Dollco Printing, in partnership with Markets Initiative, NewPage and the Alberta Research Council, tested and printed the new Wheat Sheet – paper produced with 20-percent wheat straw, a waste product of agricultural harvest. Dollco printed the June issue of Canadian Geographic (right) on the glossy stock, the only North American magazine to be printed on paper made with wheat straw waste. Wayne Hesse, production manager at Dollco, said the print run finished ahead of schedule; the paper caused no web breaks or extra dust, and the Rotoman press ran at its 65,000-sph maximum.
Whereas many crops such as cotton, hemp and bamboo may be used as paper fibre, the wheat straw production does not require extra land for growth. This avoids the land-use issues that have haunted recent first-generation biofuel projects. Over 20 percent of Chinese and Indian paper is produced with crops like wheat and rice straw, and sugar cane bagasse. Research from Markets Initiative shows agricultural residue pulps also take less time to cook than wood pulps, and use less energy and water and chemicals in the process. Markets says it is working to accelerate the use of agricultural residues in paper production, with over 400 publishers and publications already onboard. It says production of the Wheat Sheet, while promising conservation gains, could also give support to rural economies by creating a new resource industry in Canada, developing a new revenue stream for farmers.
Fujifilm and Fuji Xerox have announced it will be showing a new inkjet press at this year’s drupa show. Tentatively called the Jet Press 720, the machine is a high-speed, single-pass greyscale device capable of resolutions of 1,200 dpi.
The company claims the Jet Press is the first of its kind in the world. The creation of the Jet Press’ printhead uses Fujifilm Dimatix’s MEMS technology, a method of creating complex mechanical structure at the micometer level. Using such technology, the printheads are able to print at four-level greyscale, in other words, create ink droplets at four different sizes. This eliminates the need for separate passes and greatly increases print speed without sacrificing quality.
Fuijifilm claims the Jet Press 720 runs at 180 A4 sheets per minute at a quality which is comparable to offset. The machine can print to a maximum sheet size of 28 x 20-inches. The inks are water-based, but were developed to be bleed resistant and compatible with a wide range of coated printing paper.
Flint Group North America, Publication Inks Division has announced 10- to 12-percent price increases for all publication inks, effective June 1. In July, when the Chinese government reduced a value-added tax subsidy set in place for pigment export in 1984, the resulting price increase in this case was also about 12 percent for some inks. This most recent increase is necessary to offset the escalation of raw materials, energy and freight costs, Flint says.
HP will be targeting its consumers in a new environmental strategy to reduce the impact of imaging and printing. The strategy essentially encourages people not to print less, but to print using more environmentally sound options.
The initiative includes the creation of an enterprise printing assessment service, setting a new global paper policy, a new consumer inkjet printer made almost entirely from recycled materials and a new Eco Highlights label to help customers identify environmental attributes of the products they are purchasing.
“HP is focused on helping all of our customers – from consumers to enterprises – reduce their environmental impact,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP when announcing the new initiative. The new initiative also pledges to improve the energy efficiency of its products by 40 percent by 2011.
Joshi continues, “Over the past nine months we’ve helped several Fortune 500 customers realize up to a 30-percent reduction in their carbon footprint related to imaging and printing by using a variety of HP tools and services.”
The Toronto-based commercial printer SAS Printing, with a client list that includes CIBC, Royal Bank and the CN Tower, has installed a Heidelberg Printmaster PM 52-4, strengthening the company in the multi-colour market, and getting more from its year-and-a-half old CTP. SAS prints cards, flyers, catalogues and more. The PM shares the floor with a ABDick 2-colour Multi. SAS has served Toronto for about 20 years.
Photo (L-R): Albert Bizier, general manager, Said Mikhail, owner, and Tony Chikere, press operator.
Canadian Printing Resources added to its environmental position with the installation of a Fujifilm Javelin 8300S CTP engine that will run Fuji’s Pro-T plates. Based in Toronto, Canadian Printing Resources is also a Forest Stewardship Council-certified shop – 28,000 square feet.
