A printing firm’s workflow was determined by its equipment and the products it specialized in. Labels? Camera-ready art to separations, to film, to stripping, to step-and-repeat, to press, to die-cutting. Direct mail? Camera-ready to film, stripping, to plate (paper, plastic or metal, depending on the quantity), to press, to collator, folder, inserter, then address labeling. It was a complex, but mechanical process.

Back then, workflow problems mostly concerned speed bottlenecks, where the slower speed of one machine compared to the others could delay a whole job.

Today, however, jobs move through a printing operation in a digital format; print jobs remain in a digital, rather than a physical format for longer and longer. “Workflow” now means the movement of digital files from one file server to another, and from one digital processing application to another —layout to PDF rendering, colour separation, trapping, imposition. The workflow can vary from job to job, depending on the quantity to be printed, the type of output (offset press, wide-format printer, high-speed colour laser printer, for example), what kind of plate-making equipment the printer has, and the client’s preferences.

Bottlenecks no longer occur at particular machines, but rather within servers or networks. Managing the workflow is a critical part of ensuring that your shop remains productive. Software that shows the manager where bottlenecks are occurring in the digital production stream, and to do something about it, is a growing field.

According to printing industry analyst firm CAP Ventures, print production software, particularly workflow management software, is going to grow very fast. The company is predicting that this sector will achieve a compound annual growth rate of 8.3 percent per year between 2003 and 2008. The biggest category within this sector will be software that controls hybrid digital/offset workflows, which will grow by 98 percent—starting from almost nothing in 2003.

Workflow automation starts with PDF

If your shop doesn’t have a graphical computer application that allows you to set up automated workflows, moving PDF files through colour separation, page imposition, trapping and RIPping at the click of a single button, it soon will. The boost to productivity and the reduction in errors is just to great to ignore. But for the long term success of the business, the ability to track and monitor print jobs may prove more important.

There are several workflow management systems available on the market today. In this issue, we’ll look at a few of them.

Most of the graphic arts industry has adopted Adobe’s portable document format (PDF) as the standard. It makes sense. A PDF contains all the information that high-quality, high-resolution printing (or other output) requires: text, graphics, photographs, fonts, colours, resolution, page information—all the specifications that the printer needs to create the final film or printing plate. In a computer-to-plate workflow, the PDF file fills the same role that final film did in the older workflow. PDF files can be distributed electronically, through e-mail or posting onto a Web site, as well. Small wonder that PDF is the file format of choice for all workflow software, not just products from Adobe.

Adobe Acrobat family

Acrobat 7.0 can create PDF files with a single click from almost any file format—word processing, spreadsheet, slide-show, drawing, page layout and many more. Both Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect contain a Print To PDF command, making the creation of PDF files even easier.

Acrobat PDF Distiller converts PostScript files into PDFs using a file server, which means users or workgroups can do this conversion to remote files over a network, even the Internet.

Adobe has a real interest in creating efficient workflows that can process PDF files. However, it has taken somewhat of an arms-length stance. Its PDF JobReady application allows users to create and manage customized workflows based on PDF, even workflows that use the Internet. However, they sell the product as a software development kit, or SDK, which allows other companies to develop the actual workflow software. It’s a smart move: it gets many other companies, among them the biggest in the industry or the world, to do the work of creating workflow-creation systems; the more that do so, the greater the market for PDF and PostScript.

Heidelberg Prinect

Heidelberg’s Prinect workflow system brings together components that were developed over the years by various companies that Heidelberg has acquired or had deals with, including Hell, Linotype and even Creo. Heidelberg has done a remarkable job in integrating the components into a whole system.

The Prinect Printready System is based entirely on the Job Definition Format (JDF), a standard file format for describing printing job specifications and instructions, developed by the CIP4 Consortium.

The Prinergy system connects the various stages of the print production workflow, from prepress even to press controls and bindery systems. SignaStation, the imposition workstation that originated in the Linotype-Hell days, is not a key software application in the system. PrintReady Cockpit allows users to set up their own workflows to suit their particular operations, and then can start jobs moving through stages such as preflighting, trapping, imposition and colour-space conversions.

Other modules in the Prinect PrintReady System communicate JDF job ticket data to help set up presses and bindery equipment, and even to the management information system (MIS) to help automate at least part of the billing and accounting system.

Kodak Prinergy

Prinergy workflow suite also contains components from companies that Kodak has acquired over the years. It begins with the Prinergy Digital Master, which is an electronic equivalent of the original film from the pre-digital days. A Digital Master is a PDF file in CMYK colour format, ready for offset printing. Along with the PDF of the content is an electronic job ticket that contains all the information needed to print the job—customer, quantity, number of pages and so on.

Prinergy Connect allows users to set up an automatic flow of print jobs from one station or application to the next, and to add components as you need them.

EFI OneFlow

OneFlow is also a PDF-based workflow automation system. A graphical interface allows users to build their own prepress workflows, right up to platesetting. Drop job files, in a variety of creation formats, into “hot folders,” and OneFlow converts them to PDF, PDF/X, Postscript, EPS or TIFF/IT, then starts preflighting, trapping, imposing and proofing.

One advantage of OneFlow is that you also get EFI’s ColorWise software to keep colour within specifications. There is also a Job Tracker application that allows you to check on job status or total workload from anywhere with an Internet connection.

Dalim Twist

With relatively little market share in North America, Dalim’s Twist “intelligent workflow automation” software offers more than 150 different software tools to allow users to create exactly the workflow configuration they need. It allows for automatic conversion of files to PDF (for instance), applying ICC colour profiles, trapping, imposition, and even very complex, rules-based workflows needed for publications. Branching and filter tools help users to develop more sophisticated workflows.

Twist even allows users to combine several different file formats, such as PDF and CT/LW in one workflow.

Agfa :ApogeeX

Agfa’s :ApogeeX software, like its competitors, integrates well into a complete prepress production suite. Agfa stands apart from most of the other major prepress players in workflow, however. Rather than buying smaller companies, it has signed deals with them to integrate their technology into Agfa systems. For example, the :Apogee system uses Adobe’s CPSI RIP (raster image processor) and EnFocus’s PitStop Preflight Engine, among other third-party components.

:ApogeeX 2.5 also comes with an In-Render Trapper, a PDF Trapper and PDF Flattener components. The software supports smooth blends from QuarkXPress 6, duotones, spot colours and various proofing choices, including remote proofing.

Like most other workflow applications, :ApogeeX allows you to create your own workflow configuration and to edit it as you need. You can add tasks or processes, monitor job status and save settings and even imposition templates from Creo’s Preps imposition software.

PrintSoft M-PReS Workflow

M-PReS Workflow is designed for busy production shops with shifting teams working on several documents or production jobs at one time. A central file repository for text, layouts, PDFs, images and other files allows not only sharing of digital resources but also easier communications between production team members.

Users can set up and coordinate production processes as series of tasks in particular orders. Authorized people can perform the steps in the right order. The software tracks processes, changes and approvals.

Xitron Xenith Extreme

Xitron’s Xenith Extreme software allows users to create workflows for either PDF or PostScript files. Based on job tickets, Xenith Extreme is compatible with CIP4’s latest version of JDF for standardized control right to the press. It can automate imposition, late page replacement, colour separation, trapping, RIPping and preflighting.

