JULY 07

Total Print! Expo 2009 cancelled by IIR

Exhibition organiser IIR has shelved this autumn's Total Print! Expo (TPE) show, citing difficult market conditions.

"To make it work sensibly we needed three or four of the big guys to say yes, and unfortunately that didn’t happen," said IIR managing director Nicky Mason.

Mason admitted that Northprint's relatively poor showing may have also had an impact on bookings for TPE.

"I think because we held people to contracts [for Northprint], they have been relatively slow to book for TPE," she said.

IIR was about to begin investing in visitor promotion for TPE and to confirm its October booking of Earl's Court 2, but according to Mason: "We couldn't do that if we weren't sure if we had a show.

The organiser is planning to relaunch the show next year, but is asking for industry feedback on the event's format, content and frequency.

"Nothing is cast in stone. The event needs to look quite different to the old Digital Print World (DPW) and not necessarily what we did with TPE last year, which I don't know was necessarily the right thing. So we need to start again and find out what the exhibitors and visitors want.

"However, Mason added that the show would still need to fit IIR's "commercial criteria", which meant that it was unlikely to be a conference.

"We need to get the audience right and focus on what's new and what people are trying to do with their businesses."

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JULY 07

Kodak and Arden shake on 3D prototyping software for packaging market

Kodak has formed a strategic alliance with the packaging prepress specialist Arden Software to bring "3D prototyping and structural design solutions" to the packaging market.

As a result of the alliance, which could challenge EskoArtwork's dominance in the sector, Arden's Impact structural design software will be integrated with Kodak's Prinergy Powerpack workflow.

The two companies have signed a collaborative marketing and selling agreement to sell and implement their complementary product portfolios including Kodak's CTP, proofing products and consumables.

Steve Miller, packaging workflow product manager at Kodak, said that the deal had been struck in response to the growing need for structural design software to "facilitate product redesign and prototyping".

"The alliance is intended to address this trend and help brand owners and package printers bring redesigned products to market more quickly," he added.

UK-headquartered Arden's Impact structural design package features intuitive drawing tools, a library of pre-programmed and reusable design styles, an intelligent layout feature and realistic 3D TruView modelling capabilities.

Miller said: "Kodak is excited to tie Arden's Impact structural design applications with Kodak Solutions, offering customers a seamless workflow solution from product design through to print production."

Martin Poynter, managing director of Arden Software, added: "By focusing on the customers' needs to streamline their operations and improve efficiencies, we see this alliance as providing world-class solutions that enable packaging companies to optimise their business performance."

The announcement followed the recent establishment of Arden Software North America in Park City, Utah. Jim Silianoff, president of the North American operation, said that the deal underlined Arden's commitment to becoming "the undisputed leader" in its markets.

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JULY 06

HP boss says digital print will not replace conventional technologies

Digital will not replace conventional print, but the two technologies will coexist, HP Indigo's vice president has said.

Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager of HP's Indigo division, told delegates at a customer event held in Tel Aviv, Israel this month that the technologies would  "live together".  

At the event, which brought together existing and prospective customers for HP's WS4500 and recently launched WS6000 digital presses, he said: "Digital will not replace flexo or offset. They will live together, but digital will grow very fast."

Bar-Shany also urged delegates to invest during the financial crisis so as to emerge stronger when the recession finally ends.

"People that find a way to innovate, create or apply new technology do very well even in crisis times," he said.

Delegates were shown the benefits of HP's SmartPlanner system, available to existing customers, which can be used to determine when a print order is too big to make using digital print viable.

HP itself has continued to invest in research and development and delegates were invited to view this department at the company's Tel Aviv site.

The company launched the Indigo WS6000 in the same week as the Digital label summit conference in Barcelona in March.

The Indigo WS6000 is capable of printing on to substrates from 12-450 microns at 30m per minute in four-colour mode.

It is twice the speed of HP's WS4500 and is aimed at companies that would previously have had to buy multiple units to achieve volumes required.

