks suitable for your application and what do you have to do to be successful? Can you still use the same pressroom chemicals if you use conventional, CTP, or non process plates? Thibault also spoke on preventative maintenance and the need to deglaze your rollers and clean your water system if you want to save time and money. The fountain solution—though it is the smallest cost in the print equation—has the biggest impact on consistency of quality.

Mr. William Munden, of MG Technologies, explained their view of tomorrow’s paper and its environmental impact. He also touched on the European initiative to reduce solvent use by as much as 90%, and the new and unique patented aerodynamic equipment which removes over 99% of paper dust from a paper web.

Mr. Lorenzo Morandini, Director of ink standardization at Quebecor World Printing touched on North America vs Europe. He compared printing standards, ink, fountain solution, alkaline papers and high pH solutions, and opaque and transparent inks. The main topics of discussion were paper, ink, pressroom chemistry, blankets, plates, quality, environment, communication, techniques on how to solve problems, systematic approach to problem solving and the pressroom of the future with faster, wider and larger presses.

The panelists responded very well to questions on these various topics. Several questions were in reference to press chemistry, such as fountain solution types and their dosage, controlling pH and conductivity, interaction of the fountain solution with ink and paper substates, and the need to ensure proper training for the maintenance of press equipment.

The lively discussion from the audience clearly identified the continual need to train our employees to face the challenges of the future as well as the need to be proactive in our communications between all parties in the graphic arts industry.

The session was to come to a close at 4:30 pm, but at 4:50, the discussion was still going strong. Needless to say, all of us in the graphic arts industry must learn, know and understand what the future holds.

Hart & Associates Management Consultants is about to launch its sales and profitability study on the Canadian printing and imaging industry. In response to the need to have solid financial and operating results specifically for the Canadian industry, the Toronto based consulting firm will be conducting this focused study starting in April to serve as a starting point to help the industry address profitability and strategic issues facing all companies in the printing and imaging markets.

Mr. Hart, president of Hart & Associates, said that this industry suffers from a lack of detailed information that business owners and executives need to help them make informed decisions about operational, pricing and product offerings. “Many companies in this industry are making decisions in the dark. What is needed is operational and profitability data to help them make the right decisions for their company” said Mr. Hart.

He said that consolidation of this industry will continue in 2008 and the challenge for many will be how to maintain competitiveness and profitability and decide which direction they should take their company. Mr. Hart added that the first step in this process is for companies to determine their performance in direct comparison to those of the overall industry.

This assessment, conducted on behalf of the study’s participating companies, will provide senior managers and business owners with financial and operating results of small, medium and large-sized printers and imagers in Canada. The study will report on sales growth by business line, operating, production, sales and marketing costs, staffing levels, gross and net profit margins as well as debt levels. Study participants will receive a customized report showing industry results in direct comparison to their own company results highlighting areas of success as well as areas that need improvement.

Hart & Associates will follow up on this detailed study with a strategic industry forum later this year that will help printing and imaging companies explore ways to improve their success. Mr. Hart said that some companies may be able to take steps this year to achieve operating efficiencies and customer focus while others may not. The onus on management this year is how best to maximize shareholder value by either making fundamental changes or selling their company. Both directions require careful thought and analysis. This upcoming study will provide companies with the much needed data to help management make a honest assessment of their company.

Hart & Associates will be sending out a study package to printing and imaging companies in early April that will detail the study program. To ensure that your company benefits from this program, please e-mail Hart & Associates requesting an information package. e-mail: info@hartconsultants.com web site: www.hartconsultants.com Tel: 416 363-4598.

It’s pretty easy to tell other people what to do. Looking in from the outside and offering suggestions is a universal human trait, exhibited by everyone from backseat drivers to magazine editors. The more difficult task, of course, is to offer specifics—moving beyond “hey, was that really the best lane?” to “okay, you need to exit on ramp 36A in 5.4 kilometres” and getting past “variable data is a growing field” to “if you want these results, you need this press, this workflow, and a new staff member in your IT department.”

Giving driving directions is of course much easier than advising print providers on how best to run their businesses; the variables in this industry are many, even if you’re only running traditional offset. With drupa approaching and manufacturers clamoring for coverage of their new products, it gets even harder, in some ways, to offer substantiative advice as to the benefits of press A vs press B or the best way to go about creating a variable data component of your business. But more options are also a good thing, and the announcements surrounding drupa give us extra chances to highlight, in this and following issues, some of the new tools of the trade that we think are well-suited to helping our readers grow their businesses.

Jeanette Clinkunbroomer discourses this month on “Printing the Big Picture”—her look at wide-format and signage printing. She talks with business owners—to see which tools they are using—as well as wide-format providers—to see which tools they would like you to use. And speaking of new tools, HP unveiled several new products and improvements to existing products at their pre-drupa showcase in Israel, including the new latex inks that Jeanette mentions at the end of her article. Slated to go head-to-head with solvent-based inks, latex inks might be just the tool for those of you wishing to bring an environmentally-conscious angle to your signage business. And, continuing on the variable theme of last month’s interview, Gail Nickel-Kailing speaks to Kevin Lanuke of Blitzprint to find out the direction that his company is going. Her questions and his comments should be just the tools you need to begin your own journey into relevance marketing and variable printing.

It’s nearly the end of March and as I rise this morning, I notice that there’s more snow on the ground. I actually love the wintertime. It lets me enjoy skiing with my children a few times – in between, of course, the numerous hockey games. All this makes winter a little more bearable for my family.

