Pictorial EDGE gives customers the edge in prepress color and graphic applications. Charlotte based Pictorial EDGE is the Carolinas' oldest prepress company with annual revenue of $2 million. The firm began doing color and monochrome prepress work 60 years ago as Pictorial Engraving. Today as Pictorial EDGE they offer super knowledge and experience combined with cutting-edge technology to give clients the best prepress experience. Pictorial EDGE knows what printers and publications need in terms of film and proofs. One of their slogans - “We don't just operate equipment - we solve problems and advise our customers on the best ways to prepare each image for reproduction.”

Holly McEachin has worked at Pictorial EDGE for 25 years, less 3.5 when she stayed home when her children were small. She actually went to school in England to continue a career in horses. She began to help with deliveries for Pictorial and then learned to strip. Like so many others Holly says she got hooked on graphics. She is currently Vice President of the company.

Holly, as a prepress company, what does the future hold?

I feel that there is a need for short run, high quality quick printing. I'm talking about the kind that involves a great deal of attention paid to the customer and their needs. This kind of printing will be heavy in direct mail and targeted pieces. It will also need archiving and fulfillment services. We're also offering more project management services and outsourcing, kind of being a personal shopper for the print buyer's graphic arts needs. I have not really gone after the far off buyer via the Internet because we do not do commodity printing. You can't do a press check on the Internet.

For those who are not familiar with “prepress houses”, explain what benefit you provide to the industry.

As we like to say, we make your ideas print. Rather than take your file and image it, we review it and try to prevent any problems that will result in a less than satisfactory job. We can scan flexible copy up to 16 x 20. Larger or rigid copy we shoot an 8 x 10 transparency to scan. We accept both Mac and PC files including the dreaded Publisher. We output film for magazine ads and other forms of printing. We also send files with digital proofs to magazines or other printers. We print short to medium run offset and as mentioned - manage projects including those that involve outsourcing pieces. Our main customers are ad agencies and package printers. We have a neat niche of setting up files or film for dye sublimination heat transfer. Lately we have had some opportunities to turn a paper operations manual of several hundred pages into a PDF version on CD.

In terms of technology, what purchases have you made in the last five years?

We have just purchased a DuPont Digital proofer. We of course will be going to MAC OSX.Three years ago we purchased a Heidelberg DI and a Heidelberg Quickmaster 2 color along with some bindery equipment. Other investments have been faster computers and the latest software for graphics and for efficiency, since we have to have what our customers have and be faster too.

We have also invested in our employees by offering benefits like health, life and disability insurance and profit sharing. We offer flextime when we can. We allow employees to bring their children and occasionally their dog when daycare or school isn't available, like during the holidays. This has paid off for us.

The presses fill a niche in this area for short run offset. By having fast efficient hardware and software keeps our customers coming back because we do it fast and right. By giving our employees incentives and autonomy they have created the successful system we have. This system includes procedures for our workflow. The best evidence of success is that we are profitable in a cooling print market.

As a small firm prepress firm, what kind of relationship do you have with paper vendors?

Our paper supplier, Mac Papers has been wonderful. We are always in a hurry and only buy small quantities of paper at time. Mac Papers lets us buy only 60 sheets at a time and we can pick it up in a half an hour if we want. Other paper companies like XPEDX won't let us do this. Even though we are small, they all make an effort to keep us happy.

You mentioned the need for short run, quick printing earlier. Explain why you think that market will grow.

I think spending will be less, especially for the large runs, but there will be lots of short run. I see it as two printing markets, the large print runs with tight budgets and what I call boutique printing. This is short to medium quantities with special die cuts or folds or color matches as well as short to medium runs in process colors. I think there will be more toner type printing like the Indigo for some and more offset in the smaller quantities too. The big guys are offering network solutions and can be a total communication solution provider for the large corporations, but the little ones are printing the small jobs nobody used to want.

Do you use web based collaboration software with your customers now or do you have plans to implement such solutions?

No. The closest we come to something like that is WamNet. Our customers mostly use it as an easy way to transfer large files, if they have broadband yet, but not everybody or every company has broadband yet. At this point in time most of our customers prefer face to face, at least to explain the jobs and approve the proofs. We also don't yet need a way for our customers to see where the jobs are in the plant. Everything goes so quickly there's no need. Most of our print jobs are produced in five days or less. To gain our business for web collaboration we would have to have a need, it would have to be something we can't do ourselves and it would have to be worth its cost or even better, add to profits.

How do you secure new business in terms of marketing and sales?

Our business has traditionally grown by an outside salesman or two and word of mouth. In 1995 we changed our name to reflect our digital abilities and began to set up procedures for our workflow. By doing this we were able to greatly increase our efficiency and this reduced mistakes and increased our speed. This we were able to use as a marketing tool. We are now in the process of writing a sales and marketing procedure. By streamlining this we will increase sales and profitability. Because the prepress and printing services we offer are so personalized we will use direct mail and face to face. We will use our web site as a brochure and as an FTP site.

What advice do you have for print buyers who work with a company like Pictorial EDGE?

I think it's a good idea for the print buyer to look at the whole process. And involve your printer or prepress house or all of them. I've seen many cases where the scans have to be redone or jobs reprinted because someone didn't think how the components would be used. Most of us want to help you get the most for your money and will show you ways to do so. If nothing else, give us much information about the job as you can. Please don't make us keep calling and asking questions it slows the process and creates too many opportunities for the mistakes to be made.

Being in Charlotte, what are your thoughts on trade shows and did you attend GASC’s Charlotte trade show this year?

I think they are not as important as they used to be. The changes in equipment come so fast that a show held every year or every other year misses a lot. Though they are still the place to see a lot of equipment run and a lots of deals are still made. This year, the Charlotte Show wasn't as big as previous years. A lot of the big suppliers like Kodak and Xerox weren't even there.


Thank you Holly. We wish you the best.