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Despite the advances in digital print technology, metallic effects have proved difficult to reproduce. However, thanks to some clever inks, that may not be the case for much longer, says Barney Cox

For all digital print's many advantages, there are some applications that have remained stubbornly the preserve of more conventional processes. And this is a problem for anyone wanting to produce short-run jobs economically, while exploiting print's unique tactile and aesthetic qualities.

For print to compete with other media, it needs to play to its sensory strengths while addressing its cost weaknesses. If you want to add value to short runs, then you need to be able to do so without incurring the extra processing and materials costs that go along with conventional processes.

Some added-value print and finishing techniques have already been addressed by toner and inkjet technologies. Coating and varnishing, for example, both for protection and effects such as spot varnishing and even textured finishes, are available from the likes of Kodak with the Nexpress, Canon with the Imagepress C1+ and MGi and FFEI with their inkjet spot coaters. Spot colours are offered by several toner-based systems and many wide-format inkjet machines use extended-gamut inks to help to hit brand colours. Inkjet machines are also increasingly able to offer white ink for use with clear and coloured substrates, much as screen process and flexo do.

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Vinyl film specialist Hexis has signed a deal with race team Oreca to develop a vehicle wrap alternative to paint that could improve the performance of its race cars.
The technical partnership should result in lighter cars that would therefore use less fuel and produce faster lap times.

According to Hexis, using its HX20000 double-layer PVC film instead of paint is up to 10kg lighter on the Oreca  LMP1 race car (Le Mans Prototype 1). It also claimed that vinyl may offer improved airflow over paint.

The film comprises a 50micron pigmented layer under a 30micron clear layer. The pigment is dense enough to ensure no whitening around stretched and curved areas and the upper layer offers improved protection from grit and other debris, the company claimed.

Application is also environmentally friendly. A spokseperson said there is: "no spray booth, no special wear (masks etc), no heavy equipment. The only tools you need for a vehicle wrap are a craft knife, a plastic squeegee and a heat gun. As there is no paint involved you can do this in any workshop - we do demos at exhibitions on a carpeted floor."

The film can be removed and recycled using the same processes as "any other plastic sheeting".

The technology has more mainstream applications. "This sort of application is not limited to race cars ... We have also noted that there are more and more private customers who 'fancy a change' or want to make a gift. On a normal family-sized car the full wrap can be done in one day by one person."

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Advertising in the UK suffered a 4% decline in 2008 to £18.6bn, according to the latest figures.

Statistics from the Advertising Association (AA) and the World Advertising Research Center (WARC) showed the 2008 decline compared to a 4.3% growth in 2007, with press advertising down some 11.8%, taking its overall share to 36.6%.

It remained the largest advertising sector, but the overall recession and its effects on the property, recruitment and motor industries along with the flight to online of classified advertising all took their toll, particularly hurting the regional press.

"The second part of the year saw a downturn in recruitment advertising especially in the regional press," said WARC research director Colin Macleod. "When unemployment is high you don't need to advertise so much... and online recruitment is generally cheaper than in print."

He said that companies were also moving towards posting vacancies on corporate websites rather than advertising.

He described the property market as "more or less collapsed" with "property advertising in the regional press down somewhere between 40 and 50%".

Direct mail had an 11% share (£2.04bn), down 6% year-on-year, although better use of data meant that campaigns have been more targeted. Macleod said that direct mail still represents an attractive platform for advertisers. "In a downturn, advertisers will look more towards measurable forms of advertising," he said.

Outdoor and transport advertising dropped 3.8% to a 5% market share. Macleod said: "Apart from the internet, outdoor advertising has been one of the fastest growing mediums over the last couple of years – it's down to the growth in the leisure industry, with more people going out."

He said that the recession has put a dent in that growth but that "things will pick up".

Online advertising was the third largest sector in 2008, growing 19.1% to take a 19.3% market share, behind television at 24%.

