10 ■ October 6, 2010 • GRAPH EXPO
Photo Books Provide New Print Opportunities
Kodak’s Nexpress digital press with Print Genius offers tool for growing application
E
arlier this year, Infotrends, a leading market research and consulting firm, pub- lished a report
entitled A
Picture is Worth a Thousand Words that predicts that the photo merchan- dise industry will have robust growth over the next several years. Accord- ing to that report, 180 billion images are captured annually in the U.S. alone, with roughly 60 billion images printed. The Infotrends report sug- gests that photo books are clearly the fastest growing photo merchandise segment, with revenue representing roughly half of all revenues in the category year over year. These trends are driven by the ever changing needs of the consumer, who is discovering new creative photo printing oppor- tunities that are allowing him/her to reconnect with print photos in excit- ing and meaningful ways. This trend provides commercial printers with the opportunity to grab a piece of the high growth person- al photo product market, including photo books. The convergence of the speed and flexibility of the latest dig-
ital printing solutions with changes in the photo market, create tremen- dous opportunities for commercial printers. The key strategy is to merge the flexibility of a digital press with the print quality of photo, to create new applications and leverage each for maximum return. Embracing this strategy can also put a commercial printer squarely into the short-run, customized output business. Again, today’s digital press solutions are enabling the transition from print to photo service, offering the best of both worlds: photographic quality with unconstrained digital productiv- ity and advantages that include the ability to print on more than 600 substrates, print on both sides, and add variable data for personalized applications.
Combining talents One solution is the Kodak (Booths 1227, 5227) Nexpress digital press with Print Genius that brings togeth- er image science, quality assurance, application flexibility, and work- flow productivity in a manner that
Color-Logic and Mimaki Join Forces
Partnership advances output of wide-format metallic printing
C
olor-Logic (Booth 157) has partnered with Mima- ki (Booth 3212) to bring wide-format process col- or printing to the sign, graphics, and industrial markets. The two com- panies have worked together dili- gently to properly implement the Color-Logic Process Color Metallic System on the Mimaki JV33 and CJV30 large-format printers. As a result, signmakers and other wide- format users can offer their custom- ers the hundreds of metallic hues and special effects available within the Color-Logic system.
Announcing the collaboration,
Color-Logic director of sales and marketing Mark Geeves com-
mented, “The powerful Mimaki Raster Link Pro5 RIP software is the perfect complement to the Color-Logic system and enables Mimaki printer users
to effort-
lessly produce stunning metallic special effects. Printing wide-for- mat metallics requires no special prepress knowledge or technical operator skills. Mimaki also offers white ink, which may be used with the Color-Logic system to pro- duce metallic images on transpar- ent and metallic substrates. Finally, because the Mimaki machine can image either a white or metallic ink at the same time the CMYK ink set is being printed, registration is perfect every time.
Official Show Daily • Cygnus Graphics Media
provides superior qual- ity and higher efficien- cy through robust LED imaging heads, new enhanced dry ink, devel- opers, intelligent image calibration, closed-loop quality control, and a host of other hardware, software and materials science innovations. For printers entering the photo applications market, Kodak’s creative produc- tion software provides easy to use templates for creating a variety of photo products. Kodak has embed- ded new workflow productivity solu- tions, including the Adobe PDF Print Engine to minimize RIP time, as well as enhanced object caching and longer lasting, operator replaceable components to maximize productiv- ity and boost profit potential. In addition, successful print pro- viders need the ability to link print systems to photo creation and order- ing applications on the Web and from the desktop. Fulfillers around the globe are leveraging Kodak’s Photo Website Hosting and Desktop Premium Product software to accom- plish this.
One of the most exciting advance- ments in digital press technology is dimensional printing, which adds real texture to photo applications and makes photo creations even more memorable, giving them an almost scrapbook-type feel, delight- ing customers with these unique photo products. Dimensional print- ing gives specified text and images a raised or 3D effect that can help communications stand out. It takes
place in-line by loading Kodak Nex- press Dimensional Clear Dry ink into the fifth imaging unit of a Nexpress. Dimensional Clear Dry ink is a new product that creates a clear raised layer on top of a page element after fusing. It can be used to enhance graphics, text, or a full-color image. The fifth imaging unit also makes it possible to add gloss for high impact quality and durability. The spot gloss feature makes photos and copy pop off the page. The overall tactile effect of dimen-
sional printing is similar to thermog- raphy, but with a greater degree of control. Dimensional printing can be set to produce variable heights to more closely mimic the texture of a specific image like the skin of an orange or the feel of leather. And unlike thermography, which can only be applied to ink, Dimensional Clear Dry does not require ink or an image to adhere to the substrate. As the InfoTrends survey indi- cates, the photo services market shows signs for significant potential growth. Photo products provide print service providers with another way to differentiate their services and grow their businesses.
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