David Zwang travels around the globe helping companies increase their productivity, margins and market reach. He specializes in production optimization, strategic business planning, market analysis, and related services to companies in the vertical media communications market. Clients have included printers, manufacturers, retailers, publishers, premedia and US Government agencies. He can be reached at [email protected].
Displaying 26-125 of 39 articles
Published February 18, 2026
David Zwang talks with Laura Cole, VP Pricing & Controls, Kodak, and Sven Freyer, Global VP Print Manufacturing & Managing Director, Kodak Germany, about the growth in demand for Kodak's Sonora offset printing plates and the company's outlook for 2026.
Published February 17, 2026
Traditional printing markets have been shrinking as a result of an increase in online technologies, and shifting consumer demands. Diversification in the printing industry is the deliberate expansion beyond a shop’s traditional core applications, markets, or business model to create new, more resilient revenue streams and reduce dependence on shrinking legacy work.
Published February 16, 2026
David Zwang talks with Rob Welford, President of Xeikon NA. Xeikon North America has restructured the organization to better serve the region with their existing and new toner and inject products for commercial print and packaging.
Published February 9, 2026
The ultimate goal of dappas is to help facilitate design and eliminate the entire prepress production, so all the converters who are working with them get a stream of work that is ready to go to press and converting.
Published February 3, 2026
In this Product Spotlight, David Zwang takes a deep dive into Fiery JobFlow Pro, a new and innovative workflow platform based on intelligent automation.
Published February 3, 2026
David Zwang talks with Hans Sep, Product Line Manager for Fiery, about JobFlow Pro, a new and innovative workflow platform based on intelligent automation.
Published February 3, 2026
David Zwang talks with Martijn Eier, Founder of Cloudprinter.com, about how the company is enhancing their backend production by opening their own facilities to better service the growing market.
Published January 27, 2026
Using inkjet for book manufacturing enables ultra-fast turnaround, critical for Amazon, educational publishers, and self-published authors, so books can be printed as orders arrive, drastically reducing unsold inventory. Inkjet book production will continue reshaping the publishing landscape, making it possible to efficiently print, personalize, and deliver books at nearly every scale from bestsellers to niche specialist titles through 2030 and beyond.
Published January 13, 2026
Friesens was started by D.W. Friesen in 1907 as a one-man operation in a 20-foot-wide store on Main Street in Altona, Manitoba, Canada. Today, Friesens Corporation is 100% employee-owned and has a campus, still located in Altona, that has grown to encompass four divisions (Book, Yearbook, History Book, and Packaging) and employ about 600 people across North America with annual revenues well in excess $125 million
Published January 9, 2026
Last year, Heidelberg celebrated its 175th anniversary, and opened the Home of Print in Germany. This year the celebration will be here in the US with the opening of "The Print Media Center Americas - Home of Print." In this Business Update video, David Zwang talks with Clarence Penge, President of Heidelberg USA.
Published December 18, 2025
Canadian company Rootree has been involved in flex pack for about 16 years and among the foundation players in digital flex pack. Today, digitally printed flex pack runs are increasing in size challenging the established business requirements. While there are many challenges and ways to address them, Rootree is addressing many of them, and one of them by opening a facility in the US.
Published December 15, 2025
David Zwang talks with Colleen Molkenbur, Manager, Product Planning & Marketing, for Canon U.S.A. about Canon's new varioPRINT iX1700 cut-sheet production inkjet press. The new press was designed to fill a gap between Canon's higher-product ion inkjet units and its toner-based presses.
Published December 11, 2025
David Zwang talks with Lisa Weese, Director of Product Marketing for Canon U.S.A., about Canon's extensive line of production inkjet equipment.
Published December 10, 2025
David Zwang talks with Patrick Donigain, Sr. Manager Marketing for Canon U.S.A., about Canon's new 3.4m Colorado XL series, the latest in Canon's successful line of UVgel wide-format printers.
Published December 3, 2025
David Zwang catches up with Matthew Poliniak, Senior Manager, Product Marketing for Canon U.S.A., about their imagePRESS V1350 technology and the machine's features that create more automated and efficient print runs.
Published November 20, 2025
In this business update video, David Zwang talks with Bret Farrah, Executive VP of Xitron, about Xitron's K2, targeted to print businesses looking to upgrade their aging workflows.