The company plans to install a new 40-inch press to its portfolio of presses this summer to match the production capabilities of its new 8-page platesetter. The company currently runs a 5-colour Komori with a sheet size of 20 x 26 inches.
In addition to the new Javelin machine, Canadian Printing Resources also installed Screen’s Trueflow workflow software and an Epson 9880 proofer. The company, which has an extensive finishing department with Polar cutters and Stahl folders, is a family-owned trade printer that was established in 1983. It employs 27 full-time staff, aiming its client base within Southern Ontario.
Photo (L-R): Warren Fisher, prepress manager, Amy Wilson, production manager, and Joe Fiorillo, owner of Canadian Printing Resources Inc.
DuPont has announced it has won an appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a patent infringement lawsuit against MacDermid Printing Solutions. The court of appeals made the ruling on May 14, pertaining to patents protecting DuPont’s Cyrel FAST thermal flexographic technology.
When the case returns to the lower court, DuPont will renew its motion for preliminary injunction seeking to stop sales of MacDermid's LAVA thermally developed flexographic printing plates, including products marketed by MacDermid under the names MLT and Magma.
The appeals court ruled that the lower court had erred when it questioned the validity of DuPont's patent due to confusion over the patent's proper filing date. The appeals court also upheld the lower court's determination "that MacDermid did not dispute infringement" of DuPont's patent covering thermally developed flexographic printing plates.
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Artisan Complete, a provider of retail displays located in Markham, has installed the second Inca Onset inkjet press in Canada.
The Onset is able to print at more than 5,382 square-feet per hour, or 120 full bed sheets. (See "The Jet Age" PrintAction April 2008). The cost of the machine, depending on options, ranges between $2.5- and $3-million.
Founded in 1971 as Artisan Screen Print, the company has grown to become one of North America’s largest providers of retail communication solutions, offering creative and production services for static, digital and interactive POP signage and display.
Artisan also says that the addition of the Onset complements its objective of implementing manufacturing principles, policies and equipment that are environmentally responsible through a reduction in the number of set-up sheets required as well as using energy-efficient UV curable inks and technology.
The McGuinty Government has announced the finalists for the 2008 Premier's Awards for Excellence in the Arts, which this year includes Toronto-based Coach House Books in the Arts Organization category, specifically listed under Literature and Cultural Industries. Each year the Premier of Ontario puts his or her name to the competition, which pays out $50,000 to the top arts organization. In addition to Coach House, the nominees this year also include the Guelph Jazz Festival, Hot Docs, Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, Ojibwe Cultural Foundation and Réseau Ontario.
A press release about the awards described Coach House as “one of Canada's foremost small presses, publishing innovative fiction, poetry, drama and non-fiction of exceptional literary merit… Coach House is a living museum of the literary and printing history in Canada, and it is one of only three Canadian publishers to print its books in house.” The printing and publishing company was established in 1965 as Coach House Press, and has since worked with some of Canada's best-known writers like Michael Ondaatje, while its titles have been nominated for such prestigious awards as the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Governor General's Award, the Trillium Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Toronto Book Award.
"I'd like to congratulate each of our honourees, thank them for their creativity and for choosing to call Ontario home," said Premier Dalton McGuinty, in a press release. "Not only do our artists enrich our lives, but they play an important role in helping our economy prosper and grow by showing us what it means to innovate, and making Ontario a destination for the world's talent – in every field."
Wendy Cebula, president of VistaPrint North America
VistaPrint has announced changes to its worldwide organizational structure, and the associaated promotion of seven senior executives. The company's new structure will consist of two geographically focused business units, one in North America and the other in Europe. Wendy Cebula has been promoted to a newly created position of president of VistaPrint North America and will be based out of Lexington, Massachusetts. Cebula joined VistaPrint in 2000 and most recently served as the company's COO. Janet Holian has also been promoted to the newly created position of president of VistaPrint Europe and will be based out of Barcelona, Spain. A senior executive with VistaPrint since 2000, Holian most recently served as the company's chief marketing officer.
Two additional VistaPrint veterans have been promoted to lead marketing activities of the new business units. Trynka Shineman has been promoted to CMO of VistaPrint North America. She joined the company in 2004 and most recently served as senior VP of North American Marketing. Nick Ruotolo will serve as CMO of VistaPrint Europe. He joined the company in 2005 and previously served as a senior VP within the marketing organization.
