This edition of Graphic Arts is all about small presses and
copiers. Our feature article, starting on page 20, looks at the shifts in the
market for these categories of printing equipment. And in the News, TrendWatch
Graphic Arts reports that colour copiers are doing more of the kind of “robust”
variable printing work that supposedly is the preserve of high-end digital
presses.
Are toner-based colour copiers with RIPs for printing
digital files taking over some of the printing market from offset presses? The
answer seems to be both yes and no.
Colour copiers are accounting for a lot more short-run
colour output than ever before in North America. But it seems that much of this
is “new” work — printing that just wouldn’t have been done on an offset
press, because it would have been too expensive.
It also seems that printing companies that adopt this new
technology and make room for it in their production floor, and in their sales
efforts, find new work for their offset presses as well. It seems that print
customers like the idea of a printing company that can handle all their
printing needs, short-run, stationery, point-of-purchase and more. Having a
machine that produces short runs of colour cheaply can also convince a
corporation that the printer will be able to handle their longer-run needs, as
well.
Still, there’s little doubt that some of the work that was
once done by small offset presses is being done by colour copiers. And as
TrendWatch found, supposedly less capable colour laser printers are producing
pretty sophisticated variable colour printing, even though they may be slower
and produce output with lower resolution than the Indigo, iGen or Nexpress.
And that brings up the next question: what is quality in the
eyes of the printing customer? Graphic arts professionals build their
businesses and their careers on attention to “quality,” but do the customers
care as much as we do about Pantone colours, resolution, grey component
replacement and colour management?
So tell us at Graphic Arts magazine: how much do your
customers care about colour quality? Do they insist on colour matching to their
corporate standards? What about matching to colour proofs? And how discerning
are they? How much do they know about colour management and how able are they
to tell whether your output is close to their originals?
Tell us by e-mail (scott.bury@graphicartsmagazine.com)
whether your customers’ focus is more on quality, timing, or price.