Images are everything today and at the Consac Imagemakers Sign Show this year, we had lots of images in print and digital format. Consac Imagemakers has grown to be among the top ten largest sign industry tradeshows in North America and this year it was held Sept. 23-24th at the International Centre in Mississauga.
The image making industry contributes in excess of 3 billion dollars annually to Canada’s gross domestic product and this would be Canada’s major show dealing with the sign industry. Many people were quite excited to see so many new exhibitors this year and I spoke with many exhibitors at the show about their new offerings. Here are a few of the “HOT PICKS” that I thought were newsworthy:
Canon – GBC
Canon and GBC presented a Create – Print – Laminate solution. Canon-GBC demonstrated how the PosterArtist turn-key solution for Windows is a professional poster creation suite, perfect for designing posters, banners, and signage in 4 simple steps, with over 200 templates to choose from. The new Canon iPF8300s 44″ printer was on display with the GBC Titan 1244WF. This formidable pair allows print copy shops to add on extra revenue stream for indoor and outdoor printing for around $645 per month.
HP
HP demonstrated the Designjet L25500 printer with Latex Inks. The L25500 printer delivers easy, low-maintenance printing of a wider range of applications – from indoor point-of-purchase displays, exhibition graphics and interior décor to outdoor banners, bus shelters and vehicle wraps. Since its introduction, the HP Designjet L25500 Printer and HP Latex portfolio have seen tremendous market acceptance with more than 3,000 latex ink printing systems shipped, producing more than 100 million square feet of materials.
Océ
Océ was present with print samples produced from its new Océ Arizona 360 GT and 360 XT UV series of flatbed printers, build on the success of world’s best selling UV flatbed platform. The 360 GT model features the standard table size of 1.25 meters by 2.5 meters while the 360 XT model features an extra large table size of 2.5 meters by 3.05 meters. Both offer an Express Mode print speed of up to 377 square feet per hour, which is ideal for banner and outdoor work. A new High Definition print mode delivers incredibly fine feature reproduction including the ability to print text as small as two-point size, enabling print providers to offer higher-margin technical and industrial applications such as printing on lenticular lenses and membrane panels.
Roland
Roland showed off its first hybrid 64-inch UV-LED inkjet printer. This newest addition to Roland’s award-winning VersaUV line, prints CMYK, White and Clear Gloss inks on a wide variety of flexible roll media and rigid substrates up to 13mm thick. Versatile by design, the LEJ-640 enables professionals to explore exciting new options for applications ranging from wide-format signage, displays and window graphics to POP, packaging prototypes and interior décor items.
