@ PRINT 18 Magazine

8 Tax Law

Capital Investment Under New Tax Law 20 Automation

Binding and Finishing: Automating Your Shop’s “Final Frontier” 26 To-Do List

Things To Do Better When Buying Inkjet

Print is Everywhere Have You Noticed?

IMAGE© BRIAN BLOOM

JOIN US WHERE PHYSICAL MEETS DIGITAL AT PRINT 18.

See how we’re breaking new ground at the intersection of physical and digital to create opportunities to differentiate, transform, drive growth and ignite remarkable results for your business.

• See the PIA InterTech™ award-winning Xerox® Iridesse™ Production Press.

• Discover XMPie® Circle™ PersonalEffect Edition software, also recognized by PIA for helping businesses transform into omnichannel communication providers.

• Learn how you can redefine your flow of work with the intelligent automation of Xerox® FreeFlow® Core software.

Visit Xerox at Booth #1621

xerox.com/print18 ©2018 Xerox Corporation. All rights reserved. Xerox®, Xerox and Design®, FreeFlow® and Iridesse are trademarks of Xerox Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. XMPie® and Circle are trademarks of XMPie, Inc. InterTech is a trademark of Print Industries of America.

let’s talk.

Meet us in

BOOTH 1629

The New Hunkeler Generation 8 Horizon StitchLiner Mark III

Horizon BQ-480 Perfect Binder

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Die Cutters Folders Binders Trimmers Slitters/Creasers Saddlestitchers Inspection Systems

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Unwinders Rewinders Cutters Stackers Dynamic Perforators Folders Web Inspection

Follow Us Online.

www.standardfinishing.com/followus

Bring the power of performance to your feeding and finishing needs with Standard — presenting 15 solutions processing over 30 different applications, Standard covers the full array of feeding and finishing in one booth! We’ll feature a comprehensive lineup of HORIZON & HUNKELER solutions to demonstrate maximum efficiency from creation to finishing. It’s all about a smarter workflow, and our intelligent in-line, near-line, and multi-function systems can get you there with fewer steps for greater productivity and more output possibilities.

Drop by our booth today! Let’s talk about Standard’s comprehensive line of proven solutions and how we can help you achieve maximum production efficiency. www.standardfinishing.com

28

17 VP, GROUP PUBLISHER Kelley Holmes kelley@whattheythink.com 772-579-7360

In this Issue: 6

COO Adam Dewitz adam@whattheythink.com 612-424-5090

MANAGING EDITOR

by

7

Cary Sherburne cary@whattheythink.com 603-430-5463

8

Inside the provisions impacting capital investment in the printing industry.

9

Marco Boer Elizabeth Gooding Amy Hahn Kevin Keane Jennifer Matt Jane Mugford Julie Shaffer Mark Vruno Cindy Walas Trish Witkowski David Zwang

Richard Romano

Capital Investment Under New Tax Law

by

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Richard Romano

PRODUCTION MANAGER

18 Data Breach: The Real Cost to a

Printing Company in a Zero-Trust World Planning for the inevitable: five proactive cyberdefense strategies to mitigate the damage.

Jane Mugford

Kevin Keane and Cindy Walas

34 RED HOT Technologies Move the Industry Forward

Introducing PRINT 18’s hottest new “push the envelope” products and services.

40 Success with Specialty Printing Where to start, and how to sell it. by

Richard Romano

Your Shop’s “Final Frontier”

Uncorking the bottleneck: your pathway to bindery automation.

by

.com

@PRINT18

32 The Pre-Mortem to a Print MIS Transition by

Trish Witkowski

The right software purchase starts with the problems you want to solve.

4

Marco Boer

Cary Sherburne

22 Print Software Procurement Checklist

Darwill Inc. @Darwillisms 11900 Roosevelt Road Hillside, IL 60162 888-363-9705

Brace yourself—for the diversity, challenges, compromises, and exciting new opportunities ahead.

The one trend you don’t want to overlook.

by

PRINTED BY:

Millennial Workforce

Envision a spectacular failure. Then, how to work backwards to prevent it.

20 Binding and Finishing: Automating

Bobbi Burow, CreativityTank LLC bobbi.burow@gmail.com

WTT Media, Inc. 2038 Ford Parkway #218 Saint Paul, MN 55116 800-616-2252

30 Preparing Your Print Business for a

Requires More Than Technology

CREATIVE SERVICES

PUBLISHED BY

David Zwang

the U.S.?

by

Connie Wolf cwolf@endeavorb2b.com 800-616-2252 x1679

by

by

by

Paul Zimmerman paul@whattheythink.com 800-616.2252 x8515

The shift from analog to digital production—and the real growth ahead.

Printing News Show News

17 Is There a Textiles Boom Coming to

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

28 Packaging and Labels: Is The Next Big Thing Already Here?

Print is Everywhere by

GUEST EDITOR Debbie Vieder deb@vieder.com 240-731-1358

Cary Sherburne

Widen the lens: the expanded definition of “print.”

Richard Romano richard@whattheythink.com 518-290-6584

SENIOR EDITOR

24

APTech extends a community-building “red carpet” invitation to welcome PSPs.

PRESIDENT Eric Vessels eric@whattheythink.com 740-417-3333

Association for PRINT Technologies (APTech) Continues Its Transformational Journey with Membership Expansion

Jennifer Matt

24 Darwill’s Inkjet Journey From store signage to customized data-driven solutions, and everything in-between. by

Richard Romano

26 Things To Do Better When Buying Inkjet A strategic approach, and plan, for making the smart purchase. by

Elizabeth Gooding

42 Too Cool to Part With: The Superfan Company Creates Special Print Projects for Superfans

The treasured keepsakes creating a powerful, lasting experience for super-devoted fans. by

Richard Romano

44 After Hours in Chicago Chicagoan and industry journalist shares where he likes to eat, drink and listen to music during PRINT. by

Mark Vruno

46 Frank Romano Looks Back at—and Ahead to— PRINT

WhatTheyThink’s Richard Romano talked to Frank Romano about the history, the legacy, and the future of PRINT. by

Richard Romano

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

Special Membership offer to print service providers attending PRINT®18

Association for PRINT Technologies (APTech) Continues its Transformational Journey with Membership Expansion Story by Cary Sherburne

W

hen Thayer Long joined what was then NPES as President in the summer of 2016, the Board was looking to reexamine the association’s focus and strategies to better align with current market realities.

Following an extensive strategic review and renaming to Association for PRINT Technologies (APTechsm), securing complete ownership of the PRINT® event, and other changes, the association continues its transformational journey with another major policy change.

“Our overarching goal is to align with the printing industry value chain,” Long said. “This includes manufacturers of hardware and software, print service providers, and buyers of print such as brands, designers and agencies.

We believe the industry should be as frictionless as possible, and for it to continue to be profitable and thrive, we need to bring these communities together as equals. We don’t see where that exists anywhere today.”

With that in mind, in July 2018 the APTech Board voted unanimously to create a membership category that will allow print service providers to officially engage with the organization. In addition, the Board amended the bylaws to allow for print service providers to serve in leadership positions, including Board participation, even potentially as chairperson. Print service providers can join the organization immediately for a membership fee of $49 per year.

As a special promotion, print service providers attending PRINT 18 can get the first year of membership free by visiting the APTech Booth #1442 to register to “opt-in” to membership.

Print service providers attending the event but unable to visit the APTech booth can take advantage of this offer later by contacting APTech’s Sondra Fry Benoudiz at (703) 264-7200.

“We want to be clear that this is not the typical association model 6 @PRINT18 September/October 2018

with associate members that are, in effect, second-class citizens,” said Long. “Beginning in 2019, we will begin actively recruiting print service provider members to our board, making APTech an organization that is serving both manufacturers and print service providers. We already have a large community of print service providers that attend our annual event. And by putting this new membership offering in place, we can strengthen those relationships and deliver year-round value to the entire printing value chain.”

Long made it clear that APTech is not looking to replicate anything that currently exists in the marketplace.

“We are making membership easily accessible so printers don’t have to choose among the many organizations they could belong to,” he said. “We are putting programs in place that are specific to print service providers to deliver them thought leadership that will help them shape and hone their business practices in a disruptive economy. I believe the real innovation in the industry will not be found on the backs of the manufacturers; rather, it occurs at the grassroots level with print service providers figuring out how to leverage technology and new business models to thrive into the future. Our goal is to support those efforts by providing opportunities that extend across the printing value chain.”

The first piece of content being developed under this new approach is a quarterly publication called LeadingPRINT. The first edition, which will be available at PRINT 18, features first-person stories of print service providers who have found innovative ways to grow their businesses, as well as other content focused on business models and business practices that will help print service providers evolve.

“This is not sponsor-driven content; it is original content from their peers and industry experts that we believe will provide significant value as they think

about the future of their businesses,” Long stated.

“We are also revisiting our research strategy,” Long continued. “Our current research has been and will continue to be targeted at the needs of suppliers to the industry. Some of this research may be of value to print service providers, but we will also be doing research targeted specifically at them. Business intelligence and market trend research will be published in LeadingPRINT, and larger research reports will be available to them at member pricing.”

APTech will also be looking outside the industry for innovative ideas.

“We want to see what lessons can be learned from other industries that have undergone or are undergoing transformation,” Long said. “Think about Netflix, Uber, and Airbnb as examples of companies that spurred massive transformation. We can learn from these experiences and leverage that learning into ways we can innovate in our own industry. Competition can breed innovation, but it can also breed conformity, so looking at examples from outside is always helpful as we look to move the industry forward.”

The association will also step up efforts to develop the next generation of industry leadership for print service providers. “In 2019, you’ll see programs from us that will provide tools and insight into how to manage a workforce that is changing,” Long noted.

Long stressed that the last thing print service providers need is someone else knocking on their door asking them for fees. “We’re not looking to monetize this,” he said. “We are looking to enhance print service providers’ businesses—not make money off of them. We want to build a collaborative community where people can come together as equals to collaborate on how to face challenges and grow through opportunity.”

To download the membership application, visit www.APTech.org. ■ WhatTheyThink - Printing News

MAINSTREAM

Print is Everywhere Changing the Mainstream Story by Richard Romano

T

ake a look around you. I don’t know where you are, but let me describe the room I’m in right now, my home office. To my right, there is a cupful of pens, just about each one bearing a logo from a printing equipment manufacturer, a hotel, a bank, or an auto dealership.

On a shelf above the desk is a bowl that is full of USB drives, each one bearing the logo of the company whose press kit the drive contains.

I empty this bowl once every six months or so and donate the erased drives to a local school or send them off to GreenDisk for recycling. After two or three trade shows, the bowl is filled up again. My stapler has Swingline printed on the top, my USB hub has Staples’ logo printed in white ink on the top, and various other peripheral devices such as external hard drives have a variety of printing on them. Unfiled business cards are stacked in a corner of my desk. My mobile phone case has customized printing on it. I am wearing a T shirt that has my gym’s logo on it. If I walk out to the kitchen to refill my (yes, printed) coffee mug, there are (printed) magnets stuck on the fridge.

Just peering in one cabinet, I see a customized pint glass given out at a local event; printed wine glasses from several trips through the Finger Lakes wine region; several printed water bottles from various 5K or 10K races I have run; a printed YETI cup from an APTech event; and so on and so on.

When people say, “There is no more WhatTheyThink - Printing News

demand for print,” I say, “Are you kidding me? Look at all the printed stuff in just two rooms of my home.

If I ventured out and walked down the street into various stores and restaurants, there would be no end to examples of printed materials. Print is everywhere!”

Of course, we need to define what we mean by “print.”

When people say “The demand for print is decreasing” or, more technically, “The value of printing shipments is the lowest it has ever been, and continues to decline year after year, month after month,” what they are usually referring to is what we might call “traditional” printing.

This is the stuff that has been the bread and butter work for the industry for more than a century—even longer in some cases. Think brochures, direct mail, catalogs, directories, manuals, transactional documents like invoices and statements, and other miscellaneous promotional or marketing collateral materials. And it’s true: demand for many of these items has indeed been declining, and the reason why has been discussed ad nauseam by myself and many others inside and outside the printing industry: the advent of the Internet, mobile devices, and social media have largely caused these materials to be supplanted by electronic alternatives.

The brochure you once would have sent away for or picked up at a trade show or event is now a website; direct mail is now direct email, enewsletters, blogposts, or social media links (or,

indeed, a PDF on one of those USB drives in the bowl above my desk); the catalog you used to get in the mail is now online, and email blasts drive traffic to them; directories are more often than not online, and even the Yellow Pages is either a mobile app or a Google search; manuals are now either PDF documents or links to a website; and, transactional materials are now ebills and estatements. Of course, these items have not vanished entirely; there is still direct mail, there are still flyers and brochures, heck, there are even still phone books. But the overall volume has been nowhere near what it once was, which means these are not profitable items for print businesses to produce. ■ 8 Tax Law

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Capital Investm New Tax Law on 20 Automati

Finishing: Binding and Shop’s Automating Your ” “Final Frontier

8 Tax Law

Capital Investment Under New Tax Law

26 To-Do List

Better Things To Do Inkjet When Buying

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Binding and Finishing: Automating Your Shop’s “Final Frontier” 26 To-Do List

Things To Do Better When Buying Inkjet

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September/October 2018 @PRINT18

7

TAX LAW

Capital Investment Under the New Tax Law

L

ast Spring, WhatTheyThink and the Association for PRINT Technologies presented a fourpart webinar series that provided an indepth look at the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 and its potential impact on businesses in the printing industry, be they suppliers, vendors, printers, or other industry entities. The new law is fairly complex, so this article will concentrate on those provisions that specifically impact capital investment.

Here is what you need to know as you look at making investments.

Capital Purchases—There are favorable new rules and incentives for buildings and structures, delivery vehicles, and warehouse equipment. Print production technology purchases are enhanced by tax and cash flow benefits for both new and used or refurbished investments.

These purchases include offset presses, digital production and other imaging equipment, production equipment and workflow software, and binding, finishing, and other “value creation” devices.

Method of Investment—The effects on cash flow through the expensing of investments can be impacted by how those investments are made— cash purchase, business credit, loan from a bank or owner, or lease.

There are just as many non-tax as tax issues to consider (leasing may be preferable to purchasing for assets whose technology tends to change frequently, for example), and there are two kinds of leases. A capital lease is treated as a purchase for the purpose of depreciation and is, therefore, eligible for expensing as well as Section 179 deprecation. Capital leases are generally long-term and suitable for items that are not likely to become technologically obsolete. An operating lease is used for short-term leasing and suitable for 8

@PRINT18 September/October 2018

high-tech assets where the technology changes often. An operating lease is considered an operating expense.

Depreciation—Changes to IRS Code Section 179 covering depreciation now let you treat a certain amount of new and used property as a current expense.

Under the old limits, the maximum annual deduction was $510,000, then phased out dollar for dollar once the annual purchase reached $2,000,030.

The new limits are a maximum annual deduction $1 million, then phased out once the annual purchase reaches $2.5 million. You may elect to treat qualified real property as Section 179 property in tax years beginning in 2018 and beyond.

Expensing—Under IRS Code Section 168(k) covering expensing, the bonus depreciation rate is 100% for eligible property placed in service after September 27, 2017, and before January 1, 2023. It is 80% for property placed in service in 2023, 60% in 2024, 40% in 2025, and 20% in 2026. Unlike Section 179 depreciation, there is no taxable income or investment limitation.

Under the new law, used property now qualifies for bonus depreciation. Bonus depreciation applies to all property within a class (for example, all sevenyear property), and a business can pick and choose individual assets for application of Section 179 depreciation.

Interest Deduction—There are also some changes to the interest deduction rules. Deduction for business interest paid or accrued is limited for tax years starting after December 31, 2017.

Interest that is not deductible may be carried forward indefinitely, although that is subject to certain restrictions for partnerships and S corporations. The business interest deduction is limited to: the sum of business interest income + 30% of the taxpayer’s adjusted

taxable income + floor plan financing interest of the taxpayer.

