Richard Romano is Managing Editor of WhatTheyThink. He curates the Wide Format section on WhatTheyThink.com. He has been writing about the graphic communications industry for more than 25 years. He is the author or coauthor of more than half a dozen books on printing technology and business. His most recent book is “Beyond Paper: An Interactive Guide to Wide-Format and Specialty Printing.
Displaying 451-550 of 844 articles
Published March 18, 2015
After 123 years and four generations of owners, Milwaukee’s Mandel Graphic Solutions has thrived by staying current.
Published March 12, 2015
Experts identify new and expanding—and some unusual—markets for UV inks and coatings at day two of RadTech’s UV.EB West.
Published March 11, 2015
Ultraviolet (UV) and electron beam (EB) curing technologies have been around for decades, but have continually evolved and are well-suited for today’s modern print and packaging production processes.
Published March 9, 2015
Not living anywhere near Arizona, I was unaware of the recent “Phoenix Llama Drama,” which is apparently not some new reality TV show. Rather, last month, a brace of the beasts escaped while—and I have to quote ABC News here—“making a therapy visit to residents at an assisted living facility.”
Published March 4, 2015
New features, sessions, programs, and speakers at the upcoming International Sign Expo aim to educate present and prospective signmakers about the latest business and technology trends in this growing industry.
Published February 27, 2015
Published February 25, 2015
Improving technology is causing some wide-format applications to experience that dreaded word “commoditization.” How can print providers fight against it? Can they? Or—most importantly—should they?
Published February 19, 2015
Capacity management has proven to be a challenge for many wide-format print businesses, especially as many jobs are specialized or customized in some way. What are the ways that shops are coping with this “pain point”?
Published February 17, 2015
As you may have read elsewhere on WhatTheyThink, last week, CSA—né Océ—celebrated its second anniversary with a much-needed (for those of us encased in the frozen tundra of the Northeast) event in Boca Raton, Fla. CSA execs shared updates in the various business groups (Enterprise Managed Services Division, formerly Business Services Division; Large Format Solutions; and Production Printing Division).
Published February 11, 2015
Technical printing—graphics that serve the architectural, engineering, and construction markets—has been changing in both positive and negative ways, and “reprographics” shops are changing with the times. And it’s not always just about the equipment.
Published February 6, 2015
There has been a surge of growth in what are called “large-format wine bottles.” Magnums, essentially (or would that be “magna”?), or wine bottles greater than 750ml. Indeed, popular sizes include 1.5 liters, 3 liters, and 6 liters. Now, obviously, some of these are intended for parties and other events with large gatherings, not a quiet romantic dinner for two, lest it descend into drunken anarchy (which depends on your approach to dating, I guess).
Published January 28, 2015
How do you decide what kinds of wide-format or specialty printing products and services to add to your current mix? You can jump into a new niche application as a newbie, or organically expand into new directions. As it turns out, there is no right answer—but plenty of wrong ones.
Published January 28, 2015
I was talking with the owner of a sign shop recently, and we got to talking about new technologies that sign and display companies were starting to utilize—I was thinking specifically of EFI’s SmartSign Analytics—but he happened to mention other new technologies such as “smart fitting rooms” whereby sensors in a clothing retailer’s fitting room mirror track RFID tags on the clothing you brought in to try on and suggests accessories or complementary items. Sound creepy? It does a bit, doesn’t it?
Published January 23, 2015
About 15 years ago—give or take—in a monthly humor column I wrote at the time for the late, lamented Micro Publishing News, I proposed the idea of a drive-through wide-format printer for vehicle graphics.
Published January 15, 2015
As I was planning the 2015 editorial calendar for our Wide-Format section, I began by drawing up a list of topics that I had covered, topics that were heavily featured at trade shows like SGIA and ISA, and topics tend to get covered elsewhere in the industry press. And aside from the basic technological topics like “Roll-to-Roll Printers,” “Flatbeds,” “Finishing,” and so forth, the majority of the subject matter was on specific applications—and applications that were all over the map (and some even included maps!).
Published January 14, 2015
Web-to-print is not a new technology, but despite its many advantages, when evaluating solutions, be sure to ask some specific wide-format questions.
Published January 9, 2015
New year’s resolutions are ephemeral things. January 2, for example, is a kind of Black Friday for gyms and fitness centers, but by the end of the month, the crowds have returned to normal.
Published January 7, 2015
In today’s wide-format market, flatbed printers are all the rage and, for certain applications, deservedly so. But the earliest wide-format printers were all rollfed (or roll-to-roll) devices, and it wasn’t until the early 2000s that flatbeds existed as a product category. Flatbeds emerged to take time and materials out of the “print-then-mount” process; after all, why not just print directly on the surface you want the graphic?