RIP-It OpenRIP Symphony

OpenRIP Symphony is, as you probably guessed, a RIP, and RIP-It has added a number of features that automatically take care of a number of the tasks required for offset printing: scanning, trapping, screening and imposition.

Your choice

Your choice of which workflow system will probably be determined by the other equipment: Heidelberg shops will use Prinect, while those with Agfa platesetters will probably go with :Apogee. But don’t forget that there are several other choices available, more than the few we managed to cover in these pages.

Look for systems that give you the amount of flexibility that you need, but also have some “standard” workflows built in —something that you can customize. Test it to make sure it’s compatible with your equipment and the way you like to work. And look for the ability to automate as much as possible.

2005 will go down as “the year of flat” in the printing world. Look at the interest in flatbed printers at Graphics Canada this year — and at the sheer number of such devices from a wide range of exhibitors.

Of course, flatbed wasn’t the only trend obvious to the observer. Wide-format printers and digital presses also drew a lot of attention. Printers and other professionals in the graphics business are looking at proofing, display making and variable printing like never before. By comparison, offset lithography has lost a lot of its former luster. Still, the “traditional” press manufacturers drew crowds to see how their latest offerings could make the graphics business more profitable.

Following is a not-comprehensive summary of some of the major trends evident at Graphics Canada 2005.

Year of flat

Winner of biggest and flattest machine on the show floor had to be Canada’s own GandInnovations, with their Jeti inkjet printers. Visitors crowded to see huge posters coming off their three- and five-metre-wide roll-fed printers and the new Jeti 3150 UV flatbed 6-colour printer.

ColorSpan flatbed printers were, it seems, everywhere at the show. The UVX prints on materials up to ½-inch thick, allowing printing directly onto the display material – no more need to mount or laminate paper onto foamcore or MDF. Unisource, MacDermid and several other booths had the relatively compact ColorSpan devices running.

Fujifilm Canada’s booth was dominated by large flatbed equipment from Inca: the Spyder 320, only the second to be seen in Canada (the first has been installed in Vancouver). This is a “mid-range” flatbed printer, available in four or six colours, with a maximum imaging area of more than 10 feet by 5 (according to the specs, 3.2 x 1.6 metres). “It’s ideal for screen printers who need to produce very short runs profitably,” say company representatives-priced at around $425,000 US, it’s easier to justify than many others. It also has a smaller “footprint” than, say, the Jeti, but be careful: the printing head extends beyond both sides of the printing bed, so it’s a bit of a hazard to bystanders as it moves back and forth.

Mike Borysenko, printing distributor from Toronto, injected a little reality into the discussion of wide-format printing. “It’s very interesting, but I don’t have enough room for a large-format flatbed printer.”

Partners Graphic Support was showing the Durst Rho 600, 80-inch (600 cm) wide printer in Hall 3. “There’s a lot of interest from screen printers because it allows them to print very short runs profitably,” said partner David Latham. “There’s also a lot of interest from lithographic printers who are looking at getting into a new market.”

Ernest Green & Son showed the Toucan printer from Mutoh, which can print onto material up to ½ inch thick, and can be roll-fed or sheetfed.

Flatbed cutters drew a lot of attention, too. An almost continuous throng surrounded ND Graphics’ booth in Hall 2 to watch Kongsberg’s Multi-Cut computerized die-cutter slice out logos of their favourite hockey teams and cartoon characters (SpongeBob was particularly popular) on almost any material up to 1 inch thick — aluminum, wood, MDF and more. An important profitability feature is a camera in the cutting head, which “sees” registration marks and automatically adjusts cutting position and direction for skew, stretch or other distortion. “It’s great for the sign maker with a flatbed printer who wants to print directly onto the substrate,” says Ted Nesbit, ND Graphics’ Training Manager, who was demonstrating the machine.

Visitors want wide

Wide-format printers were also popular. As stated, GandInnovation’s Jeti 5000 was the biggest on the floor, but Agfa’s Grand Sherpa Universal wowed attendees by producing a two-sided, four-colour, eight-up imposition proof in less than five minutes. The smaller Sherpa 24 “has gotten a lot of interest from flexographic printers,” said Joe Cotrone of Ernest Green & Son, which also showed the Agfa printers.

Hewlett-Packard had several wide-format printers. Some were aimed at the CAD market but the 4000 PS was shown for the graphics shop, as a proofer or short-run output system.

Epson and Canon also showed off their wide-format printers, among a broad array of products. Canon’s imageRUNNER Pro 125VP is a long, long unit with a lot of production features for the print shop.

Presses: concentrating on productivity

Rather than groundbreaking technological advances, press manufacturers and vendors this year are focusing their message on making their products more efficient and profitable with more automation, faster makereadies and better integration into complete “systems.”

Taking the prize for the most stylish press in the show was easily the Genius 52UV from KBA. This waterless, UV-drying offset packaging press doesn’t look like any other press on the market. KBA has dispensed with the inking-tower-per-colour approach, and instead arranged six inking stations in a radial fashion around a single impression cylinder. The manufacturer claims the press can be brought up to colour in as few as 10 sheets. Because there’s no water, there’s no need to worry about ink-water balance or even setting inking keys.

Changing plates or cleaning the press is a matter of sliding the side doors apart. KBA says plates can be changed in five minutes.

Heidelberg Canada had another Graphics Canada 05 first: the Canadian premiere of the Speedmaster XL 105 41-inch sheetfed press, shown in a 6-colour configuration, plus coater. Heidelberg also showed some smaller presses: A 5-colour, 12-inch Speedmaster SM 52, a 4-colour, 14-inch Printmaster PM 74, and two Printmaster QM 46s.

The size of their exhibit allowed Heidelberg the luxury of showing complete printing solutions, from prepress to finishing. The Prinect technology, which links prepress, image control, colour calibration, imposition (using SignaStation), platesetting and workflow control, drove print jobs. Crowds gathered to see the Prosetter 102, Quicksetter 300E and, for the Speedmaster XL press, the new Suprasetter s105 CTP platesetters.

In the postpress section, the new Pile Turner, which flips a pallet of printed paper, was an eye-catcher, but so was the complete Stitchmaster ST 350 stitching line that was running “live” through much of the show. Polar cutters, Stahl folders, Rima stackers and other paper-handling machines rounded out the exhibit.

For MAN Roland Canada, Graphics Canada 2005 was the first time they had a press running “live” in its booth, explained Canadian General Manager Paul Tasker. However, it wasn’t a MAN Roland press; instead, it was a four-colour Ryobi 520 with a coater. MAN Roland Canada has been distributing Ryobi printing equipment since the spring of 2005, and Tasker was very pleased with the reception both companies found at the show. Also on the booth were Moll finishing equipment and, to tie it all into a smooth workflow, the PECOM computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) system. “We have exceeded their expectations in terms of sales, especially with our success with the Moll folder/gluer.”

K-North, Canada’s Komori representative, was another exhibitor with a “first”: the first Spica 29P sheetfed press, shown in a 4-colour configuration with automated perfecting change-over, plate changers and data transfer.

Presstek, now owners of ABDick, had two main points to make at the show. First, of course, was their pioneering direct imaging computer-to-press systems, shown on Kodak and ABDick equipment; the other idea they stressed were the benefits of printing without hazardous chemistry, processing or water — no disposables, no harmful fumes, and higher profits.

Digital presses

Digital presses are taking a larger slice of the printing pie, and they drew consistent interest throughout the show. Xerox showed its iGen3 with roll feeding and inline coater and finishing equipment — including a booklet maker.