However, I think I speak for most Canadians when I say, “roll on spring!” After all this is the most snowfall that we’ve had since 1939. It’s now time for sunshine and warmth to lift everyone’s spirits.

The Western Grafik’Art Show is coming up April 11 – 13 at the Fraser Valley Trade & Exhibition Centre in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Gail Nickel-Kailing will be doing a series of seminars at the show.

On April 12, Gail will be doing a seminar on the History and Future of Print, followed by, “From pURLs and gURLs to VDP and XML - Printing has become an alphabet soup” in the afternoon. Then on Sunday, April 13, her seminars will cover, “Who says ‘it isn’t easy being green?’” These informative seminars will provide a fascinating perspective of the changing industry from someone who has spent many years in the trade.

In this issue, check out Catherine Weibe’s report from Tel Aviv on page 30 about the new and exciting products to be showcased by HP this spring at Drupa. Gail Nickel-Kailing has an interesting article on page 58 with Kevin Lanuke, president of Blitz Print in Calgary. They elaborate on the business of variable data printing. Kevin reveals which companies have the potential to benefit from variable print.

Don’t miss our next issue (our second variable cover) which will hit the streets in May.

Phrases like “sustainability” and “environmental sensitivity” have now become buzzwords, not just in our industry, but with consumers as well. We intend to stay on top of all the changes and report to you regularly so you can make more informed business and production decisions.

Until next time (at which point we all hope the snow will be gone), stay positive and stay focused.

Printers everywhere are embracing Web-to-Print solutions, and for good reason. Web-to-Print storefronts provide an avenue for printers to streamline their production processes, offer enhanced customer relations capabilities, and drive business to their digital presses. Most importantly, Web-to-Print can open up new lines of business and generate new revenue opportunities.

One of the many appealing qualities of Web-to-Print is the relative ease of set-up. With little technical experience, a printer can construct their web storefront and quickly begin to see revenue generated from the site. At Pageflex (a division of Bitstream), we’ve seen many printers dive into Web-to-Print by building a storefront for their business customers. These sites are rapidly established and initially offer a basic line of products, including business cards, stationery, sales sheets, ads, and signage.

Once the printer starts to earn money from this solution, they often look to expand their storefront into other areas. A new and potentially lucrative area many of our customers are moving into is the direct-to-consumer market. Consumers are increasingly looking to personalize their own printed items, such as photobooks, calendars, and stationery.

Business and consumer sites share similar qualities, but there are important differences to keep in mind when setting up a website for the consumer market. The rest of this article will help you decide: is your storefront ready to accommodate this growing market?

Web Storefronts for Consumers—What to Know

Creating web storefronts for consumers can launch a printer’s business into a whole new market. It’s a chance to build upon the success of your business-to-business site and mine a new source of revenue. But creating a web storefront for consumers is different from a business-to-business site. A few key points of differentiation to keep in mind:

First, the site itself needs to be designed with the consumer in mind. While a business-to-business site can look fairly nondescript, in the case of a consumer-facing site, the design or “look” of your site takes on added importance. Using colours, graphics, and fonts that appeal to your market can help you differentiate your services. For ideas, look at websites that are designed for your target audience, but offer different services.

Consumer sites should be easy to navigate. If it is arduous for consumers to find their way around the site, frustration sets in and a quick departure from the site becomes highly likely, no matter how high the quality of the services and products offered. Be sure to include helpful navigation tools such as buttons, links, and menus that can help site visitors know where they are and how they can proceed to the next step. The path from locating desired products on a page to purchasing these items should be clear, easy, and fun.

A portion of your revenue will come from selling additional products to your existing customers, so you will want to include messages that promote your entire collection of products and services. Be certain to use space on your site for these types of promotions. Supplementary screen space can be used to create banner ads that promote other products and services. You can create content that is specifically customized for your audience and their shopping interests. Through this type of highly-specific customization, a web storefront allows inclusion of promotional messaging from your business.

Use the catalog itself as an opportunity to promote your services via a classic retail maneuver: the add-on upsell. Once the customer is choosing from your catalog of products, offer them examples of other products they can purchase.

The consumer market is ripe with promise. Taking the time to set up your web storefront the right way ensures that your business can capitalize on this opportunity.

It’s a digital world at Hewlett Packard, and their recent pre-drupa event in Israel revealed (for those who didn’t know already) their desire to add more digital colour to your world.

Journalists and analysts converged on Tel Aviv for an information-packed four days in which HP executives revealed their hopes for the company’s future, and the innovations that drive their plan to become, in VP Steve Nigro’s words, “the world’s leader in digital graphic arts.”

There was a lot of talk about the somewhat nebulous-sounding “Print 2.0”. Cursed with the fate of most slogans, the words “Print 2.0” themselves can’t fully explain HP’s overarching strategy. Fortunately, all of the executives on hand were well-versed in fleshing out the headline and explaining what HP is doing and plans to do. “Print 2.0”, according to Steve Nigro, is “about making it easier to print from the web, extending digital content creation and publishing platforms, and delivering next-generation digital printing platforms.”

So what does that mean to printers on the ground? Basically, Print 2.0 is a more consumer-involved and proactive version of printing. Rather than waiting for customers—trade or consumer—to come to them, HP is encouraging digitally-equipped printers to go out and position themselves in their markets as providing digitally-produced pages that are more intrinsically valuable than their analogue counterparts. This increased value could be due to such traits as their variable content, their short run length, or their tailored-to-the-consumer specificity.

