By Jill Rowan

Often times at my print shop I receive calls from clients asking us to print on T-Shirts. When I respond that we cannot print to T-Shirts, the immediate question is, “Why, can’t you print to fabric?”
This is where the conversation becomes tricky.
Well, we can print to SOME fabrics, like fabric banners, and other coated materials, but not to a jersey knit fabric. Even if we were able to print to that fabric, we cannot print directly to T-Shirts, we can only print to fabric rolls, and you would then need to get the shirts physically made.
I then politely apologize and send the potential client on their way to a local screen print shop. However, I always feel badly that I can’t further explain screen printing, direct to garment printing, and textile printing more fully to the client. So, I’ve decided to write this post, to direct potential clients to, in case they have further questions.

What is Screen Printing?
Screen printing on textiles is a method of textile printing which can go directly on pre-made garments or onto rolls of textiles. Screen printing uses screens which are blocked off with non-permeable materials to form a stencil. This stencil is a negative of the image and is placed upon the media, in this case fabric. Ink is then placed on the screen and a fill or flood bar is used to press the inks into the mesh openings. Screen printing can be used anywhere traditional printing can be used in addition to other promotional items such as water bottles, balloons and even printed electronics.
More often than not, screen printing machines, unless they are industrial grade, are labor intensive and one of the reasons they are not in traditional print shops that focus on paper goods.

Why is Screen Printing Different than Direct to Garment Printing
Direct to Garment Printing does not use screens and can be done with a more traditional printer. This does cut down on costs, due to not having to set up or use screens, as well as cutting down on mess and clean up since there is no rolling inks through screens. Additionally, as digital direct to garment printing is a newer technology, darker colored garments cannot yet be printed on and will still require a traditional screen print. Screen printing can also be done on a variety of substrates whereas direct to garment can only be done on cotton and cotton blend materials. Screen printing yields only 72 DPI at it’s highest, while Direct to Garment printing has a resolution of 600 x 600 DPI, allowing for near-photographic clarity, with NO halftone dots. So depending on the size of your run, the type of garment you need printed, or the art required, screen printing vs. direct to garment printing may be a perfect fit.
For instance, since using a digital direct to garment printer is faster and less expensive than screen printing, there are often no minimums allowing for greater personalization of the garment at lower costs. Maybe you need just one HILARIOUS t-shirt as a gag gift for a friend. Another easy way to do this is with a heat transfer, which is a dye sublimation process. However, for those of you experienced with at home, or Mall Kiosk heat transfers is that they are stiff and cause the fabric to lay, wear and wash awkwardly. You may be thinking, that’s great, I get the difference between screen printing and direct to garment printing, but why cant my printer who can print to textiles not print to garments?

Why Can’t My Printer “Print” My Promotional Clothing, Too? (The Case of Dye Sub and Wide-Format Printing)
The answer is simple. The printers a traditional print shop uses for textile printing are wide-format printers which only print large scale items, like banners. The fabric for this kind of printing must be in a roll form, and thus ready made clothing cannot be printed on, whereas direct to garment printers have plates individual t-shirts can be laid on for printing. Often times these printers can work with a wider array of formats, including Word, whereas wide-format printers require InDesign, Quark, or Illustrator files.
Additionally, many traditional printers do not have dye sublimation capabilities. While they may print to heavy cotton or vinyl, which of course is a fabric, they cannot do textile printing. A standard wide-format printer with standard inks can only print to these heavier kinds of materials because not only would they soak the material with ink and anything more delicate would have ink soak through to both sides and would have an incredibly long drying time, but these heavier materials are sold by the vendor with a coating on them allowing the inks to stay on the surface of the material. As of yet, very few kinds of fabrics have this type of coating on them to allow for wide-format printing.
Of course, leaps and strides are being made every day in the world of textile printing, especially by Mimaki. For standard Mom and Pop print shops, though, garment and most textile printing remains beyond their capabilities.

by Gale Grimmenga  |   Principal/Creative Impulse  |   www.creativeimpulseinc.com

Today, I not only need to create my marketing strategies and design them into print and websites, but also three to seven other mediums. I used to hire programmers; now I’m needing to become one. Studies say a person can become proficient at only three to four software programs in a lifetime, let alone the programming languages that create them, aaarrggg!