UNICAP—“UNICAP” refers to the uniform capitalization rules that require that certain costs that would normally be expensed to be capitalized as part of inventory for tax purposes. However, under the new law, for tax years starting after December 31, 2017, businesses having under $25 million in receipts can choose the cash accounting for inventory if it treats inventory as nonincidental materials and supplies, or conforms to the business’s financial treatment of inventory.

Cash Method of Accounting—The “cash method” of accounting records revenue when cash is received and expenses when they are paid in cash.

(This in contrast to the “accrual method” which records income when it is earned and deductions when expenses are incurred regardless of actual cash flow.)

The cash method is now available to most taxpayers who meet a $25 million average gross receipts test. It’s not required to apply the inventory or uniform capitalization (UNICAP) rules, nor to use the percentage of completion method of accounting for small contracts. The rules for using the cash method by qualified personal service corporations, S corps, and other passthroughs have not changed.

You should consult with your financial team ASAP (if you have not done so already) to ensure that you optimize your business to take advantage of the changes in the new law. Also keep them on “speed dial” as new changes and tweaks to the law could affect your tax liability. Find this article at PrintingNews.com/12430166 ■ Information on the new law and provisions that impact the printing industry, and the four sessions (“Tax Reform for Print Businesses: Structuring your Company,” “Tax Reform for Print Businesses: New Tax Benefits for Capital Investment,” “The New Estate Tax Law,” and Intergenerational Transfer or Sale of a Business”) are archived at whattheythink.com/webinars/.

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

6+2: 1(:6 ;03LH 3HUVRQDO(΍HFW ΖQWHUDFWLYH 3') XMPie PersonalEffect users can now create fully interactive PDFs including buttons and other interactive elements used for form navigation and calls to action. These can turn business and communication PDFs into interactive experiences that draw customers in, hold their attention for longer and can be viewed on any device.

Visit XMPie at booth 1621.

;HUR[ %UHQYD +' &RPHV 7R 3ULQW The Xerox Brenva HD Production Inkjet Press is a cut-sheet inkjet offering that combines the cost effectiveness of inkjet with the flexibility of cut-sheet to address the needs of print providers in the direct mail, transactional and book markets. Brenva HD comes to Print 18 with two new optional features that will help print providers be more efficient and say “yes” to more jobs: a speed up kit and a Tecnau SheetFeeder BV roll feed system.

Visit Xerox at booth 1621.

.OXJH WR 'HPRQVWUDWH WKH 1HZHVW /LQH RI 3ULQW )LQLVKLQJ 6ROXWLRQV Kluge experts will demonstrate high quality finishing equipment solutions showcasing new advancements in diecutting, foil stamping, digital foil transfer, and folding and gluing with the ApexFoil, DIGITAL METAL and OmniFold 3000. Using the ApexFoil’s Compass control system that includes patented features to control the “3Ts” Time, Temperature and Tonnage.

Compass allows operators to greatly reduce, and in some cases, eliminate make-ready on every job.

Visit Kluge at booth 1603.

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

September/October 2018 @PRINT18

9

6+2: 1(:6 &521 &KDOOHQJHV 'LJLWDO 3ULQW ZLWK 1HZ 2Î?VHW ΖQNLQJ 6\VWHP DW 35Ζ17 CRON will demonstrate a new inking system for sheetfed offset presses.

The new EZC system not only reduces waste and enhances quality but also brings down the point at which shortrun offset becomes proďŹ table. In this way, EZC is positioned to challenge digital print’s established stronghold on runs of just a few copies. Inside the EZC enclosure, high performance, micro-pumped jets meter ink directly onto the ďŹ rst form roller. Control of the jets is via CIP3/CIP4data, predicting the exact ink demand under speciďŹ c printing conditions.

There is no need of purchasing CIP3/4 conversion software, nor speciďŹ c conversion for presses or its console.

Visitors can see the EZC system running live for the ďŹ rst time in North America on an offset press.

Visit CRON at booth 3617.

5ROOHP ΖQWHUQDWLRQDOȇV ODWHVW ΖQVLJQLD 'LH &XWWHU PRGHO LV ODXQFKHG LQ WLPH IRU WKH 3ULQW HYHQW Insignia has been widely adopted by commercial and package printers alike due to its ability to convert an extensive range of stocks extending beyond paper and card stock including PVC, PET, plastic, vinyl, adhesives and even lightweight aluminum. The new InsigniaX3 model was designed to handle heavier stocks and die cut material up to 30 pt. thickness with ease. The 30 pt. capacity is ideal for popular ID cards, gift cards, school ID’s and membership cards. With proďŹ table functions including die cutting, kiss cutting, embossing, creasing and perforating in a single pass, the Insignia delivers a speedy ROI coupled with quick setups and easy change-overs utilizing exible dies.

Visit Rollem at booth 4237.

10

@PRINT18 September/October 2018

75(68 VKRZFDVHV SURČ´W EXLOGLQJ ČľH[R V\VWHPV IRU SULQW TXDOLW\ LPSURYHPHQW TRESU Americas, will present a selection of their leading ancillaries including carbon ďŹ bre and ceramic doctor blade chambers, the F10 iCon automatic ink control system and the MaxiPrint Concept chamber. Videos, information and samples of other TRESU ancillaries will be available as well as for its agship Flexo Innovator press. The Flexo Innovator is a versatile, customconďŹ gured multi-process inline printing and converting press for folding carton board, paper, laminates and metallic substrates. Available in web widths from 670mm to 1700mm (26.38in to 66.92in), the press is an efďŹ cient alternative to labour-intensive central impression presses. TRESU will also showcase the new SAVEink chamber, for narrow web applications, and FlexiPrint Easy chambers, for exible packaging, use a light weight CFC chamber with carbon ďŹ bre inkrepellent surface with high corrosion resistance. The SAVEink chamber is light for fast and frequent job or ink changes and features a pre-set doctor blade for precise application control, for press widths up to 800mm (31.5in).

Visit TRESU at booth 3342. &UHDWLYH (GJH 6RIWZDUH 5HOHDVHV L& ' Y ZLWK 0DMRU 1HZ )HDWXUHV 3RZHUHG E\ 5HDO 7LPH 5D\ 7UDFLQJ Creative Edge Software is previewing the latest major version launch of its award-winning allin-one packaging design software iC3D. iC3D version 5.5 introduces additional carton folding capabilities, as well as new ray traced materials and editing features powered by the recently announced iC3D Real-Time Ray Tracing. Building on advances made possible through iC3D Real-Time Ray Tracing, developers at Creative Edge Software have applied the technology to create new capabilities in iC3D v5.5. Potentially of greatest impact is Interactive Lighting Editor. It provides the user with a virtual photo studio setup with the ability to visualize different lighting effects in real-time. Changes to lighting intensity, positioning, highlights, shadows and reections can be viewed instantly.

Visit Creative Edge Software at booth 2203. *UDSKLF &RPPXQLFDWLRQ $GYLVRUV *URXS WR 'LVSOD\ DW 35Ζ17 The Graphic Communication Advisors Group (GCAG), formed a little over a year ago, will be displaying as part of the Intuideas exhibit at booth 4836 in the Workforce Solutions Pavilion. The GCAG is a consortium of industry experts available for advice, discussions, consulting, writing, research, and special projects. Founded by printing industry advocate, Ray Prince, the group’s purpose is to keep the graphic communication industry alive and vibrant by helping industry companies solve problems, come up with new ideas for expanding business, and to serve as a “think tankâ€? for innovation. Prince will be present at the booth. The Intuideas PRINT 18 booth is available as a central meeting place industry members wanting to make appointments to explore projects with speciďŹ c advisors. A GCAC brochure will be handed out.

Visit GCAG at booth 4836.

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

ADVERTORIAL

Manroland Goss web systems Focuses on Customer-Oriented Solutions at PRINT 18 The newly-merged company will share commitment to united excellence in web-fed printing, mailroom, and finishing solutions with clear global advantages.

to provide the highest level of excellence through accurate and efficient service, competitive pricing for parts and labor, and service agreements to increase uptime on a 24/365 basis.

With a joint reputation as leaders in web-fed printing, the recently combined manroland Goss web systems, the merged company of manroland web systems and Goss International, will be exhibiting at PRINT 18, Booth #841. The increase in global presence and stability for manroland Goss as a unified business entity has allowed the company to focus directly on development of solutions for customers.

E-Commerce Solutions The MARKET-X trading platform offers existing and new customers an opportunity to provide a “One-Stop-Shopping” experience to users.

MARKET-X provides a marketplace for all suppliers to the industry, turning efficient logistics into a game-changer.

System Solutions Highly automated press and post-press equipment create sustainable success for today’s print operations. To insure the most effective levels of quality and waste reduction for customers, manroland Goss is continuing to focus on the development and manufacturing of printing systems.

Engineered Solutions Throughout the portfolio of manroland Goss web systems, engineering breakthroughs continue to be a central point of concentration. The focus on utilizing the combined expertise of the team of talented engineers provides mechanical, automation, and closed-loop solutions for all types and all brands of web presses.

Service Solutions With its increased presence of international service hubs, the manroland Goss merger has created an even tighter net of comprehensive support

Visit the team at manroland Goss during PRINT 18 at Booth 841, and they will share insights on how the company’s solutions can add value to any pressroom.

Visit us at

PRINT 18 in Chicago Booth 841

Achieving more together

In today‘s changing market, printing companies need to adapt to new conditions. This is the focus of manroland Goss web systems: creating customer-oriented solutions for new perspectives with the entire value-added chain in mind. Expect integrated solutions that create new perspectives for success.

www.manrolandgoss.com

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

September/October 2018 @PRINT18

11

ADVERTORIAL

Expanded Tech Overview – XMPie Circle PersonalEffect Edition XMPie Circle PersonalEffect® Edition, a 2018 InterTech Technology Award recipient, is a full-featured marketing automation tool for managing personalized omnichannel content and campaigns with a single integrated view of the customer.

With Circle, print service providers (PSPs) have a solid foundation to transform their businesses and embrace omnichannel communications with ‘one view of the customer’. All the touchpoints, both print and digital, can be automated across the entire campaign, so projects can generate revenue long after they have been set up and consumers see consistent messages and content across all media.

With this latest release, Circle has matured to become the overarching component in the XMPie workflow, connecting every stage of campaign production.

Working as the main control panel, Circle seamlessly connects to the PersonalEffect composition engine to access the databases and logic for generating personalized omnichannel campaigns , perfectly synchronized across all channels and touchpoints, making managing omnichannel communications an easy and structured task, and lowering the production costs and time constraints of creating omnichannel campaigns.

Circle can also be integrated into XMPie’s Web-to-print solution, StoreFlow. With this integration, omnichannel campaigns can be sold directly from the storefront interface.

These are fully-functional omnichannel campaigns and include the full range of XMPie capabilities including InDesign based print templates, uImage personalized images, refer-a-friend web forms, PDF-on-Demand, email and more.

Key features of Circle include:

• Visualization - A unique environment to illustrate multichannel campaign structure and content.

• Collaboration – Reduces time-to-market because everyone can see what’s going on, enabling discussion and sharing between all campaign stakeholders.

• Automation – Users can schedule, automate, and view campaign progress in real time.

• Evaluation – Users can track, measure and view performance metrics and KPI’s.

• Personalized customer experience – Integrated with the XMPie execution engine to orchestrate personalized user experiences.

• An extendable, flexible and scalable solution – Because of the Circle/XMPL APIs, users can connect to other platforms (Salesforce, Facebook, HubSpot) to more seamlessly connect and integrate touchpoints, campaigns and their audiences.

Xerox New Product Descriptions

Xerox Brenva HD Production Inkjet Press – A cut-sheet inkjet offering that combines the cost effectiveness of inkjet with the flexibility of cut-sheet to address the needs of print providers in the direct mail, transactional and book markets.

Brenva HD offers excellent color quality, best-in-class automation, and reliability features to maximize press productivity and availability. Brenva HD comes to PRINT 18 with two new optional features to help print providers be more efficient and say “yes” to more jobs: a speed up kit and a Tecnau

SheetFeeder™ BV roll feed system. The optional speed up kit enables up to 300 impressions per minute of letter-sized duplex pages; the Tecnau SheetFeeder BV roll feed system for Brenva HD delivers up to 10 hours of non-stop paper feeding.

XMPie Circle PersonalEffect® Edition, a 2018 InterTech Technology Award recipient, is a software for designing, deploying, automating and measuring omnichannel campaigns. Circle is the only omnichannel communications solution on the market bringing together a marketing automation workflow and individualized content.

XMPie PersonalEffect and Adobe Sign Integration – Integrating XMPie’s PersonalEffect platform with Adobe Sign enables enterprise customers to add fully automated electronic signature workflows to their personalized, omnichannel customer communications campaigns. When a signature is required, XMPie users can connect to their database, generate the personalized on-demand digital PDF, and send it to the recipient via email.

The PDF document can be accessed and signed using any device’s browser.

Recipients simply type or draw their signature into the designated areas and hit “Click to Sign” to complete the process or continue their customer experience. All signatures are legally valid and compliant with global electronic signature laws.

Campaign deployment is automated using XMPie’s marketing automation solution, Circle, and document progress can be tracked directly from the Circle dashboard.

Interactive PDF – XMPie PersonalEffect users can now create fully interactive PDFs with buttons and other interactive elements used for form navigation and calls to action, turning business and communication PDFs into interactive experiences that draw in and hold customers’ attention, and can be viewed on any device. The PDFs can also include personalized calls to action with follow up Personalized URL (PURL) touchpoints.

Stop by Xerox booth #1621 to see XMPie Circle PersonalEffect Edition in action!

12 @PRINT18 September/October 2018

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

Print18StandardAdvertorial_Layout 1 9/10/2018 9:29 AM Page 1

ADVERTORIAL

Standard covers the full array of feeding and finishing in Booth 1629

let’s talk...

FINISHING! With 15 solutions processing over 30 different applications, Standard features a comprehensive lineup of Horizon and Hunkeler solutions to demonstrate maximum efficiency from creation to finishing. It’s all about a smarter workflow, and our intelligent in-line, near-line, and multi-function systems can get you there with fewer steps for greater productivity and more output possibilities.

Standard Horizon

Standard Horizon

Standard Hunkeler/Horizon

Horizon takes their legendary saddlestitching technology to the next level! The StitchLiner Mark III features expanded booklet size and increased productivity up to 6,000 booklets/hour. Now you can produce a wider range of applications including landscape-size booklets, 12" x 12" calendars, and pocket booklets down to 4.5" x 3.5". The system offers fully automated set-up, including stitching head settings, with no manual adjustments BQ-480 required for book thickness at the trimmer.

Variable stitch length and variable page count booklets can be processed with ease. Horizon’s new addition delivers the highest quality booklet with greater efficiency than ever before!

The AFV-566F/TV-564F includes automatic scoring navigation and double-sheet detection, improved registration, and easier sheet loading. Optional dynamic folding is also available to change fold pattern on-the-fly for variable signatures to minimize blank sheets at the end of a book.

This combination solution will be showing Hunkeler Generation 8 Roll-to-Stack in-line with the Horizon StitchLiner 6000 Saddlestitcher. Configured to deliver straight or offset stacks, fully separated book blocks, or saddlestitched books in one system – for ultimate production flexibility. Produces up to 6,000 high quality booklets/hour at 600 fpm, with fully-automated set-up and variable sheet-count bookletmaking.

StitchLiner Mark III

Standard Horizon

AFV-566F/TV-564F Folder

Standard Horizon

AFC-746F Pallet-feed Folder StitchLiner Mark lll

The 6-buckle AFC-746F handles sheet sizes up to 29.1" x 43.3" with up to 47 automated adjustments including in-feed, roller gap, buckle fold, and AFV-566F/TV-564F knife-fold sections. Transfer printed work directly from the offset or digital press to the folder with a 47" pallet feeder. Offers 20 pre-set fold patterns and memory for 200 custom jobs.

Standard Hunkeler/Horizon

Roll-to-Fold Direct Mail Featuring new Hunkeler Generation 8 Modules, the system goes from a preprinted roll to nested and folded mailers using the WM8 Web Merger and CS8-II Chip-out Rotary Cutter. Mail pieces are dynamically perforated in both horizontal and vertical direction using the DP8 Dynamic Perforator with optional punching. Final folding is done on the in-line Horizon AFV-566F Folder.