Additionally, VistaPrint's senior VP of capabilities development Don Nelson, is being promoted to chief information officer. In this role, Nelson will be responsible for technology development, software quality assurance, software architecture, and technology operations. Nelson joined VistaPrint in 2006.
Austin Cooke, who most recently served as VP of recruiting, is being promoted to VP human resources of VistaPrint North America. In this role, Cooke will lead all HR activities in the North American business unit. Emma Barnes Brown, who most recently served as senior VP of learning and development, is being promoted to chief talent officer. In this role, Barnes will lead the company's worldwide executive development activities.
"VistaPrint benefits from a deep and talented executive management team that has continued to lead the company through very rapid growth and market penetration. I congratulate all of these executives for their promotions and, on behalf of all of VistaPrint, thank them for the major contributions they have made to the company," said VistaPrint's president and CEO Robert Keane.
X-Rite Incorporated announced that Lynn J. Lyall, chief financial officer since March of 2008, has left the company for personal reasons. X-Rite has named Dave Rawden as interim CFO and says it does not anticipate any disruptions in ongoing talks with lenders or investors. Rawden has held CFO positions with companies including Exopack Holding and Allied Holdings. It is expected that Rawden will remain engaged until a permanent CFO is hired. The company will also expand the role of Brad Freiburger, Vice President and Controller, to include planning and analysis.
"It's crucial for all of our constituencies to understand that I have led and continue to lead all ongoing discussions with our lenders with the assistance of our financial partner, RBC Capital. This change will likely have a positive impact on our current situation given Dave's experience," stated Thomas J. Vacchiano, Jr., CEO. "Further, Lynn's resignation is in no way associated with any new issues related to our financial condition or recapitalization efforts. The fit between our needs and Lynn's interests just proved to be a poor match."
On April 3, 2008, the company announced a restructuring plan expected to result in $23 million of savings over the second quarter of 2008 through the first quarter of 2009. The company expects to realize $18 million of cost savings in the last three quarters of 2008. Restructuring and integration costs were $1.4 million in the first quarter and are expected to be $5-6 million in the balance of 2008. Of the restructuring savings, the company says 70 percent are ‘headcount-related’ and most of the actions to create the savings were executed in the first two weeks of April.
For the quarter ended March 29, the company reported an operating loss of $2 million and a net loss of $16.8 million.
After several weeks of promoting the pending installation of its new Goss Sunday 2000 press, Trade Secret Printing is now up and running with the Web offset press – its first, keeping pace with competing trade shops in Toronto like Point One and West Star, which have also turned toward modern, automated webs.
“We did our homework and studied press options from several suppliers,” said CEO Dave Harb in a press release about the installation. “We also visited several other printers running Sunday 2000 presses. The print quality and the makereadies we saw during demonstrations really convinced us.”
The 5-unit gapless Goss press, with a 57-inch web width, fits on a production floor with four primary sheetfed presses from Heidelberg: a 40-inch 10-colour; two 40-inch 6-colours; and a 20-inch 4-colour. Trade Secret equipped the 24-page Goss web press with a pinless combination folder, as well as a sheeter. “The print quality will allow us to shift work between web and sheetfed, and the makeready and waste reduction features will allow us to run jobs with 5,000 or even fewer copies on the web,” said Harb.
Photo: Dave Harb, CEO of Trade Secret Printing, with his new Goss Sunday 2000 press, with a 57-inch web width.
In its twentieth year of operation, AMPA Printing has turned its experience toward a chemistry-free plate production by installing Agfa’s Avalon CTP engine, which will run Thermofuse-based Azura plates – in addition to a new Agfa ApogeeX workflow frontend.
The Markham-based company runs a 40-inch press to concentrate on applications like posters, brochures, magazines and fliers, as well as an 18-inch for business cards and letterheads work. AMPA also runs electrophotography and die-cutting machinery.
Photo L-R: AMPA's Raymond Chan, Henry Yeung, Andy Chiang and Pakin Lee with Agfa's Parker MacDonald.