Xerox also has a number of “partnerships” with companies that develop variable printing and workflow management software, such as ExStream, Creo Darwin, XMPie and Elixir. These are essential elements in the growth of technologies like the iGen, Hewlett-Packard’s Indigo and Xeikon in producing four-colour, personalized direct mail and financial statements and bills, too.

Speaking of HP’s Indigo, the new Indigo 500 shown at Graphics Canada was the first model completely built under the HP brand. Costing around $400,000 US, it has found a niche in the Canadian market with about eight installations recently.

Punch Graphix showed the Xeikon digital press along with basysPrint computer-to-platesetters in an impressive-looking booth.

Kodak’s NexPress 2100 variable imaging electronic press also had a strong presence, holding down a sizable chunk of Kodak’s booth. Afga’s Dotrix high-speed, four-colour printing system is another example, which could have used greater prominence among Agfa’s many products.

But full-colour variable imaging presses weren’t the only type at Graphics Canada. The new Nipson VaryPress 200 was another Graphics Canada 05 debut, showing at Ernest Green & Son’s booth. This is a single-colour variable printing systems for addressing, labeling, direct mail and financial printing applications. It can take roll-fed paper, and can tie into press and roll-fed finishing, folding, perforating, cutting workflows. Kodak’s Versamark inkjet printer reportedly got a lot of interest from computer service bureaus, but also seemed a little lost in Kodak’s booth.

Prepress: “productivity” is the word

There are fewer companies who are strictly prepress anymore, and at Graphics Canada, they also focused on improving the printer’s profitability.

Quark showed the latest version of XPress 7. While it adds some ease-of-use features, the demonstrations stressed workflow automation.

Agfa has a number of workflow tools. Most notable are ApogeeX, for single workstations and users, and Delano for printers and agencies. They also showed their new Arcadia Web portal that helps clients to manage digital assets, simplifies collaboration and tracks progress off jobs through a Web browser.

Adobe drew crowds to seminars on managing production with its workflow tools and on using its CreativeSuite, which includes InDesign document layout, Photoshop, Illustrator, and other tools. Again, its focus was efficient production of printed and electronic documents.

And don’t overlook the smaller companies who also offer workflow tools: MetaCommunications’ VirtualTicket; Onyx Graphics Workflow and RIP; Speedflow by OneVision; Nexus from Artwork Systems; and the big systems — PECOM from MAN Roland, Prinect from Heidelberg, and Prinergy from Kodak.

Management tools

A number of smaller booths proved that computerized management of the printing room is not just for the big guys anymore.

Print-Quotes is an estimating program that runs inside a Web browser—so you can estimate printing from anywhere with an Internet connection. It includes price lists, prepress, finishing, dockets, file uploads and on-line proofing, inventory control and time tracking — but, sadly, isn’t yet JDF compliant. Still, for the smaller print shop, it’s probably worth consideration.

Instaprint from Airesys is a full management information system (MIS) for printers that includes order processing, purchasing management, staff management, financial planning and a full accounting system, all integrated into an “enterprise management” system.

And Avanti, long a fixture at Graphics Canada, had a constant crowd at their booth. “Printers are worried about the very thing we’re talking about: how to connect the ‘islands of automation,’” said Stephen McWilliam, Executive Vice-President. Avanti’s system not only collects production data from all the machines on the shop floor, the software also analyses it and gives managers comprehensive reports on what’s making money for them. And, it’s JDF-compliant. “JDF is now delivering on its promised productivity gain,” said McWilliams.

The show in Canada

Even a casual stroll around Graphics Canada makes it obvious that this is the most important trade show in the Canadian graphic arts industry—and the attendees will tell you, too.

“It’s been a good show,” said Steve Foley of Metroland Printing. He and others from his company came to look at punches, plate benders and a computer-to-plate system to expand their CTP capabilities in all their plants.

“It’s absolutely an important show,” said Ian Young of Radiant Laser Cut, a die-cutting firm in Markham, ON. “All my customers are here.” Young came for the “Great Debates: the power of new-age presses,” hosted by the Canadian Paperboard Packaging Association. “And I saw a lot more die-cutting suppliers that I didn’t expect to see here. I was struck by the amount of new technology on the market — a lot of suppliers are crossing into new areas.”

A significant show, Canada’s most important graphic arts trade show, and a successful show for exhibitors, management and—most important—the visitors. It didn’t feature the earth-shattering new announcements of some past trade shows, but it was the most important gathering of the Canadian industry in two years.

And that’s the point.

“We haven’t had a dot based proof for many years, now,” says Tom Gural, vice-president of Cober Printing in Kitchener, Ont. Instead, this quality printer uses a continuous-tone Veris proofer from Creo (now part of Kodak). “With some customers, we just send them a PDF and they let us worry about the colour,” Gural adds.

Gural’s not alone: since the graphic arts industry began adopting digital technology to produce images and pages, the nature of the proof has been changing, too. In an all-digital workflow, what does a hard-copy colour “proof” really mean? Is there a place anymore for the traditional proof? And if not, what’s replaced it—will the industry accept the fully digital, monitor-based, “soft” proof?

“Certainly, the definition of a contract proof has varied over the years,” says Robert Ens, product manager for proofing systems at Fuji Graphic Systems Canada. At one time, a “contract proof” was meant to resemble as closely as possible the image that the offset press would produce, down to the screens and dot structure. Proofs like 3M’s ColorKey or Agfa’s Pressmatch were made from the same film that was used to make the printing plate, and thus had the same dot structure. Theoretically at least, these proofs would show any moiré or other color problems. Of course, whether they predicted colour that well depended on a number of other factors, such as the substrate or medium that they used and process control. Halftone, “copy-dot” proofs are also quite expensive.

Film proofs lost their niche in the printing ecology when the industry shifted to computer-to-plate processes. In the filmless printing process, proofs have to made from the same digital files as the plate. Today, most customers accept continuous-tone prints as contract proofs; some are starting to accept “soft,” monitor-based proofing systems.

“You can lose a lot of time in the approval process, but the final deadline for printing never seems to change,” says Mike McDonald, President of Ampersand Printing of Guelph, Ont. The company has both offset presses and an HP Indigo digital press. The Indigo can produce its own “proofs” before the final press run, and for offset printed jobs, Ampersand uses a Creo Integris inkjet printer. They also occasionally use colour-calibrated monitor proofs, but “we’ve had a hard time getting people to accept the ‘soft proof’ as a contract proof.” It’s easier to send electronic proofs, but for final approval, especially regarding colour, customers still want to see a hard-copy proof.

The question is: can you make a digital proofing system a reliable predictor of the colour that will result from offset printing?

Digital proofing systems

In a film-based workflow, predicting the product of a printing press can be fairly straightforward, at least in theory. Using the same halftone film to make both the plate and the proof reduces the number of differences between the two imaging processes. Using the same pigments and substrates adds more controls, as well.

Even so, the proofing system still uses a different technology to produce the image than the press does. Only a proofing press can completely replicate offset printing characteristics—and even then, only with careful control.

One common problem is that many customers prefer the look of the proof to the final printed piece. Every printer has had to deal with inexperienced print buyers who want to get the rich colour and high gloss of the Cromalin proof from the offset press.