As a designer who works with marketing VPs and the data that market researchers produce, I heard more about marketing at Graph Expo than ever before, which shows how much things are changing and our roles are blending. We used to have very defined roles—you were a printer, I was a designer. We had a copywriter, that guy who sets type, a photographer, and don’t forget the photo retoucher; she’s a market analyst, that guy’s a video producer, and they manufacture paper.

Within those well-defined domains lived expertise, quality, craftsmanship, detail, satisfaction, and comfort. Now we are all everything. Since the computer, I not only create concepts and design—I typeset, use stock photos, or take my own (especially easy with a digital camera and low-res requirements for web applications), and I do my own photo retouching. (Talk about bringing home the bacon and frying it up in the pan!) I could have even bought one of those super-cool digital printers I saw working away on the floor of Graph Expo, and add printer to my resume. (My photo did get immortalized on the Fruit Goofies cereal box, xpedx’s unique marketing concept to pull us to the booth and see the amazing EFI Rastek UV inkjet printer work its magic. What can I say? Maybe it was that pink boa prop which caught my eye.)

Anyway, the point is we are all needing to be more than we have been before. But will expanding our skill sets deepen our ability to solve the very real problems we all face? Can we expand them enough to be good at it? Can we learn fast enough, before the next shift in technology? Can a printer change enough to provide marketing services?

Whether you feel overwhelmed or inspired or both, there was plenty of software, consultants, and new technology at Graph Expo to help the transition: web-to-print software for estimating in real time and ordering deliverables via templates with a click of the mouse; consultants already experts in providing multimedia channeling of messages to consumers (or Leo Burnett and my DC client’s word, ‘touches’); equipment that moves faster with greater quality in less space and with more sophisticated computer interfacing. (And today, you don’t have to buy the software: just access the cloud. I have an FTP site for large files, but since it requires my client having an easily downloadable Fetch or equivalent, sometimes we ‘cloud’ it. All you need is a browser.)

It’s like patting your head with one hand and doing the circles on your stomach with the other. It’s using our right and left brains simultaneously. It’s yelling at the drat equipment that’s got a glitch and talking to our client with true understanding the next. It’s being in linear programming land (with templated parameters someone else created, not me) and full tilt creative concepts that sell, and meet clients objectives the next. Wow!

Next time: more take-a-ways from GraphExpo 2011 and best next steps.

I’m going back to Las Vegas, but not for anything to do with printing.

Frankly, now and then I need a break from the printing industry. I’ve just spent more than a week at the NAQP/NAPL Owners Conference and Graph Expo 2011 and I need a change of scenery. That’s why I’m going back to the city I love to hate—Las Vegas.

Why am I doing such a thing? It is because of my dogs. You see, they both are rescue dogs and I am very interested in animal rescue. (We also have a rescue cat, but she’s not talking to me at the moment since we put her in the cat kennel for 10 days.) So, I’m going back to Las Vegas for the sixth time this year to attend the 2011 No More Homeless Pets National Conference sponsored by the Best Friends Animal Society.

I’ve been donating to Best Friends for years to help support their no-kill efforts and their animal rescue sanctuary in Moab, UT. My donations got me on the Best Friends mailing list and that’s how I found out about the conference. I probably would have dismissed the event as something worthwhile but not something I needed to attend until I saw one workshop track: “Saving Lives the New-Fashioned Way—Marketing, Media, and Communications”.

Well, I’m in the media and communications business, so that intrigued me. Maybe I could learn something that would be of value to our local animal rescue efforts. So I signed up and booked a ticket back to Sin City.
On this trip, I’ll try to ignore the fact that I’m going to Las Vegas and concentrate on how great it will be to hang around with 1,000 other people who love animals. Who knows, a few of them might also be printers, but I won’t hold that against them.

For me, and for much of the Cygnus Graphics Media staff, this is the longest week of the year. It is also one of the busiest.
Starting last Thursday, Karen, our publisher Kelley Homes, and I were attending the NAQP/NAPL Owners Conference, a two-day affair that this year attracted some 150 attendees and featured the annual vendor showcase tabletop exhibit.