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Quebecor World Inc. announced that for the 2007 fiscal year it generated a net loss of $2.2 billion, compared to a net income of $28.3 million the previous year, and revenues of $5.7 billion compared to $6.1 billion in 2006.
Quebecor World’s 2007 revenues reflect a reduction in volume in its North American operations, in particular as the result of several plant closures as the company moved to complete its 3-year restructuring and retooling program. In addition to goodwill, IAROC and specific charges, QW says the decrease in profitability reflects volume reduction, pricing pressure, underperforming European assets and higher financial expenses.
On January 21, 2008, Quebecor World filed for creditor protection in the United States and Canada due to its inability to raise new capital and to complete the sale of its European operations. “We have made important and substantial efforts to stabilize our business and to reach out to all our stakeholders in this process,” said Jacques Mallette, president and CEO, Quebecor World. “I am pleased with what we have accomplished so far, and it demonstrates the support of our customers, our suppliers and our employees to our business going forward. We continue to renew and earn new business with important customers across our global platform including, most recently, McGraw Hill, Wenner Media and RONA.”
Since the initial filing, QW received the final order for its $1 billion DIP (debtor-in-possession) financing from a US court. It had unrestricted cash balances of $160 million and access to revolving credit facility of up to $400 million, and believes that this financing and its ability to generate significant cash flow from operations will allow it to emerge from creditor protection as a strong company. It has also recently hired Randy Benson as chief restructuring officer.
”The restructuring process is proceeding as planned. To date we have passed several important milestones and we are actively developing our five-year business plan which we expect to be completed in the second quarter. The appropriate creditors and ad hoc committees have been established in the U.S. and Canada and we are pursuing an active and ongoing dialogue,” added Mr. Mallette. “To date we have had more than 60 uncontested motions approved in the U.S. process which is a strong indication of everyone’s focus and determination to make this process a success by exiting creditor protection as soon as possible.”
Industry veteran Marc Fortier, formerly of PLM, has joined Grafikom as senior VP in Business Strategy. He will report directly to president and CEO Gord Griffiths.
"Grafikom is a customer-centric organization that makes decisions based on where its customers are heading," said Griffiths. "Marc will be helping us to do just that, continually understanding where we need to go and, along with the rest of the senior management team, articulating and executing plans to keep us aligned with our customers' requirements."
Fortier's expertise in digital printing will help Grafikom develop in that arena, which Griffiths describes as a key growth area.
"For more than a decade I have worked to complement traditional print solutions with emerging digital technologies," said Fortier. "Grafikom possesses one of the most robust print platforms in Canada. As customers' requirements continue to transcend traditional print, I am excited about the opportunity to lead the evolution of Grafikom's current digital print service offering."
As an initial step to support the expansion of the digital business, in Toronto, Grafikom is in the process of creating a major digital printing and fulfillment centre at its Scarsdale Road location. In parallel, Grafikom is combining its Toronto-based commercial and packaging operations into a single location at 180 Bond Avenue. As a result, Grafikom's Toronto operations will each have a distinct focus. Digital capabilities, according to Grafikom, will then be expanded into Western and Eastern regions of Canada.
Transcontinental Inc. has announced it has purchased Acquizition.biz, a Web-based platform for buying and selling businesses. The company offers more than 1,500 listings representing over 20 sectors of activity, including services, manufacturing, warehousing, processing, technology, retail, transport, the restaurant industry and lodging. Since its creation in 2004, Acquizition.biz has received more than 40,000 members who wish to buy and sell small- and medium-sized businesses.
André Forest, co-founder and president of Acquizition.biz, said, “We are connecting Acquizition.biz with Transcontinental’s network of business publications which can only enhance and improve our offering for customers, partners and members. I am thrilled to work with the Transcontinental team.”
Transcontinental’s online business properties include digital spin-offs of the publications Les Affaires, Finance et Investissement, and Investment Executive.
“Transcontinental is committed to serving targeted communities of interest—in this case business people, and more specifically entrepreneurs,” said Pierre Marcoux, VP Business Publications and Book Publishing, Transcontinental Media. “Integrating a digital platform like this with Transcontinental’s business publications truly complements our offering for this community.”