A digital workflow compounds this problem. There is no film to make the plate, so that one important aspect of controlling the fidelity of the proof is gone. Making sure that the proof is an accurate predictor of the final colour image from the offset press becomes a matter of careful set-up, characterization of every device and process in the workflow, working out translations between the different technologies and constant calibration and checking to ensure that all these devices remain within their specified profile range.

In one sense, it can be argued that if you can calibrate a continuous-tone printer to provide a reliable, realistic proof of offset printed colour, you could do the same with colour on a monitor. There are several vendors who do just that. Still, this route adds another challenge, that of somehow getting a monitor, which displays RGB colour, to emulate printing’s CMYK. And as in hard-copy proofing, to be really reliable, the monitor has to be viewed in the right lighting conditions. The standard for SWOP proofing is 5000 degrees Kelvin.

Digital proofing technologies

The digital workflow necessitates a digital proofing system, one that produces pages, printer’s spreads or signatures directly from the same digital files that will produce plates. Solutions fall into four categories: wide-format inkjet printers for producing signatures, used for verifying pagination and position, but not necessarily colour accuracy; high-quality, continuous-tone inkjet printers for emulating press colour; and monitor-based, “soft” proofing technologies that may or may not be linked to a paper proofing system.

“Printers today will employ a number of different colour proofing technologies at different points in the production process,” says Brad Palmer, General Manager, Proofing and Colour with Kodak Graphic Communications. A high-resolution, continuous-tone proofer may be used as a “final” proof to approve colour, but before that, printers may have customers sign off on the layout using lower-quality, and cheaper, single-page printers; at another stage, they’ll use wide-format printers to check imposition and registration, and to ensure that all the graphic elements are in the final file.

Position proofs

Wide-format inkjet printers have become the norm for producing signature proofs to check imposition. Hewlett-Packard, Epson, Xerox, Encad, MacDermid-Colorspan, Agfa, Canon, Durst Phototechnik, Gerber Scientific Products, Kodak, Mimaki, Mutoh, Nur and more make wide-format colour printers with varying degrees of colour accuracy and control.

Agfa’s Sherpa-m series of wide-format printers combine signature-size format with high-quality colour controls. The Grand Sherpamatic prints both sides of up to 50 inches for a full printer’s flat, with very high precision.

Continuous-tone, inkjet printers

Fast, convenient and relatively inexpensive, continuous tone (contone) inkjet printers can be configured to produce an accurate contract colour proof. However, it won’t match the colours from an offset press unless they’re carefully set up to do so.

That requires several steps: developing an accurate profile, or description of the offset press that the ultimate destination of the print job, as well as profiles of the proofing device and all the colour devices involved in producing the job. Next, you have to match these profiles, in effect, restricting the range of colours, or gamut, that the proofing system produces so that it’s the same as that of the offset press. Then you have to continually measure and calibrate all these devices to ensure their colour output remains within the parameters you need.

Fortunately, there are several standards that simplify this process: International Color Consortium (ICC) profiles that describe colour characteristics of devices in a consistent way from any manufacturer; SWOP (Specification for Web Offset Publications) standards for describing colour output and inks; and Apple’s ColorSync technology for translating colours between different technologies. When shopping for a colour proofing system, make sure it meets at least those three standards.

There’s a wide variety of continuous tone inkjet printers available today, including the MatchPrint Inkjet from Kodak, the PictroProof from Fuji, DuPont’s CromaProXP and the 10000 series from Epson. Xerox’s Phaser printers use solid inks.

In addition to the Veris line of 2-page contone printers, Kodak continues to support the Iris printers it inherited when it acquired Creo, which inherited them from Scitex.

Halftone proofs

For some printers—and for some printing customers—the only acceptable prepress proof remains one that has a halftone dot pattern. For these exacting clients, there are some digital proofing systems that emulate the plate dot for dot. But there’s a high price to be paid for this level of precision, and still, all the devices have to be regularly calibrated for the system to be at all reliable. In addition to the commercial printing market, Kodak’s Digital Approval Halftone color proofing system is also finding success in the packaging world. “It’s seeing a lot of growth in the packaging market,” says Brad Palmer, general manager of proofing and color with Kodak, based in Vancouver.

The Prediction series from Latran is another proofing system that generates halftone images from digital files. It also has found greater acceptance in the packaging industry, with its longer runs and high demands for exacting colour. Fujifilm’s FinalProof system uses its patented thin-layer thermal transfer technology to place true halftone dots onto the receiver sheet for a true, dot-to-dot prediction of an offset press. Aimed at the high-end commercial printer, it has also found a “new life” in the packaging world.

Monitor-based proofing

“Soft” proofing, or using a computer monitor, has been around for a long time. Printers and clients are used to viewing images, pages and spreads on a monitor to check layout, ensure that all the pictures and text boxes are in place and the type is correct. However, we’ve all learned to be wary of trusting the colour from a monitor: it’s a completely different method of producing colour. After all, monitors produce colour in the RGB “colour space”—that is, using red, green and blue as the primary colours, while the press uses yellow, cyan, magenta and black primary colours. There are some colours that the press can produce that the monitor cannot, and a much wider range of colours that the monitor can display that are far outside the press’s gamut.

Still, since the advent of filmless prepress, a number of vendors have brought out technologies that attempt to mimic the press on a computer monitor.

“Contract proofs are many things to many different people,” agrees Brad Palmer of Kodak Graphic Communications. “Continuous-tone prints, even images on a computer monitor can be proofs; each has a different level of risk for the printer. With better profiling and colour management, it’s possible to use monitor-based proofing as contract proofs.”

Kodak’s MatchPrint Virtual “hasn’t had a huge market penetration, yet, but it’s definitely a technology that’s here to stay,” says Palmer. It’s typically used in conjunction with hard copy-based proofs. Its main advantages are speed and convenience—the printer can send the proof to the customer through the Internet, instead of a courier. Delivering proofs across the country is as easy as sending them across town. As a result, virtual proofing is popular with publications.

Other “soft proofing” systems can be found from Agfa, ICS’ Remote Director, Dalim and Helios. Look for ICC-integrated software.

Colour management

Colour management is the term for keeping all the colour devices working within specified ranges and translating colour data between them so the results look the same.

One vendor that provides a comprehensive solution to accomplish all this is QuickCut Ltd. of Australia. Their latest product, QuickCut ICC 2.0, integrates the Adobe Color Engine to manage the transition between RGB and CMYK colour spaces. In addition to allowing printers to use a monitor to provide an accurate colour proof, it manages colour through the whole prepress process. It captures ICC colour profiles from presses, monitors, scanners and printers and aligns them. It even alerts the printer if the ink weight required in an image exceeds the designated press’s limits.

A number of large advertising agencies use QuickCut ICC to prepare colour ad files before sending them to large publication printers, including some in Canada. “The agencies use our product to set their clients’ expectations realistically,” says Dean Benjamin of QuickCut’s North American office. “ICC sets the expectation of what the file will look like as it comes off the press. Most importantly to the printer or publisher, the proof coming from the agency or advertiser takes into account the real press conditions.”

Not only can QuickCut calibrate a continuous-tone print, it can also ensure the monitor displays press-accurate colours — as long as the viewing conditions are right. This means it can be used reliably for long-distance proofing, as a national publisher would need.

GMG’s ColorProof performs similar functions. Other vendors of colour management systems include EFI, Agfa, Fuji, and Dalim with its Dialogue software.