I’ve been going to the Owners Conference for a couple of decades and have always enjoyed my time with the attendees. In years past, when the conference closed I was on my way home. However, since we started producing the Show Daily for GRAPH EXPO last year, the Owners Conference is just the beginning.

As I write this, we are nearly finished with putting together the guide for the third day, which needs to be at Quad/Graphics by 6:00 pm for printing and delivery to McCormick Place and attendee hotel rooms by the crack of dawn.

Several printers I know have asked how we manage to produce a 64-page 4/4 tabloid on a daily basis. Actually, we only have 16 live pages each issue. The rest of the guide is pre-printed prior to the show and is then married with the live signature. It’s still a lot of work. After the files go to the printer, the entire edition is digitized and distributed electronically to tens of thousands of printers who are not attending the show. If you are reading this, you are one of those tens of thousands.

Enjoy!

William Gindlesperger, Chief Executive Officer, e-LYNXX Corporation

Federal agencies (they spend more than $500 billion annually of your tax dollars) have been instructed to reduce their budgets by 10% in 2013 per a directive from the Office of Management and Budget, the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States. This certainly comes as no surprise as a stubborn economy persists, minimal jobs are being created and very little is being invested in businesses.

Even though the Great Recession was supposed to have ended in June 2009, we have seen the largest two-year drop in “labor compensation” – wages and benefits – since the early 1960s. The foreclosure crisis continues, and for the first time, the number of “99ers” – unemployed Americans whose benefits have run out – has pushed past the two million mark. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of U.S. residents who said they had two jobs was 7.3 million in 2010, up from 4.5 million in 2007, the year the recession began.

These are just some of the indicators cited by national media to illustrate that these remain tough times for the economy – one that is supposed to be the international pillar of strength. Repeatedly our elected and appointed government officials have been admonished and told that the engine for job creation must be the private sector. The purpose of government in a democracy is not to create jobs but to support an environment in which the private sector can thrive and create employment opportunities.

With that in mind, decision makers in Washington should embrace measures that would both reduce government spending and boost private sector jobs. Here are two ways to help accomplish both:

• Enforce compliance with Title 44 of the United States Code which directs federal agencies to channel all printing through the United States Government Printing Office (GPO). For decades, GPO has had the best of all government procurement programs. Printers nationwide depend on the millions of dollars that GPO awards annually to the private sector for the production of envelopes, tags, color copying, kit folders, cut sheets, four-color process materials and promotional specialties to mention a few categories of print jobs. Most printers vying for this work are small businesses with 20 or fewer employees, and their livelihoods depend on the $2,000 to $5,000 average per GPO job. GPO has said it annually awards contracts to more than 2,500 vendors nationwide. This represents some 50,000 jobs. The total number registered to do business with GPO is around 16,600 vendors, representing potentially 332,000 jobs. The key word is potentially. If the estimated $800 million in print work now being done in agency print shops were stopped that huge volume of printing would be channeled through the GPO where costs would be reduced by as much as 50% compared with agency plants. If that were done, the potential annual savings for taxpayers would be at least $400 million, and this is an historical fact. However, the $800 million is based on government accounting which is strange and excludes many of the costs the private sector includes in its accounting. In real numbers, the government controls many billions of dollars in printing (as everyone recognizes, government runs on paper). More private sector jobs would be needed to handle the increase in work that would flow through the GPO procurement program, and this would be a welcomed boost for job seekers and the economy.
• Embrace new procurement technology that is enabling private sector organizations to reduce their cost for goods and services by 25% to 50%. Antiqued procurement programs that have not been updated in 20 or more years are as effective as typewriters in today’s computer age. One example of a private sector initiative that is lowering costs by an average of 42% on jobs awarded is the automated vendor selection (AVS) process. Driven by AVS TechnologyTM, vendors carefully screened and objectively qualified are automatically selected to compete for work and in doing so lower their prices to fill gaps in their production schedules. The buying organization benefits from lowered pricing from qualified vendors, and the winning vendor is awarded work that it otherwise would not have. The competitive bidding environment provides a level playing field for all qualified vendors. For the buyer, there are additional benefits. When the technology is used with a robust web-based workflow and communications system and best practices, the process delivers total transparency, full accountability for all participants (buyer and vendor), strengthened quality controls and significant efficiency gains. Also, an indelible and auditable task-by-task record of each project is established for future reference. This approach, already licensed by a host of private sector industries, can be used for a wide range of applications including specialty products, commercial printing, temporary staffing, direct mail, construction services, publications, packaging and transportation. Using the 42% average savings of current AVS Technology private sector licensees as the benchmark, a

