X-Rite has recently announced that its i1Profiler software was selected as the profiling application of choice for HP Scitex wide- and super-wide frame printers for signage and industrial applications, such as billboards, banners, street advertising and packaging.

Elopak Canada in Saint-Leonard, QC has installed an Agfa Avalon N8-22E computer-to-plate system with Agfa Apogee Platemaker software imaging Energy Elite plates. The company offers carton-based packaging solutions for non-carbonated fresh and long-life liquid food products.

If you weren't already overwhelmed with the number of online networking platforms floating around on the Web, Google has just launched a new social media tool called Google+. In hopes of competing with Facebook (after previous attempts at social networking by Google have gone the way of the Dodo) this service is looking like it might actually stick around. Though it is still in its early days and not everyone has access yet, the positive buzz around Google+ can't be ignored.

The 41st WorldSkills event, which took place this year from October 5 to 8 in London, is the largest international skills competition. Over 1,000 young people from 51 countries participated in the 4-day event. Among the competition's 46 disciplines is the category of offset printing. Let's see who won!

Bob McCrea has joined manroland as a regional sales manager for Toronto and Canada's western provinces. He is a Canadian printing industry sales veteran, serving more than 25 years as a senior sales representative and as national manager for remarketed equipment.

Fujifilm has recently announced the launch of the second generation of its Uvistar super wide format UV roll inkjet printers. The company says that its new Uvistar2 series, available in 3.5 meter and 5 meter platforms, provides higher print quality and productivity than ever before.

Montreal's Quadriscan, a full-service commercial and book printer, has recently purchased a new Standard/Horizon BQ-470 PUR perfect binder. Purchased through KBR Graphics Canada, the fully-automated device produces up to 1,350 perfect bound books per hour.

Bullet Autographics has just welcomed a new HP Designjet L25500 printer into its Belleville, Ontario facility. The company, founded in 1995, produces high-quality indoor and outdoor signage -- everything from freestanding pylon and backlit signs to vehicle wraps, banners and fleet lettering.

SWYP: See What You Print. The idea behind this new concept printer comes from Artefact Group, an organization dedicated to innovation in design, research and technology. The device aims to reduce some of the common complications associated with consumer printing.

Several limited edition copies of Margaret Atwood's latest book, In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, are not printed on paper made from wood... but paper made from straw! The autographed straw copies, at $100 a piece, are designed to showcase the viability of wheat and flax straw as alternative sources for paper.