It is possible

Plainly, it is possible to make a monitor-based proofing system that is as accurate a predictor of an offset press as a continuous-tone printer. It requires careful characterization of the press, the monitor and all the other colour devices in between, including the RIP. You need the right lighting around the monitor, too—just like with a hard copy proof. It also requires that you constantly verify that everything is performing within specifications, again, like a hard copy proof.

Soft proofing is catching on more and more in the publication market, where the deadlines weigh more heavily than quality compared to commercial printing. And they’re much cheaper, per proof. “Cost is always an issue to customers,” says Cober Printing’s Tom Gural.

Is it cheaper to have printing jobs printed overseas? Graphic Arts finds out.

Welcome to a new regular department of Graphic Arts magazine. We’re investigating a myth of the Canadian printing industry: are offshore printers all that much more competitive than Canadians? And we’re doing this the only way that makes sense: we’re asking the offshore printers. Consider it a benchmark to compare where your business might be facing some stiff competition from across the ocean.

Every issue, we’ll ask for quotes for printing different types of printing jobs. For this inaugural edition, we’ve asked four Asian printers to quote on printing a large job: 30,000 copies of a glossy, 48-page, self-cover brochure in four colours.

We asked all printers to base their quote on receiving PDF files on CD from us, without need for changes (other than preflighting, naturally), including delivery to Toronto and all shipping and customs charges.

Specifications:

Size: 8.5 x 11 inches

Extent: 48 pp including cover

Stock: all 116 gsm no. 2 coated white

Color: 4/c 2 sides, process

Delivery: Toronto, Canada.

International Print-o-Pac

New Delhi, India

$17,000 US

Equipment:

Sheetfed offset:

6/c MAN Roland 706LV with coater

8/c MAN Roland 708—28” x 40”

5/c MAN Roland 705—28” x 40”

6/c MAN Roland—18.9”x26”

5/c MAN Roland—18.9”x26”

4/c MAN Roland—18.9”x26”

2/c MAN Roland perfector—28” x 40”

2/c Adast Dominant perfector—19”x 26”

1/c Adast Dominant—19”x 26”

2/c Planeta perfector—28” x 40”

Heat-set Web:

SOLNA C96 heat-set web press with double parallel and 8-page folder

___________________________________

Regal Printing, Ltd.

Hong Kong, China

$14,100 US

Equipment:

Sheetfed offset presses

3 8/c Heidelberg Speedmaster 102ZPs with CP2000

2 5/c Komori Lithrone 40s

3 4/c Komori Lithrone 40/S40s

2 2/c Heidelberg Speedmaster 102p perfectors

___________________________________

Artful Dragon Press (brokers)

Locations across Asia

$22,578 US

The only way for packagers to 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.

New printing technologies and business models go by a range of names: on–demand printing, web to print, short run printing, variable printing. They’re more than just new names – they represent new ways of doing business and of providing services to customers. They are also the heralds of new compensation models, since printing is only a small part of the value that the client receives in an on–demand printing environment.

Technology ties it together
What is short–run printing? More specifically, what is a short run? Is it a quantity under 1000 copies? Or a job that uses fewer than 500 sheets?

Defining short–run printing, or deciding whether to use a short–run workflow, is more than figuring out the minimum quantity that offset printing can produce economically. Most printers who get into on–demand digital printing find that the decision of whether to go to offset or digital output is more often about speed than cost.

“With business cards, we can print 10,000 on our iGen easily because we can put six or eight cards on a sheet,” says Rajith Rao of Sherwood Printers in Mississauga. “With an 8.5 x 11 flyer in four colours, a quantity under 1000 should definitely go to the iGen; 2,000 to 3,000 is [still] a good range [for digital]; between 3,000 and 5,000 copies, it [the press we use] depends on the job and the customer and how fast they want the job; and over 5,000 usually should go to the offset press.

“But then, the job on the iGen can be done right away, while the press takes two or three days, and another day if it has to be folded. With theiGen, we can print, fold, trim, and stitch immediately, all in the same day. It depends how quickly the customer needs the job.”
In the realm of web–to–print solutions, instant printing and variable printing are very different applications, although they do use some of the same technology: high–speed digital presses and printers like Xerox’s iGen3, Hewlett–Packard’s Indigo line, Kodak’s NexPress, and the Xeikon line; high–speed copiers and printers like the ImageRunner from Canon, the BizHub series from Konica Minolta, and others. The instant printing capabilities of such technologies enable them to handle extremely short–run, on–demand printing, and variable printing—which is, in essence, the shortest run of all: one copy.

These different types of printing enable many different models of customer interaction. Consider, for example, the combination of print and other media that’s enabled by short–run and variable printing.

Web to print is a unique way of doing printing: it puts primary control of design and content, as well as production scheduling, into the client’s hands.

In web to print systems, the client navigates to a web site that contains design templates, text templates, and images. Using the web browser, the client can select the design, images and text, and sometimes can edit the text or upload new images.

Once satisfied with the layout, the client then fills out a web form, choosing the quantity to be printed and in some cases the location for printing, and fills in billing and shipping information. This information is transferred to the printer, and in some systems, automated workflow systems start the production process; in other cases, a customer service person receives an e–mail with details on the requested print job.
The software generates a file to be printed, which includes all text and graphics. The system can produce a hard copy or a soft proof, which is then sent to the customer. Once the client signs off (which can also be done through the web or e–mail), the workflow system sends the job to output.

The printer can set up the design templates and can guide the development of the website that allows such customer autonomy, or the printer can merely be the output provider in a system set up by programming or marketing experts.

Regardless, the primary value of web to print products, and the service for which the client pays the most, is not the actual printing. Rather, it’s the intelligence that set up the system, and the services involved in keeping it functioning and improving. The pricing model is thus very different from that of traditional printing.

Using print as just one component of a multi–media communications campaign is nothing new, but a new version of that involves “personalized URLs,” (universal resource locators)—that is, a unique web address.

This kind of marketing communication requires qualified leads, complete with proper names and addresses. The prospect gets a personalized mailer informing him or her of a unique website with an address based on the prospect’s name (like www.marketingcompany.com/ prospectsname), and a unique user name and password. Once the prospect visits the website and enters his or her user name and password, he or she is usually rewarded with some kind of premium or gift and given more marketing information. These sorts of initiatives have proven very successful for insurance companies and similar businesses. But they’re also difficult to set up, and require strict adherence to design and communications standards.

“Web to print is here, but it works really well only in very select ways,” says Frank McPherson, president of Custom Data Imaging of Markham, ON. “It will take a few more years before the market is really using it effectively.”

Printers can assume a central role in web to print by managing all of the different processes involved in developing the messages, developing the website, managing the mailing, and more. If you’re not ready for a major web to print initiative, try taking on something relatively minor, such as variable printing of some postcards.

Why do customers want on–demand printing?
Printers know that customers select digital, on–demand printing for two reasons: favourable pricing for short runs and faster turnaround. However, more and more customers are selecting it because the quality is acceptable compared to offset printing. “A lot of people who don’t want digital printing just aren’t familiar with it,” says Rajith Rao of Sherwood Printers. “But once they see the results off the digital press, and understand that the “proof” is an example of the actual output, they start to see the light.”