Photobooks—perhaps the most talked-about print product since Gutenberg’s Bible—are of course one such example of high-value digital pages that weren’t possible with analog technology. And while photobooks are a boon for print providers astute or fortunate enough to have contracts with the Wal-Marts and Shoppers Drug Marts of the world, there are still opportunities for smaller or less-well-connected printers to carve out their own piece of the digital page pie. According to HP’s internal estimates, digitally-produced pages account for only 2% of the global pages produced in 2007. In terms of dollar value, though, digital accounted for 16%. By building skills in marketing, variable content production, and actively seeking more pages, rather than waiting for customers to come to them, print providers can capitalize on all the resources that digital presses and printers can offer.

HP Canada’s Danny Ionescu was also quick to point out that HP isn’t just pushing printers and presses on anyone who will buy them. He spoke of readiness assessments that HP carries out with print providers looking to purchase an HP machine, and assured me that HP will decline to make a sale if they feel that the provider is not ready to fully take advantage of the opportunities that digital offers.

HP is looking to digitize the entire print process, from creation to consumption, and they have both hardware and software currently available or coming soon that will help with that digitization. The (literally) largest announcement made in Tel Aviv was of a new, four-colour Inkjet Web Press, which is slated for release sometime in 2009. With the inkjet web press, HP is looking to create a market for a “distribute-then-print” model—newspapers are one possible market—that distributes content to local centres where it is then combined with local content, personalized, and printed.

The web will be up to 762 mm or 30 inches wide, allowing for 2600 8.5 x 11 letter-sized impressions per minute (400 ft/minute x 30 ft wide). The size of web also means that a conventional broadsheet is possible to produce—a limitation that has felled other inkjet providers who have attempted something similar in the past. Quality is up to 600 x 600 dpi, and a duplex print engine configuration will set providers back less than $2.5 million (USD).

The colour inkjet web is HP’s attempt to create a new market segment, and is a bold move into the offset-dominated newspaper territory. In order for the inkjet offset to be successful, print providers will need to buy into the notion of a more personalized newspaper than has previously been possible, and will need the software and technical know-how to make such personalization—or at least localization—viable. HP is of course also planning to provide logistical and software support to any vendors who purchase the press—through their “Capture” business development program—and asserted at the event that the press was in fact developed in response to requests from customers.

As the press is still in development, we were unable to see anything beyond digrams and conceptual drawings, but they have promised more information at this year’s drupa.

Also on the hardware side of things, HP announced more advances in its Indigo line of digital offset presses, adding features to the 3500 and 5500 that they launched a year ago and introduced the higher-efficiency Indigo 7000 press. The 7000 is targeted at printers producing over 1 million A4-equivalent pages per month—those in the 500,000 to one million range are still best to stick with the 5500. The 7000 uses 25% less electricity per page, as compared to the 5500, and has an onboard oil recycling system, which is also now available on the 3500 and 5500. The rated speed of the 7000 is 120 ppm in 4-colour and 240 ppm in 1- or 2-colour, and HP estimates the breakeven of an 8 page brochure to be 1808 pages (when compared to an A3 offset) or 1095 pages (as compared to a B2 offset).

Concurrent with the Indigo 7000 was the announcement of the WS6000 label press, which is optimized for longer jobs (greater than 1000 linear metres), and the W7200 commercial web press. With four-colour speeds up to 30 linear metres/minute, a broad substrate range, and optional in-line converting, the WS6000 is also a significant improvement over the WS4500.

Indigo is also moving slowly into inline finishing, with an inline UV coater option now available for the 5500 and 7000. The 5500 can also have a ganged feeder, which raises the number of discrete feeder trays to 7 (from the existing 4), and has a new 18 pt substrate option geared towards folding carton applications.

Not to worry if you just purchased a 5500 and are interested in some of the new options—they are all compatible with exisiting 5500 machines.

Moving towards the software side of things, HP is not alone in offering data solutions to their vendors, and they have partnered with several other providers to offer solutions with their SmartStream workflow. Refusing to reinvent the wheel, as one executive put it, is key to their strategy with SmartStream. If they saw someone who was doing what they wanted to do, and doing it well, they partnered. Creo, EskoArtwork, and Heidelberg Prinect are just a few of the partners who participate in HP’s a la carte workflow solutions for their vendors.

Environmental benefits were also a much-talked-about feature of HP’s plans, though it would be surprising if that were not the case, as environmental considerations are on the lips of everyone in the industry these days.

Many of the so-called environmental benefits of digital presses are merely increased efficiencies, and not true footprint reduction. For example, digitally-printed pages are often described as reducing the number of pages printed, since one personalized digital page is more effective than a mass-produced advertising circular. But the increased effectiveness of digital pages doesn’t necessarily translate into fewer pages printed—it could just as easily mean the same number of high-impact personalized pages, distributed to a larger number of people. But HP did have a number of genuine environmental advances to trumpet, the most prominent of which was their new latex ink. Dr. Ross Allen, a senior technology specialist with HP, explained the latex inks as a scratch, smudge, and water-resistant competitor to solvent inks. They will be available on many of HP’s wide-format inkjet machines, and will require no special ventilation—an economic as well as environmental boon.