Published December 17, 2014
2014 has been a year of incremental—but substantial—improvements in wide-format systems. These improvements are creating ever more opportunities in a variety of applications. Here’s what to keep an eye on in 2015.
Published December 10, 2014
Epson’s beachwear “fashion show” highlights the possibilities of digital dye-sublimation fabric printing, and how it could change fashion design.
Published December 3, 2014
With a little research, a clearly defined strategy, and fast, high-quality wide-format printing equipment, Phoenix, Ariz.’s Rapid Digital Press has carved out a successful niche in map and GIS printing applications, and is now poised for growth.
Published November 19, 2014
Mimaki’s 25-city road show includes hands-on product demonstrations and educational presentations that highlight new features of, and top applications enabled by, today’s wide-format printing equipment. Here is a report from one stop on the tour.
Published November 5, 2014
The SGIA Expo was about more than just new hardware—new substrates were also on display, as well as what keeps the hardware productive: color management, production, and RIPing software.
Published October 29, 2014
SGIA Expo exceeded virtually everyone’s expectations. In Part 1 of our show coverage we look at some of the major hardware introductions.
Published October 24, 2014
Dan Marx, VP of Markets and Technologies at SGIA, talks to Richard Romano at the opening of the 2014 SGIA Expo and discusses another record-breaking year. They also discuss some key trends in the wide-format space.
Published October 15, 2014
For those of us who cover wide-format and specialty graphics printing, the biggest show of the year is the SGIA Expo, coming up next week in Las Vegas. It can be tough, travel being what it is, to muster enthusiasm for far-flung trade events, but there is a great deal of value in getting out of the office and attending these kinds of shows. So in this “listicle,” here are the top seven reasons I am looking forward to next week’s show.
Published October 8, 2014
One day prior to the SGIA Expo, Roland DGA is launching their inaugural ImagiNATION 2014 user group conference, designed as an information exchange for owners and operators of Roland’s wide-format printing equipment.
Published September 24, 2014
Graph Expo 2014 kicks off on Sunday. Every year, wide-format becomes a more conspicuous and important part of the show. Here is a rundown of some of the things you can look forward to on the show floor.
Published September 10, 2014
Dynamic digital signage (DDS) is being touted as a hot opportunity for sign shops and other wide-format service providers. But where does one start? And how can digital complement print signage?
Published August 27, 2014
The first-generation Memjet-based devices have hit the market, and have helped wide-format inkjet conquer the speed challenge. What will second-gen Memjet look like?
Published August 20, 2014
Creating a printing business that can cope with a changing market for print and that is “future-focused”—is imperative as we hurtle toward 2020. If you’re a wide-format printer, you may be halfway there—but that’s no excuse for complacency.
Published August 12, 2014
Robbie Gordon, President & CEO of Indy Imaging, talks to Richard Romano about their business as a wholesale printer for the sign industry serving industrial sign shops and commercial sign shops.
Published August 8, 2014
Rick Scrimger, President of Roland DGA, talks to Richard Romano from ISA 2014 about their new digital display studio, the demand for digital signage, and how digital and print can compliment each other.
Published July 25, 2014
Bill Hartman, SVP at Esko, talks to Richard Romano about introducing the new Kongsberg V Digital Finishing System at ISA.
Published July 22, 2014
Xavier Garcia, VP & GM at HP, talks to Richard Romano at ISA about new additions to their latex series. They discuss new inks, the target market, and the main applications for the technology.
Published July 21, 2014
Andrew Oransky, Senior Director of Marketing & Product Management at Roland DGA, talks to Richard Romano from ISA about the products they showed. They discuss applications of the products and the demands in the marketplace.
Published July 18, 2014
If you look around your home or office (or home office), you’ll notice numerous examples of what I’ve referred to in the past as “stealth printing,” printed materials that don’t fall into what we consider commercial printing, but is a huge market nonetheless.
Published July 18, 2014
Guy Gecht, CEO of EFI, talks to Richard Romano at ISA about what they are showing, LED technology, the companies growth, and what he is hearing from the demands of the customer.
Published July 11, 2014
Guy Evron, Marketing Manager at Bordeaux Digital PrintInk, talks to Richard Romano about the company and their approach to alternative inks.
Published June 23, 2014
At an event in San Diego, Calif., held June 9 and 10, HP announced that they are scaling up their PageWide technology for use in wide-format printers. PageWide made its debut in 2013 in the Officejet Pro X Series of desktop multifunction devices.
Published June 23, 2014
Ed Thompson, Product Manager at Onyx, talks to Richard Romano about the long history of the company in color management for wide format printing.
Published June 6, 2014
Unless you have been lost, you are all too aware that the market for print has been changing, changing dramatically, and not changing for the best. We’ve had this discussion for a long time, so we need not dwell on it here. As a result, many companies have looked to wide-format and other types of specialty printing as a compelling replacement.