One of the biggest users of on–demand and variable printing is the university sector. Universities have been using short–run, on–demand printing for many years to produce sets of readings and specialized textbooks that contain only the material the professor determines necessary; it reduces costs of textbooks, paper consumption, storage and ordering time, benefiting both students and the university.
But that just scratches the surface of the capabilities of on–demand printing. Every university has to do fundraising to make ends meet, even Canada’s largest, the University of Toronto. They found an 80 percent increase in the number of donors to their annual alumni direct–mail donation drive when they started using personalized direct mail.

In 2004, the U of T fundraising committee tested variable printing with their print provider, Custom Data Imaging. The university and the printer worked closely together to develop a direct mail piece that had a personalized letter to each alumnus from his or her graduating faculty, plus a return donation slip also imprinted with the donor’s name, address, graduating faculty, and amount of last donation, and another full–colour slip that showed the impact of donor support on that same faculty. Each of 32,500 individuals could receive up to five pieces of personalized mail—a huge undertaking for a printer.

The initial test worked: the number of individual donors who responded increased by 80 percent over the year previous, when the university did not use personalized mail. And the gross donation total increased by 30 percent as well. And that was with a mailing list half the size of the one used the year before.

Custom Data Imaging did a lot to make U of T’s campaign successful. It has two Indigo digital presses—the model 1000 and the model 5000—as well as a Heidelberg 9110 offset press, two Konica Minolta single–colour copiers, a Konica Minolta BizHub black–and–white high–speed printer, and a Konica Minolta 3800 four–colour printer. The company specializes in short runs, but has the capacity for longer runs upon client demand.

“Most of our production is on–demand printing, and of that, 60 to 65 percent is variable printing,” says Frank McPherson, president and “head decision maker.” Their jobs vary widely, from postcards, to brochures, to folders, to direct mail. “I don’t track sheets per month or clicks or anything like that; I’m not interested in that,” McPherson explains. “I have a different mindset about this business. I see our equipment as a facilitator for making money in design, output and mailing services, and [for] delivering value to our customers.”

“I don’t sell on price, either,” he continues. “We give a quality of service, and I will walk away from a project when a customer is looking for the cheapest price.”

It’s an approach that works: Custom Data Imaging has grown every year since McPherson started six years ago. “We offer solutions, a way to satisfy customers’ needs,” he says. “Unfortunately, in the printing industry, value added is usually seen in its financial connection—what you get when you take out the manufacturing costs. But you can’t make money in this business selling that kind of value added. The real added value has got to do with service.”

Finding your value added
There are obvious similarities between short–run, on–demand, and variable printing. Once the technology is in place, many printers find it difficult to resist the temptation to offer the full range of variable printing services.

But success in on–demand printing requires a different approach to customer relations than traditional offset printing does. Business success and growth aren’t based on the cheapest price per sheet or the best ink coverage on the sheet anymore: they’re judged according to a much more complex formula that accounts for speed, accuracy and “value added.” The abilities of the printer to solve challenges and to create new products and new opportunities for clients are what clients are willing to pay for.

The last word belongs to Frank McPherson of Custom Data Imaging: “The industry is waking up to the fact that they’ll have to make money by adding value for the customer—offering solutions, a way to reach their customers.”

At first glance, 2007 looks like a gloomy year for paper supply. Prices are weak and have been eroding for two years, and mill capacity remains high as new sources enter the market.

But while newsprint sales are decreasing in North America, digital grades are selling more strongly than ever. Meanwhile, many printing clients are asking for environmentally–friendly grades of paper for their jobs.

For a cost–conscious printer, there are many opportunities to make greater profits and deliver greater value to customers.

Statistics
According to the Paper Trader, a monthly paper markets newsletter, worldwide paper prices are declining. Overcapacity in the North American market is depressing prices below the cash cost levels for some of the higher–cost mills, leading to mill shutdowns and layoffs. The Paper Trader is predicting that the North American market will remain “very weak for 2007.”

The Pulp and Paper Products Council (PPPC) spun off in 2000 from the old Canadian Pulp and Paper Association, and they are the main—in fact, the only—source of reliable statistics on paper production and consumption in Canada. The PPPC’s statistics shown here represent total Canadian figures for newsprint, printing, and writing grades of paper, both imported and domestically produced. That measure is also a good proxy of printing activity in the country, and it shows overall growth as fairly stagnant since the turn of the 21st century.

Total consumption of newsprint, printing, and writing grades of paper across North America peaked in 2000, according to statistics gathered by the Pulp and Paper Council. Since then, it’s dropped, from a high of 3.5 million tonnes to 3.1 million tonnes in 2006. “Consumption has been relatively flat since 2002,” says Paul Leclair, the PPPC’s Chief Economist. And, according to the Paper Trader, the prices for coated mechanical paper grades have been eroding since the end of 2005. In January 2007, prices dropped by an average of $20 per ton (US figure).
Newsprint volumes account for much of the decline, and finer grades of paper, classified as “printing and writing grades” by the PPPC, are not suffering as much as newsprint, says Leclair. Newsprint consumption is down in North America and western Europe, coincident with the growth of the internet. “Specifically, [decline in] newsprint consumption correlates very closely with high–speed or broadband internet growth,” Leclair explains. Classified advertising, mostly of cars, houses, and jobs, is now largely handled by specialized web–based services.

According to RISI (originally Resource Information Systems, Inc., online at www.risiinfo.com), publishers of a number of reports on the global forest products industry, the 21st century ushered in a major shift in the worldwide paper industry. “Between 2000 and 2005 alone, more than 100 mills closed in North America, while capacity continues to grow in Eastern Europe and China with the addition of more than 120 new machines,” reports the company.

The digital shift
One sector of the paper market that is actually growing is digital paper—an awkward term used to describe paper suitable for use in digital presses, printers, and copiers.

“It’s a higher–priced category than offset papers,” says Jim Dorkin, of Precision Fine Papers in Markham, Ontario. Digital presses have different requirements when it comes to a paper stock: they require a different finish on the sheet than an offset press does, and they also require cut stock, usually 8.5 x 11 or 12 x 18 inches. The growing use of digital printing is driving up the consumption of digital paper stocks.
“We have to stock more sizes and formats of cut sheets for the digital printer customers that we have,” confirms Carolyn Daly, Marketing Communications Supervisor with paper supplier Spicers in Toronto.

The other type of paper in greater demand is “environmentally friendly” stock—not just recycled papers, but paper grades that satisfy the requirements of the Forestry Stewardship Council. The FSC is an international not–for–profit organization that works to solve the problems created by unsustainable forestry practices and to reward good forest management. Its “FSC–approved” logo can be applied to the labels of products, including printing paper, produced by companies that meet its requirements for energy use and other practices that reduce their impact on forests and the natural environment.

“Demand for FSC–approved paper is a growing trend,” agrees Precision’s Jim Dorkin. “[But], not that many printers are willing to pay more for it.”

“There’s a much bigger push from the printers for FSC–certified papers than there ever used to be,” says Spicers’ Daly. “Some printers and their customers are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly stocks. However,” she agrees, “most want it and ask for it, but aren’t willing to pay more for it.”

Unfortunately for paper suppliers, meeting FSC standards requires them to pay more—in the form of different kinds of energy generation and other sustainable practices. Says Daly: “The printer will ask for FSC–approved paper, and we’ll go to the mill to ask for it. The mill will make the investment to deliver it, but then the printer will opt for the Chinese paper because it’s less expensive.”

Lots of talk about paper from China
The biggest paper buzz in today’s printing market revolves around the rapid growth in availability and consumption of paper from Chinese mills.