Published November 20, 2025
David Zwang talks with Chris Minn, Jessica Decola, and David Rosendahl, collectively known as She*t for Brains, a grass roots initiative that focuses on mental health and wellness in the print industry. The organization offers live and virtual sessions that provide a safe space for industry professional to get together and discuss the issues they are wrestling with.
Published November 18, 2025
David Zwang talks with Thomas Schweizer, Head of Global Sales for Gallus, about the company’s major launches at Label Expo 2025, including the Gallus Five, a new hybrid press combining flexo and high-resolution inkjet printing, and the Gallus Alpha, a digital-only press for affordable, high-quality inkjet production—completing Gallus’ full lineup for diverse label and packaging applications.
Published November 4, 2025
David Zwang talks with Chris Petro, General Manager & VP Americas, for Sitma Tecnau, about Tecnau's acquisition of Sitma, an Italian manufacturer of ecological packaging production equipment and how it complements Tecnau's print finishing equipment portfolio.
Published October 27, 2025
David Zwang talks with Lane Kathryn Hickey-Wiggins, Chair of the Board of the PRINTING United Alliance, about her experiences as a longtime PUA Boardmember.
Published October 21, 2025
Many companies have been creating solutions to enhance the printing and packaging production plant. Hybrid Software is unique in being the only full-stack provider of all the core technologies required for industrial inkjet printing from printhead electronics to high-performance digital front ends (DFEs) and workflow automation systems. They do this through an interesting collection of very targeted solution acquisitions and continuous development, which can be confusing to understand to some, but knowing the principals I know there is a plan.
Published October 21, 2025
David Zwang talks with Bernd Zipper, CEO of Zipcon and Founder of OPS about this year's Online Print Summit. The print industry is changing to meet the changes in market demands including automation, AI, etc. This significant event will host industry leaders and operations people who will share how they are managing it.
Published October 20, 2025
David Zwang talks with Jan de Roeck, CMO of Esko, about the company's new S2 platform that leverages secure data sharing, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence across Esko products, partner integrations, and APIs from a single source.
Published October 16, 2025
David Zwang talks with Joel Depernet, President & CEO of Esko, about the top challenges facing customers: how to reduce costs and how to improve quality.
Published October 15, 2025
David Zwang talks with Manfred Mueller, CSO and COO of Identiv, about how RFID and NFC are replacing barcodes and QR codes for identification and tracking of products and product lifecycles to meet brand and regulatory needs.
Published October 14, 2025
Generally, print and especially packaging will continue to grow as long as there is economic growth. However, all labels and all packaging are not equal, and as a result the opportunities, trends, and technologies can differ, affecting margin and volume growth. While digital package printing provide many opportunities for higher margins and growth and ease of operation, it still faces lower productivity, higher costs for traditional runs, and some substrate limitations as it competes with digitalized flexo and offset.
Published October 14, 2025
David Zwang talks with Michael Deflorian, Director Business Unit Software & Solutions for durst, about the Open Software Initiative, a neutral, modular software platform designed to provide print service providers, resellers, system integrators, and OEMs access to powerful and flexible modules and enable seamless integration of third-party solutions, regardless of printer type or manufacturer.
Published October 13, 2025
Production inkjet has reached the offset quality barrier, and digitalized analog printing is targeting shorter run, so some believe that it is the death knell for electrophotography (EP), aka “toner.” Although, as Mark Twain said, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” and based on trends and recent developments in EP technology, I believe that is the case here as well.
Published October 13, 2025
David Zwang talks with Guy Desmet, Global Head of Strategy & Marketing for ECO3. ECO3 supplies consumables, processing systems, and software for offset workflows, and has expanded into flexo, serving as a one-stop shop for customers in the flexo industry.
Published October 9, 2025
David Zwang talks with Eric Nelsen, VP of Product Development for Xitron. Xitron K2, a full featured workflow system, was developed to replace older workflow solutions from many manufacturers as well as drive multiple CTP devices, digital presses, and other output devices.
Published October 8, 2025
At drupa, Canon teased their early development of a digital corrugated press. It’s no longer a tease, and at the European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers (FEFCO) biennial event, Canon introduced their rumored corrugated press, this time with details. Considering the amount of time digital corrugated presses have been available, you would have expected that adoption would be much higher than the few hundred installed globally today. Canon is looking to change that with the CORRPRESS IB17.