The above are only the highlights of HP’s pre-drupa announcements, and I encourage all readers who are going to drupa to check out HP’s booth and dive deeper into the advances that HP is making towards a digital world.

Q. Our client has recently started sending us Word files that we cannot open. They say they have the latest version of Word. Is there another way that they can save their files?

A. Your customer has recently upgraded to either Word 2007 on Windows or Word 2008 on Macintosh. Previous versions of Word and Excel stored the data that made up the file in a binary format, which made it difficult to work with outside of Microsoft’s suite. If you take a close look at the filename you may see that the file extension is “.docx”. Docx is a new format from Microsoft based on “Office Open XML” format—which makes the files more portable. This new format means that more features can be contained in a single document using specialized document objects.

If you have the new Word installed you can avoid complications when sending out files by choosing “Save As” and selecting “Word 97- 2004” format. That will ensure that the file is saved in the “older, more familiar” file format. If you need to, you can choose “Preferences” from the “Word 2008” menu on your Mac and choose “Word 97 – 2004” format from the Word tab. On a PC, click the “Office Button”, go to “Word Options” and choose “Word 98-2003” format.

Microsoft has also made file converters available for converting “.docx” files on a Mac or PC without the new Office Suite. On a PC you can install the “Office Compatibility Pack” (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924074). For Macintosh you can download the Open XML converter at http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx

Q. We have many files in QuarkXpress and our client has asked us to send them InDesign files. We tried to open the QuarkXpress files in InDesign but we get an error about a missing plug-in. How can we convert the files to InDesign format?

A. InDesign was able to open QuarkXpress files in the past, however InDesign can no longer open files created by QuarkXpress version 6, 7 or the soon to be released QuarkXpress version 8. Well, not without help. You can “Export Layout as Project” and choose version 6. Then open the file in version 6 and “Save As” version 5. Afterwards open the file in QuarkXpress version 5 and save it again to get rid of any stray version 6 code. Down-saving a file this way means that your file will lose all of the newer effects in your files.

For around $200 per license you can use Markzware’s Q2ID v3 plug-in for InDesign to open any “Collected” QuarkXpress file. It works with 90 percent of the items in the file and preserves image links and font information. Q2ID v3 includes the plug-in for InDesign CS2 and CS3.

Q. I have two versions of the same program installed and I need to use the older version to open the files. I’ve tried to set the default in the Finder but it always seems to open the newer version.

A. While you can select a file in the Finder and choose “Get Info”, then set the default application to open a file, your Mac may open the wrong applications that you have double-clicked. In the pre-Mac OS X days, your Macintosh would open the legacy file based on the “Creator” code in the Resource fork, which was used to store file resources such as a finder icon or image preview. Mac OS X has done away with the Resource Fork for compatibility reasons.

Without the application’s “creator” code, your Mac may have no idea what program should open the file. Like Windows and Unix systems, the Finder now uses the “dot file extension” in the file name to determine the file:application relationship. The Finder stores this information in it’s “com.apple.LaunchServices.plist” file. If you cannot set the default application, this “plist” may be corrupt. To fix it, Trash the file and the Finder will create a new one with the default relationships. However some applications such as those from Adobe, Microsoft and Quark will always tend to open with the highest installed version. So dragging and dropping on the dock icon or choosing “Open With” from the contextual menu may be the only way to control your computer’s behavior.

Meetings can provide an excellent forum for team building and communication yet often merely waste time. Why does an activity with so much potential become a depressing and wasteful experience?

I would suggest that the problem lies with organizations’ ineptitude in conducting meetings. Too many groups fail to run meetings well, and their poor results can almost be predicted before a meeting commences.

A meeting can be broken down into several parts:

i) Planning
ii) Execution
iii) Follow through

If any part is poorly performed, the likelihood of failure is great. This month, we’ll discuss planning.

Why have the meeting?

Many organizations schedule the same meeting at the same time on the same day each and every week. Little thought is given to the idea of whether or not the meeting is necessary. If tradition has it that Team A meets on Mondays to discuss improving process effectiveness or some other task, then Team A meets—regardless of other commitments that might make better use of that time.

Once a regular meeting time has been established, it is unusual for anyone to question the need for the meeting. The result is often a gathering that merely rehashes the points that were raised in previous meetings—since there have been no new developments since the last time the team met.

Regularly scheduled meetings need to be critiqued regularly to determine if they have outgrown their value or to determine if there is another, more effective, format or forum.

No agenda—No plan

It is surprising how many groups meet without an agenda. This is probably most frequent when a committee or team meets on a regular basis to work on the same task or issue.

Failure to have an agenda for a meeting creates at least three problems:

It leads to a lack of preparation on the part of the participants. In the turmoil of everyday operating, one does not keep at the front of mind the minutiae of previous meetings. The result is that people arrive at the meeting unprepared and valuable time is often used in trying to focus those gathered.

Another aspect of this problem is that individuals arrive at meetings without the necessary material to deal with the problems being discussed. As a result, individuals have to disrupt the meeting while they return to their workplace to retrieve necessary information—or they “wing it” and make statements that are not backed by facts, thus leading the group astray.

Meetings that don’t have agendas have a tendency to wander. The group doesn’t have a road map showing what needs to be covered during the meeting. The result is that some unimportant matters consume a lot of time while other, more important, items get short shrift, since the time for the meeting is basically over before the group starts discussing them.

Documentation Arrives too Late to be of Use

Whether the organization is a large conglomerate or a small volunteer entity, ensuring that appropriate material is distributed to the participants ahead of time is a constant challenge.

