Heidelberg

As visitors enter the lobby of Westland Printers, they're stunned by a riot of color. The commercial custom printer displays samples of its work on two full walls. There's no missing the fact that Westland prints sophisticated multicolor brochures, many of which feature diecut and embossed covers produced on-site. Despite the complexity of the work, when Westland Printers accepts jobs these days, it's with the understanding that they'll be out the door within a week. Typically, the Burtonsville, MD, family-owned printer has between seven and 10 working days to turn a job around. And, points out company President Barbara Westland, that type of delivery is

In the commercial printing market, one technology no longer fits all. Methods for putting ink on paper have multiplied like rabbits. Today's print buyers can choose the method that precisely matches their needs for volume, quality and turnaround. That leaves printers looking for new business strategies. RPL Graphics believes it has found one. This Northern California printer, with annual sales topping $4.6 million, has transformed itself in the last few years and now offers a mix of services aimed at filling every need a customer might have. Company ProfileName: RPL GraphicsLocation: Dublin, CAEmployees: 31Annual Sales: $4.6 millionFamily-owned RPL has 31 employees in three plants

SOUTH BEND, IN—Six weeks prior to its official opening and less than a year after groundbreaking ceremonies, Bowne & Co.'s South Bend manufacturing facility printed more than a half-million merger documents. The new facility, which became fully operational on Aug. 4, represents a 25 percent increase in web press capacity for Bowne, and is budgeted to produce the print component for roughly $100 million in sales. Bowne, as a whole, recorded fiscal year 1997 revenues of $716 million. The South Bend plant, strategically located to serve the Midwestern market, is expected to handle overflow mutual fund and financial printing from Bowne sites around the

As visitors enter the lobby of Westland Printers, they're stunned by a riot of color. The commercial custom printer displays samples of its work on two full walls. There's no missing the fact that Westland prints sophisticated multicolor brochures, many of which feature diecut and embossed covers produced on-site. Despite the complexity of the work, when Westland Printers accepts jobs these days, it's with the understanding that they'll be out the door within a week. Typically, the Burtonsville, MD, family-owned printer has between seven and 10 working days to turn a job around. And, points out company President Barbara Westland, that type of delivery is

BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO The latest installment of Printing Impressions' year-long report on CIP3 initiatives visits Vancouver, Canada-based thermal imaging innovator Creo Products, recently awarded a GATF InterTech Award for PrintLink, Creo's digital ink key preset software that boosts operational efficiency by bringing CIP3 into the picture. Beyond its role as a thermal imaging technology innovator, Creo is a member of the CIP3 consortium that developed the industry standard for exchanging information between print production devices. At Creo, CIP3 is PrintLink. How does PrintLink link? PrintLink generates CIP3-compliant Print Production Format (PPF) files during platemaking that define ink coverage on a plate precisely. PrintLink delivers these files via

Many analysts believe that successful businesses go through regular transformations or grow stagnant and die—a philosophy that makes sense to those comprising the array of talent at Steckel Printing. A manufacturer of high-end, six-color commercial work, Steckel has undergone several company-wide changes over the past dozen years. "All of which have made us stronger and more responsive to our clients," says Steckel President Faye Givler, who has been a part of the company for 22 years. "You have to step up and step forward. Hold tight to your strengths, but keep adapting." Company ProfileName: Steckel PrintingLocation: Lancaster, PAEmployees: 100Annual Sales: $12 millionKey Markets:

COMMACK, NY—While some printers are getting into prepress services, Spectragraphic Inc., headquartered here, is expanding beyond prepress services into sheetfed offset printing. "We realized that as the printing industry moved to all-digital workflows, we needed to make decisions on technology—both for now and in the future," comments Geoffrey Gough, co-founder and executive vice president. One such decision included the recent purchase of a new six-color, 40˝ Mitsubishi 3F press and a multimillion-dollar investment in Spectragraphic's imaging studio. This included the installation of fiber optic networks, the latest Silicon Graphics workstations. Currently in its 21st year of operation, Spectragraphic claims to have been among its

BY CHERYL A. ADAMS "Asleep" isn't the typical description of a 42-year-old, $50 million printing operation. But that's how Larry C. King, president and COO of the IntegraColor Group (formerly Horticultural Printers), fondly described his business...until two years ago, that is. "We've been referred to as a sleeping giant—but we're not sleeping anymore," says King, comparing the company's steady growth over the past decade (from $15 million in 1988 to $30 million in 1996) to its explosive 57-percent growth over the past two years. IntegraColor's self-imposed wake-up call came in the form of a "dedicated decision," which was made by the company's management team

BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO In this latest installment in Printing Impressions' yearlong CIP3 focus, BARCO Graphics reports on its company's push to digitize ink key settings—even before Heidelberg's spearheading of CIP3—and the attributes of InkPlanner, an option on BARCO's FASTRIP/B. Cutting costs. During press makereadies, valuable production time and paper are often wasted. Likewise, ink is an important cost factor in any commercial printing environment. Control over paper and control over ink are goals of every printer, especially those printing operations pursuing CIP3. An early member of the CIP3 consortium, BARCO Graphics recognized the need for tighter control over all consumables within the production environment. More specifically,

CTP allows Quad/Graphics to break conventions—and break free from conventional plates. BY JERRY JANDA Quad/Graphics has set its eyes on the future, looking into the next century with 20/20 vision. Make that 20/20/20 vision. The company has vowed to reduce customers' cycle times by 20 percent each year for the next three years. This lofty goal has set Quad on a difficult path leading into the 21st century. Fortunately, the company's commitment to computer-to-plate (CTP) technology promises to make the trip less arduous. Call the journey "2001: A Plate Odyssey." Computer-to-plate meshes well with Quad's three-year plan. By removing steps from the prepress process,