The outlook for 2009 is a 10-15% reduction in advertising spend, although most of that decline is in the first half of the year, according to Macleod.

Canon has given a UK debut to its new mono range of imagePress digital production printers at its upcoming 'United for Growth' event in Manchester.

The customer event, which runs from today to 2 July, will give visitors the opportunity to attend a number of workshops, as well as check out Canon's latest press and software offerings.

The show is being targeted at commercial printers, CRDs and copy shops and will feature talks on issues such as obtaining finance, the environment, sales and marketing, and training.

In addition to its new mono imagePress machines, Canon will showcase its C1+ with clear toner, colour imagePress C7000VP and the Helix Production Workflow.

Other companies exhibiting at the event include NT Ware, EFI, Agfa and Objectif Lune promoting services such as workflow, colour management and web-to-print.
Trevor Dodsworth, head of professional print marketing at Canon UK, said the event was an opportunity for Canon to work both with customers and industry partners to "address some of the burning issues of the day".

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TORONTO—By 2013, Internet advertising, including mobile, will be a $2.1 billion industry in Canada, according to predictions from the annual “Global entertainment and media outlook” from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).

Meanwhile, print advertising—including magazines, newspapers and directories—is set to decline across the board.

PWC forecasts that print advertising in magazines will drop by 2.3% over the next five years, while trade magazine ads will dip 5.5%. Out-of-home media is poised for a modest 1.5% growth by 2013, PWC predicts.

The trends are similar globally: Internet advertising is expected to grow by 7.3% into an $83.09 billion industry, while all print mediums are set for small declines.

"What we are sure about is that this recession will last longer than previous ones due to a steeper downturn and that the impact on advertising will be particularly significant," says Tracey Jennings, leader of the PwC Canada E&M practice. "E&M is not immune from the decline in consumer spending either—in Canada, consumer spending in E&M will fall by a projected 4.9% in 2009, remaining weak in 2010 and seeing only relatively low growth at 2.2% CAGR by 2013. Overall Canadian advertising spend will actually decrease a total of -0.5% CAGR by 2013, reflecting lower ad spending across traditional segments. Consumer spending, however, will rebound more quickly from the recession. In fact, by 2013 consumer spend on E&M is projected to outpace GDP."

Font management specialist Extensis, a division of Celartem, has successfully patented its technology for allowing multiple fonts to be displayed simultaneously in a preview window.

The company has been granted a patent, number 7,539,939, entitled 'Preview Window to Preview Text in Several Different Fonts Simultaneously' by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

According to Extensis, its patented technology prevents users from having to scroll through thousands of fonts and preview them individually, but rather allows a variety of typefaces to be previewed in a single window.

In addition, users can adjust point size on the fly, type in custom text and select the most appropriate font to be used in a document.

Thomas Phinney, senior product manager for font solutions at Extensis, said: "Creative, print and publishing professionals who work in font-intensive environments have been benefiting greatly from this technology.

"Comparing fonts side-by-side in a preview window within your professional font management application makes the selection process easier and faster."

Extensis' font previewing capability can be found in its font management products including Universal Type Server, Suitcase Fusion and Suitcase for Windows.

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Cava UK has developed a product that allows carton printers to add Braille to packaging without having to buy a new folder-gluer.

New legislation means that, from next year, all pharmaceutical cartons will be required to include
Braille information.

Wakefield-based Cava UK has designed RotoBraille – an embossing system that can be retrofitted o existing lines and is compatible with a wide range of machines already on the market.

"It’s taken two years to develop and meets current and proposed legislation. The advantage is that people don’t need to buy costly new equipment," said Cava chairman Tony Barrett.

The device is repositionable and portable, and allows Braille to be applied on up to four carton faces. It is installed as the last process on a carton line. Pricing starts at €155,000 (£135,000).

RotoBraille has already been subject to extensive field-testing by existing Cava customers and the company has reported strong worldwide interest in the product now that it is commercially available.