The result is that many participants see important material for the first time at the meeting that has been called to discuss it. In other cases, participants get material so close to the time of the meeting that they do not have adequate time to study the contents and therefore are not able to provide valuable input.

Secondary fallout from the late distribution of material is that individuals busy themselves reviewing the material at the meeting and miss participating in discussions about other important matters. This can be perceived as rudeness or ignorant behaviour on the part of individuals making presentations.

Meetings that are held too frequently make it difficult to have material developed and subsequently distributed in a timely fashion.

What is the Objective?

The person chairing a meeting should have an objective for the meeting. By this I mean that the Chair should set—prior to the meeting—an objective of what they want to accomplish in the meeting. If an objective is not set, it is more likely that the meeting will cover a number of issues but come to few if any conclusions. However, if the Chair has an objective of what he or she wants to accomplish, it is much easier to steer the group towards a conclusion on the issue being addressed.

The above are a few of the issues that need to be covered when planning an effective meeting. In a future article, we will discuss the issues of Execution and Follow-through, the other two components to managing successful and effective meetings.

The convergence of three major events—On Demand, AIIM, and Xplor’s XDU—and one little one—Drupalcon—made for an interesting hike around the Boston Convention Center. Spring in Boston, especially the first week in March, is an iffy proposition at the best of times, but this year the city enjoyed some of its most beautiful spring weather in years! Sadly, we were all inside, basking in the fluorescent light.

Before we dive into the key events, let’s clear up a little confusion about Drupalcon. It’s not about the upcoming drupa 2008 in Dusseldorf. Drupal is an open-source content management platform used for web development, blogs, forums, and other “community-driven websites.” The Drupal Association holds conventions and conferences around the world, and this year’s just happened to fall at the same time as the three co-located events mentioned above.

With that explanation out of the way, let’s turn back to the “big three.” Print service providers were given an awesome opportunity to learn more about the latest tools—business applications, software, and hardware—to help grow their businesses. On Demand is focused on digital printing and production, while AIIM concentrates on document capture, digital asset management, storage, and archiving. Xplor’s XDU (Xplor Document University) offered nearly 150 educational sessions on document creation, composition, output, and mailing. For anyone concentrating on the delivery of business and marketing communication, it was heavenly.

What were the “big stories?” Considering that drupa is just around the corner, most of the vendors are holding their big announcements and splashy presentations close to the vest. There were a few things that jumped out, particularly on the software side.

From Data-Driven Publishing to Variable Data Printing

The most interesting development, I think, is that the number of variable data printing (VDP), web to print, and multi-channel campaign management tools are still going up! And we’re seeing some of the hardware vendors getting into the action as well. Hardware companies are buying (Xerox’s acquisiton of XMPie a couple of years ago, HP’s recent acquisition of Exstream) or partnering (Canon reselling Printable Technologies’ FusionPro Web) to be able to offer a “complete” solution.

What’s the point? Charlie Pesko of InfoTrends pointed out in his keynote presentation that we could all be examining these new market opportunities:

Custom Publications

Custom Wallpapers/Textiles

Personalized Marketing Collateral

Customized Greeting Cards

Books on Demand

TransPromo

Photo Publishing

Personalized Direct Mail

Short Run Packaging

Digital Signage

What do all of these applications have in common? All of them—except short run packaging and digital signage—are built around customization. The common thread is “one-off”, “one to one”, and/or digital printing. Applications built around customization and digital printing also require customized solutions, including hardware, software, workflow, substrates/coatings, fulfillment, content management, and royalty/rights management.

In other words, production is increasingly data—and software—driven. It’s not your father’s print shop any more!

Binding and Finishing—It isn’t done until it’s finished!

Complementing the emphasis on books that I saw—from personal publishing to photo books—there were a number of solutions for mechanizing or automating the production of books. Not all finishing needs to be in-line and totally automated; short run book production can be done efficiently with a range of equipment, such as Unibind’s binding systems. Unibind, by the way, introduced a line of environmentally friendly “green” photo books made from natural and recycled materials including recycled boards and linen cloth covers.

Online and offline binding and finishing solutions were offered by GBC as well. They’re not just bindery people any more; GBC also offers a broad range of laminates ranging from “pouch” laminating systems for moderate volumes to roll laminates for high volumes. And, lest we forget, for “end of document life,” GBC has a full line of shredders for departmental or production use.

Duplo’s Ultra 145A and 205A ultraviolet document coaters were on display in the Fujifilm booth. The coating on the demonstration pieces—applied over a deeply colored photo of a tiger—was smooth, even, and glossy without being garish. Nice! The Ultra coaters also handle paper up to 20.5” wide, allowing for some creative and efficient use of stock.

Going Green

A key trend that every show attendee could not help but be aware of is the growing concern about printing’s effect on the environment. InfoTrends’ Charlie Pesko reminded his audience that consumers—recipients and users of print—are becoming vocal about the environment:

85% are willing to switch brands or purchasing habits to make tomorrow a better place

92% labeled protecting the environment as a top concern

73% said they were willing to pay more for environmentally conscious products.