Roll-to-Booklet/Roll-to-Stack

BQ-480 Perfect Binder Features the quickest set-up and changeover for variable book production in its class, especially for book-of-one! With interchangeable PUR and EVA glue tanks, the binder also offers advanced automation through a movable, color touchscreen including adjustments for roller height, nipping height, and amount of side glue. Specially designed to meet the requirements of PUR book binding with gentle elevator delivery and low temperature setting for PUR glue!

Roll-to-Booklet/Roll-to-Stack

Standard Hunkeler

Workflow Manager

Roll-to-Fold Direct Mail

This system makes job setup, operation, and monitoring of the production line centralized and convenient, eliminating several manual touchpoints throughout the production process. Additionally, the compact WI8 Web Inspection System can be integrated using state-of-the-art CIS technology for real-time quality monitoring and integrity checking.

The BQ-480 will be shown with the HT-1000V Variable Three-knife Trimmer, which trims up to 1,000 books of variable thickness and format size per hour and features zero-make-ready.

Performance Built.

Application Driven!

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

September/October 2018 @PRINT18

13

6+2: 1(:6 2FÂŤ &RORU:DYH 3ULQWLQJ 6\VWHP 2Î?HUV 5HOLDEOH :LGH )RUPDW 3ULQWLQJ IRU &UHDWRUV Canon U.S.A., Inc., has announced the launch of the new OcĂŠ ColorWave 3000 series of large-format color printing systems. These next generation printers are being launched on the heels of the announcement made earlier this year that over 10,000 OcĂŠ ColorWave printers, powered by this technology, have been installed worldwide. Thr OcĂŠ ColorWave 3500 and 3700 systems offer hassle-free operation, consistent high-quality output and the ability to handle a wide range of large format applications.

Visit Canon at booth 2400. ;03LH 3HUVRQDO(Î?HFW DQG $GREH 6LJQ ΖQWHJUDWLRQ The integration of XMPie’s PersonalEffect platform with Adobe Sign enables enterprise customers to add fully automated electronic signature workows to their personalized, omnichannel customer communications campaigns. When a signature is required, XMPie users can connect to their database, generate the required personalized on-demand digital PDF, and send it directly to the recipient via email. The PDF document can be accessed and signed using any devices browser. Recipients simply type or draw their signature into the designated areas and hit Click to Sign to complete the process or continue their customer experience. All signatures are legally valid and are compliant with global electronic signature laws. Campaign deployment is automated using XMPie’s marketing automation solution, Circle, and document progress can be tracked directly from the Circle dashboard.

5Ζ62 WR 'HPRQVWUDWH +LJK 6SHHG ΖQNMHW 3ULQWLQJ DW 35Ζ17 RISO, Inc. will be demonstrating the T2 twinengine cut sheet production inkjet platform in Booth 3611. Engineered as a solution for the transactional, direct mail and the short run book publishing markets, the RISO T2 can produce up to 320 color impressions per minute, meeting or exceeding the speeds of other color cut-sheet inkjet devices and nearly all black and white toner-based cutsheet production machines. Its physical footprint is roughly nine times smaller than comparable speed cut-sheet inkjet machines and draws anywhere from six to nine times less power. In addition, RISO will also be demonstrating an optional roll-feed system which will be connected directly inline to the T2. This system can feed up to a 50 diameter roll to the cutter unit that will accurately produce consistent sheets for on-demand feeding to the T2 engines. This productivity enhancement will help drive paper and labor costs down while increasing the T2’s up-time.

Visit RISO at booth 3611. ΖQWHUDFWLYH %RRN )HDWXUHG DW PRINT 18

MGI JETvarnish 3D presses produce digitally decorated special effects such as detailed 2D spot gloss highlights, artistic 3D dimensional textures and richly embossed foil applications The JETvarnish 3D Series also offers powerful variable data processing capabilities to produce personalized and customized images and alpha-numeric text on every piece and job. Each JETvarnish 3D system also possesses an intelligent and adaptive registration system, called the AIS SmartScanner, that treats each printed piece as a separate unique job, thus insuring optimum quality and accuracy for the even the most intricately detailed of designs. In collaboration with MGI’s Global Business Partner, Konica Minolta the JETvarnish 3D Series will be demonstrated live at Print 18.

Publishing strategy ďŹ rm IntuIdeas will be demonstrating a new, printed book with an interactive component at PRINT 18. The book’s co-authors, Emeritus Harvey Levenson and John Parsons will also be discussing the project at the PRINT 18 Educator’s Forum on Sunday, September 30. They will be demonstrating the technology at the IntuIdeas booth, as well as signing and demonstrating it at the Ricoh booth. Special pricing will be available for PRINT 18 attendees interested in ordering books at the exposition. The book, Introduction to Graphic Communication, 2nd Edition, is the ďŹ rst textbook to use Ricoh’s Clickable Paper app as a bridge to related video and other interactive, mobile content. The book itself was printed on a Ricoh VC60000 inkjet press. Besides being interactive, the new edition includes updated information representing today’s industry.

Interactivity also includes communication among and between readers, and even with the authors directly.

Visit MGI at booth 1611.

Visit IntuIdeas at booth 4836

Visit XMPie at booth 1621.

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@PRINT18 September/October 2018

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

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Printers attending PRINT 18 looking for highly productive and cost efďŹ cient ďŹ nishing equipment need to look no further than the Colter & Peterson booth (1607). Colter & Petersons two top paper cutter brand lines will be represented by a 45-inch SABER S115 and a 36-inch PRISM P92. The pair of machines offer the utmost in reliability and durability, and each new unit comes equipped with an industry-leading Microcut electronics package. When combined, many print shops often experience productivity increases of 50 percent or more as a result of reduced set-up times, faster trim rates and other advantages. It will become evident to those attending PRINT 18 that the new 45-inch SABER being demonstrated is heavy duty. It comes with touchscreen controls, automatic knife setting and other beneďŹ ts. If you need something larger, ask a C&P representative as the SABER series extends up to wide format capability at 141-inches wide.

The Rochester Software Associates (RSA) booth at Print will showcase new software releases and live demonstrations of new releases of WebCRDT Web to print software, and QDirectT output manager, and the latest release of RSA’s Universal prepress suite, ReadyPrintT. Explore how these releases increase productivity and automation while streamlining workow, reducing touches and enabling new services. Join RSA and our customers as we lead an in-plant track seminar and luncheon, including the in-plant panel seminar entitled “Workow Flossingâ€? and the IPMA lunch panel, “Be a Front Runner,â€? moderated by RSA.

Visit Colter & Peterson at booth 1607.

Visit RSA at booth 436.

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FREE excel inkjet ROI calculator showing why this press will have a payback of less than 1 year !

Running Live Booth 1641 at PRINT18

T: call Greg Hudson direct for more info at (516) 359-6506 E: inkjet@wdnorthamerica.com www.wdnorthamerica.com September/October 2018 @PRINT18

ADVERTORIAL

TO BRING MORE PRINT

EMBELLISHMENT AND WORKFLOW AUTOMATION TO PRINT 18

Duplo USA Corporation, a leader in digital color finishing, will be at PRINT 18 exhibiting a wide array of finishing solutions in booth #3004 and promoting business growth through print embellishment and production workflows.

SEE THESE SOLUTIONS ON EXHIBIT

Join us in the booth for a special 15-minute presentation on “CSI: Challenges, Solutions & Implementations” and solve the mystery of double digit profits. Learn about the challenges currently faced by printers, what solutions are available to overcome those challenges, and how to streamline them into a workflow that helps printers make money. When: Sept. 30th and Oct. 1st at 10AM, 12PM, 2PM, and 4PM.

Ideal for high production printers, the DC-746 Integrating Folding System is Duplo’s most powerful all-in-one digital color finisher. The DC746 IFS slits, cuts, creases and folds applications up to 14” x 26” in a single pass. It also offers optional rotary tool and cross perforation modules, with strike perforating capabilities, for increased versatility. Also see the DC-646 and DC-616 Pro Slitter/Cutter/Creasers, DC-646 IFS, and DC-446 Creaser.

Learn how print providers can automate the prepress tasks involved in a production workflow by integrating EFI’s Fiery JobFlow workflow automation software with the DDC-810 Raised Spot UV Coater and the DC-746/DC-646 Slitter/Cutter/Creaser. JobFlow reduces the number of clicks required to prepare the CMYK and spot layer files for printing and finishing as it streamlines the process by applying imposition, barcodes and registration marks for Duplo’s finishing devices. Fiery Impose will also be featured in DC-746 Slitter/Cutter/Creaser demonstrations to show how operators can use templates and create custom layouts for automating future jobs.

The DDC-810 Raised Spot UV Coater, a compact and design-driven solution that utilizes 600 x 600 dpi inkjet technology, UV lamp curing and camera image registration to deliver production output with texture and depth.

The new Variable Coating Barcode Kit adds variable capabilities for images and text. With this option, the DDC-810 can read 1D or 2D barcodes on each sheet and automatically load the pre-ripped spot UV layer file.

Ideal for higher production environments with fixed jobs, the DC-516 Pro Multi-Finisher features a high feed capacity of 14” and delivers at speeds up to 100 sheets per minute. It performs up to 20 creases in a single pass and comes with a dual creasing tool for positive and negative patterns.

The 600i Booklet System is Duplo’s flagship solution designed for high quality saddle, side, or corner-stitched booklets as well as letter landscape applications. See it in its Duetto configuration with both the DSC-10/60i Collator and the DSF-6000 Sheet Feeder. Additionally on the floor will be the iSaddle System, the 350i Digital Booklet System, and the 150C Booklet System.

The DFL-500 Dry Coat/Foil/Laminator offers an easy 3-in-1 solution to instantly enhance the look and feel of applications up to 13” x 24”.

See the DFL-500 apply a special foil on top of the spot UV varnish for a raised foil finish.

Designed for use with flexible dies, the UD-300 Rotary Die Cutter performs multiple cuts, slits, slit-scores, kiss cuts, perforations, and window punches on paper stock up to 14” x 20” at 3,000 sheets per hour. Also see the manual-feed UD-M300 Die Cutter on display.

The DB-290 Perfect Binder features new milling and notching blades along with a new side glue tank for improved glue application. The side glue provides better adhesion and helps form the book spine. Newly formulated glue for the DB-290 and DPB-500 will be demonstrated as it performs great on digital printouts.

The DPB-500 and pfiBIND 2000 PUR Perfect Binders will be on exhibit too.

The CC-229 Card Cutter allows users to cut/slit, crease, and produce round corners on a wide range of printed applications. Enjoy the ease of use and versatility equipped into this compact machine. The CC-330 model will also be on the floor.

Other solutions on display include the 486P Electric Cutter; the Ultra 200 Pro UV Coater; the DF-1200, DF-980 and DF-970 Tabletop Folders; and the CF375 Touchline high-speed creaser/folder and CP375 DUO Touchline creaser/ perforator.

16 @PRINT18 September/October 2018

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

TEXTILES

Is There a Textiles Boom Coming to the U.S.?

D Story by Cary Sherburne

epending on which industry analyst firm you follow, digital printing of textiles now accounts for between 4% and 6% of textile printing globally, with anywhere from 13% to 23% projected growth over the next few years. Still small numbers, undoubtedly. But consider this: the textiles and apparel industry is undergoing an analog-todigital transformation, and as more digital content gets into the mix—not only printing, but all of the other elements in the supply chain from design and specification through order entry, manufacturing, logistics and more—digital printing of textiles will not only continue to grow, but it will increasingly enable reshoring of textile and apparel manufacturing in both North America and Europe.

Hey, we’ve been here before. If you are anything like me, you’ve already gone through several analog-to-digital transformations: desktop publishing in the 80s, digital print beginning in the 90s, web-to-print and automated workflows in the 00s, and somewhere in there, of course, computer-to-plate.

This isn’t that much different. And what we learned during those early transformations will stand us in good stead should we decide to take part in this one.

“I’m not a fashion designer,” you might say. “I know nothing about textiles. It’s not in my wheelhouse.” But if you feel that way, perhaps you are looking at things the wrong way. There are many opportunities for you to add

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

textile products to the mix. You already have a web-to-print ecommerce store set up, right? Add a few textile products to the mix. Maybe it’s signage to start, or something simple like custom T-shirts or pillows. Perhaps you partner with someone to produce for you to get the volume built up before you invest. Or perhaps you take a leap of faith, like my friend Tom O’Brien at AccuLink did. He started producing textiles and other products (mugs, laptop cases, stainless steel beverage cups, you name

… how affordable the investments are to get into this business, and how quickly you can be rewarded. it) printed using a process called heat transfer sublimation, and in the next three to five years, he believes these products will have gone from zero revenue for him in 2015 to 50% or more of his revenues.

With heat transfer sublimation, you print images on a special transfer paper—so far, not that much different from what you are doing today; just a different substrate! Then you use a heat process to sublimate that ink into the target substrate.

O’Brien would tell you that he was amazed at how affordable the investments are to get into this business, and how quickly you can be rewarded.

In addition to heat transfer sublimation, increasingly there are solutions on the market that enable you to print directly onto textiles of just about any type. Start with sublimation, then take a look at how to expand from there.

There are many businesses popping up in the U.S. that are doing manufacturing of textile-based products on demand, and they are enabled by the analog-to-digital transformation.

Plus, brands large and small are starting to realize that while the perunit cost for digitally produced items is higher, the total cost of ownership is less—oh, my gosh, haven’t we perfected that sales pitch with digital printing? There’s no inventory waste; you don’t have the time and cost of shipping things in from Asia. And the whole sales model is turned on its head. Instead of design, produce, and hope to sell, you can sell, receive payment, and manufacture on demand.

Take the time to read some of the great on-demand manufacturing stories in the WhatTheyThink textiles section and think about how you can implement some of these techniques in your own business. Start small, but don’t think small. I guarantee you, you’ll be amazed at the results you can achieve, and how much fun you can have doing it.

This is one trend you don’t want to overlook. Will there be a textiles boom in the U.S. as more of this work is reshored? I think so. The question is, will your business be able to benefit from it? We’re anxious to hear your stories as you explore this great opportunity. ■ September/October 2018 @PRINT18

17

DATABREACH

Databreach: The Real Cost to a Printing Company in a Zero-Trust World Story by Kevin Keane and Cindy Walas

I

n every industry vertical, including commercial printing, cyber risk is escalating and the number of reported data breaches is increasing, too. The daily news is often full of reports about companies large and small that have had their networks broken into and customer data stolen. One can appreciate that even if a printing company has only one customer, or one employee, it has data that is attractive to steal and exploit.

No company is immune—and no printing company is immune. Some of the largest printing companies in the world have been breached, as have local franchise print shops. In 2017, PIP Printing in Encino, Calif., had a security breach and thousands of sensitive documents were leaked, from labor filings involving NFL players to lawsuits against Hollywood studios, to personal immigration-related papers.

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Denial that it could never happen to your printing company is a fool’s errand.

But there are proactive steps you can take now to minimize the damage when the inevitable data breach occurs.

We recommend these five cyber defense strategies: 1. Buy cyber insurance. This insurance is a no-brainer in the current environment. Just as you would never consider being in business without a Business Owners Policy, the same must be true for cyber coverage. Moreover, good coverage will help you in the event you need to send breach notification letters, hire a cyber expert lawyer, and rebuild your network systems and the trust of employees, customers, and vendors.

2. Control access to your facility.

Physical security is not complicated nor expensive. Review how secure your premises are, and how well you

control access to the plant, prepress, the shop floor, finishing, and shipping, and how well you monitor employee access (ID key cards?).

3. Control access to your

network. The delivery driver does not need full access to your network.

Your external CPA does not need full access either. Do you have a written policy for employees’ BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) that specifies terms for accessing the company network for personal email, social media, or ecommerce? Instilling a mindset of least privilege is good cybersecurity implementation.

4. Get your employees on board.

Employees are your first line of defense against a cyber-attack. Give them the education that will arm them to recognize a phishing exploit.