Government Should Learn From Private Sector

• government program (local, state or federal) with $1 billion in procurement costs could achieve $420 million in cost reductions for procuring the same goods and services. In government parlance, that is $4.2 billion in cost savings over 10 years for each $1 billion in present costs. It is even more when considering that the savings of taking people off unemployment and putting them back to work in non-government jobs.

Before either of these cost reduction measures can be implemented to the benefit of private sector businesses, job seekers and taxpayers, government leaders have to change their ways. They must rein in government agencies that are duplicating services already provided in the private sector. It makes no more sense, for instance, for government agencies to operate printing plants than it does for them to manufacture their own vehicles. Leaders must demand that government agencies outsource work to private sector businesses that already are set up to perform a particular job. The role of government is not to compete with the private sector. Government’s role is to implement the laws of the land, working in partnership with the private sector – the only legitimate creator of jobs in the United States.

About e-LYNXX Corporation
e-LYNXX Corporation patented the technology integral to e-commerce.  Endorsed by Educational & Institutional Cooperative Purchasing (E&I) and Printing Industries of America (PIA), e-LYNXX drives results through its three divisions.

• AVS TechnologyTM licenses the patented* automated vendor selection procedure used in e-commerce and procurement systems.
• American Print Management provides web-based system, services and patented AVS TechnologyTM to reduce substantially the procured costs of direct mail, marketing, publications, packaging, labels and other procured print.
• Government Print Management offers effective U.S. GPO bid services and strategies. www.e-LYNXX.com – 888-876-5432

*U. S. Patent No. 6,397,197, Patent No. 7,451,106, post-Bilski Patent No. 7,788,143, and Continuing Application 12/855,423 (collectively, the AVS TechnologyTM) – This thicket of patents covers all custom goods and services, not just print. To inquire about licensing, contact Anthony Hawks at 888-876-5432 or Michael Cannata at 905-773-2207.

About the Author

William Gindlesperger is a nationally recognized entrepreneur, inventor, author and consultant. He founded ABC Advisors and its successor, e-LYNXX Corporation, in 1975. Profit, non-profit and government organizations alike have benefited from his strategic insight and innovation that result in measured and substantial cost reduction.

Mr. Gindlesperger’s sound advice and counsel have yielded results for those with fiduciary responsibility and the authority to take action to reduce costs. He has directed major initiatives in both the private and public sectors. He has testified before the U. S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration regarding government print and procurement policy. He has worked directly with numerous Congressional and Senatorial members and staff and has advised Congress on the development, operations and future of government procurement.

He has been a lead fund raiser for senatorial, congressional and gubernatorial elected officials. He was a founder and chairman of Printing Industries of America’s (PIA) PrintPAC (political action committee) and has been recognized for his contributions to PIA and services to the printing industry. He was inducted into PIA’s Ben Franklin Honor Society of print industry leaders in 2009 for his lifetime contributions to the print industry. Supply & Demand Chain Executive honored Mr. Gindlesperger by including him in its 2010 listing of the most influential leaders in the supply and procurement profession in North America.

Mr. Gindlesperger invented the Automated Vendor Selection TechnologyTM — the technology that is integral to e-commerce and optimizes cost reduction in the procurement of all customized and specification-defined goods and services. He has been granted a series of Automated Vendor Selection patents, including Patent No. 6,397,197, Patent No. 7,451,106, and post-Bilski Patent No. 7,788,143 (collectively, the “AVS TechnologyTM”).

Under Mr. Gindlesperger’s leadership, e-LYNXX has grown into the leading print management and procurement licensing firm in North America. e-LYNXX has been exclusively endorsed by Printing Industries of America (PIA) and has been named one of the top 100 procurement firms in North America by Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine.

His firm handles more than 200 on-going consulting assignments at any given time. Among its contracts is one with Educational & Institutional Cooperative Purchasing to assist colleges, universities and other institutions nationwide with procurement and spend management.

