By Noel Ward, Editor @Large
Back in the “long strange trip it’s been” days of the Seventies I was riding right seat in a west-bound 18-wheeler, talking with the driver about roads, distances and his life as a trucker. He pointed to a truck streaming east, running well above the speed limit.
“There. Monfort of Colorado. Fastest trucks on the road.”
And they were. You could tell the always-immaculate Monfort fleet by the orange and white paint jobs...
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Universal Punch: Not as Grand as the Grand Unified Theory, but Far More Productive
Ingenious Universal Hole Punch Pattern is Compatible With Most Binding Methods
By Sean O'Leary, Chief Technology Officer
For 50 years, particle physicists have struggled to develop what is known as the Grand Unified Theory. This elusive formula would mathematically link together the four major forces of the universe – gravity, strong nuclear, weak nuclear and the electromagnetic spectrum. But despite some sporadic progress over the years – some of which... -
Speeding the Shift to Inkjet from Offset
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noelward
Speeding the Shift to Inkjet from Offset
By Noel Ward
The machine is deep blue, maybe 30 feet long, 10 feet high and deep. The owner calls it a variable offset press. It resides in a climate-controlled room, just outside of which an 8-color Speedmaster churns out work at 18,000 sheets per hour. The big blue inkjet press may be far slower, but it is actively taking work from the company’s two offset presses and a pair of full-color toner presses. The CTO of the operation says there is no reason to ever buy another offset... -
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Print That Hits the Spot
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MyWildIrishProse
Print That Hits the Spot
By Richard Romano, Industry Analyst
“It just caught my eye as something different.”
Such was the feeling of Greg Wallace, owner of Waltham, Mass.’s HPGprint, when he was given a demonstration of Duplo’s new DDC-810 Spot UV Coater at last year’s Graph Expo. “It looked like it was a different kind of machine and could add value.”
“Added value” is the biggest driver of unique finishing options today, from digital embellishments like foil stamping... -
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What the Scribes & successful printers learned about automating
By Richard Romano, Industry Analyst
Students of printing history likely know the name Johannes Trithemius. He was a German abbot in the 1490s, about 40 years after the invention of the printing press. By Trithemius’ heyday, the printing revolution was in full swing, automating the process of reproducing documents and replacing the earlier method that involved hand-copying by scribes, monks cloistered and copying documents in scriptoria. After the printing press, demand for scribes... -
What! You’re not Using Web2Print?
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What! You’re not Using Web2Print?
By Noel Ward, Editor@Large
Raise your hand if you remember jobs coming in on CDs or DVDs. Thanks!
Now raise your hand if you remember jobs coming in on Zip Drives? A few more. Very good!
How about on SyQuest drives? Excellent! (How does if feel to be that old?)
Finally, how many of you had jobs come in as mechanicals, so you had to take a Photostat of every page and make plates so you could run it on your press? (How does it feel to be ancient?)... -
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New Affordable, Short-Run Finishing Systems:
A Competitive Edge for Commercial Printers?
by Sean O'Leary
Chief Technology Officer, PrintPlanet
One of the hidden problems with the digital revolution is that it opens up new business opportunities for everyone – not just you. For example, you may have thought that a high volume inkjet press investment was a strategic move that would put you one step ahead of the competition, but in reality it turned out you’re just keeping up with the pack. For small-to-medium... -
No Jackets Required
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No Jackets Required
By Noel Ward, Editor@Large
Taking the jackets off your offset presses is the first advantage of adding LED-UV dryers to your press. After that, things get even better, putting an end to conventional drying methods while eliminating environmental concerns associated with old-school UV curing.
Back in the day—and much of that day is still here—drying inks after printing required hot air or heat lamps. Forward-thinking printers who opted for UV inks had to add mercury-arc... -
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You Won’t Survive by Printing Alone
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You Won’t Survive by Printing Alone
By Noel Ward
In the mid-90s I was going into print shops, setting up internal networks, training prepress people on using QuarkXPress and dragging many shop owners kicking and screaming into the tenuous new world of digital file prep and digital printing. Some embraced the new technology while others were skeptical or resistant. Suffice it to say that those who survived were not the skeptics or resisters. A couple years later I was an active advocate for digital printing, editing a... -
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Inklings:
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Created by: MyWildIrishProse
Inklings:
Smart Inks: A Tsunami On The Horizon
It’s usually the printing presses and other hardware that fire hype and imagination in the printing world. This is partly because we can actually watch the latest print machinery at work and (often) admire the convergence of design and function as the big iron cranks out the product.
Meanwhile, the less accessible chemistry of ink is often all but ignored, in spite of chemistry’s place as a core driver of progress in the world of... -
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