Oh, the excitement of everyone preparing for GRAPH EXPO. Although I love summer, I really look forward to the fall season and the print shows each year at McCormick Place in Chicago. It is a truly exciting time seeing all the new technologies and devices. It is like being a kid in a candy store.
But it can also be quite overwhelming. For printers who are looking to get into inkjet, it can be confusing and a bit intimidating with all the different technologies, processes, front-end processing and back-end finishing options. At these shows, each step of the inkjet printing process is highlighted in a different booth, so it is hard to know which pieces fit together if you are not familiar with the entire industry.
Wouldn’t it be sweet to have a booth sponsored by an industry, say...book printing? This exhibit would address which front-end processing systems, print devices, paper stocks and finishing equipment are proven and work interchangeably. I am not suggesting having all the equipment in this booth, but instead various solutions as a template to from which to pick and choose. This would provide interested printers multiple solutions for each piece of the process, enabling them to match them to their existing business instead of solutions being dictated by one manufacturer or the other. This would definitely narrow down a printer’s confusion about finding the right device and solution for the right industry.
It would be just like designing a candy basket yourself, instead of the clerk handing you a premade bag.