A native of Chambersburg, Pa., Mr. Gindlesperger is a graduate of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

There are dates and events in everyone’s lives that are pivotal moments; moments that turn everything on its side and upside down; moments which change the way we view the world and everything within.

August 31, 1997 was one such date for me.

While the world that day was morning the loss of Princess Diana, I had only just arrived in a small hospital in Canada at the end of a 750 mile road trip—a few hours too late. My grandmother had died a few short hours before as my family and I were racing to get there in time for my mother to say her goodbyes. Up until that point in time, I hadn’t personally been affected by death, but at that moment when we walked into the hospital and were told we were too late everything simply…shifted.

June 28, 1914 could be considered another such moment in time. If you’re a history buff, you’ll know this was the day when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was assassinated—triggering the events that led to the first World War. It involved all the world’s great powers and more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized. More than nine million combatants were killed, largely because of great technological advances in firepower. This war was something no one had seen before; changing for all time the way conflicts and wars were waged.

September 1, 1939—another date linked directly with the one above—was the day Poland was invaded by Germany, which triggered the events that would become known as World War II. By the time it ended in 1945, WWII was the deadliest conflict in human history, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilized. In a state of "total war," the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, the war resulted in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities.

My father was only sixth months old when the war started. But now, when he talks about his memories of those events, to hear his stories of growing up in countries torn apart by war—and the aftermath of war—to see war from the eyes of a child is both awe-inspiring and terrifying. Those memories forever changed the way he viewed the world.

In more recent history, September 11, 2001—and the upcoming 10 year anniversary—is a date that will stay with all of us as a moment that changed the way we viewed the world. I’m sure all of us would be able to tell you where we were and what we were doing when we first heard the news about what was happening in New York City. I, for one, was in our Long Island, NY, office. It was a Tuesday morning and a quiet one at that—at least at the beginning. My mother called me with the news and everything simply…shifted. The staff was allowed to go home to be with our families and watch as the events of the day continued to unfold.

On that day 10 years ago, many people in our industry were attending PRINT ‘01 in Chicago. In observance of the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001, and to honor the memory of those who perished on that day, GRAPH EXPO will conduct a remembrance ceremony in the Grand Concourse of McCormick Place on Sunday, September 11, 2011. This ceremony will take place in unison with a national moment of silence (at 1:00 pm EST) as prescribed by U.S. federal government.

What does that date—September 11, 2001—mean to you? Share your thoughts and your comments as we remember yet one more date that changed our worldview and will forever mark a place on our calendars.

For the Cygnus Graphics team, Graph Expo is a lot like Christmas. We start thinking about it long before it gets here because we put together and publish the Show Daily. We start making plans for it and doing the work months before the actual show begins. Then when it is almost upon us, as it is now, we wonder where the time has gone. How can it be that we’ve worked so hard and there’s still so much to do? So we scramble and somehow the last minute details fall into place at last. It’s like putting up decorations and buying presents.

And all of Santa’s elves have been busy making toys. The pre-printed pages of the Show Daily have all been turned over to Quad Graphics. The video interviews have all been scheduled. We know who is covering which press conferences and events. The photographer is lined up and the freelance writers and editors who supplement our in-house crew have their assignments, too.

I have a recurring nightmare in which I don’t have time to pack my suitcase, so I end up having to wear the same jeans and t-shirt during the whole show, much to the displeasure of our publisher. But even if the first part happened, I know where the stores are in Chicago and I could buy a new wardrobe once I got to town if I had to. Oh, that would be like giving a present to myself. Hmm…interesting idea.

Then, sort of like Christmas Eve, Kelley, Bob and I go to the Owners Conference first. This is an especially enjoyable respite because we’ve known all the people who will be there for so long that it’s like visiting with good friends. Sure, there’s work to be done, but we also get to catch up on what everyone has been doing since this time last year, what their plans are, and yes, we even pull out photos of children, grandchildren, and pets.

Then comes the main event. Because the first issue of the Show Daily has to be waiting outside your hotel room door the first morning of the show, we work Saturday to make sure it is delivered Sunday morning. And from then until they close the show floor on Wednesday afternoon, we live in a wild buzz of hyperactivity. I’m glad it only happens once a year, because I’m not sure any of us could handle this pace on a regular basis. But it’s a heck of ride and we wouldn’t miss it for the world. Hope to see you there!

