5th color station weigh-in

[MailGuru]

Before we got our V2100's, Xerox tried to guide me toward an x1000i. Part of the pitch was the 5th color station. I saw the demo, and, I know what it's used for (clear toner, etc.), but, for the life of me, in all the years I've been in business, I've never had a request for it. I mean, it is pretty cool. I now see that other vendors are coming out with the digital printers that have a 5th color station.

Is this actually a feature that one should consider when buying or leasing a new digital press, or, is this just novelty?

Is anyone out there actually using the 5th station in a production environment? If so, what's the application? (maybe I'm not seeing the big picture here)

 

[gordo]

Before we got our V2100's, Xerox tried to guide me toward an x1000i. Part of the pitch was the 5th color station. I saw the demo, and, I know what it's used for (clear toner, etc.), but, for the life of me, in all the years I've been in business, I've never had a request for it. I mean, it is pretty cool.

Customer aren't going to ask you for something that:
a - they know you don't have
b - they don't know it exists
c - they don't understand how it might add value to their projects

 

[KopyBoss]

Our clients love it..Application - Watermark on documents, flood coating on flyers and postcards...The flood is great on lighter stock instead of UV/Aqueous. Creating metallic and pearlescent effect
on business cards and posters. You have to up sale, because the toner and developer are not included in the service contract. You can also adjust the amount of clear it put on the artwork and run a a multiple pass to get get a raise effect on the image or letters. It also increases the depth and sheen on solid colors. We apply spot over certain areas of a photo to make it stand out. To get it going we sent custom samples to all our clients.

 

[arossetti]

If you are a print shop that accepts the files from the client then prints it, it is worthless. If you do any premedia consultation and can get them to design their art with this in mind then you may have a chance of successfully selling it.

 

[giant1958]

we use it all the time on our Ricoh 7110

 

[DYP]

And don't forget you also have the option of Gold or Silver.

 

[dabob]

We have the Ricoh with it . . . but they gave us the wrong fiery . . . so a new one is coming in . . . so that we can - looking forward to it!

and BTW we didnt sell much UV coating or foiling before we added that service to our repertory

 

[gordo]

and BTW we didnt sell much UV coating or foiling before we added that service to our repertory

You were able to sell UV coating and foiling before you had those services? Now that's what I call salesmanship! ;-D

 

[msaeger]

I agree with Gordo. You can make some neat stuff but you need to sell it because the people bringing in the jobs don't even know about it.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Would you like fries with that?

You didn’t know that we served fries? Please take a look at our menu, you may find something in addition to fries that you might like.


Stephen Marsh

 

[Keith]

I still get people walking in my door asking if I do business cards.

 

[dabob]

You were able to sell UV coating and foiling before you had those services? Now that's what I call salesmanship! ;-D

Out sourcing . . still outsource spot UV and larger foiling and embossing jobs . . . . but do more in house now and gee whiz . . . we now get jobs from local shops for that which we never did before . . . it just takes the proper patience and getting the word out . . .

and yes I am chuckling at your humor . . .

 

[Craig]

We have clear gold and silver. We actually print quite a lot with those colors, but what everyone is saying is correct. You have to sell it or you won't print it.

 

[msaeger]

We have clear gold and silver. We actually print quite a lot with those colors, but what everyone is saying is correct. You have to sell it or you won't print it.

What types of things are you printing with the special colors.

 

[Craig]

We do a lot of invitations with Gold and Silver. Most of the clear has been used for security marks and for dimensional print on business cards and invitations. Again, the CSR's and designers need to know how to sell it, or don't waste your money.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

What about the iGen 5? Can the RIP take a CMYK + Spot or RGB file and convert it into it's CMYK + whatever of the 3 colors you have in the machine at the moment to get a larger gamut? How does your RIP interact with a file when you load the other colors in?

 

[Craig]

What about the iGen 5? Can the RIP take a CMYK + Spot or RGB file and convert it into it's CMYK + whatever of the 3 colors you have in the machine at the moment to get a larger gamut? How does your RIP interact with a file when you load the other colors in?

On the 1000 you run a program that changes the NVMs for whatever color you swap out. The mechanics take about 5 minutes to changes colors, the software is about 10 to complete. The RIP treats it much like a spot color on a press. Any overprints are handled as you would think. In other words you can over print a color on silver to get a metallic red look.

We did a promotional brochure that went through the 1000 14 times in total to print gold, silver, spot clear and dimensional clear. It really is pretty impressive when it's done.

 

[Shawnd]

It is all about selling it, and it takes a special type of customer to see the value in white/clear/retina burning yellow and the ability to be able to create the artwork or explain it to the customer how to. It has been a hard sell for us, most customers want to keep it cheap as possible when it comes to postcards, you can show them all the samples but when you give them the price with and without they usually go without.

 

[NWPrintwork]

It really depends what kind of clients you have...We are a large commercial printer with both offset and digital presses. We work with many ad agencies and design firms. Generally these folks always want to push the envelope and they keep up with what new techniques and options are available. We were running two iGen 150's and recently bought an iGen 5 to replace the older 150. We are running jobs with the clear and most of the designers we work with have been designing jobs with spot varnish on the offset side for years so understand that this is in essence just a digital spot varnish. They are jazzed that they can now utilize this design option for the shorter run or variable data digital jobs.

 

[fastesthouse]

We use the white option on our small Oki, it is quite useful for small batch garment printing.