Future Shop and Best Buy have announced they will be closing their internal photo services, known as Futurephoto and imagelab, respectively. They have instead chosen to partner with the Kodak Gallery service, recently launched in Canada.
“Tens of millions of people trust Kodak Gallery with their pictures and we are thrilled to bring Canadian customers a Kodak Gallery site that is uniquely tailored to them,” said Madhav Mehra, general manager of Kodak Gallery.
Best Buy, which owns Future Shop, decided to close all of the retail locations' in-store developing facilities, starting earlier this year. Ten Future Shop locations have removed its in-store developing equipment and have converted to pick-up only services.
Kodak claims the Canadian version of its Gallery service is unique and includes exclusive products, such as photo-printed hockey pucks. There are currently 10 different international versions of Kodak Gallery, including sites for the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The service started in the United States in July 1999 as Ofoto Inc. Kodak acquired the company in June 2001.
Users transferring from Best Buy and Future Shop's services will receive an incentive of 100 free 4x6-inch prints at Kodak Gallery.
The June issue of PrintAction will feature the 6th-annual listing of Canada's 50 Most Influential People in Graphic Communications (PA50). In addition to the PA50 list, this year will also feature a selection by the readers of PrintAction.
To take part, email the top-five people you consider to be most influential in Canadian graphic communications. As a starting point, we have a list of potential candidates arranged alphabetically into commercial, trade, packaging and specialty printing categories, as well as a category for schools, associations and NGOs. This list is in no way exhaustive and we welcome you to submit choices that may not be on the list.
Submit your Top 5 choices by May 16 to pa50@printaction.com and look for the result in the June issue of PrintAction.
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To celebrate K-North’s 5th anniversary, and Howard Graphic Equipment’s 40th, the companies held a gala evening last week with entertainment that included Taiko drumming, Canadian rockers April Wine, and a press demonstration. Also on the bill was Canadian humourist Rick Mercer, who amused the night’s guests with a frantic story of how he got Republican Mike Huckabee – his “first governor” – to say, “Congratulations Canada, on preserving your national igloo.”
The formal event was held on the shop floor, with its presses covered. Only Komori’s new SX29 stood revealed, off-stage left for a presentation by K-North’s Rob McGillis.
Along with a candle-lit bar and food from around the world, the event included a picture-timeline-based display of Howard Graphic’s history from 1967. It also held raffles and a silent auction, of celebrity-autographed items, high-end electronics, limited edition print, and golf and sports event packages, to benefit the Special Olympics Ontario. HGE says it raised $10,500 for the cause.
Bill Howard, father of the company’s current president, Nick Howard, who hosted the event, founded Howard Graphic Equipment after the demise of the Toronto Type Foundry. From absorbing the press world as a teenager, Nick Howard has taken the company to its current 90,000 square-foot building designed to recondition million-dollar machines for resale.
Two days after it announced the appointment of its chief restructuring officer, Quebecor World has announced workforce reductions at two more plants, including its Etobicoke, Ontario (Islington) facility. The layoff losses at Etobicoke and New Haven, Connecticut amount to about 700 full-time positions. QW says the cuts are part of its 2005 retooling and restructuring program, designed to reduce costs and improve productivity across the Company’s global platform by consolidating volume, which is being completed in 2008. The program has included investing in and deploying state-of-the-art presses and accompanying technology in fewer but larger facilities.
The Islington facility produces retail flyers and catalogs, and binds directories. The facility will continue to operate its bindery for directories which requires approximately 60 full-time positions. The North Haven facility primarily produces general commercial printed products. Volume from both facilities will be relocated to newer, larger facilities equipped with state-of-the-art technology. In the last three years, QW says, it has invested $1 billion upgrading its facilities with the latest presses, robotics, quality control systems and bindery technology. In the company’s magazine platform alone this included the installation of ten new 64 and 96 page wide-web presses at seven facilities.