Next week quick and small commercial printers will gather in Chicago for the annual NAQP/NAPL Owners Conference, which will feature winners of the PrintImage Excellence Awards printing competition and will honor Printer of the Year Craig Dellinger. Next on the agenda will be GRAPH EXPO 2011, which will kick off with the Executive Outlook Conference on Saturday and the opening of the expo show floor on Sunday. Also on Sunday morning at 8:30, I will be presenting a seminar session tailored specifically for quick and small commercial printers in Room S503d at McCormick Place.

Along with the usual comprehensive seminar slate and a host of co-located events, GRAPH EXPO 2011 also will provide attendees with a chance to explore all of the new vendor introductions and show-floor demonstrations. Again this year, Cygnus Graphics Media will be producing the GRAPH EXPO Show Daily, which will be available to attendees in printed form and to thousands of other printers in digital form.

There is also another new feature this year, a GRAPH EXPO 2011 mini-site which will report all of the daily news updates and events as they occur. Click here to access the site.

Hope to see you in Chicago.

As you know, Cygnus Graphics Media has been busy working away at the content for the upcoming GRAPH EXPO 2011 Show Daily and I have to say, the four days in Chicago is going to be a whirlwind of activity.
But what can you expect if you plan to attend?

Well, this year’s GRAPH EXPO 2011 is themed “Embrace Technology,” and attendees will have the opportunity to see the full spectrum of equipment and services, from design to delivery, for every segment of the printing and graphic communications industry. There are nine special-interest sections on the show floor, including the 2011 debut of the Marketing Pavilion. This year’s PackPrint pavilion, covering package printing and converting, also features Future Print that provides information on today’s newest and emerging technologies, including printed electronics and RFID. GREENspace is dedicated to sustainability and manufacturers offering eco-friendly products and services. In the Prepress/Software/Workflow and Press/Finishing sections, attendees can explore all the hottest technologies and unique new applications.
Along with what you’ll learn touring the show floor, attendees can take advantage of the opportunity to enhance their expertise with GRAPH EXPO’s seminar program. In these sessions, attendees will gain all the latest forecasts, trends, and in-depth information on key technologies and essential business strategies to identify and capitalize on the best-suited profit making opportunities in their markets.

The Marketing Pavilion – A Show Debut
Understanding the transition that many graphic communications professionals are making into marketing services, and also the needs of highly experienced marketers at the show, GRAPH EXPO 2011 marks the debut of a brand new special interest area—the Marketing Pavilion. Sponsored by the Chicago chapter of the American Marketing Association, this specialty section is dedicated exclusively to marketing professionals, ‘marketing service providers,’ and those who want to learn how-to diversify and expand their service offerings. The new Marketing Pavilion offers a complete, one-stop destination for marketing education, resources, and networking.

GREENspace
GREENspace is in response to the industry’s demand for a specialized show-floor feature dedicated exclusively to eco-friendly products and services focused on sustainability. This pavilion offers free education, complimentary one-on-one consulting with sustainability experts, and access to products and services—everything forward-thinking attendees need to “go green” with confidence.

Prepress/Software/Workflow
GRAPH EXPO’s Prepress/Software/Workflow section is where it all begins. Because there’s just no substitute for seeing these new technologies in action, attendees will flock here to see and ‘test drive’ all of the hottest new software, workflow, design and graphic communications products, and prepress equipment that most industry professionals need to increase their productivity, personalize , customize, integrate with other media, and bring their designs to life.

Press/Finishing
It’s all in the details in the Press/Finishing section at GRAPH EXPO 2011. From start to finish, this section is a one-stop destination where attendees will find exactly what they need to produce printed and finished products. Traditional and niche market printers will be here as well to explore the newest array of sheetfed offset and digital presses and finishing innovations for runs of all sizes and types.

Wide Format—an exploding market, bigger than ever—is here and all across the show floor, providing attendees with a sweeping array of all the latest technologies, applications and solutions to expand their offerings and add new profit opportunities.

