Archive for the 'wide format' Category

#70: Ink Jet Print for Pay vs. Proofing

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Jim Raffel
on September 25, 2008
in color, conferences and wide format
. 0 Comments

Not too long ago I attended the IRgA annual conference and continued to see a growing trend I first saw at an ISA show several years ago in Las Vegas.  Ink jet printers that many in the traditional graphic arts (commercial and publication printing) have viewed as proofing devices are competing increasingly for commercial print dollars.  IRgA is the organization that used to, almost exclusively, represent blueprint printers.  While many of these companies still produce blueprints and architectural drawings, they are also now heavily involved in the sign and point of purchase market.

As I walked the show floor at the conference, a high percentage of the booths contained large format printers that are used in traditional graphic arts.  Just as many innovative small and mid-size commercial printers have discovered that these devices purchased for proofing can be used for signage printing, so has the IRgA.  Why not bid on the signs for the architects grand unveiling of the new skyscraper?  Why not bid on the signs for the construction site?  For that matter, why not bid on the signage for the new building?  It is, after all, almost always easier to acquire additional business from an existing customer than it is to land a new customer.

Several other factors are driving this growth in wide format ink jet printing.
-    Faster printer speeds
-    Ink technology improvements
-    Expanding media choices
-    Expanding post print options (vacuum forming, etc)

As the ink jet industry matures and blurs the lines between sign shops, blueprint printers, and commercial printers, print buyers are becoming increasingly more comfortable with the print quality attainable via ink jet, not to mention some of the cost and turnaround time benefits.  Finally, as more consumer product companies begin to rely upon wide format ink jet printing as part of the marketing mix, color quality becomes increasingly important.

I know this to be a fact because; large format ink jet print shops are a rapidly grown market segment of ProofPass.com user base.  Some of these wide format digital printers have become multi-plant national concerns.  As such, they work with critical color customers who expect color to be maintained with 3-4 delta E tolerance.  These multi-plant shops also want the ability to shift work between locations, which requires that they know devices in different locations produce color in the same way.  This verification process is simple with a tool like ProofPass.com that centralizes color measurement results in a single web-browser accessible internet database.

Overall, the growth of effective color management and methodologies like G7 has further blurred the lines of competition in the graphic arts industry.  Standardized color is now a barrier to entry.  If you are not capable of consistently producing “Coke” red, trust me someone else is and will take any business you have from that customer away from you.

65-2: New Media vs. Old Media at a Trade Show

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on October 30, 2007
in blogging, color, conferences, measurement, proofing and wide format
. 1 Comment

As a member of the new media I would like to thank the SGIA show management for their recognition of the shift that is occurring in the way people gather news and information. While JimRaffel.com is not listed among the 22 most popular blogs in the world we do a pretty good job reaching those interested in color measurement and process control. After a review of the site, SGIA show management was enlightened enough to grant me press credentials for the show.

What do new media writers have to offer a show like SGIA? When I planned my trip to SGIA I had two meetings planned as Jim Raffel, the CEO of ColorMetrix. Thus, I decided to make good use of my “spare” time at the show learning more about the specialty graphic market and sharing that knowledge with you, my readers. I think the key item that differentiates me from a traditional media writer is that I have no deadlines and no publisher demanding that I put out a specific number of words or posts each day, week, month, etc. I write only when there is sufficient copy to write about something, and by and large only as it relates to color measurement and color process control.

I do not visit the press room and pick up press releases. I observed most of the traditional media representatives picking up press releases at the press room. Then, they all make the rounds of the booths with the most compelling releases and speak with the marketing people there for the benefit of the company with the press release. I am not saying this is a bad thing, well maybe I am… We have a journalism graduate speaking to a marketing graduate, neither of which has probably ever worked an image in Photoshop, made a plate, run a press, etc… It is, however, a great way for those companies’ issuing press releases to get the information out.

Take a look at my previous post. Do you think the average trade magazine author in our industry could explain to you why Canon’s move back to an 8 color printer is significant? Would they understand that none of the RIP manufacturers could figure out how to properly render the RGB inks in the Canon’s 12 color printer? In this industry we just seem to do better with 8 color CMYK printers to render images. As a result it is difficult to hit a lot of the spot colors, but if the spot color looks great and the photograph of the kids eating the chips next to it looks awful, that is a problem.

