Graph Expo--Digital Paths Are Open
The path to digital printing has been blazed. Graph Expo and Converting Expo 2000, your trailhead outfitter, will let you glimpse the road ahead.
BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO
The digital directions of the printing industry are heading to the Windy City next month for what will undoubtedly be the most Internet-crazed, digital prepress happy, on-press imaging Graph Expo ever. On the product agenda for the exhibition will be a fleet of new digital telecommunications tools, color management software, digital workflows, digital prepress technologies and a variety of all-digital, full-color production printing presses. If the electricity goes out at Chicago's McCormick Place complex, no one should be surprised (Tip in case of a blackout: To ensure survival in the exhibit halls, be sure to carry a flashlight, compass and potable water).
What will Graph Expo deliver to the collective printing community on Sept. 24th-27th? The answer to that question is laced with varying layers of marekt-ready products and broad trends; digital technologies; Internet endeavors and strategic alliances. For certain, PDF will play a starring role at the show—as will a new host of third-party plug-ins for PDF workflows, bringing it to greater levels of use.
Imagesetters and platesetters will share space in the spotlight and both will be in demand as prices for CTP devices come down and the dependence on conventional, film-based workflows remains an option due to high-speed, large-format imagesetters. On the digital printing front, anticipate new, mind-blowing variable data technologies and "direct-to" processes to steal the show, as innovators bring on-press imaging into the mainstream of commercial printing.
And the non-product-specific news will be of alliances between vendors to bring new and better solutions to the market, as well as talk of business models and strategies. Certain to be a topic of interest around the food stands this year is the increasing impact of print-related dotcom companies and the role that the Internet will play in the procurement and manufacture of printed products.
In an attempt to speculate upon and predict some of the technological initiatives and industry trends at Graph Expo and Converting Expo 2000, Printing Impressions polled a sampling of technology providers on topics ranging from electronic imposition to color management to CTP and Internet-based systems integration. Here's what the experts have to say on all matters digital as another Graph Expo rounds the corner . . .
Imposition
According to David Brannan, worldwide sales director at Dynagram Software, the biggest hurdles to implementing high-end imposition have been the complexity of programs and pricing.
Until now. At Graph Expo 2000, attendees can expect increasingly easy-to-use interfaces in imposition programs. The latest version of Dynagram Software's DynaStrip digital stripping application, for example, features DynaMo, a wizard-like, quick layout feature that allows large print jobs to be imposed in as little as three minutes.
"Additionally, imposition solutions shouldn't be a one-size-fits-all pro-position," Brannan notes. "Look for solutions that will give users full functionality at prices to match their specific applications. Dynagram will show four solutions that, without limiting features, deliver flex-ible pricing options for small-, medium-, large-, and very large-format environments."
Color Management
Iain Trevor Pike, worldwide product marketing manager at X-Rite, has his sights set on color's role at the Chicago mega-event. "The new balance of power in the graphic arts industry will be evident at Graph Expo. Customers have become stronger in both knowledge and buying power. They're hip to hype and judicious about technology, and they've learned a lot since DRUPA.
"This DRUPA year, we focused on bringing sophisticated color technologies to the publishing community in the simple-to-use and affordable solutions they are demanding," Pike observes. "X-Rite's Color Tools That Work include technologies that our partners, such as Flint Ink, CreoScitex and Komori, are integrating for their own solutions, as well as a range of new color workflow productivity tools that we sell directly to our customers."
PDF Workflow
Peter Camps, CEO at Enfocus Software, looks to the momentum of PDF and its link to his company's technologies: "What I like about the years in which Graph Expo follows DRUPA is that we all get to see what really happens when the rubber meets the road. DRUPA 2000 is almost a romantic fantasy: the big time, with big money and big players. Then along comes Graph Expo, the reality check. It's there that we all get to put the promises to the test.
"Fortunately for us and many others, the wisdom of the PDF workflow has become a given that is no longer subject to cynics' scrutiny," Camps opines. "PDF stood up to the tests—in testing, at trade shows, user panels and, most importantly, in the field—to where it has become the format of choice for the graphic arts industry.