Published October 8, 2025
David Zwang talks with Eddy Fadel, VP Flexo Business Unit for ESKO, about how the company is addressing customers' changing needs and requirements.
Published October 7, 2025
David Zwang talks with Robert Rae, Managing Director, Sales, for GEW about the company's extensive partnering with machine manufacturers in the narrow-web label market, and the company's extensive product offerings.
Published October 7, 2025
David Zwang talks with Thomas Sawitowski, Senior Vice President, Flexible Packaging, for ACTEGA about how the consumables company is navigating the changes and trends in the market, from shorter runs to changing regulations.
Published October 6, 2025
David Zwang talks with Martin Leitner, Head of Product Management Labels & Flexible Packaging for Durst, about the company's new Tau G3 Platform for digital label printing, which was introduced at Labelexpo 2025 in Barcelona.
Published October 6, 2025
David Zwang talks with Edoardo Cotichini, European Senior Manager, Marketing, Label & Packaging, for Canon EMEA, about the company's rapid expansion into labels and packaging.
Published October 2, 2025
David Zwang talks with Christoph Gamper, CEO and Co-Owner of Durst, about where he sees Durst going, and how the company is expanding its offerings beyond printing into ancillary areas such as automation and software.
Published October 1, 2025
On September 6, 2025, the $80 million acquisition bid by FIMI was accepted by the Central District Court, giving the private equity firm 100% ownership of the Landa Corporation. Importantly, the reorganization is designed to keep the company operational and provide a solid path forward, more than 20% of their customers have placed a repeat order for a second or third press. So how do they keep it going and growing?
Published October 1, 2025
David Zwang talks with Toshi Uemura, CEO of Konica Minolta, about KM’s toner and inkjet printing technologies, and where each technology fits in the market.
Published September 30, 2025
Labelexpo has been evolving for years to better reflect the market and importantly the converter and exhibitor preferences. Initially, the extension brought flex pack to the event, and this year was also saw some folding carton solutions. While many service providers were selling print and packaging and therefore purchasing consumables and software solutions, between the confusing tariff situation and multiple conflict zones, they were holding back on equipment purchases. Based on the discussions with many exhibitors at Labelexpo, that may be changing.
Published September 30, 2025
David Zwang talks with Duane Pekar, CEO of Mark Andy, about customer needs and pain points, as well as the growing interest in hybrid printing/converting and application-specific solutions.
Published September 29, 2025
David Zwang talks with, Paul Borg Jr., Project Manager for Printwell, about his personal journey at Printwell, as well as today’s challenges of moving data to feed digital printing systems. How do you get work in? How do you move it through the production workflow?
Published September 25, 2025
David Zwang talks with Mike Meshkati, President of SinaLite, which started in 1999 as a small quick printer and has gradually expanded into four-color offset and then digital printing.
Published September 23, 2025
David Zwang talks with Michael Liff, COO of K Sidrane, a third-generation family-owned business. The company began 78 years ago as a label and tag converter using flexo equipment. Fifteen years ago, they added digital printing equipment, which has changed the scope of the business.
Published September 18, 2025
AI is constantly trending in the news, much of that is in the form of textual and image content generation. However, what are the real benefits today and tomorrow for print and packaging production and supply chains.
Published September 18, 2025
In consumer product industries there is a constant pressure to get to market faster. This creates a lot of primary and supporting challenges across the supply chain. For example, when you want to go faster, how do you keep the process as a whole high quality and at high compliance level?
Published September 16, 2025
Gallus has just introduced their new System to Compose platform. It is designed with their vision of complete flexibility to manage both the specific and constantly changing packaging requirements of brands and converters.
Published September 16, 2025
David Zwang talks with Ken Hause, Director of Operations for LPI, a 52-year-old sales-driven marketing company that specializes in printing bulletins for 5,100 churches nationwide. Partnering with HP has helped the company handle short-run, fast-turnaround work.
Published September 11, 2025
David Zwang talks with Deanne Sinclair, President of Cambridge Label, about the company’s diversification into all kinds of analog and digital labels.
Published September 9, 2025
In consumer product industries there is a constant pressure to get to market faster. This creates a lot of primary and supporting challenges across the supply chain. For example, when you want to go faster, how do you keep the process as a whole high quality and at high compliance level?
Published September 9, 2025
Canon U.S.A., Inc., has extensive experience with inkjet for commercial applications and maintains a leading global position. Now it is time for them to enter the label and packaging press market with a successful new approach, initially for labels and then corrugated and folding carton in the future.