Ransomware infections almost always begin with compromised credentials for someone on your WhatTheyThink - Printing News

DATABREACH

5.

team—perhaps even you. Training is the least costly part of cyber hygiene, and yet it pays the biggest dividends.

Most network incursions begin with social engineering or other forms of trickery. Every employee—from custodian to CEO—must be trained.

Training for your team is needed frequently and repeatedly; it’s not “set it and forget it.”

Do a data inventory. Most companies have no idea where their data really resides in their internal and external network arrays. A printing company might have data in three states—at rest, in use, and in motion. A mailing list, for example, could be at

rest waiting for the catalog print run, could be in use in prepress to avoid errors in the printing of a Personally Identifiable Information (PII) field on the front of envelopes, and it could be in motion while in transit back to the customer who owns the mailing list. Keep in mind that data includes former customers, former employees, and potentially confidential information in customer digital files. All data has value to cyber crooks. You can’t begin to defend your data until you control where it is.

The conventional printing business may be a tighter market than it

was 20 years ago, with shorter run lengths, smaller margins, and faster turnaround demands. Keeping customers is therefore paramount, and cybersecurity is an often-overlooked element of customer retention.

Embrace a mindset of zero trust when it comes to your data, because you can assume your competitors’ sales teams will not be shy about asking your customers if they can still trust you after a data breach. Find this article at PrintingNews.com/12430064 ■ At PRINT 18, Walas and Keane will present “Suffering from Cyber-In-Security? Here’s How to Fix it!” on Tuesday, October 3, from 10:00 to 10:50 a.m. in room S102cd.

ADVERTORIAL

Mitsubishi Imaging (MPM) Inc. introduces SWORDiJET® 5.5 High Gloss to Mitsubishi Paper Mill’s (MPM) portfolio of high speed production inkjet coated papers. With an 80% gloss level its release opens new opportunities for Print Service Providers (PSPs) looking to serve the high-end Magazine, Catalog, Book and Scientific Journal markets. These segments are seeing growth from the benefits of personalized content and print on demand capabilities that high-speed production printing systems offer.

SWORDiJET® 5.5 High Gloss was specifically engineered to work with High Speed Production Inkjet systems. Mitsubishi’s superior coating technology allows presses to run at maximum speeds without any precoating. The ink receiving layer traps ink before it can penetrate the fibers of the paper which lowers ink consumption, pushes throughput speed and instantly dries enabling jobs to move directly to inline finishing. These efficiencies significantly lower operating costs and streamline processes.

Mitsubishi partnered with HP to license SWORDiJET® 5.5 High Gloss with HP ColorPro Technology. HP ColorPRO Technology optimizes line and image sharpness, color saturation and media durability on digital printers. Its proven color excellence with every job. The demanding media testing HP preforms before licensing media with HP ColorPRO Technology ensures successful implementation and maximizes press performance. The combination of Mitsubishi’s innovative coating technology and HP’s advanced color and performance standards offer high value opportunities for PSPs to expand existing business or create new markets to serve, boosting ROI. SWORDiJET® 5.5 High Gloss is available in 90 gsm/24lb basis weight with heavier grades to follow including a 7 and 9pt to serve Direct Mail applications. Mitsubishi SWORDiJET® 4.3 Gloss and Matte and Premier IJ Book and Form have also been licensed with HP ColorPro Technology and will be available through established distribution partners. High volume accounts can benefit from cost advantages in direct container paper shipments. For additional information, please visit HP, booth #4122, at PRINT 18 or visit http://www.mitsubishiimaging.com/production-inkjet.html.

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

September/October 2018 @PRINT18

19

BINDING AND FINISHING

Binding and Finishing: Automating Your Shop’s “Final Frontier” Automating finishing can seem daunting—but it doesn’t have to be.

Story by Trish Witkowski

T

he bindery is the final frontier of total workflow automation, but the journey can be overwhelming.

Unlike other steps in the print workflow, finishing is the most diverse. After the paper is printed, it can be die cut, coated, bound, folded, stamped, collated, inserted, jogged, guillotine trimmed, and more. And, although most newer finishing equipment can send and receive JDF data, the likelihood that they’re actually networked together on the shop floor is pretty slim.

In fact, even the most ambitious plans to automate can be sidelined once you get your arms around the project scope, thinking about all of the touch points, all of the equipment brands that must talk to each other, and all of the people who would have to be willing to learn how to do their jobs in a totally new way. “Our biggest competitor is the traditional, static way of doing things,” says Julie Watson, president of Ultimate TechnoGraphics. “It can be very hard to break people of their old habits. However, finishing automation can make their job so much easier and help them produce more jobs.” Julie’s company is behind Ultimate Bindery software, a powerful open software solution that manages multi-vendor finishing workflows with ease.

This sentiment is something that everyone from the software companies to the finishing equipment manufacturers are dealing with. Often the solution becomes more of a crawl, walk, run scenario. “There is a learning curve, but we have seen customers being more proactive and asking questions as they consider enhancing the automation of their workflows,” says Yashi Potdar, Workflow Solutions Analyst for Standard Finishing Systems. “Many shops are not quite ready to fully implement bindery automation, but we can offer them a way to grow into automation, from memory recall and job storage all the way up to full JDF workflow.”

The manufacturers have been prepared to support automated bindery workflows for over a decade, and the industry has been able to hold off on taking the leap— however, that time appears to have just about passed. “The market is changing,” says Fadan Qawas of HP. “We’re seeing the move toward non-standard jobs, personalization, and customization. The technology to automate these processes 20

@PRINT18 September/October 2018

and make them faster and more efficient exists—people just haven’t adopted it yet. The rest of the print workflow is digital, and manual operations in the bindery are a slow and costly bottleneck, which hurts the customer’s ability to meet the demands of today’s jobs.”

The Value of Automated Finishing If you’re thinking of making a move, you might be wondering where you’ll see the greatest benefit. According to Potdar, “In terms of maximum benefits, finishing equipment that features automatic job changeover equipment using dynamic barcodes (for instance, to adjust for variable size/thickness books) is a real game-changer. This capability reduces make-ready time and eliminates manual touch points, potentially saving on labor and costly errors.” She adds, “You really see the benefits with more complicated equipment and applications, where more finishing steps and more frequent changes are required.

An automated folder is a great example. Manual folders can take hours to set up, and an automated folder can perform that setup in one minute or less.”

Qawas also weighs in on this topic, looking at the big picture. “The value proposition on bindery automation, as we see it, is in two pillars,” she says. “One pillar is profitability.

Automation means short make-readies, quick turnaround times, and maximizing capacity—which also means keeping most of the finishing work in-house. Profitability goes up dramatically.

The second pillar is efficiency. If you can eliminate human error and save on overs that would have been used for testing and cutting, the overall impact is substantial.”

Taking the Steps to Automation The first step in bindery automation is determining if you have JDF-compatible devices. If you don’t currently have them, in many cases your machinery isn’t useless. Your vendors can usually recommend an upgrade, or possibly even a retrofit. For example, Colter & Peterson performs retrofitting upgrades on guillotine cutting systems.

The next step is to think about software as the underlying connection between the systems. Ultimate Bindery is a finishing automation software designed to bridge the workflow gap between prepress and finishing. Since a lot WhatTheyThink - Printing News

BINDING AND FINISHING can change during production, it adds to the MIS data, the prepress features, and completes with an accurate finishing plan to remove the manual make-ready on finishing equipment. This will increase accuracy as the job travels through the workflow. Ultimate Bindery builds a dynamic JDF file from the most final version of the job data before it goes to press—essentially working as an agent between prepress and finishing, validating and communicating to the different machines. It is also designed to pull all of the highly detailed finishing data, which is more than a traditional MIS or workflow solution alone can provide. It essentially completes the workflow and enables the finishing touch.

Ultimate Bindery supports over 32 finishing devices by the likes of Horizon, Polar-Mohr, Duplo, C.P. Bourg, Tecnau, Microcut, Plockmatic, Schneider Senator, Watkiss, and Perfecta. If you’re unsure of which machines can be networked/integrated, you may be able to reach out to the manufacturers for help. The software development push is also happening at the manufacturer level. “One important innovation we’ve developed is the extendable Hunkeler Workflow Manager (HWM),” says Potdar. “It’s a modular platform for workflow management, job setup, production statistics, data interfacing, and service tools. HWM is a big step in the advancement of automation, with fully automated registering, and plug-ins for job edition and production setup for cut/stack line and dynamic perforation, eliminating much of the manual setup of the line.”

The Future of Bindery Automation The manufacturers and software developers continue to stay ahead of the industry demand, because they have to. Yashi Potdar sums it up best: “We expect printers to eventually demand not just fully automated post-press setups, but also real-time production statistics on work-in-progress, predictive maintenance, and more, all flowing back into their MIS system to inform their decision making. This is the type of control and efficient reporting that providers already demand from their pressroom, and we expect these same requests to extend to the bindery.”

In response to this prediction, Hunkeler has developed their Site Manager to collect error data and status from tracking controllers on Hunkeler finishing devices and provide production reporting and piece level tracking.

It can also integrate with the Hunkeler Web Inspection system, which captures high-resolution images of printed output for various types of quality and integrity analysis at speeds up to the full speed of the press. Find this article at PrintingNews.com/12426067 ■ WhatTheyThink - Printing News

Learn About Bindery Automation at PRINT 18 From software to handling, binding, slit/score/perf, and prep these companies are showcasing automation solutions at PRINT 18.

Pitney Bowes is demonstrating the Relay 4500 premium low-to-mid-volume folder-inserter, which is capable of finishing up to 42,500 envelopes per month.

They are showing how the 2D camera technology on the Relay 4500 works in unison with the Relay SaaS document enrichment software to add a layer of security to protect private customer information.

Ultimate TechnoGraphics is highlighting the main advantages of automating the finishing process, and how software integration supports the process. They are sharing key use cases and examples, and challenges and opportunities.

Standard Finishing Systems is demonstrating automated book-of-one production on the Horizon BQ-480 Perfect Binder and the HT-1000V Variable Three-knife Trimmer. They are also showing how print service providers can directly benefit from the latest developments in automation.

Bowe Systec is showcasing the automation features of the Fusion Cross Inserter, including a demonstration of the fully-automated format changeover, which takes three to five minutes. They are debuting the White Paper Divert feature that automatically removes blank sheets from the printed roll without manual intervention, and Small Batch Processing Software that seamlessly creates large jobs out of small individual jobs.

Rollem is highlighting the economy of “no-touch” production, and the considerable cost savings. On display as an example is one of their newest Insignia die-cutting machines that will feature a pocket folder demonstration with cut and waste removal while running in-line with a folding/gluing machine to create a more automated, touch-free line.

Colter & Peterson is showing retro-fitting options for legacy paper handling equipment with automation features, and the benefits of buying a new cutting system to increase efficiency and reduce mistakes at the cutting station.

September/October 2018 @PRINT18

21

CHECKLIST

Print Software Procurement Checklist Story by Jennifer Matt

S

hopping for a print software solution? First, I would give the following advice. Take a few minutes and write down what problem you’re trying to solve in this format.

As a

,

I want/need to

, so that

I

.

■ “As a customer of ABC printing, I want to be able to provide my distributed sales team the ability to order online from an approved catalog of marketing materials so that they have 24/7 access to what they need.”

■ “As a customer service rep of my printing company, I want to be able to look up everything about an order in our Print MIS solution, so that I can tell all activity that has been applied to this job in one trusted system of record so I can service the customer better.”

If you’re buying a web-to-print solution, all of the statements will be about your customers. Web-to-print is a tool for your customers; too many printers shop for web-to-print with the focus on what’s good for the shop.

The solution will of course deliver benefits to the printer, but that should not be your focus. If your web-to-print doesn’t deliver value to your customers it has no chance of delivering value to your business because your customers won’t adopt it.

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If you’re buying a Print MIS, the majority of the statements will be about your staff. Print MIS is an internal facing toolset that runs your business from order entry to invoicing.

You might have several of these statements. Share them with your team (sales, production, operations, customer service) and see if they can come up with any others. Then you should prioritize these statements for each solution you are shopping for. What is most important to your business?

Once you have those statements, you should do one more thing: create a list of just five things. If the software could only do five things, what would you choose as the most important to your company? List them in priority order.

For example, “the web-to-print must integrate with our Print MIS solution” might be one of your must-haves. Or, “our Print MIS must have integrated accounting.” Too often we get trapped in the “more is better” approach to buying software. Actually, more isn’t better; what’s better is your top priorities solved by the solution you purchase. All the extra features might be helpful, or they could just make the software unnecessarily complicated.

Take these two things to PRINT 18 to begin shopping.

What you will have is a clear definition of the problem(s) you’re trying to solve and your priorities. You will then have the opportunity to drive the conversation with vendors. Don’t accept a scripted demo of what they want to show you; make the interaction about what’s important to you! Find this article at www.PrintingNews. com/21023737 ■ WhatTheyThink - Printing News

CHECKLIST Web-to-Print Procurement Considerations ……1. Hosting …a. Cloud vs. On Premises ……2. Technical Skills/Resources Required …a. What level of technical skills are required to “run” the solution? …b. Do you currently have the resources in your business? ……3.

How much time does it take to learn/manage? …a. Do you have resources that can take on the extra work? ……4.

What are your primary challenges you want to solve? …a. B2B stores for reorder across a large community? ……5.

What product workflow types do you need to support? …a. Variable data products? …i. Versioned products? …ii. Personalized products? …b. Cross-media products? …c. Print on-demand products? …d. Fulfillment/inventory? …e. Digital download? …f. Kits? ……6.

What payment methods do you need to support? ……7. Do you need to support approvals? ……8.

Do you have any localization needs? (languages, currency, etc.) ……9. What scale do you need to support? …a. Order volumes …b. Concurrent users ….10.

What professional services are available from the vendor? ….11. What is the roadmap of the product? ….12. W ho is leading the product roadmap (product manager)—is s/he at the show?

Print MIS Procurement Considerations ……1. Hosting …a. Cloud vs. On Premises ……2. Technical Skills/Resources Required …a. What level of technical skills are required to “run” the solution? …b. Do you currently have the resources in your business? ……3.

How much time does it take to learn/manage? …a. Do you have resources that can take on the extra work? ……4.

How long does the typical implementation take? ……5. W hat are your primary challenges you want to solve? …a. Speed-up estimating? …b. Make more data visible to all aspects of our company? …c. Get rid of legacy software? ……6.

What product workflow types do you need to support? …a. Wide format …b. Web press jobs …c. Digital …d. Litho …e. Flexo ……7. Tax support/integration ……8.

Shipping support/integration ……9. D o you have any localization needs? (languages, currency, etc.) ….10.

What scale do you need to support? …a. Order volumes …b. Concurrent users ….11. W hat professional services are available from the vendor? ….12. What is the roadmap of the product? ….13. W ho is leading the product roadmap (product manager)—is s/he at the show? ….14. D oes the product have a documented API for integrations?

….13. D oes the product have a documented API for integrations?

….15. Pricing support: …a. Cost-based estimating? …b. Price list pricing?

….14. How many printers are on the solution?

….16.

How many printers are on the solution?

….15. Does the product have existing integrations?

….17.

Does the product have existing integrations?

….16.

Can I speak with some existing customers?

….18.

Can I speak with some existing customers?

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

September/October 2018 @PRINT18

23

OUR STORY

Darwill’s Inkjet Journey H Story by Richard Romano

illside, Ill.’s Darwill, Inc., is a 57-year-old direct mail and multi-channel marketing agency. From humble beginnings, the company has grown to be at the forefront of the industry—and one of the early adopters of production inkjet printing technology. We spoke with Mark DeBoer, Director of Customer Experience, about Darwill’s inkjet journey.

WhatTheyThink: Talk a little bit about Darwill’s history.

Mark DeBoer: We are a thirdgeneration, family-owned business.

We were founded in 1951 and initially started doing imprints for store signage. We would get shells and we would print different sale offers for Florsheim Shoes.

WTT: How has Darwill evolved over the years?

MD: Our business philosophy has always been understanding what

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our customers’ needs are and then figuring out what we would have to do to solve our customers’ problem for them. That’s how we started evolving our different services. We started doing imprints, then we said, “Why can’t we do the whole job?”, and all of a sudden now we had offset presses.

