Heidelberg

BY ERIK CAGLE Truth be known, San Ramon, CA-based K/P Corp. is a mom-and-pop printing organization that grew legs. Really, really big legs. Founded in Salem, OR, in 1929 as Unruh-Knapp Printing, the company became known as Knapp Printing in 1963 and, later, K/P Corp. It quickly became a staple of the Northwest printing landscape as it expanded into Utah and California. Operations expanded to include direct mail services in 1982, fulfillment capabilities in 1993 and full-color digital imaging in 1994. K/P has since complemented its arsenal with a full barrage of Internet capabilities. A massive growth spurt this year saw the company

NEW YORK—Bowne & Co., a major player in the financial printing arena, announced its board of directors has approved a $13.5 million capital investment in its New Jersey print production operations. The world's largest financial printer and a leader in document management, Bowne will use the investment to add space to the Secaucus printing facility and replace presses and related finishing equipment with new, more productive presses and finishing gear. According to Robert M. Johnson, chairman and CEO of Bowne, the move will allow the company to become more of a one-stop shop. "This investment of $13.5 million over the next 12 months will dramatically

The latest advances in digital photography and color scanning make image capture not only a snap, but exceptionally high quality. And the prices may be coming down, too. BY ALLISON ECKEL Take no specifications for granted. "The old models for discussing image quality are starting to dissolve with respect to evaluating the potential quality of an image," states Eric Zarakov, vice president of marketing for Foveon, a Santa Clara, CA-based manufacturer of image sensors and capture systems. While commenting on Foveon's recent digital chip breakthrough, Zarakov has voiced a trend in the digital image capture industry. Everything you thought you knew about the numbers

BY ERIK CAGLE Quad/Graphics has installed the latest design in Ferag gathering/stitching/ trimming systems at its plant in Lomira, WI, marking the third such system installation for Quad. The new system includes six log-fed feeders, which transport signatures to a rotary gathering drum, then to a shear-cut trimmer. According to Frank Arndorfer, Quad/Graphics' vice president of finishing operations, adding the third Ferag unit bolsters the company in a number of ways. The Ferags are the workhorses on the shop floor. "We lean toward Ferag because we have an application for production that requires more of a Gatlin gun approach—high volume and relative ease of use," Arndorfer says.

PLYMOUTH, MN—Watt/Peterson, a sheetfed printer based here, will become the latest entrant in the competition to consolidate the graphic arts industry, if the plans set in motion recently proceed as anticipated. Revealing a "long-term strategy of creating a national provider of high-quality graphic arts services ranging from high-quality sheetfed printing to cost-effective web printing, binding and mailing services," the company, and neighboring rival Cimarron Printing, have merged to form a $32 million company under the banner of a new umbrella organization, Printing Partners of America. "Increasing competition has generated a wave of consolidations within the printing industry, making it more difficult for mid-size operations

The Job Definition Format (JDF) has added a new vigor to the CIP3 movement—changing the consortium's name to CIP4, and forecasting a new era for CIM in an e-commerce and more automated printing industry. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO When the CIP3 consortium was formed in 1995, the intent was clear: develop standards that would facilitate a completely automated and integrated printing process, from prepress to pressroom to postpress. Hence the name, CIP3—the International Cooperation for Integration of Prepress, Press and Postpress. Easy enough. The mission was embraced by dozens of technology providers. Together, companies from Heidelberg to Adobe, MAN Roland to Agfa, formulated a new format, known

BY ERIK CAGLE When is a floor model saddle stitcher not a saddle stitcher? When does it become a perfect binder? Ask Bob Morton, president of Best Graphics, one of the nation's leading bindery product distributors. Best Graphics will be introducing the Best Osako 612 UB 'reverse stitcher' to the U.S. market later this year. The innovative machine will produce books that appear to be perfect bound, despite the fact they are produced on a stitcher. In essence, it's the look of a perfectly bound book at saddle stitcher cost; but there's more to it than the bottom line. The reverse stitcher is designed

San Ramon, CA—K/P Corp. has been busy in the first half of 2000. It has invested more than $6 million company-wide to upgrade equipment, move to a more digital workflow and expand services to new markets. To improve distribution and take advantage of the emerging opportunities in e-commerce product fulfillment, it opened a 12,000-square-foot mailing and fulfillment facility in Vista, CA, and a 14,000-square-foot mailing and fulfillment center in Atlanta. The company's Salem, OR, plant is also anticipating growth in mailing services and has also invested in new mailing equipment. K/P Corp.'s printing production capacity is also on the rise. Its Salt Lake City

Tom Tran arrived in the United States in 1975—broke and alone. Today, he owns a successful printing operation in the Silicon Valley. BY CAROLINE MILLER Tom Tran's story is the very definition of an American dream. It is the story of a penniless refugee who finds his way to America and, through sheer determination, hard work and a little bit of luck, builds his fortune. It is a story many people have come to regard as myth and legend. But Tom Tran has proven that legends do exist. Today, Tran is the owner of Citation Press, a $6.5 million company located in Santa

BY ERIK CAGLE One by one, John Fosmire, president and CEO of Los Angeles-based Anderson Lithograph, clicked off the names of former commercial printing contemporaries who had sold their interests to industry consolidators. It was as dubious a list of names as the would-be survivors who had been voted off the island. "Other than our acquisition by Mail-Well, I can't name any high-end lithographer that increased sales or was a better company a year after being acquired," Fosmire remarks. "Maybe (name withheld to protect the guilty), but I don't think so." Fosmire, a 40-year printing veteran, rattles two more possible names off the top