Published September 9, 2025
David Zwang talks with Jason Koyama, Advisor, Canon Production Solutions, about the LabelStream LS2000 and Canon's entry into the label and packaging market.
Published September 8, 2025
David Zwang talks with Robert Challman, Director of R&D, Labels and Packaging, for RRD, which just opened a new, centralized label and packaging testing facility to address a wide range of testing for material components as well as design.
Published September 4, 2025
David Zwang talks with Efren Ramirez, founder of 305 Labels, about how he jumped into digital label printing with no background in print.
Published September 2, 2025
David Zwang talks with Jordan Fischer, Plant Manager for Summit Labels, about the company's 20 years as a digital label printer. Fischer tracks the evolution of digital printing technology over those two decades.
Published August 26, 2025
David Zwang talks with Skip Dyer, Executive Vice President of Spire Graphics, a 35-year-old full-service marketing services firm. The company began as a class project at university—and evolved as a successful business specializing in electronic, offset, and digital materials.
Published August 25, 2025
This year's Labelexpo is in a new venue, with an expanded focus on labels and packaging in general. Managing Director Jade Grace talks with David Zwang about how It has been designed to support the real world needs of today's suppliers and converters in this constantly changing market place.
Published August 14, 2025
David Zwang talks with Nick Bruno, President of Harris & Bruno, about the evolution of the company from a small flexo and offset shop to building their own flexo and sheetfed offset equipment, primarily for coating applications. The company has recently carved out a space in the embellishment market.
Published August 12, 2025
Canon has extensive experience with inkjet for commercial applications and maintains a leading global position. Now it is time for them to enter the label and packaging press market with a successful new approach, initially for labels and then corrugated and folding carton in the future. With the depth and breadth of this projected packaging product line, it could ultimately give Canon the largest footprint this segment of the industry.
Published August 12, 2025
David Zwang talks with Jeffrey Evans, Executive VP Operations for BMS Technologies, a 30-year-old technology company with in-house printing that started in offset and transitioned to 100% digital in order to move into and serve the markets they were looking to serve.
Published August 11, 2025
David Zwang talks with Adee Mor, Chief Marketing Officer for Scodix, about the company's digital embellishment technology and applications.
Published August 11, 2025
David Zwang talks with Bill Riley, President of Ironsides Technology, the developer of track-and-trace systems that can adapt to any production environment.
Published August 6, 2025
David Zwang talks with Dina Kessler, President of Kessler Creative, a direct marketing agency that also produces commercial print, direct mail, booklets and brochures, signage, wall decor, and any other kind of marketing material.
Published August 5, 2025
David Zwang talks with Marco Boer of IT Strategies about changes in direct mail, the greater—and more sophisticated—use of data, and geofencing to more closely marry print and electronic marketing campaigns and make them more profitable.
Published August 5, 2025
David Zwang talks with Bret Moriarty, VP of Office Services and Print Operations for Raymond James. The financial company specializes in printing regulatory documents—statements, confirms, tax documents, and letters to clients. They got into inkjet about 10 years ago with the Canon ColorStream.
Published August 4, 2025
David Zwang talks with Evan Stewart, CEO/owner of Direct One. Founded in 1998 in a garage, the company has grown to about 84 employees across two facilities. Direct One started as a print operation, but now has a full letter shop, and does creative work, strategy, and data analytics. Operating mostly a "toner farm," the company is looking to add production inkjet capabilities.
Published July 31, 2025
David Zwang talks with Doug Madgwick, Director of Production for Valpak, who produces the coupon packs that appear in the mail. The company prints in all kinds of quantities, and offers local businesses the opportunity to deliver coupons to 10,000 homes within a business's ZIP code. To manage volume, they created the highly automated Valpak Manufacturing Center.
Published July 30, 2025
David Zwang talks with Jeff Ibberson, Site Manager for Koozie Group, a company that provides promotional products including pens, calendars, sticky notes, drinkware, bags, chairs, umbrellas, teddy bears—just about anything that you can print advertising on, they produce. The company has a mix of offset and digital equipment, but is transitioning from toner/EP to inkjet.
Published July 30, 2025
Global Graphics has been licensing the MAKO SDK to software developers and equipment manufacturers for years with great success. However, this new APEX solution brings a smarter and faster solution to the market. David Zwang talks with Global Graphics Product Manager David Stevenson to learn more.