That was our inkjet journey as well.

WTT: When did inkjet first hit your radar?

MD: About 20 years ago, we were getting more and more into delivering personalized content. Most of it at that time was just black laser printing onto a shell, maybe versioned. Then six or seven years ago, we had opportunities

for work that was larger in quantity.

With the equipment mix that we had, we weren’t able to go after those applications efficiently or turn them around in the time they needed. We looked into a rollfed laser press or something similar, but that’s when we really looked into inkjet because we knew that companies were migrating from their laser equipment to black or four-color inkjet.

WTT: Was it a complete transition or a more gradual process?

MD: We decided to make the leap and go right for color inkjet.

We were one of the first installs in the country of the ColorStream 3500 from Canon Solutions America.

Having one of anything is the death of any manufacturing facility, so a year later we added a 3900 to handle the volume. They worked great for some applications, but for others just fell short on what we were able to achieve. We just recently installed the first ProStream 1000, and we’ve been seeing more chances to deliver on what the customer’s looking for: printing on coated sheets with offsetlike quality and variable printing at faster speeds than you would be able to achieve on a cut-sheet digital device.

WTT: Do you foresee a day when it’ll be mostly, if not all, inkjet-based?

MD: I don’t know that offset will ever go away. We still have our offset presses, and we still have cut-sheet digital. We bifurcate the work based on quantity. There are still some stock limitations, but that gap got a little bit smaller when the ProStream came out.

We have a lot of tools in our toolbox and it’s just a matter of pulling out

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

OUR STORY

the right tool for the right job. We just keep on adding tools. For some projects, it’s more efficient to run on offset, but we definitely see more pieces going to inkjet as some of the bigger-volume mailings have gone down. Because marketing has become much more niche-based, it leads to smaller runs with higher variability to end up with a more customized piece at maybe a little higher price but better ROI. WTT: Were there are any challenges once you added inkjet—aside from the stock limitations, which was a common sticking point early on?

MD: The stock issue was obviously the biggest one. There were some quality issues that we encountered because of the stock and ink issue, but now with the ProStream the quality issue isn’t a discussion anymore.

The cost of the ink is somewhat prohibitive for some projects, and you try to control the amount of ink on a piece. It’s not a normal conversation you have with a customer; nobody ever told you on an offset print job not to put so much ink down because it’s going to be expensive. So we’re trying to advise our customers and make sure that whatever imagery they’re adding, that it’s adding value.

Don’t just put a big red box to put a red box. We’re teaching designers WhatTheyThink - Printing News

to be more mindful of how they use color. I usually joke and say, “You know, white space is your friend.”

WTT: Do you have any marketing challenges, either selling personalization or customization, or getting your customers to accept the new technology?

MD: The conversations used to be a lot more difficult than they are now because there used to be

objections about stock weight and stock finishes and things like that.

With the ProStream, now we’re able to offer customers a pretty wide gamut of stocks and the print quality is not something I have to make an excuse for anymore. Our customers are also becoming more sophisticated about data and how to achieve the full value of digital. We used to coach them on how to use data, and now there’s already a strategy in place or they have an idea of what they’re trying to do and we just help take them the final 10 yards.

WTT: Any final thoughts or advice about inkjet adoption?

MD: The challenges are always there for how to use the data well and convey what can be done. With inkjet, you can just do so much more of it.

You’re trying to feed the beast—and the beast is hungry. You have more capacity to try to fill. So having many of those kinds of conversations with customers, to try to partner with them and figure out how to best use their data and their assets to deliver ROI, is something that we’ve gotten good at. We’re able to have more forwardthinking discussions, and we don’t have to handle objections about substrate and quality issues. ■

September/October 2018 @PRINT18

25

INKJET

5 Things to Do (Better) When Buying Inkjet Story by Elizabeth Gooding

“

If Strategy Is So Important, Why Don’t We Make Time for It?” is an article by Dorie Clark in the June 2018 issue of the Harvard Business Review, as well as a really good question. In research conducted by Management Research Group (MRG) with 10,000 senior leaders, 97% said that “being strategic” was the leadership behavior most important to their organization’s success.

There are few people who would argue with the proposition that acquiring an inkjet device is a strategic investment. There are quite a few who would argue about whether the typical inkjet purchase is approached in a strategic manner. Over the past six years at the Inkjet Summit and through more formal interviews, I have spoken to more than 50 companies who described a purchasing process that sounds very much like this: ■ Assemble a page or less of requirements ■ Select three to four OEMs thought to be leaders ■ Select from one to a handful of applications and request samples from OEMs ■ Look at the sample output and pick favorites ■ Negotiate the best price for the solution recommended by the OEM. It’s not that an inkjet buyer shouldn’t do these things; it’s that they should do them better. Here are five things to do better so that you know you made a truly strategic, longterm decision.

1. Know What You Need and Put It in Writing It’s important to create an overview of your current business model including volume metrics and the characteristics of each type of job at a fairly granular level of detail. It can be challenging enough for you to understand the features of all of your work internally, but you also have to clearly communicate your requirements to the solution partners you will be evaluating. If you do a good job of breaking your current volumes into types of work and describing their characteristics, potential suppliers will be able to use these requirements to help you to determine what volumes can be successfully migrated, the logical order and the cost effectiveness of migration, as well as a likely timeline for completion. The approach and timing differences for getting your volumes on board can make a huge difference in your ROI from one solution to another.

When you are documenting these requirements, don’t forget about software. A lot of software processes are nearly invisible, with tentacles that integrate across the operation.

Software can also result in the biggest professional services aspect of your inkjet implementation and if these costs 26

@PRINT18 September/October 2018

aren’t understood, you could be signing a blank check.

2. Position for Growth Not all of your current work may be a fit for inkjet. On the other hand, inkjet may enable you to take on new kinds of work. Many companies put together their requirements based only on their current book of business and that could cause you to ignore press or software options that would allow you to grow.

Brainstorm with your sales team and your best customers on opportunities for growth. Consider doing a market analysis to look at new applications within your existing vertical markets that can be enabled by inkjet as well as new verticals that have similar characteristics. Ask the OEM and software companies bidding on your business about market review and business development support.

OEMs may be willing to help you with this type of strategic analysis as part of the buying process since it is in their best interest to help you get volume onto the device.

3. Decide with Data If print quality is an important competitive factor for your business, don’t just decide that you all like one of the samples best. Measure. Measure a lot. In addition to asking the supplier to run samples of your production jobs, run a reference or fingerprint file that is designed to show text and line quality, strike through, color density, and other measurable aspects of print quality. Measure these data points and trust the numbers, not your eyes. Also capture data from the OEMs on the speed at which the samples were run, the profile used, and the ink consumption necessary to deliver the results. Naturally, you will also want to know that comparable (not necessarily identical) paper was used to generate the sample prints.

When comparing the price and value of the various options, look at the complete cost to purchase and implement the solution (software, hardware, professional services, personnel, and space considerations) as well as the cost to transition volumes onto the solution. Timing to ramp up and to eliminate redundant equipment can skew results considerably.

It takes some time to crunch the numbers, but without a comprehensive comparison you don’t know the true cost.

4. Get What You Paid For When your requirements are well documented and decisions are made based on data, you have a much better shot at getting what you expect out of a solution. But, there are opportunities to do even better.

Make sure that the data points used for your decisionmaking process are built into your contract and acceptance WhatTheyThink - Printing News

About Inkjet Insight Inkjet Insight provides valuable tools and resources to help companies objectively evaluate the potential of inkjet for their business, optimize their operations and grow their businesses using production inkjet. There is a wide array of free information as well as premium tools and research supported through membership dues.

For more information, visit: inkjetinsight.com

criteria. Did your test process show a particular color density? Text clarity? Ink usage? Make sure that you are getting those same results, at the promised speeds, as part of your implementation.

Your acceptance period should not end when the machine is installed on your floor, it should extend until an agreed level of production volumes are successfully transitioned onto the press and all software, hardware and finishing components are up and running with the new, agreed-upon workflow.

Also, you may be promised free or discounted services such as training, business development support, or professional services hours. Make sure that you work those into your ramp up process and don’t leave money on the table.

5. Embrace Change An investment in production inkjet is typically not about doing exactly what you do now. Sometimes there is a change from pre-printed stock to plain paper, or from sheet-fed to rollfed production, or the introduction of data-processing and personalization. Sometimes the transition to inkjet can open new markets or lead to an entirely different business model.

INKJET

There is no doubt that there will be change, and management will need to create a change management strategy for sales, procurement and operations. Change that is planned for is transformative. Change that is not planned for leads to chaos. The first kind is better.

Speaking of better, most processes can be improved with a more strategic approach. Of course, many buyers don’t think that they have the time. It’s often a long and arduous process to reach the decision to evaluate inkjet; once that tipping point is reached many companies just want to cut to the chase. While you may not need to go through a full RFP process to find your optimal inkjet solution, you do need to keep an open mind and create a data-driven framework to support a strategic decision.

In addition to a thorough database of inkjet devices and their features, Inkjet Insight has assembled a wealth of tools to help you create a strategic decision framework in less time. As an attendee of PRINT 18 you can access a specially curated group of our premium tools from requirements gathering worksheets, to software inventory sheets and print quality testing tools that will help you do better at evaluating inkjet. Visit https://inkjetinsight.com/buy-better/ to access. ■

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Device Evaluation Our Device Finder, RFP Checklists and expert analysis will help you evaluate more solutions in less time while ensuring that all key factors in your inkjet evaluation are considered.

Business Resources Educate customers and sales teams with customizable templates to demonstrate your inkjet production capabilities and tips for working with designers.

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WhatTheyThink - Printing News

www.chili-publish.com

Booth 636 South Hall @ PRINT18

September/October 2018 @PRINT18

27

NEW MARKET

Packaging and Labels: Is The Next Big Thing Already Here?

New market demands, technologies and inflection points are driving the use and growth of digital packaging and labels. The shift from analog to digital production in this area has already started, with the real growth still ahead of us. Here’s what you need to know.

Story by David Zwang

T

hroughout the history of the digitization of printing technology and processes we have seen a fairly repeatable model of change. It goes something like this: a new technology is introduced; it drives new PSP creativity in how it can be used; PSPs introduce it to their customer base who see new applications; with that come new requirements; which drives new technology development; and the cycle continues… While all of this is going on, the consumers (whether of information or product) are adopting and redefining their expectations as well, creating new demands. As this cycle continues, so does the adoption 28

@PRINT18 September/October 2018

rate and the transition from legacy technologies and processes.

If we translate this model to the label and packaging market, we are already well on our way. While the annual total market for retail packaging is hard to pin down, it seems to fall in the $400 to $500 billion range. Estimates are that only about 3% is currently digital production, most of that in labels and flexible packaging, creating significant opportunities for growth, but in which applications and at what rate?

Historically, label production had been driven predominantly by flexography and offset, with gravure picking up some of the larger runs. In the mid-1990’s we started

to see the early use of the digital electrophotographic process for label production, with the Xeikon DCP/32S. Since then we have seen a shift to a variety of electrophotographic and inkjet technologies from Konica Minolta, Mark Andy, HP Indigo, Gallus, Canon and others. This shift has driven the growth of short run label production, offering CPCs the benefit of customized branding, targeted marketing and quicker time to market.

At the same time this has been going on we have seen an increase in the use of flexible packaging, which has also impacted printed label production. The flexibility and cost advantages of direct to WhatTheyThink - Printing News

NEW MARKET package printing, especially with the introduction of inkjet, are now starting to impact label and some rigid packaging print production as well.

So here, as in labels we see not just a shift from analog to digital, but also a shift in the type of print demand.

These new applications are impacting growth beyond shifting from analog to digital through the introduction of new applications.

We are beginning to see a similar scenario start to emerge in the folding carton space. There has been some growth in digital folding carton migration from offset, with electrophotographic and inkjet technology, primarily driven by and offering some of the same beneďŹ ts of

digital label production. In addition, we are now starting to see shades of alternative packaging methods in the expanded use of ďŹ&#x201A;exible packaging and corrugated in place of folding carton. In both of these, production inkjet technologies are now making it to the market. Flexible packagingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest entry is the new UTECO/Kodak Sapphire EVO, and in corrugated there are two new entries, the EFI Nozomi C18000 and the HP PageWide C500.

The movement in this space is still early, and it will be interesting to see what directions it takes.

Labels and packaging have many different and unique requirements over what we see in print for publication or marketing collateral.

Media and ink compatibility and regulatory compliance, especially for food and Pharma. Broader and more stringent color requirements to enhance visibility and maintain brand identity. Specialized converting needs and streamlined design to distribution workďŹ&#x201A;ows to enable faster time to market, are just some of the areas that are impacting the adoption and growth of digital print technologies in this space. If you add to that some of the new opportunities for the CPCs like personalization, on package promotion and embedded intelligence just to name a few, you can see that there are some challenges and exciting times ahead. Find this article at printingnews.com/12430037 â&#x2013;

ADVERTORIAL

W+D will showcase NEW haptic direct mail marketing at PRINT18 W+D, the leading direct mail solutions provider will premiere several of its new â&#x20AC;&#x153;Performance Classâ&#x20AC;? technologies at PRINT 18 as well as show for the first time several new direct mail applications that will show new direct mail opportunities using haptic marketing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Haptic Direct Mail Marketingâ&#x20AC;? is W+Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theme for PRINT 18 according to Andrew Schipke, Vice President, Sales and Marketing for W+D North America.

Haptics is the use of touch in marketing. Research in the neuroscience of touch as a marketing tool has shown significant improvement in direct mail lift and branding, and it has now become a sought-after value add in the direct mail production. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our goal is to WOW printers, mailers and envelope converters with two new W+D performance class machines for inkjet overprinting printing and mail inserting that will be running live at the show.

Adding to our machinesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; WOW factor, we will also be showing several new haptic mail applications, which will be firsts that anyone involved in direct mail will surely want to see and pick-up samples.â&#x20AC;?

All of latest â&#x20AC;&#x153;W+D Empowering the Envelopeâ&#x20AC;? innovations can be seen in Booth #1641 at PRINT18 7(' & VKDSH PDLO WKDW TXDOLČ´HV IRU IXOO DXWRPDWLRQ GLVFRXQWV ZLWK 89 FRDWLQJV IRU PHWDOOLFV WH[WXUH DQG JORVV ZLWK ORZ FRVW SKRWRSRO\PHU LQOLQH HPERVVLQJ PDNHV WKH FRLQV IHHO UHDO 7KH KDSWLF YDOXH DGG WR GLUHFW PDLO E\ LQFUHDVLQJ OLIW DQG EUDQG SRVLWLRQLQJ (QYD&$5'Č VKRZQ ULJKW RÎ?HUV WKH VHFXULW\ RI DQ HQYHORSH LQ IRUP RI D SRVWFDUG

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

September/October 2018 @PRINT18

29

WORKFORCE

Preparing Your Print Business for a

Millennial Workforce T Story by Marco Boer

he millennial generation is poised to have a major impact on the business model of print. It’s a fairly timely topic; in our industry, we are facing many challenges—currently a paper shortage, for example. But one serious, long-term challenge is a labor shortage.

We have labor challenges in part because the economy is at full (or very close to full) employment. However, there is another challenge lurking in the background, but one that is actually predictable and manageable: the growing population of millennial workers.

The Baby Boomers had been our artisan offset press operators. They were the guys who knew how to manage ink-water balance, and all of the other aspects of the printing process. And they’re retiring. The generation after them, the Generation Xers, are the first generation that’s digitally savvy but still know a bit about offset printing. The next generation coming up, the millennials, has very little knowledge about, and low interest in, offset printing.

So we’ve got two problems. One is that, as the business shifts and we are facing about a 15% decrease in the available labor pool for print industry employees through 2026—according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics—we’re now

30 @PRINT18 September/October 2018

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

WORKFORCE looking at a situation where, if we are going to engage millennials, we have to make this industry more attractive to them. I think what we’re going to reach is what I might call a “head fake.”

Very few millennials want to become printing press operators.

