On Wednesday December 5, 2007, over 130 people, representing a broad cross section of our industry, came together for the Digital Imaging Association’s traditional Christmas Lunch and Annual General Meeting—held this year at the prestigious Boulevard Club.
Bob Weller, the association’s First Vice President, quickly took care of AGM business and introduced the DIA’s 2008 executive:
Officers: President Brad Wallans, PreSource; 1st Vice-President Bob Weller, Transcontinental Yorkville/O’Keefe; Second Vice President Mike Millard, Ellis Packaging; Secretary/Treasurer Myrna Penny, Printlink; Past President Jean-Fran√ßois Colpron, Heidelberg Canada.
Directors Rebecca Buffi , Xerox; Jim Dutton, Consultant; Jason Hamilton, Paperlinx; Mark Norlock, MAN Roland; Douglas Picklyk, Canadian Printer Magazine; Karl Schmed, Global Colour Link; Pius Schneider, Colour Innovations Inc.; Debra Swift, Hewlett-Packard; Judy Zaczkowski, Envision Compliance; Martin Kneis, Bowne of Canada.
Bob also thanked the Association’s sponsors for their continued support:
Platinum Sponsors: Apple Canada, Heidelberg, MAN Roland, Unisource, Xerox
Silver Sponsor: HP
Bronze Sponsor: Envision Compliance
The Revolution in Digital Printing
Our guest presenter was the inimitable Frank Romano, industry veteran and delighter of audiences. Frank’s career has spanned over 40 years in the printing and publishing industries. He is Professor Emeritus of RIT’s School of Print Media, editor of International Paper Pocket Pal, and author of countless articles for many of the industry’s media. He is also the author of over 42 books, including the 10,000-term Encyclopedia of Graphic Communications (with Richard Romano), the standard reference in the field. He lectures extensively and was the principal researcher on the landmark EDSF study, Printing in the Age of the Web and Beyond. He has been quoted in many newspapers and publications, as well as on TV and radio, and is a feature columnist in the industry e-newsletter Whattheythink.com.
Frank’s depth of knowledge, combined with his humourous presentation was, as always, a crowd-pleaser. He specifically addressed the State of Digital Printing, its evolution, its current positioning, and its future.
The adoption of digital printing was initially for short run work, but it migrated quickly from all b/w to a combination of b/w and 4-colour process, with the weighting to colour. Initially most of the digital short run work came at the expense of offset. Frank’s statistics showed that sources for digital printing will continue to shift, demonstrating the following projections for 2010 against volumes in 2002:
Source 2002 stats* 2010 projection*
Offset transfer 92% 60%
Variable data 10% 18%
Transactional 2% 8%
Web-generated 1% 9%
*Percentages are an approximated interpretation of a graph provided in the presentation handout.
By definition, digital printing is any process that re-generates the image to each page impression. Ink-based presses require static image carriers (plates). This basic difference opens up significant opportunities for digital printing. It is quite conceivable, said Frank, that in the foreseeable future digital will be the choice for half of all printing. Frank’s presentation graphic visually demonstrated the following:
- gravure production is migrating toward litho for publications and flexo for packaging
- litho is moving to flexo for packaging and digital for promotional materials
- some flexo packaging production is migrating to digital
Run length is the primary factor for determining which print technology to use. The above information can well be rationalized by the fact that run lengths are declining and that the marketplace in general is generating a greater quantity of short-run product. Other criteria important to the digital decision are print quality, run speed, options for additional colours, stock and sheet size restrictions.
Colour has certainly become a dominant issue. All digital colour printers have four-colour capability (CMYK). Kodak NexPress offers a fifth station that can be either an extended gamut toner or a gloss unit. The HP Indigo line can be configured with CMYK and up to three spot colours, which can be mixed to order. Sheet vs. web, sheet size, image area, and roll print size are also important considerations. Most digital sheetfed devices have gone to 13” x 19” to achieve the same image area as a 12” x18” offset press. Sheet sizes have been creeping up over the years and Frank believes that will continue. NexPress and Xerox iGen are the largest sheetfed devices. The Xeikon can print a sheet from its roll just under 20” wide x 6’ or more.
Prize Draws
The afternoon concluded with a draw for three prizes: an autographed copy of International Paper Pocket Pal contributed by Frank Romano, an iBook donated by Heidelberg, and an iPod from PaperLinx.