Published June 2, 2014
Steve Hatlem, President of Sipe, talks to Richard Romano about the company and their relationship with MGI. They discuss how the process works and how they use the technology to differentiate their business.
Published May 30, 2014
Arthur Boisfontaine, Owner of Crystal Clear Imaging in New Orleans, talks to Richard Romano about the business and their focus on sports and the wide format market.
Published May 23, 2014
Richard Romano talks to Wes Shin, Co-Owner & GM of PVS In-Store Graphics, about the company and their business as well as their transition to digital.
Published May 16, 2014
Next week, O’Neil Data Systems (ODS) will be hosting an HP-sponsored event at their Plano, Tex, facility, which will bring together vendors, customers, and printers from all corners of the digital printing ecosystem to see the company’s high-powered “data-driven publishing” in action, as well as showcase their own contributions to this expanding print market segment.
Published May 16, 2014
Spencer Craig, EFI Director of Business Development, talks to Richard Romano about their new thermoforming technology. Spencer also demonstrates some examples of output.
Published May 2, 2014
At the International Sign Association’s Sign Expo, the current state of dynamic digital signage (DDS) was reminiscent of a kind of “Cambrian explosion,” with a proliferation of solutions emerging.
Published April 22, 2014
Arthur Boisfontaine, owner of Crystal Clear Imaging, talks to Richard Romano about their business and how they shifted to focus on the sports market.
Published April 1, 2014
Last week, the mainstream media were abuzz with the results of a new study—conducted by a 14-year-old-high school student—that found that the U.S. Government could save $400 million by switching typefaces from Times New Roman to Garamond. While the results of this study have not gone without legitimate criticism, that hasn’t stopped others from proposing initiatives that would save the government even more money through changes in typography.
Published March 28, 2014
The ISA International Sign Expo 2014 is coming to Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center this April 23–26, with educational and networking sessions starting on the 23rd and the trade show itself starting on the 24th. (Each year, the Sign Expo alternates between Las Vegas and Orlando.) Some new features of the show debuted in Vegas last year, and will thus be new to an Orlando—and thus a largely Southeast U.S.— crowd.
Published March 10, 2014
Printing Association of Florida President George Ryan speaks with Richard Romano at Graphics of the Americas about the show compared to last year. They also discuss Latin American market trends.
Published March 7, 2014
It was a sunny morning Southern California. An ocean breeze was blowing in from nearby Redondo Beach, and as the freight train next door—the bane of our existence—clattered endlessly and rattled the building, we gathered in the first floor conference room of the Torrance offices of Micro Publishing News magazine to evaluate the hundred or so submissions to what, back in 1999, was our Seventh Annual Digital Art contest.
Published March 7, 2014
Richard Romano talks to George Ryan, President of Printing Association of Florida, at Graphics of the Americas about the unique nature of the show relative to training and education.
Published March 7, 2014
Alex Nussem, International Director of Sales at CMA Imaging, talks to Richard Romano at GOA. We learn a bit about the company and the products they launched at the show.
Published March 6, 2014
Mark Heimerl, Sales Director at RBP Chemical, talks to Richard Romano about exhibiting at Graphics of the Americas for the first time and tapping the growing South American market.
Published March 5, 2014
Emily Kroll of Colordyne Technologies talks to Richard Romano at Graphics of the Americas about their first time exhibiting there and the importance of the Latin American market. They also discuss their use of Memjet technology.
Published March 4, 2014
Tim Murphy, President of Printware, is interviewed by Richard Romano at Graphics of the Americas and talks about the company and discusses being named a "Game Changer" at GOA.
Published March 3, 2014
WhatTheyThink's Richard Romano talks with Patricia Alvarez, President of Intermarket Group, at Graphics of the Americas about the company and printing industry trends in Latin America.
Published March 3, 2014
Fabian Prudhomme, VP at Enfocus, talks to Richard Romano at Graphics of the Americas about their new distribution deal with Intermarket as well as the growing Latin American market. They also discuss Enfocus activity in 2014.
Published February 17, 2014
GTI VP Bob McCurdy, talks to Richard Romano about their color viewing products and the challenges of lighting for proper viewing of commercial printing. They also discuss the specific challenges for wide format color viewing.
Published February 10, 2014
In this age of poor-quality cameraphone images and unflattering “selfies,” it’s easy to forget how powerful high-quality, professional photography can be.
Published January 30, 2014
Our own Dr. Joe Webb has just published the results of his latest survey of commercial printers and their planned investments for 2014—Strategies for Management’s 2014 U.S. Commercial Printers Capital Investment Survey and Forecast.
Published December 16, 2013
From so simple a beginning. Avondale, Ariz.’s AZ Pro Signs and Graphics, based just outside Phoenix, started nine years ago with a 21-inch plotter—and has seen no less than double-digit growth every year, even during the recession years.