However, according to recent articles in popular trade magazines, they want to become analysts, or to be involved in more creative aspects of the business, like design. As it happens, those things aren’t incompatible with the print industry. In fact, they can be a great advantage to the industry, and to an individual print business. The ability to have employees on hand who can help analyze the metrics associated with print campaigns and determine what kind of print is valuable and effective—or, as some people might say, print-worthy— means that a print business can better help customers optimize the return on a print campaign. This is going to become more important as we go forward. It’s going to be significantly more important than having the most beautiful print quality; the best print quality in the world is meaningless if it doesn’t really deliver anything in return, or accomplish what the customer wants it to accomplish. So, having a different kind of staff that can handle that aspect of a print campaign, rather than the ink-onpaper part of the process, is going to become very important.

Having creative staff members is also going to be more important. They will need to be able to redesign and repurpose print not just for ink on paper, but also ink on other substrates and even other shapes. Think about printing on promotional goods. It’s a little niche at the moment, but that “little niche” is worth almost $60 WhatTheyThink - Printing News

billion dollars in revenue worldwide.

As creatively-inclined millennials enter the printing workforce, it will only help commercial printers.

There are some “clash of culture” issues related to millennials that employers need to understand. First of all, like almost everyone else, millennials are driven by money— they need to survive, after all—but they’re not driven by accumulating

“… we’re now looking at a situation where, if we are going to engage millennials, we have to make this industry more attractive to them.

I think what we’re going to reach is what I might call a “head fake.” things. They’re more interested in having experiences—and they are very aware of the environment around them. These are all good things, but at the end of the day, in terms of environment, you need to have to have a cleaner workplace. (Offset shops can be notoriously filthy.) One of the advantages to being an all- or mostly digital shop is that it can be more like operating office equipment.

You need to have a workplace that’s more automated, because millennials are not going to know how to change plates, for example.

Most importantly, you’re going to have to set some rules and boundaries, but also be somewhat flexible. The biggest problem that we’re hearing today regarding millennials in print shops involves things like texting. Many commercial printers have established policies that say, “When you come to work, your phone goes into a lockbox at the reception desk and you don’t get it back until your shift ends.”

That’s a very uncomfortable thing for millennials, who are used to being in touch constantly. In the print environment, there are a lot of moving parts—and it would be very easy for a texting worker to get hit by a forklift.

So it’s a safety concern. At the same time, you’re paying for an employee’s time not for them to text. So it’s a balance that needs to reached to keep both parties satisfied.

As we look ahead, the industry demographic is going to change a lot faster than we might think—likely sometime in the next five years. Your workforce will look dramatically different than it does today as your experienced operators retire. That means you must prepare to be able to not only attract these younger people who have different skills, different talents, different interests, and a different culture, but also help them adapt to your business. And you’ll also need, to some extent, to adapt to them.

So change your business model, change your work environment, and change your equipment to welcome those entering our industry who will bring new skills and new talents, which will also help your business thrive. ■ September/October 2018 @PRINT18

31

SOLUTIONS

The Pre-Mortem to a Print MIS

Transition

Embarking on a Print MIS transition? Pretend the whole thing was a spectacular failureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;then work backwards and build a plan to prevent its untimely death.

32 @PRINT18 September/October 2018

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

SOLUTIONS Story by Jane Mugford

M

any printers are in a tough spot with their Print MIS/ERP solutions.

Their current Print MIS system does not support their current business.

One of two things happened: the printer’s business evolved (e.g., digital capabilities) or expanded into new markets and the software didn’t evolve at all, or at least not in the same direction as the printer. Other printers are faced with Print MIS solutions that are no longer being developed or are barely holding onto legacy versions which can only run on very specific computer hardware.

I have never met one printer who was excited about being in the position of needing to embark on a Print MIS transition. For something that nobody wants to do, I’m suggesting that you go through what’s called a “pre-mortem”—a predictive exercise on how this project might fail miserably.

Why do a pre-mortem on a project you haven’t even begun? Maybe there’s some benefit in being perfectly clear about what might cause a total failure? Hint: you and your organization have much more control over this project than you think. It would be great to figure that out before you start—that you’re driving, and if you choose to drive the project off the cliff at least you’ll understand why it happened.

What is a pre-mortem? According to Wikipedia it is, “a managerial strategy in which a project team imagines that a project or organization has failed, and then works backward to determine what potentially could lead to the failure of the project or organization.”

The technique facilitates a positive discussion of potential threats, WhatTheyThink - Printing News

increasing the likelihood that the main threats are identified. Management can then analyze the magnitude and likelihood of each threat and take preventative actions to protect the project or organization from suffering an untimely “death.”

According to a Harvard Business Review article from 2007, “unlike a typical critiquing session in which project team members are asked what might go wrong, the pre-mortem operates on the assumption that the ‘patient’ has died, and so asks ‘what did go wrong?’”

For a Print MIS transition, it is much too easy to provide the common causes of the death of the project: 1. The printer didn’t allocate enough time or expertise to the project and the system was implemented in a standard fashion that doesn’t really “fit” the printer’s business.

2. The printer didn’t take the time to evaluate the trustworthiness of their business data before putting it into the new system; hence the new system is just a new (expensive) version of untrustworthy data.

3. The printer refused to change anything about their workflows to accommodate how the software works; the implementation includes lots of workarounds and not very strong adoption of the Print MIS as the trusted system of record.

4. The printer’s leadership delegated the whole project to an IT resource in the company who had no context in which all the critical decisions that needed to be made about costing, estimating, workflows, etc., would be made.

The system was “technically implemented correctly,” but operationally virtually worthless.

5. The printer followed the default implementation script of the vendor and got a generic implementation that wasn’t reflective of the printer’s business.

6. The printer used up all their professional services hours on massive amounts of upfront training of which only about 20% is retained. When the time came to actually implement, nobody knew what to do and there was no more money in the budget to get the help they needed.

7. The printer never adopted the system—they considered it to belong to the vendor and if it didn’t work as expected, it was the vendor’s fault. If you couldn’t figure something out, it was because the vendor didn’t train you. The system was purchased, but the printer never took real ownership.

In doing a project pre-mortem you want to build in staffing, processes, and milestone check-ins to prevent the deadly mistakes that might kill the project. I think the simple approach of acting as if the Print MIS project is dead—you lost all your money, have no MIS solution, and you’re back where you started (less the money in the bank)—is a helpful exercise.

Spend a lot less time worrying about feature comparisons of Print MIS solutions and a lot more time on how you’re going to staff the project, the state of your business data, and how you’re going to convince your people to change the way they have been operating for the last 30 years. Put you and your team into this fictional situation, then work backwards, and you’ll find it will change your behavior! Find this article on PrintingNews.com/12430347 ■

September/October 2018 @PRINT18

33

MOVE THE INDUSTRY FORWARD

T

his week at PRINT 18, APTech is launching a new exhibitor showcase: RED HOT Technologies. These are new or substantially updated products and services that have been introduced within the past 12 months and which APTechâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experts feel really â&#x20AC;&#x153;push the envelopeâ&#x20AC;? in terms of introducing new technologies to the printing industry.

Some of the RED HOT Technologies are being announced during the show, so keep an eye on our online show coverage for these new product announcements.

7KH 5(' +27 7HFKQRORJLHV DUH FODVVLČ´HG LQ FDWHJRULHV +HUH DUH VRPH RI WKH KLJKOLJKWV

Color Management, Prepress & Pre-media â?Ż ChromaChecker Connectivity to HP Indigo Color Beat (Booth

â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż

#847B) Color-Logic Touch7 Neon Suite (Booth #4133) Color Sentinel Systems CSS210 PowerScanâ&#x201E;˘ (Booth #223) Enfocus Pitstop Pro 2018 (Booth #736) HP Indigo HDFM Screen (Booth #2411) HP SmartStream Collage (Booth #2411) Lake Images Systems DISCOVERY PharmaPQÂŽ (Booth #2236) Ultimate Technologies Inc. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Ultimate ImpostripÂŽ 2019 (Booth # 443)

Consumables and Substrates â?Ż Epson DS Transfer Photo Paper (Booth #3121) â?Ż HP Indigo ElectroInk Silver for the HP Indigo 7000 digital press series (Booth #2411)

Digital Presses â?Ż Printware iJetColor NXT (Booth #2000) â?Ż RICOH Pro C7200X Series (Booth #3011) â?Ż RICOH Pro C9200 Series (Booth #3011) â?Ż RICOH Pro VC70000 (Booth #3011) â?Ż Xante En/Press (Booth #3524) â?Ż Xerox Iridesse Production Press with Exclusive Color FLX Technology (Booth #1621)

Hybrid Print Technologies â?Ż HP Latex R2000 Plus Printer (Booth #2411) Î&#x2013;PSULQWLQJ 0DLOLQJ 6KLSSLQJ )XOČ´OOPHQW â?Ż BlueCrest (formerly Pitney-Bowes) Clarity for Production

â?Ż â?Ż

Print and Mail (Booth #1229) Pitney Bowes SecureCAPTUREâ&#x201E;˘ 2-D Barcode Scanning for Mail (Booth #1647) TEC Mailing Solutions TEC WS (Web Services) API version 4 (Booth #2343)

Marketing and Multi-Channel Solutions â?Ż AccuZIP AccuEngage (Booth #1847) â?Ż Artifex CobaltPrint (Booth #547) â?Ż CHILI Publish Publisher the Universal Graphics Engine

â?Ż â?Ż

34

(Booth #636) DirectMail2.0 Integrated direct mail marketing platform (Booth #1246) Marketing Ideas for Printers Odyssey and Websites For Printers (Booth #246) @PRINT18 September/October 2018

â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż

Propago V6 - 2018 Edition (Booth #453) Quadient â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Omnichannel Coordination (OCC) (Booth #246) Ricoh USA Clickable Paperâ&#x201E;˘ (Booth #3011) Solimar Systems AR (Booth #1600) Xerox Iridesse Production Press Augmented Reality (Booth #1621) XMPie Circle PersonalEffect Edition (Booth #1621) XMPie â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Adobe Sign Integration (Booth #1621)

Pressroom Equipmentâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Analog â?Ż Quantum Roll Sheeters Roll Sheeter LS Model - Integrated Inline Roll Sheeter with Lap Splicer (Booth #3052)

Sales & Management Systems â?Ż Amazing Print Tech - ePrintDesigner Web-to-Print software

â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż

(Booth #451) Avanti Systems Slingshot Automated FulďŹ llment Contract Management (Booth #640) Avanti Systems Slingshot Integration with BCC Mail Managerâ&#x201E;˘ (Booth #640) Avanti System HP PrintOS Site Flow closed-loop integration with Avanti Slingshot MIS (Booth #640) Avanti Systems Enfocus Switch 2018 integration with Avanti Slingshot (Booth #640) Avanti Systems Slingshot Integration with XMPie StoreFlow Inventory level (Booth #640) Avanti Slingshot Mobile FulďŹ llment (Booth #640) MindFire, Inc. DaVinci by MindFire (Booth #416) Radix Software Personalized Photo Products W2P Solution (Booth #240) Rods and Cones Linkz - Intelligent Marketing (Booth #847A)

Specialty Printing, Post-Press & Finishing â?Ż Epson America SureColorF2100 (Booth #3121) â?Ż MGI JETvarnish 3D Image Editor Software Application (Booth

â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż

#1611) Nobelus Rainbow Holographic Metalized Laminate (Booth #1225) Nobelus LuxeFilmsÂŽ Streams of Light HolograďŹ kâ&#x201E;˘ Specialty Overlaminate Film (Booth #1225) Standard Finishing Standard Horizon StitchLiner Mark III (Booth #1629) Streamfeeder (Thiele Technologies) P1250 Tip-On Feeder (Booth #2041) Tecnau Stack 5250 (Booth #3529) Xerox Customized Envelope Feeder and Conveyor for the Xerox Versant Press (Booth #1621)

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

In addition to the RED HOT Technologies at the show, APTech will be announcing the winners of the RED HOT Vanguard Awards, those RED HOT Technologies that are further considered by APTechâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expert panel as industry â&#x20AC;&#x153;game changers.â&#x20AC;? There are three Vanguard Award categories: â?Ż %UHDNWKURXJK $ZDUGâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;A new product or technology that helps advance an existing technology or process and opens new business opportunities. â?Ż 3LRQHHU $ZDUGâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;An entirely new technology or a product not used before in the graphic communication industry. â?Ż &ROODERUDWLYH $ZDUGČ&#x192;$Q LQQRYDWLYH QHZ SURGXFW WKDW UHVXOWV IURP D FRPELQDWLRQ RI WHFKQRORJLHV IURP GLÎ?HUHQW manufacturers/companies.

The winners of the RED HOT Vanguard Awards will be announced at a special event on Saturday, September 29.

Wide-Format Digital Printing Devices â?Ż Canon imagePROGRAFâ&#x201E;˘-305 MFP T36 (Booth #2400) â?Ż Epson SureColor F9370 (Booth #3121) â?Ż Epson SureColor T3170 and T5170 (Booth #3121) â?Ż Epson SureColor T3470 and T5470 (Booth #3121) â?Ż Konica Minolta â&#x20AC;&#x201C; AccurioWide 160 (Booth #1611) â?Ż Xante X-32 (Booth #3524) :RUNČľRZ $XWRPDWLRQ 6\VWHPV â?Ż AccuZIP Direct Mail RESTful API with Data Enhancement

â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż

Services (Booth #1847) Aurigma Customerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Canvas Packaging (Booth #239) Bluecrest Output Manager (Booth #1229) Canon USA PRISMAprepare v7 (Booth #2400) Cloudlab printQ 3D Packaging Design (Booth #620)

There is a twelfth category, Building

BĂ&#x2013;WE SYSTEC is experiencing worldwide success with Fusion Cross stemming from users discovering that it is the only inserting platform they will ever need. Processing work at the highest efďŹ ciency levels and net production speeds, Fusion accommodates the broadest range of applications along with the added beneďŹ t of fully automated changeover resulting in at least a 3 to 1 replacement of conventional technology platforms.

This year, BOWE will also be demonstrating new capabilities with its White Paper Removal device and its Small Job Consolidation software suite. As many companies are seeing growth in small jobs, the opportunity to batch work into longer production runs results in signiďŹ cantly improved workďŹ&#x201A;ow and output.

Please join us at Booth #836

BOWE SYSTEC

www.boewe-systec.com

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż â?Ż

Crawford Technologies QA in the Cloud (Booth #541) DocketManager MIS/Web-to-Print v3.12 (Booth #643) Enfocus Switch 2018 & Tilia GrifďŹ n Pro v1 (Booth #736) Lytrod Software Intellicut (Booth #4007) MBM Corp VRCut Ready Triumph 5260 Cutter (Booth #3200) RICOH Communications Manager (Booth #3011) RICOH Supervisor (Booth #3011) Solimar Systems Chemistry WorkďŹ&#x201A;ow Automation and Oversight Platform (Booth #1600) SpencerMetrics CONNECT Automater (Booth #346) Tilia Labs Phoenix 7.0 (Booth #540) Ultimate TechnoGraphics Ultimate BinderyÂŽ 5.1 (Booth #443) Xante iQueue 13 (Booth #3524) Xerox FreeFlow Core Iridesse Accelerator (Booth #1621) XMPie StoreFlow and MyVirtualCSR Integration (Booth #1621)

and Environmental, but there were no entries in this category this year.

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Ultimate ImpostripÂŽ 2019 and Ultimate BinderyÂŽ V5 The Ultimate Partner in Imposition and Finishing Automation imposition.com

September/October 2018 @PRINT18

35

▲

MOVE THE INDUSTRY FORWARD “Odyssey” Best-inclass Print MIS solution by Marketing Ideas For Printers helping Printers as a CRM and Marketing Automation solution.

(Booth #322)

▲

Quantum Roll Sheeter LS Model-Integrated Inline Roll Sheeter with Lap Splicer

▲ Nobelus Rainbow

Holographic Metalized Laminate Metalized printable laminate film features a smooth, subtly brilliant metallic holographic surface, ready to be printed on.

The LS model is the industry’s first inline integrated dual roll sheeter/ splicer combination system.