Print and packaging buyers are going to respond to the “voice of the customer” and they will look for alternatives. As a result, paper manufacturers and distributors are FSC-certified, printers are applying for Chain of Custody (CoC) certification, and even designers can get an FSC-Xpert design certification. FSC Canada proudly notes that Canada is the world’s leader in FSC:

Over 25% of the world’s FSC-certified forests are in Canada

The largest FSC-certified forest, 5.5 million ha, is in Alberta

Four regionally specific forest management standards are in place: National Boreal, British Columbia, Great Lakes St. Lawrence and Maritimes

To learn more about these programs, go to www.fsccanada.org, where you will find lots of resources.

The On Demand Conference also offered sessions for service providers to learn more about environmentally friendly alternatives. Infoprint Solutions and HP shared the podium with printers Sandy Alexander and Finlay to talk about a wide variety of ways to “go green.” While in the Fujifilm booth, I picked up the company’s Energy newsletter—volume 3, number 3. This 8-page booklet introduces Fujifilm’s Green Policy, and covers topics ranging from processless plates to VOC-free pressroom products.

Green guides were everywhere! I picked up materials from Mohawk—their eco*guide—and xpedx, who have put together a CoC Printer program in partnership with an FSC-certification auditor to help printers through the process.

Some Friendly Faces at On Demand

As I strolled down the aisles I saw many friendly faces; here are some companies you might recognize:

Montreal-based Objectif Lune—marketer of Atlas Software (PrintShop Mail) —announced new capabilities for its PlanetPress Suite.

PlanetPress Suite, Version 6.2, includes new features for creating high impact documents, with features including the integration of Microsoft Excel business graphics, clipping capability, and programming and workflow functionalities to make variable document development more productive.

Sharing their booth this year was DirectSmile, developer of “variable imaging” technology. If you haven’t seen names spelled out in snowflakes, daisies, birds, or any number of other “custom fonts,” you are missing something!

Avanti Systems, hailing from Toronto, highlighted a new electronic scheduling board to help printers control ever-shortening turnaround times.

With Avanti’s new scheduling module, production planners can view all jobs in production, and add or modify jobs using “drag and drop.” With this solution planners can:

Reduce schedule conflicts and overtime

Maximize the use of production capacity

Identify bottlenecks

Improve customer satisfaction

Other modules include estimating, fulfillment, data collection, and a full web to print solution with online catalogs and ecommerce. (www.avantisystems.com)

Fujifilm Graphic Systems

Companies such as Fujifilm and Kodak are not just film companies any more; both have moved into graphic arts and print production in a big way. The faces on the following page from Fujifilm Canada are knowledgeable about the full print supply chain:

Digital Workflow

Computer to Plate (CtP)

Imaging Consumables

Inkjet Medias

Display Graphics & Printing (Wide Format)

Pressroom

Digital Proofing

Digital Printing

Konica Minolta again offered the bizhub PRO series, a solution perfect for short run personalized direct mail.

They also highlighted Printgroove this year—it’s an automated modular production print workflow solution teamed with the bizhub PRO products. Printgroove is particularly suited for copy centres and small to medium print service providers and delivers online job submission, automated job ticketing and quoting, print queue management, finishing management, and shipping and billing.

PrintLink

While Myrna and Arnie can find you the employees you need, whether you are looking for sales or technical staff, Arnie also has his thumb on the pulse of the industry. Ask him where the industry is going and he can give you a pretty good feel for the next six months or year.

His outlook: Business looks pretty good, people are hiring. From 2000 to 2002 the “inventory” of available applicants vastly outweighed the number of job openings. Now there are openings, but for people with technical skills. That doesn’t just mean computer programmers or software operators; sales people with technical understanding are in high demand.

The demand for the wares of On Demand—not to mention Xplor and AIIM—will only increase in the years to come; it was my pleasure to report on the outlook from this year’s show in Boston.

There was a moment in the 90’s when the thought of “virtual trade shows,” sent shivers up the spines of some show managers and exhibitors who thought the Internet would mark the death of the world’s oldest marketing tool. Well, a decade and a half later, we know that all that fuss was for naught. Not only have shows continued to thrive, they have done so living side by side with the Internet.

Using the Internet makes a great deal of sense. It can save time, help you focus, and ensure that you are participating in the right show.

Here are a few hints and helpful sites to visit before your next show.

1. Finding the right shows.

Gone are the days of the hard copy, telephone book-size, show directories. Sites such as www.tsnn.com, www.expotop.com or www.eventseye.com, offer exhibitors a helpful and easy-to-navigate way to learn about thousands of show options.

2. Learning about your show

Every show has a dedicated website. Some shows have replaced their bulky exhibitor manual and have put everything you need to know online; the floor layout, the show program, timing, links to the show suppliers, attendee profiles, show rules, and so on.

3. Promoting your presence

You have two on-line options to promote your presence at a show: your company’s website and the show website.

a. One of your marketing thrusts should be to direct traffic to your website. This activity opens up a terrific no-cost way of promoting your presence at a show. A banner ad on the first page of your site will let your audience know where you will be exhibiting.

b. Often show managers will provide live links from each exhibitor’s website to the main show website.

4. Find out about your show manager and best show practices

Throughout the world there are many associations that have incredibly helpful websites. Here are some noteworthy sites to give you examples of what is in store for you.