Published December 5, 2013
Richard Romano joins us from the Xerox Gil Hatch center where he talks to Shelley Sweeney, Vice President of Service Bureau and Direct Mail about the importance of data in 1:1 marketing and VDP and how to market it.
Published November 20, 2013
At the SGIA Expo in Orlando several weeks ago, EFI garnered a Product of the Year award for its GS Pro-TF thermoforming system. Interstate Graphics Inc. (IGI), based in Machesney Park, Ill.—just outside Rockford—was the first company to install the GS Pro-TF.
Published November 18, 2013
Graphics Canada is held every two years and celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. To mark this milestone, says Dan Mustata, show manager for Graphics Canada, “we’ve brought together more features, more conferences, and more colocated events than ever.”
Published November 13, 2013
It’s less about belts and gears and more about software,” says Ron Diaz, press operator at Secaucus, N.J.’s Strategic Content Imaging (SCI), summing up what he sees as one of the primary differences between digital production inkjet and traditional offset printing. “We have to move four gigabytes of data in a very short period of time.
Published November 6, 2013
At the beginning of day one of the SGIA Expo, SGIA President Michael Robertson had announced a pre-registered attendee count of around 21,000. By Friday morning, the third and final day of the Expo, the count had topped 22,400.
Published October 28, 2013
SGIA President Michael Robertson talks to Richard Romano about the 2013 SGIA Expo in Orlando, the attendance at the show, and trends he's seeing in the wide format segment.
Published October 25, 2013
Digital textile printing began in earnest in the 1990s, but technology, market, and supply chain challenges have kept it from going truly mainstream. However, all of these challenges—technology, market, and even supply chain—are gradually being overcome, and digital textile printing.
Published October 25, 2013
Spencer Craig, Director of Business Development at EFI, talks to Richard Romano at SGIA about winning Product of the Year Award for their Thermoform system. They discuss the different applications and details about the process.
Published October 24, 2013
Day 1 of SGIA and WhatTheyThink is on the ground in Orlando and Richard Romano has you covered with the latest from the show as we kick off what is said to be near record crowds.
Published September 26, 2013
Joan Perez Pericot, Category Manager for HP Scitex, talks to Richard Romano about the success of their Latex Series and their newest addition - the 3000.
Published September 20, 2013
Published September 20, 2013
Wide-format printing has always been an endeavor for the highly creative, and it would be hard to find someone more creative than Armstrong.
Published September 12, 2013
WhatTheyThink Senior Analyst Richard Romano gives his take on Print 13 from a wide format perspective.
Published September 11, 2013
Published September 10, 2013
Published September 9, 2013
Dave Lewis, VP or Sales and Marketing at Prolist, speaks with WhatTheyThink's Richard Romano about their business and their success in the mail services business and relationship with HP and MCS.
Published September 6, 2013
Lisa White, General Manager of Think Ink, talks to Richard Romano about their ink portfolio, working with HP, and the MCS Falcon System.
Published September 5, 2013
Glenn Toole, VP of Sales and Marketing for MCS, talks to Richard Romano about the company and the Falcon System. Falcon is the latest MCS technology developed in cooperation with HP.
Published September 4, 2013
HP's Jim Kelley joins Richard Romano again at the MCS facility to talk about the Falcon system - getting into more about the printheads and other technical details.
Published September 3, 2013
Jim Kelley, Strategic Alliance Manager at HP, speaks with WhatTheyThink's Richard Romano about the MCS Falcon system at their facility in Gaithersburg Maryland.
Published August 26, 2013
Kevin Karstedt talks to Patrice Aurenty, Business Leader at Sun Chemical, about their business and announces Sun's endorsement of the X-Rite eXact color matching system.
Published August 22, 2013
Published August 13, 2013
Published August 5, 2013
Published July 24, 2013
Published July 22, 2013
Ken VanHorn, HP Scitex Category Manager, talks to Richard Romano about the release of two new inks - orange and light black - that enable printers to print better skin tones and corporate colors.
Published July 17, 2013
Published July 9, 2013
Published July 3, 2013
The DLR (Docklands Light Rail) train wended its way through London’s East End and the Docklands and pulled into the station for London’s ExCel Centre. The conductor announced, “Customs House for the ExCel Centre. If you’re going to FESPA 2013, please alight here.”
Published July 2, 2013
Published July 2, 2013
A week or so ago, the news went around that Glasgow, Scotland’s Bell & Bain placed the world’s first order for the Fujifilm Jet Press 540W.
Published June 28, 2013
Published June 25, 2013
Ken VanHorn, Category Manager for HP Scitex, talks to Richard Romano about the announcement of the Scitex FB10000 at FESPA. Ken talks about HDR and other technical specifications.
Published June 17, 2013
Published June 14, 2013
This is Part I of what will be an occasional series of manufacturer “Experience Center” visits.
Published June 10, 2013
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