Randy Benson is QW’s new chief restructuring officer, reporting to the restructuring committee of the board of directors. Benson most recently served as chief restructuring officer (and interim leader) for Hollinger Inc., and prior to that held the same position at Ivaco Inc. Mr. Benson was senior VP and CFO at Call-Net Enterprises-Sprint Canada Inc. and before that he served as a division president at Parmalat Canada and as executive VP and CFO of Beatrice Foods Inc. He is the principal of R.C. Benson Consulting Inc., a management consulting company focused on providing strategic analysis, chief executive management, and financial and operational restructuring expertise.
Fujifilm Graphic Systems U.S.A announced this week that Masahiro Ota is the company’s new president and chief executive officer. Ota replaces Hiro Tada, who has taken a new position as president and chief executive officer with Fujifilm’s Medical Imaging Division. Ota joined Fujifilm in 1980 and first worked in human resources in the Fujinomiya site. As president and CEO of Fujifilm Graphic Systems U.S.A., Ota will be responsible for managing the relationships with Fujifilm Group companies Fujifilm Sericol and Fujifilm Hunt Chemicals.
“Fujifilm is well-positioned to face this challenging market, thanks not only to our ability to produce quality, reliable plates and prepress equipment, but also our ability to integrate new technologies – such as digital printing and wide format imaging – into our customers’ operations,” said Ota.
Most recently, Ota was president of Fujifilm Starlight Graphic Systems (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., created out of a partnership with the China Academy of Printing Technology. Within four years, Fujifilm Starlight Graphic Systems captured the top position in China’s graphic systems market, increasing sales of both conventional and CTP plates and systems.
In 2007, Ota was named Guest Professor at the prestigious Bejing Institute of Graphic Communications.
At the age of 80, Allan Teather, a long-standing member of the printing community in Canada, succumbed to lung cancer at his home on April 25. Teather's career in the printing industry lasted more than 40 years with the St. Catharines Standard, which is today part of Quebecor’s Osprey Media division.
Teather retired from the Standard in 1991 and immediately went back to work by dedicating himself to community pursuits in the St. Catharines area. One of his biggest efforts was put toward the Mackenzie Printery & Newspaper Museum in nearby Queenston – part of the Niagara Parks commission. For a number of years, he served as chairman of the Printery, helping to reorganize and set the heritage site on a new course.
The Mackenzie Printery is based in the restored home of William Lyon Mackenzie and contains technology from 500 years of printing. The most rare piece in the museum's collection is the Louis Roy Press (from the year 1770), the oldest press in Canada and one of the few original wooden presses remaining in the world.
A month and two days after announcing a new Environmental and Paper Procurement Policy, around its in-house eco-friendly Legacy line, Webcom has now added a new product to eco-friendly papers, called Legacy Standard News, engineered for printing books, catalogues and directories. The new 100% recycled paper, according to Webcom, is the first newsprint grade in North America to be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Webcom, based in Toronto, suggested, that when it comes to paper pricing, Legacy Standard News fits in a price gap between traditional recycled lines and virgin-fibre supply.
“The introduction of Legacy Standard News 100% to our inventory of environmental paper is significant for two reasons. One, for the FSC certification and secondly, for the cost benefit to our customers who publish directories and catalogues.” says Webcom President and CEO, Mike Collinge. “This paper signifies a clear shift in the tide away from the use of virgin fibre in favour of recycled FSC-papers.”
Webcom’s new paper contains 85 percent post-consumer waste and is processed chlorine-free, which are two measures that also qualify the product as an Ancient Forest Friendly (www.marketsinitiative.org) paper in addition to being FSC-certified. In March, Webcom issued an environmental policy with a target of 40 percent usage of recycled paper by 2012, including 12 percent within the first 12 months. The company now states, with the latest addition to the Legacy grades, that it expects to reach a level of 14 percent of recycled content by the end of 2008.
After being the first of the three major plate players to release a less chemically dependent CTP, in November 2004, Agfa today continues to increase the installations of its Azura process-less plate technology across Canada. By September 2005, some 300 printers around the world had installed the technology.