If you do not believe me take a look at the redesigned Graphic Arts Monthly website and notice how prominent the blogs are. WhatTheyThink.com is another a good example of a new media site even if one does have to pay for the content that really matters. WhatTheyThink.com provided very significant coverage of GraphExpo (A printing industry trade show) all in digital form.

As for SGIA show coverage I had planned on more, but the Jim Raffel CEO guy got busy with many unplanned meetings. Many of my contacts from the more traditional side of graphic arts turned out at the SGIA show and are expressing a greater interest in bringing color measurement and color process control to the Specialty Graphic market.

#65: Color in the Specialty Graphic Market & SGIA Live

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Jim Raffel
on October 19, 2007
in blogging, color, conferences and wide format
. 0 Comments

I will be attending the SGIA (Specialty Graphic Imaging Association) conference and expo in Orlando next week. As I reviewed the conference sessions and expo web-site it became clear this would be a great opportunity to get back to writing for JimRaffel.com. Since GraphExpo I have been busy with show follow-up and have not had the time to write a Golden Nugget. So, next week keep an eye on JimRaffel.com for daily posts, and at the end of the week I will email an overall digest format of the week’s posts like I did after GraphExpo.

Color is becoming an increasingly important factor in a market that by and large (there are always exceptions) has not paid very close attention to color. In the three years since my first SGIA experience I have kept tabs on the specialty graphic market and have even sold a fair amount of software into the industry. What better indicator could there be that color is becoming increasingly important?

The specialty graphic market is making the move to digital at a rate that exceeds that of traditional graphic arts. I believe the move to digital is driving the increased interest in color. Digital printing allows specialty printers to move into markets once controlled by traditional printers, and vice versa. As a result specialty graphic printers are now dealing with more color critical customers like consumer product companies.

I plan to address three themes in my SGIA Live coverage:

  • Increased interest in color verification and process control
  • The move to digital imaging and printing
  • Cross-over with traditional print as the industry goes digital

Remember to keep your eyes on JimRaffel.com for daily show coverage.

Thoughts on PMA Show

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on March 10, 2007
in blogging, conferences, monitors, proofing and wide format
. 0 Comments

As I mentioned in my last post, my primary reason for attending PMA was to conduct meetings with key ColorMetrix business partners.  I did, however, have a few hours to roam the show floor yesterday afternoon and came away with a few observations.

While I am still impressed with the caliber of this show, it has made a shift to the consumer market.  Most of the wide format ink jet vendors had a presence, but it was really just part of a booth dedicated to consumer photographic equipment.  Some pro equipment could be found but the overall emphasis as I observed it was on point and shoot consumer cameras.

GE has entered the photographic market with both cameras and photo printers http://www.general-imaging.com/  They even baked cookies in the booth in a GE oven.

In the desktop and wide format ink jet market, very few RIP vendors showed up.  This leads me to believe that the vast majority of photo printing is happening through the print drivers provided by the print vendors.  I still see the photographic market as a growth one for ink jet RIP manufactures.  As more and more proofing moves from hard copy to virtual (monitor based) graphic arts RIP sales will continue to flatten and maybe even decrease.

I believe that photo printers (professionals and Labs) who are used to tight process controls for processors will look at ink jet proofing and ask how can we ensure that this device is stable and producing color the same as when we set it up months or years ago.  (There’s a little clue as to why I was at the show).

#42: GraphExpo Reflections

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on October 25, 2006
in blogging, conferences and wide format
. 0 Comments

First, Adam Dewitz over at Printmode.net took some good pictures at the show and posted them in a shared area at flickr. If you look closely you will find pictures of our booth area towards the end of the collection.

In general, the show went like I anticipated in the #41 post. A few things did surprise me somewhat. Normally the last day of a trade show the floor traffic is slow at best. This year, however, I was busy doing product demonstrations right up to 3:30pm and the show closed at 4:00pm. A bit of a surprise and I am not sure how to explain it.

The other surprise was the large amount of large format inkjet printing equipment present at the show. I do not remember ever seeing this much wide format and flatbed inkjet equipment at a Printing Industry show. I saw more of it at the SGIA show in Las Vegas recently, and at past ISA shows, but this is a first for GraphExpo or Print if my recollections are correct. This is probably a trend to keep an eye on.

Along the same lines digital printing continues to grow. Not only did Xerox and HP have their normal large presence, but so did several smaller players. Many of the smaller players are offering good solutions costing $30,000 and less to enter the color digital printing market.

Over all, at ColorMetrix we view the show as a success and if you stopped by to get product information or just to say hello, thank you for contributing to that success.