(Booth #1225)

▲

(Booth #3052) Propago Version6 The most intelligent web-to-print software, designed with user experience and complex work flows in mind.

(Booth #453)

▲

Quadient Omni-channel Coordination Omni-channel Coordination links seamlessly to cloud-based Inspire messenger and Inspire Scaler.

(Booth #246)

▲ Xerox Iridesse Production Press with Exclusive Color FLX Technology The only xerographic digital press capable of printing six colors in line at 120 ppm including gold, silver or clear in a single run.

(Booth #1621)

▲

Canon USA PRISMAprepare v7 As more print volume transitions to digital printing, there is the need for highly automated and cost efficient workflows to help users prepare complex documents for efficient production.

▲

(Booth #2400) Canon PRISMAsync Color Print Servers Canon is presenting the PRISMAsync family of color print servers, the first DFE-embedded Idealliance G7 Certified System.

(Booth #2400) 36 @PRINT18 September/October 2018

▲ Avanti Slingshot Automated Fulfillment Contract Management Avanti Slingshot is a powerful Print MIS platform that connects “islands of automation,” eliminating breakpoints in workflow, and providing print providers with the information needed to run efficient, profitable operations.

(Booth #640) WhatTheyThink - Printing News

▲

Touch7 Neon Suite Touch7 is a suite of Photoshop plug-ins, color palettes, and design software for both digital and analog print engines.

(Booth #4133)

▲ CHILI Publisher Viewed as a game-changer by technology experts, CHILI Publisher is a professional-level, online document editing solution that integrates with the range of workflows and production platforms.

(Booth #636)

▲ Konica Minolta

AccurioWide 160 The AccurioWide 160 Hybrid UV LED inkjet wide format printer is available as a 4-Color + White or a 6-color configuration.

▲ CobaltPrint Developed for the embedded printer and MFP markets, CobaltPrint utilizes a range of optimizations to improve printing performance.

(Booth #547)

(Booth #1611)

▲ Xante En/Press En/Press is a four-color process digital press built around an Adobe PostScript controller that delivers full-color output at up to 60 lettersize pages per minute or 4000 #10 envelopes per hour with variable data.

▲ ChromaChecker Connectivity to HP Indigo Color Beat

(Booth #3524)

The HP Indigo 12000 has set the standard for quality for digital printing.

(Booth #847B)

▲ MGI JETvarnish 3D Image

Editor Software Application Allows unlimited prototyping, modification, personalization and customization of CMYK print files right at the workstation.

(Booth #1611)

Xante’s powerful iQueue Workflow Software sets a new standard for color quality, productivity and ease-of-use with the latest edition, iQueue 13.

(Booth #3524)

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

Automatically collects real-time activity data, multi-vendor machine data and shop floor data with powerful analytics for efficiency.

(Booth #346)

Lake Image Systems DISCOVERY PharmaPQ

▲

▲ Xante iQueue 13

▲ CONNECT Automater

Printing errors, whether on the pharmaceutical packaging itself, on an attached label or on an associated printed medication leaflet, can have very serious consequences.

(Booth #2236) September/October 2018 @PRINT18

37

MOVE THE INDUSTRY FORWARD ▲

MBM VRCut Ready Triumph 5260 Cutter Manufactured in Germany, UL/CUL approved VRCut Ready Triumph Cutters are world renowned for their power, precision, and ease of operation. Exclusive SCS™ safety features put them among the safest cutters in the world.

▲ ePrintDesigner Web-to-Print software

ePrintDesigner features the most templates and images of any other web2print software, the simplest design engine and checkout experience, the most precise text positioning and options for QR codes, logo uploads or background uploads.

(Booth #3200)

(Booth #451)

▲ Canon imagePROGRAF TM-305 MFP T36 With the imagePROGRAF Series, Canon has redefined large format printing for the low-to-mid volume market with a versatile solution for both beginners and long-time professional printers.

(Booth #2400)

▲ DocketManager MIS/Web-to-Print v3.12

▲ AccuEngage AccuEngage is a Professional Service to help you set-up and manage Informed Delivery Campaigns.

DocketManager has been built from the groundup by printers, for printers. The DocketManager System is a cloud/SaaS (Software as a Service) based print management solution with a fully integrated Web-to-Print system.

(Booth #643)

(Booth #1847)

▲

HP Indigo ElectroInk Silver Real metallic flakes incorporated into the ElectroInk, creating a proven silver metallic ink.

(Booth #2411)

▲

Customer’s Canvas Packaging

Customer’s Canvas Packaging is a powerful online editor which brings the entire ordering experience for packaging products to a new level.

(Booth #239)

▲ QA in the Cloud The first latex hybrid solution for rigid and flexible sign display printing in one device. Expand offerings into new, high-value applications while opening fresh concepts for signs and displays.

Recognizing that implementing a reliable and automated quality assurance process for document testing is a challenge for many organizations, Crawford Technologies leveraged its own regression testing tools to create a suite of products that address a range of production QA needs.

(Booth #2411)

(Booth #541)

▲ HP Latex R2000 Plus Printer

38 @PRINT18 September/October 2018

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

▲

▲ RICOH Pro C7200 series Five-color capabilities while providing best-in-class price performance and reliability. An expanded color gamut and greater media flexibility, print on paper lengths up to 49.6” simplex or 27.5” duplex.

(Booth #3011)

▲

Epson SureColor F9370 Designed to support high-speed, economical, medium- to large-volume dye sublimation printing.

DirectMail2.0 Integrated Direct Mail Marketing Platform for printers A marketing solution to track, enhance and report on direct mail campaigns by seamlessly adding new features to any direct mail campaign. Our platform monitors and reports in realtime.

(Booth #1246)

(Booth #3121)

▲ ▲

PrintWare iJetColor NXT

CloudLab printQ 3D Packaging Design The printQ 3D Packaging Design is a revolutionary mass customization technology that streamlines the cost-intensive, complex process of designing and ordering personalized die-cut packaging products, bringing flexibility that allows anyone to build and personalize packaging products to the size required.

The iJetColor NXT is the industry’s only complete digital color print solution bundled with the exclusive iJetColor color-matching RIP and workflow to print direct mail pieces at the fastest print speeds.

(Booth #2000)

(Booth #620)

▲ Clarity for Production Print and Mail Harnessing the power of the Industrial Internet Clarity solutions leverages data analytics from connected systems to help print and mail operations increase productivity and lower the costs.

(Booth #1229) WhatTheyThink - Printing News

▲ ▲ Standard Horizon

StitchLiner Mark III

Fully automated setup, including stitching head settings with no manual adjustments needed.

(Booth #1629)

Tecnau Stack 5250 Cuts and stacks output from high-speed continuous inkjet printers running at speeds to 656 fpm/200 mpm. System includes Cutter c50 and Stacker s50 with an exit conveyor output.

(Booth #3529) September/October 2018 @PRINT18

39

SPECIALTY

Success With Specialty Printing Requires More Than Technology When approaching the vast new market for specialty graphics printing, two questions usually come to mind: “Where do I start?” and “How do I sell it?” Here is some advice.

Story by Richard Romano

O

ne of the most recent industry trends is that what we used to call “mainstream printing” is taking more and more of a backseat to specialty printing. Thanks to the fact that there are very few surfaces, substances, and objects that can’t be printed anymore, there is no end to the print products that a shop can offer.

From posters and banners, to signage, to garments and other textile products, to garage doors, to...well, just about anything. And this is not to mention the fact that there is still a substantial amount

of regular, traditional commercial print work to be had. So when attending trade shows like PRINT 18 and trying to think about what could be profitable products to add to one’s repertoire, it’s not hard to feel overwhelmed. So when approaching the vast new world of specialty graphics printing, two questions usually come to mind: “Where do I start?” and “How do I sell it?”

40

@PRINT18 September/October 2018

Here are some ideas.

1. Find Something You Like In the past, the advice given to printers was “pick a niche.”

Historically, that meant magazine printer, book printer, quick printer, etc., and the reason was that printing and other production equipment was usually geared toward a specific niche.

This is old advice, but still applies, to some extent. Today’s inkjet digital wide-format printing equipment can produce a bewildering variety of products, but very often many of the non-printing aspects require specialized knowledge and expertise—not only to produce it, but to produce it well, and well enough to be able to compete with other, more established businesses. A great example of this is vehicle graphics.

The printing part is easy; outputting sheets of vinyl is not that hard, and any printer worth his or her salt knows how to maximize quality. But actually installing the graphics is much more of a challenge, especially for those who are new to it. Not that it’s impossible to learn—vehicle wrapping courses and certification programs abound—but it requires a commitment of time and effort, or an investment in people with those specific skills.

So the first question to ask yourself when looking at specialty printing applications is, “What do I want to print?”

What excites you not just as business

owner but on a personal level? A lot of the people who get into vehicle graphics are car lovers. So to start whittling down your choices, figure out what excites you.

People tend to have a better chance of succeeding at something if they like what they are doing.

2. Evaluate the Market That said, personal interest and excitement need to be tempered with a reality check of what is actually marketable. It’s all well and good for Charles Foster Kane to say, “I think it would be fun to run a newspaper,” or for a direct mail printer to say, “I think it would be fun to wrap sports cars,” but is there a market for it, and, more specifically, a market for it in your area? And if there is a market for it, is the market saturated? If you’re thinking of offering signage, but you drive down your town’s main drag and two out of every three businesses are sign shops, that’s not a good sign (as it were) and you might want to consider something else.

A common piece of advice when picking new print niches is to start with your current customers. What do they get printed elsewhere that you might be able to offer? You are in a very good position to save your customers time, money, and effort if they can get most of their printing needs done under one roof. So it’s a logical extension if you print smallWhatTheyThink - Printing News

Specialty Printing By the Numbers The various disparate markets and applications that comprise what we can call specialty or industrial printing are poised for substantial growth—and are already seeing high returns for vendors in these areas. The chart below shows vendor revenues for 2016 (the most recent year for which we have data) by printed surface. All told, industrial printing yielded $8.8 billion for vendors two years ago, more than twice the returns on color document printing.

2016 Global Digital Print Vendor Revenues by Application ($000)

Source: I.T. Strategies I.T Strategies went one further and calculated (based on four times vendor revenues) estimated retail revenues for these same applications:

2017 Global Digital Print Retail Revenues by Application ($000)

SPECIALTY items. A customer may not know that they can make customized items like smartphone cases or golf balls or YETI cups to give away at whatever events they host for their own customers.

Education is a large part of sales and marketing, if only to show customers what is possible, since they may not know what they can do—or that it can be done reasonably affordably.

Producing these kinds of items for current customers helps you build up a portfolio that you can then use to get new business.

3. Identify Print Buyers

Source: I.T. Strategies Finally, they estimated what retail revenues would look like in 2021:

2021 Global Digital Print Retail Revenues by Application ($000)

Source: I.T. Strategies In other areas—say, corrugated packaging—we are looking at a potential growth rate to 2-21 of +15%, or 3D printing +16%.

Of course, these are only estimates, and I.T Strategies feels these are underestimates. But as awareness of these applications grows, it will fuel further growth, and many have the luxury of remaining—for the time being—high-value applications.

format work to take those same graphic elements—their logo or other assets—and put them on signage, display graphics, T-shirts, or whatever else they may need or want.

At the same time, you can give them ideas for marketing and promotional WhatTheyThink - Printing News

At some point, a wide-format and specialty printer—like any printer (or any business)—will need to expand their customer base. (That’s called “growth,” after all.) When you’re talking about new niches, you may need to approach prospects in a different way than you used to. And part of the challenge is identifying who those prospects might be. An example I have been writing a lot about lately involves the growing field of environmental graphics, or graphics used to fully adorn offices and other locations. Getting these kinds of projects often requires approaching architectural or interior decorating businesses, who are the “brokers” for new construction projects or office renovations. It’s a different kind of print buyer, and a different sales strategy is required.

Depending upon what other application areas you are interested in getting into, you may also need to rethink whom you approach. Everyone talks about packaging, and getting packaging work requires talking to brand owners, or the manufacturers of the products that are going to be packaged. They may not be the kinds of people you are used to talking to.

A similar situation exists in industrial printing, which is also a much-

ballyhooed up-and-coming set of print applications and opportunities. Where do you look for customers? Should you cold call BMW and offer to print custom dashboards for them? That’d be a gutsy move, but may not go down as the most successful call in the annals of salesdom.

So it’s important to understand who the decision-makers are.

4. Understand the Ecosystem You also need to understand other aspects of the ecosystem you’re going to be inhabiting. No printed product exists in a vacuum (unless you plan to wrap the International Space Station— which would be a cool gig to get, you gotta admit); very rarely can someone simply install a new piece of printing equipment and expect the work to start flowing in all by itself. It’s crucial to understand the entire supply chain, and whatever unique requirements may be necessary. It’s often largely a credibility issue. How does a shop demonstrate to brand owners (for example) that it has the ability to handle packaging, which many brands consider to be an almost a proprietary manufacturing process? Is the shop conversant in FDA regulations regarding food or pharmaceutical packaging? Can it hit all the brand colors they have to?

There is tremendous potential for growth in all kinds of digital specialty printing. But, as is the case with any print application, it’s very rarely a case of “if you build it, they will come.” And even if they do come, will they stay?

Regardless of which niche(s) you pick, it will require that you really do your homework, and understand not only the technology, but also the print buyer–print provider relationship. Some things are harder to break into than others, so choose your battles wisely.

Find this article at PrintingNews. com/12430237 ■ September/October 2018 @PRINT18

41

SUPERFAN

Too Cool to Part With:

The Superfan Company Creates Special Print Projects for Superfans Brittany Hodak co-founded The Superfan Company to PDNH ȊFRRO FROOHFWLEOH VWX΍ IRU VXSHUIDQVȋȃFR΍HH WDEOH books, deluxe packages for albums and DVDs, subscription magazines, fan boxes, metal commemorative tickets, limited edition tour books, and more, elaborate, print-centric items that help bring fans closer to a beloved musician or athlete. We spoke with Hodak about her own journey that started at a local radio station and led to The Superfan Company—and an appearance on Shark Tank.

Story by Richard Romano

“

If you do your job right, with print communication, you’re creating something that somebody is going to keep forever,” said Brittany Hodak, co-founder of The Superfan Company.

“You think of how much digital clutter exists in people’s lives, they aren’t going back and rewatching something that they streamed on YouTube several years ago.”

Based in Nashville, Hodak and business partner Kim Kaupe launched The Superfan Company (originally called ZinePak) seven and a half years ago to, Hodak said, “fulfill my dream of making cool collectible stuff for superfans.” And as a superfan herself— of Kiss and Rocky IV in particular—she has spent her entire career connected to music and entertainment in some

way, starting with her first job at age 16 as a radio station mascot. Later gigs included stints at a record company and an ad agency, and her interactions with “superfans”—of music, of movies, of sports teams—inspired what would become her life’s work.

“My favorite part of being around live entertainment is that fan interaction and seeing that moment when somebody is watching their very favorite band play live for the first time, hearing their favorite song, sharing that with people around them, and getting to meet the artists they love for the first time,” she said. “So when I was looking for a career, I said I want to help as many of those moments happen as often as I can.”

Hodak recognized that, “As great as it is to be in those moments, only a small percentage of fans get to see their favorite people and only for a small percentage of the time.” She continued, “So I started looking for ways to develop things to get that experience as close to being with that person you love as possible without them actually having to be there.

That’s what led me to start creating these memorable fan packages.”

And thus was born ZinePak (a portmanteau word combining “magazine” and “package”), an The Superfan Company worked with Kellogg to create the Pop-Tarts Crazy Good Summer All Access Pass: an in-store promotion item given away free with the purchase of a box of Pop-Tarts in Walmart stores.

The Pass integrated with the Crazy Good Summer campaign by including exclusive content from artists Jessie J, Jhené Aiko, and Rixton.

42

@PRINT18 September/October 2018

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

SUPERFAN

entertainment company that specializes in elaborate collectible items for superfans: coffee table books, deluxe packages for albums and DVDs, subscription magazines, fan boxes, metal commemorative tickets, limited edition tour books— “basically anything you can think of that gets a fan closer to an artist they love,” Hodak said.

