The finishing end of the entire on-demand printed product workflow is the poor stepchild of the digital family, watching in envy as the prepress and printing sides get the technological pony for Christmas. But it shouldn't and doesn't have to be that way.
The flood gates are open—digital presses for commercial printers are no longer one size fits all. There are enough devices to tempt the commercial printing community. From the zealous prepress provider to the comprehensive of one-stop printing operations: Specialization is the new mandate for the digital press in on-demand printing, variable or not. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Quick. What is a prime directive of the best of the best commercial printers when it comes to exploring new digital technologies for print? Be receptive to embrace emerging digital printing technologies? Be proactive with contemporary and unique marketing initiatives to promote new digital
Old values, new blood, high hopes. These are the foundational forces that withstand time, yet inspire change and growth, for printing's newest executives. BY CHERYL A. ADAMS For King of Prussia, PA-based XYAN, 1999 was a very big year. First, two new executives were named: CEO Alan Belyea and President David McGrew. But according to these top two execs, the even bigger news is XYAN's recent announcement that the company is refining its business strategy. Focusing on its Internet capabilities, which include on-line ordering, file transmission and e-commerce fulfillment, the firm has changed its name to XYAN.com and has revised its logo to reflect
WILSONVILLE, OR—The commercial printing industry's suppliers and manufacturers seem to have caught the merger and alliance fever sweeping the printer side of the business, with a number of major names announcing acquisitions and alliances in recent weeks. Notable among the announcements was Tektronix, which has reached an agreement to sell its Color Printing and Imaging Division to Xerox for $950 million. Xerox will set up a new business unit that adds Tektronix's color-printing technologies to Xerox's existing black-and-white workgroup printer offerings. Tektronix's color printer operations, with approximately 2,400 employees, will remain in this Portland suburb, and employees of the color printer division will become employees
When Seybold closed the doors to its 1999 San Francisco expo last month, three technology trends stood dominant: the Internet, PDF and the quest for the all-digital workflow. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO If one potent word could sum up the energy, enthusiasm and very direction of Seybold San Francisco, held for the final time this century at the Moscone Center last month, it could easily be: Internet. The Internet, the World Wide Web. Seybold San Francisco was a virtual debutante's ball for the global gateway that is the Internet. New companies emerged as major players for the commercial printing market—all gearing to harness the
WESTPORT, CT—Terry Tevis, president and CEO of quickly expanding industry consolidator Printing Arts America (PAA), has submitted his resignation to the company's board of directors, effective immediately. In his place, the board has named one of its own, Marion H. Antonini, to succeed Tevis. Tevis will remain on the company's board as vice chairman through the end of the year. PAA officials say Antonini brings a broad business background with extensive experience in operations, corporate acquisitions and strategic planning at such companies as Xerox, where he was group vice president worldwide operations, and Welbilt, where he was chairman and CEO from 1990 through 1998.
Wide-format's color proofing media and general-use consumables are expanding the gloss, durability, consistency and color parameters of their imposing output engines. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Whether the intent is outdoor signage or to generate a contract proof, wide-format imaging is only as effective as the media on which the image is output. Naturally, as with every hot new technology, the output engine gets all the hype—which vendors are manufacturing which output devices, what are the output speeds and color consistencies of wide-format printers currently on the market, and what are the price points of these elite output engines? Output, output, output. What about the
Next-generation power workstations (HINT: like Apple's new G4) are catapulting prepress productivity to new heights—with help from the ever-omnipotent server. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO More power. More memory. More speed. More storage. More flexibility. More performance. What prepress professionals wouldn't want more in the way of productivity from their power workstations? After all, the key word is power, isn't it? Otherwise, it's just a workstation—and doesn't that sound boring? Up until the recent Seybold San Francisco show, the two most power-packed power workstations gaining graphic arts attention were Apple's 400MHz Power Macintosh G3 and SGI's Intel-powered 320 and 540 visual workstations, which sport a
ROCHESTER, NY—Xerox recently revealed a company-wide strategy to mobilize its global direct-sales force behind an initiative that, over a 10-year period, will grow to represent as much as 50 percent of its overall business. Xerox has refocused its direct-sales efforts by industry, rather than by products or geography. Six segments teams—each with its own P&L responsibilities and customer councils—are being established, focusing on publishing, creative professionals, prepress, commer- cial printing, franchises/ quick printing and service bureaus. As part of its new "Global Industry Solutions" portfolio, Xerox wants to redefine the value of digital printing by helping graphic arts companies use knowledge to outpace competitors in the
Adobe. Agfa. BARCO Graphics. EFI. Epson. IBM. Indigo. Heidelberg. PageFlex. Scitex. Splash. Varis. Xeikon. Xerox. The movers and shakers of on-demand got together recently in the Big Apple to promote everything from variable-data software to wide-format output to the latest initiatives in PDF functionality, servers and digital cameras. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Between the digital prepress performances of Seybold Boston and Seybold San Francisco, the greats of the on-demand digital printing industry hit the Big Apple with the latest in digital color presses, variable data software, digital cameras—everything and anything designed to boost the short-run performance standards of the on-demand digital printing market.