Astro Printing in Cornwall, Ontario, has recently installed an Agfa Acento CTP engine to image the Azura plates. Astro Printing has also upgraded its workflow to Apogee X Prime. On the East Coast of Canada, Eastern Sign Print has also installed an Acento to run Agfa’s Azura plate. The company, based in Stellerton, Nova Scotia, is a subsidiary of Sobey’s Inc. and was founded in 1972. Eastern Sign provides offset, screen printing and industrial sign graphics to its marketplace. The company has also installed Agfa’s ApogeeX Prime workflow and a SherpaProof inkjet engine. ApogeeX Prime is part of a new modular software family, in which Agfa reorganized its workflow offerings to customers (see PrintAction January, 2008).
Pictured left to right: Richard Juneau of Agfa, Marc Ladouceur and Astro Printing's Manager Leslie Meyer with Melissa Gareau and Dan Poirier all of Astro Printing.
Pictured from left to right: William Wilson and Craig Colbourne, Operations Manager of Eastern Sign Print.
Coast Paper, a graphic arts supplier with offices in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal, announced its entry into the flexographic printing supplies business. The move focuses on what the company calls two flagship product lines, one each from Hostmann-Steinberg and Kodak.
The first product line is Kodak’s Flexcel printing plates, which includes the recently developed Flexcel NX System (see Andrew Tribute’s column in PrintAction, November 2007). The Flexcel NX Plate is designed to deliver flat tops with a stable shape for what the company says are consistent dots – as small as 10 microns – using thermal imaging. When it first introduced the system, Kodak touted the product as means to achieve “offset-like” quality on a standard flexo press.
The second flexo flagship now being carried by Coast is Hostmann-Steinberg’s line of water-based and UV-curable flexographic inks for the label and wide web packaging markets. Hostmann-Steinberg is a member of German-based hubergroup, which has a substantial Canadian sales and manufacturing facility in Toronto.
“We envision we will be a full-line supplier to the flexo industry in a matter of months,” said Ed Gamelin, general manager of Coast Paper Toronto, in a press release. “We wish to extend Coast’s logistics capability and reputation for servicing our customers to another part of the printing industry.”
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The Canadian Printing Industries Sector Council (CPISC), a group funded by the government to improve skills standards and human resources in the industry, announced its Second Annual Forum will be held in Montreal on June 13, 2008. This year, the Forum is organized in partnership with le Comité sectoriel de main d’oeuvre des communications graphiques du Québec, and will focus on the future of printing. More information about the event and contacts can be found at www.cpisc-csic.ca.
CPISC also announced that it is joining forces with Heidelberg Canada to create a “Team Canada Selection Event” to ensure that Canada has a competitor in the upcoming 2009 WorldSkills printing competition. WorldSkills is the biggest trade skills competition in the world. It sets world-class standards in over 45 skill categories ranging from cabinet making to Web design. The last event brought competitors from 48 countries to test themselves against tough international standards.
“Encouraging young people to enter the printing and graphic communications industry is critical and hosting such a competition will provide an opportunity to demonstrate how printing has changed and the key role technology has played in that change”, says Jeff Ekstein, CPISC Co-Chair.
The Selection Event will be held at Heidelberg Canada in Mississauga from August 25 to 26, 2008.
IDEAlliance, the Virginia-based research and consulting organization that drives print-related colour control methods like SWOP and G7, announced it has approved 27 monitor proofing systems based on its newly launched Monitor Proofing Systems Certification Program. The program was developed in partnership among IDEAlliance, the SWOP Technical Committee and the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Printing Applications Laboratory. Their work was engineered to determine how best to judge the quality of monitor proofing systems "to the numbers.”
When SWOP merged with IDEAlliance in 2005, plans were set to aggressively modernize the SWOP specifications for improving proofing quality and the proof-to-press match. By 2006, SWOP approved a second proofing stock, the #3 stock typified by Fortune Gloss. In addition the committee ratified the use of the IDEAlliance G7 Proof-to-Press Process for calibrating both proofing systems and presses. In the summer of 2006, the IDEAlliance Print Properties Working Group conducted a series of web press runs, on behalf of SWOP, using G7 techniques to develop a realistic characterization of publication printing. The new characterization datasets that were developed as a result of these web press runs were recently balloted as ANSI/CGATS TR003 and TR005.