“Over the past three or four years, we’ve starting importing more of the paper we sell. Ninety percent of the paper we sell now is sourced offshore, primarily from China,” says Dorkin of Precision Fine Papers. “From a company that used to be a converter with distribution capability, we’ve become a distributor with converting capability.”

And 80 percent of the paper imported from China is in the form of “finished goods”—that is, cut sheets. “The economics of buying rolls of paper from China are not as good, because the Chinese mills don’t differentiate in price between rolls and sheets like the North American mills do. We generally cut the rolls we import into specialty sizes of sheets.”

“The Chinese mills are starting to take more [North American] market share,” agrees Carolyn Daly. “What’s more significant is that some of the new players in the Canadian market are starting to bring in more paper manufactured from China.”

This trend marks a change in the market’s perception of imported paper, particularly paper imported from China. “Where the paper comes from is not an issue with customers anymore,” says Dorkin. “The Chinese deliver a very high quality sheet, exactly meeting North American specifications for basis weight, caliper, and opacity.”

What’s important to most buyers is that the paper runs and can save the printer some money. As Dorkin puts it, printers “are always looking for paper that will run well on the press at the lowest possible price.”

But Paul Leclair of the PPPC dismisses the impact of the Chinese mills. “There are much bigger exporters of paper in the world than China. Everybody’s afraid of China, because when they start growing in a market, they grow [quickly]. But the US is still by far the largest foreign source of fine grades of paper, and Canada supplies its own market for newsprint.”

Imports from China have risen dramatically in recent years, he agrees, “but they’ve risen from almost nothing—5,000 tonnes in 2000 to 45,000 tonnes in 2006. That’s a big increase, but the total demand in Canada in 2006 was 3.2 million tonnes.” In short, Chinese paper imports account for just 1.4 percent of the total amount of newsprint, printing, and writing grades consumed in Canada last year.
Last month, the U.S. trade department imposed countervailing duties on Chinese paper, among other products. The total impact of this move on paper supplies and prices remains to be seen.

The paper supply in Canada
So, what does all this mean to Canada’s paper merchants and to printers?

For the time being, it means paper prices will probably remain stable. 2006 was the “top of the price cycle,” explains Paul Leclair. Prices will be on a generally downward trend, aided by overcapacity in the domestic market and the arrival of new sources from Asia and Eastern Europe.
In January this year, Abitibi Consolidated of Montreal and Bowater of Greenville, South Carolina announced they would merge, becoming the third–largest paper and forest products company in North America and the eighth–largest in the world, with a total worth of over $8 billion US. Both companies had been losing money in recent years. The effect of the merger on the Canadian printing market have yet to be seen, but will probably help to stabilize prices.

Other paper merchants are finding success in new tactics. Precision Fine Papers, for one, has adopted a more aggressive selling strategy, hiring two salespeople for the first time. “Sales are up significantly because we’re much more aggressive in the market today,” Dorkin explains.

“Also, we’re focusing more on [the] particular segments of the market that we can serve best. We’re not trying to sell to everybody.”
Spicers is sticking to the basics with which it has already had success. The company itself is a relatively new player in Canada, but it’s really a combination of a number of longtime players, having acquired Coast and Cascades paper merchants last year. “Coated and uncoated papers are still our biggest sellers,” says Carolyn Daly. European and North American mills are their main sources, for reasons of quality and reliability, and new mills are still a minor part of the business.

The impact on printers
For printers, the current paper market also offers a number of opportunities. Low prices and high capacity mean there are deals to be made. The glut of papers in the market also means that discerning printers may be able to make high quality available to their customers for less money. Wide availability of FSC–approved papers also means that printers have the opportunity to deliver environmentally–sustainable options to their clients—an option that many clients are now requesting.

Mayday Fine Print realized that its manual estimating system wasn’t doing them much good. “We were doing a lot of jobs, but we weren’t making much profit,” says Rick Day of Mayday Fine Print of Fredericton, New Brunswick.

“We kept hearing ‘you guys are so much cheaper than anybody else.’ Eventually, we put two and two together.”

Putting “two and two together” meant taking a long, hard look at their manual estimating system and at the market rates in Fredericton for the kinds of services they provided. Two years ago, they purchased the Power Quotes estimating system from Mac Estimating, and determined their real costs. Their prices went up a little, but they mostly got more efficient at producing better quotes and tracking the progress of jobs through the shop.

Estimating software is not new; what is new is that today’s systems are driven more by print customers. Power Quotes allows print customers to send their job specifications via an Internet form or e-mail. The software captures the specifications, calculates costs according to the printer’s information, marks them up according to the printer’s wishes, and sends back a price estimate, all with minimum, if any, human intervention from the printer. The better systems use the same specifications to create an electronic job jacket or job ticket when the customer approves the quote or requests that the printer move the job from “quoting” status to production.

Estimating software such as Print Quotes, Power Quotes, Smart Quotes and The Printing Estimator also allow the printer to set up a web page with a form where potential customers can enter their job specifications; the estimating software captures the data, calculates the estimate and can either display the quotation right within the web page, or send an e-mail to the potential customer. The advantage of the latter method is that the printer then has a record of the quote requester’s e-mail address, and, if they’re smart, other contact information as well.

The main benefit to the printer of any estimating system is, of course, a reduced workload for skilled estimators, and faster quotes. Instant, online quotes allow the printer to give the potential customer accurate prices for every imaginable variation in the printing specifications — number of colours, signatures, even pages, as well as different quantities, even page sizes or formats and stocks. Customers can vary the format of their print job to their hearts’ content, without affecting the workload on the printer, until they settle on the best configuration for their needs. Instant quotes are not available from all estimating programs, but they are available with Print Quotes.

Automated estimating also frees printers from spurious, time-wasting quotes from buyers who are only looking for a comparative quote, buyers who actually have no intention of going to a new printer.

Better estimating systems tie into the overall production and management system by capturing the printing specifications and turning them into data for the workflow system. Software like Print Quotes, Smart Quotes and Power Quote feed information directly into the workflow system. When a customer accepts a quote and requests the printer to start production, the software can move the specifications from the quote into an electronic job ticket; some systems can even create job jackets. Print Quotes has extensive workflow management capabilities: it will create a job ticket, notify production people about new jobs, and track jobs through production. In addition to displaying real prices online for the customer, the web portal also allows the customer to upload files, approve proofs and track job progress. It even allows billing (using QuickBooks for the accounting procedures) and online payment.

Interestingly, there has been a direct line drawn between estimating software and profitability. “PrintImage’s [the National Association of Quick Printers] pricing book found that companies that use estimating software to create quotes average more than $475,000 more in sales than companies that generate quotes using manual systems or price-book systems,” says Bruce Moore, President of Mac Estimating, the developers of the Power Quote software. “A lot of that is because they’re able to do more business, because they can send out quotes more quickly.

“One of the biggest reasons to purchase our software is its marketing potential,” says Chris Lasso, president of Print-Quotes Software Inc. “Advertising instant on-line estimates, anytime from anywhere, creates an instant advantage over the competition and quickly helps to establish any company as a leader in today’s market. “ Lasso says that many of Print-Quotes’ customers have seen sales increase dramatically after offering automated on-line estimating.