International Association of Exhibits and Events –
www.iaee.org

Union des Foires Internationales – www.ufi.org

Canadian Association of Exhibition Management – www.caem.org

Associacion Mexicana De Profesonales Deferas, Exposones Y Convenciones, A.C. –
www.amprofec.org

Uniao Brasileria dos Promotores de Foires, -
www.ubrafe.org.br

Associacion Argentine de Organizadores Y Proveedores de Exposiciones – www.AOCA.org.ar

Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Industry
Association – www.HKECIA.org

Center for Exhibition Industry Research –
www.CEIR.org

5. Media

There are a number of publications that are dedicated to the exhibition industry. They report on such things as industry trends and statistics, best practices, case studies, and profiles of industry leaders. Here are a few examples. Check their websites and see what’s in store for you.

Trade Show Week – www.TradeShowWeek.com

Exhibitor Magazine – www.exhibitornews.net

Trade Show Expo – www.trade-show-expo.com

Expone Magazine – www.revistaexpone.com

Feira & Cia – www.feiraecia.com.br

Exhibit and Events – www.exhibit-event.com

6. Industry trade shows

Where do exhibitors go to learn? The answer—in addition to many of the sites already listed—is to attend one of the few trade shows dedicated to the education of exhibitors. You can learn about these annual events by visiting such sites as www.exhibitoronline.com/exhibitorshow, www.TSEA.org, and www.ExpoSystems.com.br.

7. Vendors

Vendors are easily found by simply googling the type of vendor you are looking for. One good place to start is www.Trade Show Store.com

8. Selling hardware

If you have dated or slightly used hardware that is taking up space in your warehouse, there are sites that you can use to sell it. Visit www.exhibittrader.com, and www.boothfinder.com and learn the details.

That should get you started. Happy surfing!

If you happen to run across a helpful site let me know about it. I can be reached at barry@siskindtraining.com

Yes, Unigraph International Inc. is one of the largest, most respected North American manufacturers of chemicals for the printing industry. Yes, Unigraph has been a Canadian leader for the past 25 years in terms of innovation and quality.

And yes, Unigraph is committed to the development of new products that meet all current technical and environmental standards.

But it is the human side of this enormously successful family-run business that makes their story all the more fascinating, compelling and heart-warming. And it all began, simply and surprisingly, in Montreal in the mid 1920’s with a hard-working stone polisher named Wilbert Thibault.

He was a stone polisher by trade and honed his skills at Montreal Litho for 10 years. In those days, stones, not plates, were used to do printing. He likely didn’t realize it at the time, but he and his family would eventually become pioneers and key players in the evolution of the Canadian printing industry.

In 1933 Wilbert founded his own company, Commercial Litho Plate Graining Ltd. A visionary, he realized the potential for metal plates in the printing process and developed an innovative graining method which led to the development of the first aluminum-grained plates in Canada.

The shift in the 1950’s to offset printing using aluminum plates as opposed to zinc, was a major turning point in the industry, and Wilbert, along with his son Leo (CEO and Chairman of Unigraph today) who joined the company in 1951, played a key role in this transformation.

Then came another breakthrough. They devised an exclusive processing method that made the company’s wipe-on plates the most successful in North America.

New ideas were plentiful and further expansion resulted. In the early 1960’s, led by his son Leo, the company went international and signed an agreement with Harry H. Rogers of Chicago obtaining the right to manufacture the then world famous line of Rogersol pressroom chemicals in Canada. Leo also licensed Sun Chemical Corp. of New York to produce EEZY-KOTE, a line of chemicals for litho. By the late 1960’s, Leo Thibault had inked dealer agreements in more than 25 countries – an astounding feat!

Determined to continue the family tradition, Léo founded Unigraph International Inc. in 1982 and brought his sons John and Mike, and daughter Susan, into the company, making it three generations of success and innovation. His wife Ann Louise has also been instrumental in the company’s success.

“The last three generations of Thibaults have seen virtually every technological change in the printing industry,” says John Thibault, President of Unigraph. “My grandfather Wilbert brought the wipe-on plate to the Canadian market, my father Leo lived through the golden years of aluminum plates, and we’re now living in the challenging CTP age.”

Vice-President of Sales and eldest of the children, Susan Thibault is equally proud. “The passion and determination of our father and grandfather have shaped our success and made our company the success it is today,” she says.

Mike Thibault, Unigraph’s Technical Vice-President echoes those sentiments. “I’m extremely proud to be part of the Thibault family. We’ve been serving the graphic arts industry for three generations. It’s ironic and fun to meet senior press people or plant managers who’ve actually used my grandfather’s plates and chemicals,” he says.

“My grandfather and my father were instrumental in developing ground-breaking products and new technologies for the pressroom,” he adds. I’m also very proud that we’ve kept the tradition of ‘share your knowledge’ alive. My grandfather was a big supporter of the Craftsmen Club as is my father. My father has instilled in us a very strong work ethic and his knowledge of our industry is outstanding. He is 73 years young and still very active in our company.”

This year, the Thibault family is celebrating Unigraph International’s 25th Anniversary.

And every day, Unigraph customers are also celebrating in pressrooms across North America – because of Unigraph’s unique ability to solve virtually every problem related to pressroom chemistry.

Indeed, after 25 years, Unigraph has become the leader in pressroom chemistry in Canada, manufacturing top quality, environmentally friendly products and conducting ground-breaking research and development, all aimed at making work in the pressroom problem-free.

“At the beginning, we only manufactured solvents and served mostly small and medium-size printers,” says CEO and Chairman Leo Thibault. “In 1990, the marketing of the fountain solution Lithofount, and several other specialized products, marked a turnaround for our company and put us in the ‘big leagues.’ Our biggest strength has always been to be pioneers in the development of innovative products that meet the industry’s stringent standards. We possess this unique technical expertise,” he adds.