These datasets, along with a new dataset for the GRACoL #1 sheet for commercial publishing now known as TR006, were used as the basis for launching a new “to the numbers” proofing systems certification program. Prior to this, the SWOP Certification program combined a numeric evaluation of proofs produced on a sheetfed offset press based on target TVI values along with a human evaluation of visual similarity of candidate proofs to the reference offset proof.
According to Gina Sigmon of Quebecor World, and chair of the SWOP Committee, “We believe in the near future, hard-copy proofing will be obsolete. The rapid shift toward virtual proofing, means that SWOP must focus its attention on issues unique to emerging virtual proofing workflows. We need to develop specifications and best practices that will assure that monitor proofing can reliably and confidently match the visual appearance of an image on press. The new IDEAlliance Monitor Proofing Certification Program for SWOP and GRACoL takes a major step in that direction.”
The newly certified monitor proofing systems include:
- CGS Publishing Technologies International ORISProof Grade #1, #3 and #5 on the EIZO CG241W Display and the EIZO CG221 Display - DALiM DiALOGUE for Grade #1 on the Apple Cinema 23” Display and for Grade #3 on the Apple Cinema 30” Display and the EIZO CG211 display - EIZO Proofing System with Adobe Acrobat 8 for Grade #1 on the EIZO CG241W Display and EIZO CG301W Display - ICS Remote Director Proofing System for Grades #1, #3 and #5 on the Apple 30" Cinema Display and the EIZO CG241W display. Grades #1, #3 on the Apple 23" Cinema Display. Grade #1 on the EIZO CG221 and Grade #3 on the EIZO CG211 Display - Kodak Matchprint Virtual Proofing System for Grade #3 and #5 on the Apple Cinema 30” Display, on the EIZO CG241W Display and the EIZO CG211 Display
Icon Digital, a large-format printer based in Richmond Hill, Ontario, has installed a new HP Scitex Turbojet 8300. The company, which specializes in large format printing and is a leader in this field. Working with the retail and advertising industries, Icon Digital produces all applications of large format products from posters to outdoor advertising to vehicle wraps.
“We went with the HP Scitex because it is a very high quality machine and very efficient,” says Peter Evans, vice-president at Icon Digital. “It’s also versatile in some of the things it can do. It can print on different thicknesses of stock and also produce work at different speeds depending on the end application.”
Icon Digital also owns wide-format inkjet presses by Gandinnovations, Vutek and Océ. In addition to large format, the company also handles POP, brochures, and offers design services.
Photo (L-R): Peter Evans, Icon Digital vice-president and Juan Lau, president.
In an unexpected move, German publishing house Bertelsmann will be producing a printed version of the venerable online encylcopedia Wikipedia. The encyclopedia is famed for being completely open-source and user-driven in content.
"I know it may not be the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of Wikipedia but our mission at the Wikimedia Foundation is make all human knowledge accessible to everyone, and that includes bringing that knowledge to the offline world," wrote Kul Wadhwa, Wikipedia's head of business development.
The book will contain about 50,000 entries and 1,000 illustrations from the German edition of the Website and will span 992 pages. In contrast, the online German edition has more than 739,000 entries. The pages will be selected based on popularity rather than relevance. As such, the book is more likely to include pop culture references rather than the traditional encyclopedic information. Controversial entries will be fact-checked, the publisher claims.
"The book is only in German for the German market but we will be watching this innovative project closely because…who knows? You can’t change the world unless you push the limits and try to break existing paradigms," continued Wadhwa.
Das Wikipedia Lexikon in einem Band (The Wikipedia Encylopaedia in one volume) will go on sale this fall for about 20 euros (or about $32).
The BBC has produced a program which tracks the development of the Gutenberg printing press. Hosted by comedian and intellectual Stephen Fry, the program travels from France to Germany on the trail of Johannes Gutenberg.
To understand the machine, Fry gets his hands dirty and becomes part of a team working to create a replica of the iconic press. The program also covers the creation of paper using 15th-century methods and creating hot metal type.
The program can be viewed below, in six parts, on YouTube.
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