Feature
digital inkjet web presses such as the
ones offered by Screen, Ricoh, HP,
Xerox, Fujifilm and Canon/Océ, can
reach speeds of up to 500 feet per
minute. B2 full-colour digital inkjet
sheetfed presses are now quickly gaining
market acceptance with the Konica Minolta
KM1 and the recently launched Fujifilm
JPress 750s producing 3,000 and 3,600
sheets per hour respectively. In Canada,
Flash Reproduction (Toronto) and Icon
(Markham) acquired the KM1, and St.
Joseph Communications (Toronto
and Ottawa) acquired the JPress 720.
Heidelberg, in turn, installed its first
digital 7-colour inkjet press in the US
at Warneke Paper Box. The Primefire
106 is a B1 press, using Fujifilm inkjet
technology, currently running at speeds
of up to 2,500 sheets per hour. These
three “bigger format” inkjet presses also
cater to the packaging industry.
means for our industry, to help us “to
not lose sight of the forest for the trees!”
The convergence of verticals
Technology, both hardware and software,
has blurred the lines between the
different verticals. The aforementioned
acquisition by Transcontinental and its
expansion into flexible packaging is
obviously a prime example of conver-
gence. But there are many more. PDI in
Montreal, Lowe-Martin in Toronto, CJ
Graphics in Mississauga, Cober in
Kitchener, QuadriScan in Montreal and
Hemlock in Burnaby, are just a few
names that come to mind. All have
expanded their offerings across various
verticals. More importantly, they’re
also cross-leveraging their digital and
analogue technologies and expertise to
grow their respective businesses – adding
products that include display graphics,
Heidelberg Primefire 106
Most print equipment manufacturers
today are offering a full range of presses
that combine offset and digital in some
way using inkjet, dry toner or liquid
toner. The list is long and I’m sure I’m
forgetting some. But they include Fuji-
film, Xerox, Ricoh, Konica Minolta,
Screen, Canon, EFI, Agfa, Epson, Mimaki,
HP, Durst, Heidelberg, Komori, Landa,
Domino, Xeikon, Mark Andy, Kodak,
Riso, Roland, Mutoh, Delphax and
others. Most of them are offering solutions
across the different verticals I previously
mentioned – commercial, transactional,
direct marketing, packaging, label,
display graphics, etc.
That our industry has gone (and still is
going) through a major transformation,
would be an understatement. In the next
section I’ll share with you what this all
@graphicarts
direct mail, packaging and more, while
expanding their current client base.
Equipment manufacturers have also
invested a lot of money in developing
workflow solutions, in a quest to
enhance automation and productivity.
Some software-centric organizations
such as Ultimate TechnoGrahics and
Esko offer workflow software suites that
reach across the verticals and across pre-
press, press and post-press platforms.
Cross-leveraging digital and
analogue technologies
There are three major advantages that
digital print production offers compared
to analogue print production: (1) The
ability to cost-effectively produce short
runs; (2) The ability to meet short, tight
deadlines; and (3) the ability to produce
variable data and images. These three
attributes have had a profound impact
on how new revenue streams can be
created – by leveraging the unique
advantages of both digital printing with
analogue technology.
When I refer to “cross-leveraging” digital
and analogue, it involves printers using
their existing analogue production
capabilities while at the same time,
taking advantage of their digital print
production capabilities – and vice versa!
This creates an array of opportunities to
increase revenue streams. Your digital
print production capabilities will attract
work you could not efficiently produce
before the acquisition of the technology.
Here, I’ll explore three examples that illus-
trate the potential for additional revenue.
1. Commercial book printing
Digital printing capability has had a
major impact on the book industry.
Where in the past one could only print
a book based on a minimum order quantity
ensuring a profitable offset print run,
now digital print lets you print a “book
of one.” This has encouraged more authors
to print their books, which in turn has
drastically increased the numbers of
titles produced. A press release by Bowker
(Oct. 10, 2018) illustrates this point:
”Self-publishing of print books (titles)
increased by 38% in 2017…This is the
fifth consecutive year of print growth.”
Where conventional offset printing is
limited to a minimum-volume quantity
to financially justify a viable print run,
digital print does not have such a
restriction. Book manufacturers also
showed us how they can leverage their
digital and analogue printing capabil-
ities. They cited an example of where
an initial book run was produced in
limited quantities on a digital platform.
Once the book proved to be a success,
additional longer runs were produced
using conventional offset printing. If, at
the end of the book cycle, subsequent
smaller re-runs were required, they simply
reverted to producing the books on the
digital print platform. This is a prime
example where conventional and
digital cross leverage gives the book
GRAPHIC ARTS MAGAZINE | April 2019 | 29