Features

Fespa encourages printers to adopt sustainable practices with the launch of 11 Planet Friendly mini guides

Fespa has re-launched its Planet Friendly Print Guide in the form of 11 new ‘mini’ guides as part of its wider Planet Friendly Print programme.

What’s having the greatest impact on your business at the moment?

Fortuity and opportunity. Summer is usually quiet and when members of staff take their main holidays, but saying that, we have achieved double the projected turnover over the period. 

Start Googling flight prices. Viscom Frankfurt organisers promise you’ll be rubbing shoulders with all sorts of potential new customers at this year’s ‘marketplace of ideas’.

Nessan Cleary talks to Asanti user Barry Laver of Wincanton Print about his experiences with this wide-format workflow solution.  

As wide-format printing continues to grow, so too do the individual service providers with most now having multiple printers. That usually means having to manage multiple Rips, which can complicate the workflow. We've taken a closer look at some of the issues around workflow and the various software options available elsewhere in this issue, but for this story we'll concentrate on just one of these - Agfa's Asanti - which was formally announced at the London Fespa show in June 2013 and has been shipping with most Agfa wide-format printers since the start of this year. 

Mimaki launched this solvent printer at the last Fespa Digital show but it’s only recently started appearing in the UK. Here’s how Nessan Cleary found it when he put it to the test. 

Solvent technology still dominates the market for roll-fed wide- format printers, mainly because it’s a proven performer that offers good quality results at a reasonable price. So this month we’ve been testing Mimaki’s latest solvent printer, the JV300. 

The ability to link different parts of the production process together with a degree of automation is becoming increasingly important in wide-format print production, but there are several different approaches. Nessan Cleary investigates.

It’s long been argued that improving your workflow and automating as many processes as possible is the key to realising greater efficiencies and hence higher profit margins. Given that wide-format covers such a huge gamut of print producers, there's no one size fits all approach and, to complicate matters, ‘workflow’ means different things to different people - from simply ganging jobs together right through to orders that come in via a Web-to-print system being automatically fed through to printing, finishing and fulfilment. 

Dongsoo Kim, managing director of InkTec Europe, explains how the company is collaborating with artists like Jeffrey Kroll to take wide-format print into the fine art sphere.

Recognising the quality, detail and colour tone required in creating fine art, InkTec is increasingly becoming involved in this interesting and diverse sector. Critical to its approach has been harnessing all of the knowledge and expertise gained from manufacturing Jetrix printers, inkjet ink and media, and actively taking this in-depth familiarity of printing into the realms of fine art. Initially this has centred on developing an association with New York born artist Jeffrey Kroll. The outcome of which is a ground-breaking exhibition at the Mead Carney Fine Art Gallery in Mayfair, London, presented alongside Samsung, which opened on 23 September and runs until 4 October 2014. 

Martyn Eustace, director of Two Sides and Print Power, bangs the drum for greater collaboration between printers and creatives ahead of the organisations’ Autumn Seminar in London on 3 November, with speakers including Jonathan Harman from Royal Mail, Nicolas Sennegon from The Economist Group and futurologist Richard Watson. 

Building on the success of the previous single day event, AXYZ International will be holding two further open days on 5th and 19th November. These will take place at two Royal Air Force museum sites, the first of which is situated near Wolverhampton to accommodate customers from the North and Midlands, and the second in North London to facilitate customers located in the South-East.

Peter Lancaster, CEO of Documobi, sets out the stall for the company’s iPR mobile scanning technology in large-format environments.

What’s having the greatest impact on your business at the moment?

Our clients new and old wanting vehicle graphics and trying to keep up with the supply and demand. 

First Matt, can you talk us through the circumstances leading up to the MBO?