A recent project that Hodak is especially proud of is a deluxe coffee table book for country artist Tracy Lawrence to complement his 2017 Good Ole Days album. “[Lawrence] wanted to create something that told the story of not only his career but also his life, starting from the time he was three years old and fell in love with Glen Campbell, leading up to present day,” she said. Working with Lawrence, The Superfan Company created an elaborate coffee table book that includes commentary from Lawrence and the other musicians who played on the album, the album itself, and more than a dozen replica inserts recreating memorabilia from throughout his career.

“There are people who want to know every single thing about an artist or a sports team that they love, so that’s always our goal, to take an artist who’s done 20,000 interviews in their life and try to get them to talk about things they haven’t talked about before or try to present a fan piece for them in a new way that’s unexpected,” said Hodak. “So it’s a really fun challenge.”

The Superfan Company works on 50 to 75 different projects a year with nearly as many artists. “We’re taking several new products to market every WhatTheyThink - Printing News

Left: The Superfan Company created a foil-stamped commemorative ticket and a hand-numbered lithograph print poster as limited-edition keepsakes for Paul McCartney’s VIP packages on his most recent tour.

Right: The Superfan Company created a 48-page FR΍HH WDEOH ERRN WKDW SURYLGHV D XQLTXH DQG H[WUHPHO\ personal look at Tracy Lawrence’s career from the iconic singer’s perspective, including his thoughts about how the Good Ole Days album came to be. The book includes various inserts throughout the pages, including the Good Ole Days album itself.

single quarter, but on the same day we might be wanting one thing for A$AP Rocky fans and another thing for Dolly Parton fans,” said Hodak.

Every project The Superfan Company works on is different, but there are some common denominators. They’re usually contentbased (“there’s always an editorial story and exclusive content,” said Hodak) and the vast majority is printbased. In an age where music and other entertainment consumption is increasingly digital—do artists and their fans even want physical products? Is there any pushback when The Superfan Company pitches a project idea?

Hodak said that there are times when clients express a “why print?” attitude, and she’s the first to admit that sometimes they’re right. “It all depends what demographic you’re trying to reach and what it is that you’re trying to accomplish.”

The Superfan Company stresses to clients that the idea behind its projects is not necessarily mass marketing, or trying to reach as many people as possible. This goes for artists as well as the more conventional brands that The Superfan Company works with, like Kellogg or American Express. “Not everyone is going to be a superfan of your brand, but for the people who

are, you should be trying to superserve them because the more you can bring them into your story and make your brand story part of their story, the more returns you’re going to see not only from them, but also all the other people that they invite into your brand story,” said Hodak.

Part of The Superfan Company’s own brand story includes a 2014 appearance on ABC-TV’s Shark Tank, a reality program in which budding entrepreneurs pitch their business to a panel of potential investors (“sharks”) who then decide whether or not to invest in the business. Although already a successful business when approached by the show’s producers, Hodak and co-founder Kim Kaupe decided to swim with the sharks. (“We recognized that as much as we loved being a self-funded company, at some point every company’s journey becomes about being able to scale and grow quickly,” Hodak told Inc. magazine https://bit.ly/2Ibp1ny in 2015.

The company ended up securing $750,000 from the sharks. (You can watch their pitch https://youtu.be/ WWrIuWGwEgI.) A more relaxed environment awaits Hodak in Chicago on October 1 for her presentation in the Learning Experience Theater at PRINT 18.

Like print as a medium, Hodak intends for The Superfan Company’s products to endure. “I want my legacy to be that, 75 years from now, there are tens of thousands of people who still have The Superfan Company stuff because they found something in their attic or basement and said, ‘Wow, this is too cool to get rid of.’ We want to make things that people just can’t bring themselves to part with.

That’s the mark that we’ve done our jobs the right way.” Find this article at PrintingNews.com/12428774 ■ September/October 2018 @PRINT18

43

AFTER HOURS

After Hours in Chicago A lifelong Chicagoan and industry journalist tells us where he likes to eat, drink and listen to music downtown during PRINT. Story by Mark Vruno

W

elcome, again, to my city, print peeps! I’ve been attending the PRINT and Graph Expo trade shows for 14 years— since 2004. In that time, I have attended some upscale dinners and after-hours vendor parties in some creative Chicago venues, including the Adler Planetarium, the House of Blues, and the Shedd Aquarium. Should you venture out on your own during this year’s show, here are some of my recommendations— many off the touristy beaten path.

Good Eats Ethnic food lovers can experience zesty Cajun-Creole fare at Heaven on Seven in the Loop (111 N. Wabash Ave.) and spicy Southwestern/Mexican food at Adobo Grill (215 W. North Ave.) or Zocala Restarant & Taquila Bar (358 W. Ontario St.).

There’s a family-style menu at Maggiano’s Little Italy (516 N. Clark St.), while Gene & Georgetti (500 N. Franklin) is an old-school Chicago steakhouse serving meat, seafood, and Italian specialties. Capital Grille (633 N. St. Clair) specializes in steaks.

For fresh fish and shellfish, Riva Crab House (on Navy Pier) and Shaw’s Crab House (21 E. Hubbard St.) are seafood favorites—try the crab claws and some clam chowder at the bar!

At Girl and the Goat (809 W. Randolph), Stephanie Izard serves up innovative small plates from an open kitchen, while the Purple Pig (500 N. Michigan Ave.) features “adventurous” 44

@PRINT18 September/October 2018

small plates and house-cured meats, not to mention a lengthy wine list.

For you shoppers out there who want to bring something home, Eataly (43 East Ohio St.) is a vibrant Italian marketplace.

Some out-of-town show-goers wait all year to come to PRINT for a classic, Chicago-style Italian beef sandwich. I recommend trying an Al’s, Buona Beef or Portillo’s fast-food restaurant. Do you like your beef with sweet peppers or hot giardiniera? My personal favorite Italian beef comes from Mr. Beef on Orleans (666 N. Orleans St.). If you go there, be sure to eat in the “Elegant Dining Room.” And grab extra napkins!

For Chicago deep-dish and stuffed pizza, there are the originals: Pizzeria Uno (29 E.Ohio St.) and Pizzeria Due (619 N. Wabash Ave.). Gino’s East (162 E. Superior St.) is a close second. If the waits there are too long, Giordano’s and Lou Malnati’s both have several locations in the city.

Off the beaten path, west of downtown, Ristorante Agostino (2817 Harlem Ave.) serves up, arguably, some of the best Italian food in Chicago. The local Italians in nearby Elmwood Park dine there, so you know it has to be good! It’s worth the Uber ride. And on the Northwest Side, this is your last chance to experience Sabatino’s (4441 W. Irving Park Rd.): co-owner Angelo Pagni is closing the doors on December 23, after 40 years at the same location.

Want a good corned beef sandwich?

Perry’s Deli (162 N. Franklin St.) stacks ’em high. And if you answer the trivia question correctly, you just may win a free stale pastry from yesterday!

Manny’s Coffee Shop & Deli (1141 S. Jefferson St.) on the West Side is worth the Uber fare, too. A traditional Jewish delicatessen, Manny’s features cafeteria-style hot food, including matzo ball soup. A Chicago politician or two has had lunch there since 1964; the restaurant’s roots date back to just after World War II.

Music and Miscellany Musically inclined? For some late-night

Chicago Blues, you simply can’t go wrong at Buddy Guy’s Legends (700 S. Wabash Ave.), which is open until 2 a.m., seven nights a week. Buddy himself shows up some nights and plays. He’s 82 now. Kingston Mines (2548 N. Halsted) is another blues staple—and has been since 1968.

For jazz lovers, the Chicago Jazz Showcase (806 S. Plymouth Ct.) has roots dating back to 1947. Or take in a nightcap at Andy’s Jazz Club (11 E. Hubbard St., next door to Shaw’s Crab House). Andy’s is a low-key, lounge ambiance. (They also have a dinner menu.) The Redhead Piano Bar (16 W. Ontario St.) always is fun, as is Howl at the Moon (26 W. Hubbard St.).

Enjoy a towering cocktail with a skyline view atop a roof. Three popular rooftop bars are ROOF on theWit (201 N. State St., 27th Floor), Cindy’s (12 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago WhatTheyThink - Printing News

AFTER HOURS Athletic Association Hotel), and Raised (1 W. Wacker Dr.).

Craft beer imbibers might enjoy two microbreweries nearby McCormick Place on the Near South Side: the Motor Row Brewery (2337 S. Michigan Ave.), located in a historic landmark building, and Vice District Brewing Co. (1454 S. Michigan Ave.).

For you baseball and football fans, the Chicago Cubs and Bears are in town during the show. On the North Side, the Cubbies close out their regular season with a weekend, afternoon series against National League rival the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field.

Good luck getting tickets! The Monsters of the Midway play the Tampa Bay

Bucs at Soldier Field on Sunday, Sept.

30 (noon kickoff).

If you don’t have time for a ball game, sports aficionados might want to check out the 23,000-square-foot Chicago Sports Museum, located next to Harry Caray’s 7th Inning Stretch restaurant and bar on the 7th level of Water Tower Place (835 N. Michigan Ave.).

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PRINT has always delivered the most value and the best memories. We’re building more unique opportunities for you to get a competitive edge with new connections. Get re-energized and have a BLAST. It’s the PRINT Community phenomenon.

Sunday, September 30 | 4:30 p.m.–6:00 p.m.

Regency Ballroom CD–Hyatt McCormick Place Join your industry colleagues from around the world as we welcome international buyers and representatives, APTech members, and distinguished guests to this VIP reception during PRINT 18. Enjoy beverages and hors d’oeuvres as you mingle.

&HOHEUDWH 35Ζ17 2XU 3DUW\ ZLWK D 3XUSRVH Monday, October 1 | 5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Let’s network, party and benefit a cause that matters to our PRINT community. Join us at PINSTRIPES for a fresh take on bowling, games, Toast & Jam DJ, and modern rustic food in a trendy nightclub atmosphere. Connect, play and unwind while we benefit CJ’s SKATEPARK, empowering children to build confidence through recreation. Shuttles will be available to take you from McCormick Place to PINSTRIPES.

The Young Entrepreneur Award 2018 will be presented by CONLATINGRAF to Luis Miura, Vice President of Administration at Famira Srl. Labels and Packaging and Impresora Arte Y Cine from the Dominican Republic. To register, email Pernilla Jonsson at jonsson@aptech.org.

Sponsor: Supported by:

)LUVW 7LPHUVȇ 5HFHSWLRQ Sunday, September 30 | 4:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.

Exhibit Hall Reception Area—Booth 3129 Calling all newcomers to PRINT 18!

YOU are invited to attend the First Timers’ Reception taking place on the Exhibit Floor. This fun event will feature light fare, refreshments, and games for all to enjoy! Whether you’re completely new to the industry or just new to PRINT, please join us for some networking and fun.

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

*XLGHG ([KLELW +DOO 7RXUV New to PRINT 18: get an exclusive look at the Exhibit Hall through the lens of industry experts on special guided tours.

These free tours follow topicspecific education sessions in the Exhibit Hall Learning Experience Theater (Booth 1652) and run each day of the event.

September/October 2018 @PRINT18

45

50 YEARS

Frank Romano Looks Back at— and Ahead to—

PRINT

Story by Richard Romano

At PRINT 68 Frank was ad manager for Visual Graphics Corporation. which sold the Photo Typositor Headliner. The ad that year was “We’ll Come Out Wherever You Are”.

Salesmen drove vans with machines for demos. Frank was paid $1 to be the model.

46 @PRINT18 September/October 2018

T

his year’s PRINT 18 will mark the 50th anniversary of the venerable industry event. In its inaugural year, PRINT was the industry’s biggest— and only—show dedicated to new technologies. Industry veteran Frank Romano has been to every single PRINT. WhatTheyThink’s Richard Romano talked to him about the history, the legacy, and the future of PRINT. Richard Romano: Describe the first PRINT show.

Frank Romano: It was PRINT 68, held in June of that year. It was scheduled for the old McCormick Place in Chicago, but the building had burned down six months before the show. They re-located it to the “cow palace,” another name for the Amphitheater. There was almost no parking and taxis were rare. In a historical note, PRINT 68 was two months before the infamous Democratic National Convention and ensuing Chicago riots. They occupied the same building—fortunately not at the same time. I was 27, the youngest advertising manager in the industry.

WhatTheyThink - Printing News

50 YEARS RR: Geographically, Chicago always seemed like a great, central location, as well as a city that had a substantial local printing industry.

FR: PRINT stayed in Chicago forever, because it was a perfect location in terms of the printing industry and travel. McCormick Place could be difficult to work with and at that time hotels were scarce.

Where the East Hall now sits was the McCormick Inn. No matter how I tried, I could never get a room there. Now there’s the Hyatt and it’s easier than ever to get to and from the Loop or anywhere else in the city.

RR: What were the “Red Hot Technologies” on display at the first PRINT? FR: Offset lithography and phototypesetting. They were running gigantic web offset presses. It was the first show where hot metal typesetting was not shown. The first color scanners were there. I saw my first computers. Goss had the biggest web press and Intertype, Linotype, Monotype, Fairchild, Compugraphic, and others were all there with phototypesetting. I still have some of the product brochures I picked up.

RR: No doubt. How did PRINT distinguish itself from the other shows that were current at the time?

FR: There were actually very few shows at that time. The last big one was in New York City in 1959 and there was a small one in Los Angeles in 1964. PRINT 68 was the biggest show at that time.

RR: How has the show evolved over the subsequent 50 years?

FR: I have all the show catalogs and they read like history books.

I’ve been to every Graph Expo and every PRINT show. Every one of them has been a revelation, because there would always be that one WhatTheyThink - Printing News

unexpected company or technology.

There was always something new, and I expect the same this year. Depending on a product’s development, it would be introduced at drupa, IPEX, or PRINT. But it always would show-up at PRINT because the U.S. market was so important.

RR: What were some of the landmark technology introductions that have been made at past PRINT shows? I still recall PRINT 97, which we covered at Micro Publishing News, where all the digital and -DI presses made their first appearances.

FR: Every technology we now use was introduced at and evolved from what was shown at a PRINT show.

Most of what has been shown at drupa was not ready for prime time, but almost everything at PRINT was ready for the market. PRINT has always been a “selling show.”

The desktop publishing revolution began at the MacWorld and Type-X shows and quickly came to PRINT. Printers could not grasp the changes that desktop computers and laser printers would bring about. Apple exhibited once and then eschewed print-specific shows. Xerox showed a 914 copier. Printers complained about quality instead of looking beyond that specific device. Others saw a future and “copy shops” resulted.

Let us not forget that printing firms come in all sizes and you need an event where dealers and distributors have access to lots of small and medium-sized printers. They are not going to Las Vegas. And, by the way, I have seen small and medium firms become large firms. I remember when a very young Joe Metzger drove from Toledo to make a decision on a phototypesetter. The Metzgers have been at almost every seminar I have

given at the Graph Expo and PRINT shows.

RR: Any good stories/anecdotes that from past PRINTs that can be shared in a family newsletter?

FR: Compugraphic showed their first phototypesetter. Someone looked at the quality and said, “That’s crap.”

“How much is the machine?” “$7,500.”

“That’s not bad crap.” We went to a nightclub on the last night to see Tony Bennett. A very young Aretha Franklin was in the audience and they did several songs. The plane I flew back on had propellers.

RR: What has traditionally— Wait, what?! You flew on a plane?

FR: I think they were wooden propellers.

RR: What has traditionally been the value of the PRINT show for attendees—and exhibitors?

It was more than a show. It’s where the industry came together once a year. When the seminar program was added in the 1970s, it created even more dialogue and discussion.

RR: So you’re excited for this year’s PRINT event?

I was excited to be at the first one and I have been excited to be at every one of them. PRINT 18 is more than an event—it is the 50th anniversary of the new era of print.

PRINT 68 was the demarcation between the old hot-metal world and the new “cold type” world. Every PRINT show has been a milepost to affirm our rush into the future.

This year will be no different. Find this article at PrintingNews.com/ 12430112 ■

September/October 2018 @PRINT18

47

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