"As PDF matures, it is incumbent upon its supporters to do their part to ensure that customers can maximize its benefits for greatest returns," he continues. "As such, we are anxious to show Graph Expo attendees PitStop Professional, the first product resulting from our decision to break out graphic arts product development so that we can concentrate on delivering a highly targeted application to our highest-end customers."
Direct Imaging
Robert W. Hallman, president and CEO of Presstek, looks to Graph Expo as the true launch of today's on-press imaging fervor: "If DRUPA 2000 was Direct Imaging's (DI) coming-out party, then Graph Expo 2000 will be its homecoming.
"The year 2000 is clearly the year of DI, wherein a multitude of the industry's top manufacturers (Heidelberg, Ryobi, Xerox, Didde, Karat, Flint Ink, Imation, Sakurai, Adast and others) are choosing Presstek DI technology to offer users more direct imaging solutions than ever before," Hallman says. "More manufacturers means more customers because the critical mass of suppliers signals more features, at lower costs, over time."
He notes that as more commercial printers address the transition to computer-to-plate (CTP), there is increased focus on the future of plate and platesetter technology. "Cost, speed, and environmental and regulatory sensitivities are encouraging commercial printers to opt for advanced, process-free and chemical-free plate/platesetter technology such as thermal. Proliferation of these chemical process-free plates will be rapid as printers see dramatic gains in predictability and repeatability. Presstek's own vision becomes reality with Graph Expo-timed shipping of the new Presstek Dimension Series platesetter and Anthem thermal plates."
Internet Integration
Machines and software are not the only things to see in Chicago this year. The less tactile concerns raised by advances in e-commerce will grab some of the limelight, as well. But aside from new dotcoms—and new aspects of the usual suspects—the converations will turn to real-world, business applications of the Internet model.
Bill Lavelle, director of industry relations at Impresse.com, looks to a world of integration as Graph Expo centers around the controversy and the enthusiasm behind the dotcom market, and the reality of a B2B world for printers.
"Integration—it's not a tall word, it's wide. This word has meant different things to different people over time. Politicians use the word to promote or condemn coalition. Technicians use the term to describe technical environments merging multiple systems into one. Now, business people clamor for integration. It describes the supply chain's evolution and corporate objectives to act as one," Lavelle contends. "As print adapts new tools for conducting business, newly created methods, models and morals will reveal the micro-thin line separating vision from delusion; genius from lunacy."
As industry participants, it is crucial to identify the difference between good and bad ideas, he says. "A well-founded perspective aids us in making the determination. To accomplish this, printers, buyers and suppliers must consider open integration as the primary and principled responsibility for the industry. We need to adopt new tools and improve management to make the processes of print act as one."
According to Lavelle, the industry has suddenly shifted from being capital-intensive to integration-intensive. "Not everyone is happy about it, nor does everyone understand the full implications. With the possible exception of high-volume printing, most print sectors are learning to effectively compete on 'non-iron' platforms. Advanced software and processes of all types increase automation to reduce process time, errors and costs. But up until now, most software influence was contained within a given organization," he says. "Data sharing between companies is evident, but true process merging is only now emerging."
Integration Game Plan
As Graph Expo upholds its traditional role of being as much about networking and long-term planning as it is about buying equipment, expect to hear and discuss strategies for achieving Lavelle's concept of true integration.
Keith Krach, chairman and CEO of Ariba, notes that there are several ways to become involved in this integration movement. "You can be reactively forced or proactively lead. You can build your own system or work with one or more technology providers. As an employee, you may or may not have a choice; as an owner or a manager, you do. You can wait, isolate, hide, protect and deny—or you can start today.
"Successful organizations nurture and/or recruit motivated and properly profiled individuals to lead or participate in a company's [integration]," Krach continues. "Innovators will migrate towards companies with something to offer from those companies that continue to use antiquated and/or proprietary business systems. People resisting change and supporting status quo will increasingly burden declining organizations. At the end of the day, integration success is highly reflective of management's decision-making capability."
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Graph Expo and Converting Expo 2000 promises to deliver all of the expectations of the experts featured here. Advanced imposition, new-world color management, on-press imaging, the realities of the Internet for the community of print. What the commercial printing industry selects to do with all the digital technologies placed before it, however, is another story. For certain, Printing Impressions will not rest until the whole story is told. See you at the show!