The cost is greater than the price
Instant, automated print estimating software isn’t cheap: The purchase costs are in the thousands, depending on the number of people who will use it (called “licences” or “seats” in the business), and then there’s the cost to install it, customize it to work in the particular printing operation, and then train the estimators to use the software efficiently.

Because every print shop is different, every print estimating program has to be customized to some extent. First, there’s the exact range of services that the company provides, based largely on its investment in capital equipment: number, size and type of presses, folders, stitchers, cutters, bindery equipment, prepress equipment and more.

To make it work, the printing manager has to know the real costs of the shop and of running each piece of equipment. While this would seem to be a given for any printer with any manual or book-based estimating system, it’s true that many shops rely on “gut feel” and the “going rate” in the industry.

Even with a solid understanding of the market prices for various services and the operating costs of all the equipment, getting started with estimating software can be daunting.  “We looked into estimating software for our system, and most of them are so expensive that you really have think twice before you buy it. Will it really work well in our organization, or will we have to switch the way we work to fit the software?” wonders Neeraj Gupta, Marketing Manager with Millennium Printing of Markham, outside Toronto. “And frankly, with some systems, the estimator has to enter so many numbers to generate the ‘automatic’ quote, it’s just as fast or faster to do the estimate manually.”

Not all printers like to put out great numbers of instant quotes; many like to maintain a personal touch. And a request for a quote is a terrific opportunity to speak with a potential new customer, to impress him or her with your customer service, attention to detail and depth of technical knowledge. Instant quoting systems are far more anonymous, and can represent a certain loss of control over the procedure of quoting on potential print jobs.

In fact, there is a trade-off: instant quoting software reduces the time that printers spend producing quotes for printing jobs that probably will  never materialize, but free up the staff for more profitable work. And Rick Day points out that Mayday Fine Print has been able to secure more printing work, partly as a result of being able to produce quotes more efficiently.

Mid-size printers buy in
So, who is using off-the-shelf print estimating software and online print estimating systems? Not surprisingly, it’s the mid-size printers. The largest companies have the resources to build their own estimating software that meets their own specific needs, and, given the price, the smallest printers seem reluctant to change from manual estimating methods.

“A lot of our new customers and enquiries are people who are still using manual systems,” says Bruce Moore of Power Quote.
Canada’s biggest printers don’t offer an online estimating system. Quebecor World’s website asks visitors to fill out an online form and describe their print job, without asking for any particular specifications, even quantity or paper stock. The potential customer will receive a phone-call or e-mail in response.

Transcontinental Printing’s website doesn’t even offer an apparent method to ask for quotes on particular printing jobs; it encourages potential customers to call the appropriate Transcontinental division to enquire about services and prices.

St. Joseph’s Printing, another of Canada’s largest printers, likewise doesn’t offer instant or online quotes. The website encourages potential customers to call key managers, identified by name and full contact information, for more information.

(Of course, the biggest printers don’t sell on price: they sell a working relationship, within which the printer provides value in terms of not the cheapest printing, but the most effective.)

Companies that offer online or instant estimating features tend to be the mid-size printers. Some examples are Point One Graphics of Toronto, and trade printer The Print Machine of Burlington, Ontario. Both of these companies use PrintQuotes software, and both ask the visitor to log in with a user name and password; after that’s approved, they’re able to enter printing specifications and receive an instant quote, generated by PrintQuotes software.

“Print Quotes reduces the number of hours we spend in writing quotes,” says Dennis Low, President of Point One Graphics. “The tracking functions really make us more efficient, for a very reasonable cost.”

Power Quotes software works in a very similar way: through a printing company’s Web site, customers and potential customers enter printing specifications and see a total price at the end.

Extending quotes to ERP/ERM
“We were looking for a way to cut the length of time it took us to work on job quotes when we discovered PRINT QUOTES 3 years ago.” says Rais Khan, President of Print Machine, “We were one of the early adopters of the software. The company (Print Quote) customized it to suit our needs.”

“Our customers are able to go on-line and receive an instant quote. The customer service and sales departments can also see the information sent by the customers”.

Print Machine uses PRINT QUOTES’ ERM/ERP features to the company’s full advantage. From an estimated customer quote to a virtual order, generating a job ticket as part of the process. Moving the job from the Front Office to the Production queue, along the way updating inventory lists as paper and other supplies get used for the job. It also updates the accounting system (QuickBook) in real-time.

“Not only can our customers get their quotes on line, but they can log-in to track the progress of their job, whether it is on press or in-bindery. They now feel that they are part of the process. We are quite happy with our investment in Print Quote software.” “It has streamlined our operation more efficiently and allowed us to grow in the market-place. We are also pleased with the support we have received from the software manufacturer and would have no difficulty recommending it to other printers.”

A starting point for automated workflow
Even without all the custom programming, a good estimating system does more than just generate quotes: it can give a smaller printer a marketing edge, effectively multiplying the ability of its staff to deliver the key marketing tool of an estimate to a much wider audience. And by capturing production data in a consistent electronic format, it forms the beginning of a workflow automation system whether based on JDF or not. For many printers, the automated estimating system is the start of a journey to the leading edge of print production management.

“Our (Power Quotes) estimating system has made the estimating process six to eight times more efficient for us,” says Rick Day of Mayday Fine Print. “When I open the quote sheet, the software shows the paper stock, which press is most efficient, how many up to run it. The system really helps with organization and keeps the job history accurate, as well.”   

Out my window

Despite the apparent growth of electronic communication, people still want paper, and that’s good news for the entire graphic arts industry. The public just isn’t as ready to accept e-mails or web downloads for most “transactional” communications. No, we want these crucial, if mundane, records of purchases, investments, and bank transactions on paper.

InfoTrends, a market research and consulting firm for the digital imaging and document production industry, pointed out this January that fewer than half of respondents to their survey plan to pay bills online. Most people prefer paper-based transactions, and the main reason is security.

Consumers also “continue to have a high preference for [paper-based] direct mail over other forms of direct marketing,” InfoTrends found. “Sixty-one percent of consumers surveyed stated a preference for direct mail, which is nearly triple the number that preferred receiving ads via e-mail.”

Last January, Trendwatch Graphic Arts — now known as The Industry Measure — predicted “sharp” growth in variable printing. They pointed out that the number of graphic arts firms in North America that reported producing “some sort of VDP” over the past 12 months had risen from 28 percent in 2005 to 37 percent in 2006, and they felt this was a trend that would continue.

Meanwhile, technology that allows businesses to target and personalize communications continues to become more powerful and accessible, and marketing companies are finding interesting new uses for them. For instance, car dealerships in the U.S. and Europe, as well as major software vendors, are combining colour variable output technology with the flexibility of the Web: salespeople can log into a “brochure-builder” site, select a template, images and text, edit the content to suit their own needs, upload a small database of recipients, add their own contact information, and have the resulting customized, individualized brochure printed in exactly the quantity they need by a qualified supplier. Another enterprising marketer in the U.S. has set up deals with retailers and printers across the country, which allow consumers to upload their digital photos, build an album from templates through an Internet browser, then have them printed in whatever quantity they choose. The website directs the print job to the closest printer, and the output gets delivered in 24 to 48 hours to whatever retail outlet the customer chooses.

If that sounds like the web is honing in on the printer’s territory again, remember that the result is ink (or maybe toner) on paper.
The point is, printers are probably the best-placed people to realize these new uses of communications technology. So if you’re not into variable printing today, don’t wait much longer.

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.