Forseeing the need for a solution free of isopropylic alcohol, the company launched the Alcofount solution a year later. In 2002, it launched its second generation of dampening solutions to meet the needs of the new CTP technology. In 2007, its research led to the development of one step Lithofount, a revolutionary fountain solution that completely eliminates the double procedure.

“Technologies are quickly evolving and the printing industry must adapt to all these changes. We’re working hand in hand with printers to develop formulas that optimize the performance of their equipment,” says Thibault.

The company’s products are manufactured in accordance with the highest quality standards of the printing industry and cover sheetfed presses, heatset web and coldset newspaper web. Products include fountain solutions, additives for fountain solutions, alcohol replacements, plate cleaners, protective gums, solvents, silicone and other specialized products.

Every product is designed to help solve common problems that occur in the pressroom such as bleeding, binding, calcium carbonate build-up, dot sharpness, ghosting, glazing, hickies, linting, misting, motting, oxidation, ph/conductivity, picking, piling, plugging, poor drying of ink, premature plate wear, scummimg, tinting, trapping – you name it!

Unigraph’s concern for the protection of the environment, and for the safety of consumers as well as pressroom employees, has also led them to develop biodegradable products in accordance with toxicity standards and VOC emissions. Unigraph International is currently an industry leader in the manufacture of ‘green’ products containing no volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The company offers a wide selection of chrome and phosphate-free fountain solutions, products that are both environmentally-friendly and completely biodegradable, water-soluble solvents and numerous highly specialized formulas.

Unigraph also provides personalized consultation service to its clients by conducting hundreds of visits annually throughout the plants it services. Susan Thibault, Vice-President of Sales, insists that providing adequate support and assistance is essential.

“When customers are having problems printing a job, they need immediate support. Our 24-hour technical support allows them to solve their problems quickly and avoid downtime that could be extremely costly,” she says.

All Unigraph products are manufactured in their own plant from premium quality, carefully selected raw materials. The plant also houses Unigraph’s Research & Development lab as well as their testing and control labs.

Have you ever bought anything from someone you didn’t trust? Likely not. Trust is an important issue when it comes to selling. It doesn’t matter what you sell or to whom—business-to-consumer, B2B, or retail sales. Trust is the foundation of virtually every sale.

Despite the importance of trust, many salespeople will stretch the truth, mislead the customer, misrepresent their company, product, or service, and even deliberately lie in order to capture a sale. While dishonesty may work once or twice, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. You may get one sale, but no single sale is worth sacrificing a reputation for honesty. So how can you earn a person’s trust? Here are three core concepts to try.

1.Do what you say you will do, when you say you will do it. Many salespeople forget this basic fundamental. If you make a promise to a client, keep it. If you say you will do something, make sure you follow through. This, more than anything else, will demonstrate that you are trustworthy and someone they can count on. And in business, that goes a long way.

2. Be on time for your appointments. Regardless of how long you have worked with a particular customer, make sure you show up on time for your meeting. If for some unforeseen reason you are going to be late, call. Your clients are busy—show them that you respect their time.

3.Be yourself. How you behave and interact with your clients and customers should not be “an act.”

These sound like pretty simple concepts. However, I can guarantee that many of your competitors are not executing them on a regular basis, which means that you can gain a competitive edge by using them.

Ultimately, everything you do influences the level of trust you develop with your customers and prospects. Let’s look at a few more examples:

‚Ä¢ Treat clients’ employees, including receptionists and mailroom staff with respect. Many salespeople are rude and treat non-management employees with disdain because they are not involved in the decision-making process. However, behaviour like this seldom goes unnoticed. Regardless of whom you interact with, you should treat them with respect and dignity.

‚Ä¢ The speed with which you respond to clients and prospects is important. If you delay in answering a prospect’s request or question you lose the opportunity to gain their trust. I have experienced this in my own business countless times when I have contacted a company for information and they have been slow in responding. In my mind, if you don’t respond quickly before I am a customer, what will happen once you get my business?

‚Ä¢ Don’t make outlandish claims about your product or service. Even when they know better, many sales people exaggerate the capabilities of their products. In most cases, their intent is completely harmless. However, if your product or service fails to meet your customer’s expectations, anything you tell them in the future will be questioned and they may perceive you as someone who will say anything to capture a sale.

‚Ä¢ Dont push unwanted services. While I’m a believer in capitalizing on every sales opportunity, I believe that it is unethical to try and sell a person something that he or she doesn’t need or want. This approach shows your customer that you are concerned only with getting as many sales as possible. While you may end up selling more, you will also harm your reputation.

‚Ä¢ Listen carefully to your customer. Everyone wants to be heard and one of the easiest ways to earn your customers’ trust is to listen to them. Make eye contact, use body language such as nodding, and summarize what they tell you to ensure understanding.

Trust is as important now as it was two or three decades ago. In fact, it may be even more critical given today’s highly-competitive business world. I recall a sales coach once saying, “The only thing you have is your reputation.” It doesn’t matter what you sell or to whom, if you tarnish your reputation, you will not be as successful as you could be. I also remember hearing someone else say, “If you always tell the truth, you never have to remember what you said.”

Lastly, it’s not always what you say. Actions speak louder than words and people will often judge your trustworthiness by what you do and how you do it. What are you doing to create a high level of trust with your customers and prospects?