And what kinds of wide-format products are going to be on the GRAPH EXPO show floor. Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll find:

Océ (Booth 1213) will demonstrate the Océ Arizona 550 GT UV curable flatbed printer. This model is capable of POP-quality prints at 433 square feet/hour.

Roland DGA Corp. (Booth 3835) is showcasing its recently released 64-inch VersaUV LEJ-640 UV-LED wide-format hybrid inkjet printer for packaging protoypes, press proofs and membrane panels to wide-format signage, POP, window displays and interior décor items. Designed to accept roll and flat media, the LEJ-640 prints CMYK, white and clear inks on virtually any commercial printing substrate including papers, films, vinyl, PET, leathers, plastics, polycarbonates and a wide range of board stocks up to a half-inch thick.

Available exclusively from Fujifilm (Booth 627), the Onset S40 (with automation) will produce 94 full-sized (63×123.6 inches) high-quality prints per hour. The S40 is available in either four-color CMYK or six-color CMYK + Lc + Lm.

FUJIFILM North American Corporation (Booth 627) is also showcasing the Acuity Advance HS (high speed) wide format UV flatbed printer with roll media option, offering photographic quality printing at production speeds of 430-sq. ft./hour, giving printers unmatched performance for the price.

EFI (Booth 2000) is spotlighting the EFI Rastek H652 UV hybrid printer, featuring best-in-class photographic image quality, including white, at an unrivalled speed and price point, reports the company.  The Rastek H652’s vacuum belt media transport system enables the system to handle a wide range of rigid and flexible materials up 65 inches wide and 1.8 inches thick, including Fome-Cor, PVC, corrugated plastics, plywood, aluminum, and glass.

Canon’s (Booth 1213) imagePROGRAF iPF750 36-inch large-format printer produces vibrant full-bleed posters, clear text documents, and crisp line drawings quickly and easily. The new PF-04 print head incorporates a new nozzle shape to reduce satellite ink, producing cleaner lines and text, and minimizing mist.

EFI’s (Booth 2000) Fiery XF Server is an optimized production RIP hardware that provides the feature set and performance needed to maximize utilization of superwide EFI VUTEk inkjet devices.

Agfa Graphics’ (Booth 1227) :Anapurna M1600 is a 63-inch wide UV-curable printer that features white ink and Agfa’s flexible G2 inks. The :Anapurna M1600 is designed for applications up to a width of 62.2-inches and a thickness of 1.77-inches on rigid substrates including mirrors or plexi-glass and roll-to-roll substrates that demand more flexibility including banners and exhibition graphics.

Mutoh has released its newest additions to the ValueJet line-up: the ValueJet 1324-54" and ValueJet 1624-64" inkjet printers. The new ValueJets offer upgraded features. The printers will replace the previous ValueJet 1304-54" and ValueJet 1614-64" models.

American Printer has been one of Quick Printing’s respected competitors since QP was founded nearly 35 years ago, so I was deeply saddened to learn that it has ceased publication. In a notice on the publication’s website, editor Katherine O’Brien made the announcement and traced the magazine’s history, which goes back to 1928.

In light of the consolidation and shrinking of the industry that has occurred during the recent recession, many of our readers understand the mixed emotions that arise when we see a competitor fall. They are magnified when the field is as narrow as the one occupied by printing trade publications. There is the rush of opportunity left by the newly opened void, but it is leavened by concern for those who are personally affected by the closing and by the recognition of what that loss means to the industry at large.

I recall a limo ride to a restaurant a few years ago. The trade press had been flown out to visit a new facility that one of the vendors had opened. When I think back on the editors who were in that limo—laughing together and swapping stories, as we always do when we meet on the road—I realize that only three of us are still standing. And since Mark Vruno is now editor of Printing News, two of the three work for the Cygnus Graphics Media Group. I begin to understand the concept of survivor’s guilt.

We have watched as first Instant and Small Commercial Printer, then Graphic Arts Monthly folded. Now they are joined by American Printer. Katherine is well respected and an exceptional talent. I have no doubt that she will land on her feet and come out ahead of the game. I wish her and the rest of the American Printer staff many new open doors. Yes, we were competitors, but when it gets right down to brass tacks, we’re all in this crazy business together, and we are a bit lonelier today for the loss.