Published July 29, 2025
Labelexpo Europe is the biggest of all the Labelexpo events, and truly a global event. It is held every other year, with the US event held in the even years. Historically, it has been a label and converting event, but in recent years, it has seen flexible packaging solutions share the floor as the shift in packaging and demands for more sustainable solutions increase. This year, for the first time, the event will also host folding carton solutions.
Published July 29, 2025
David Zwang talks with Andy Cooney, Sr., VP of Global Manufacturing for RPI Print, a global manufacturer of a wide range of print products—photo books, cards, calendars, and business products, including wide-format printing and banners. They are migrating heavily into trade paperback and hardcover publishing and have been investing in book production equipment.
Published July 28, 2025
David Zwang talks with Bill Lowe, VP of Service for Canon U.S.A., about changes to the way the company is handling machine servicing, and the advantages these will offer Canon customers.
Published July 28, 2025
David Zwang talks with Freddy Pieters and Davy Verstaen of Enfocus about the changing nature of print jobs and the increase in connectivity between printing and finishing equipment.
Published July 24, 2025
David Zwang talks with Lisa Weese, Director of Product Marketing for Canon U.S.A., about the complete Canon product portfolio on display in Canon’s Customer Innovation Center in Boca Raton, Fla.
Published July 24, 2025
David Zwang talks with Jim Continenza, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kodak, about the value of attending and exhibiting at trade events.
Published July 23, 2025
David Zwang talks with Ray Delacqueseaux, VP of Operations, Kaleidoscope Services. Kaleidoscope started in 1999 as a package service company but has evolved into a print and letter shop. Since 2007, they have grown the print side of the business adding both EP and inkjet presses—the latter of which have been a game-changer.
Published July 23, 2025
David Zwang talks with Christian Haneke, Innovation and Solutions Mgr. for Sattler Media, which started in web offset printing and expanded into direct mail, and then magazine and catalog printing. The company has just entered the online printing market.
Published July 22, 2025
David Zwang talks with Kevin Johnson, VP of Operations for O'Neil Data. O’Neil had purchased the first HP PageWide press in 2008—and just retired it early this year. With more than a dozen PageWide presses, the company is bringing two more online this year to handle its extensive variable-data jobs.
Published July 17, 2025
David Zwang talks with Theo Skagias, President & CEO of SKAG, a nearly 70-year-old company that initially focused on stationery and similar products, but soon diversified into different printed products, initially using analog printing equipment and, as of late, digital presses. They are now one of the biggest print businesses in the Balkans.
Published July 17, 2025
As thINK Ahead opens this week, David Zwang talks with Eric Hollingsworth, Conference Chair and VP of Operations, for thINK and RevSpring, about his role as conference chair, thINK’s mission, and what attendees to the 11th annual thINK Ahead conference can look forward to.
Published July 16, 2025
David Zwang takes a close look at Canon’s imagePRESS V family of digital presses, designed with state-of-the-art engineering developments that are intended to deliver both high quality and high performance to address the needs of today’s customer.
Published July 16, 2025
The Canon imagePRESS V Series is one of the best examples of engineered intelligence in a production printing press. Designed for reliable and consistent printing. The operator just has to load paper and push a button. David Zwang talks with Matt Poliniak, Sr. Manager Production Print Solutions, Canon USA.
Published July 15, 2025
David Zwang talks with John Palazzolo, Director of Marketing and Sales for Adphos, a thermal processing company that develops drying systems for printing equipment.
Published July 14, 2025
David Zwang talks with Axel Zöller, Product Management Digital Workflow Heidelberg, about Heidelberg Prinect Touch Free, which brings intelligence to workflow planning across Heidelberg and third-party devices, breaking new ground in production automation.
Published July 14, 2025
David Zwang talks with Brian Scott, CEO of Blooming Color, an all-digital shop that started as a general commercial printer but has transitioned to serving the e-commerce market.
Published July 11, 2025
Geostick is a producer of high-quality labels that has been increasing its digital fleet, especially HP Indigo presses. One of their chief verticals is the paint industry, and Production Manager Tom Schouten explains how the color chip on the label must precisely match the paint in the can. Geostick is also a beta site for HP Indigo presses, and is currently beta testing the new HP Indigo 6K+.
Published July 9, 2025
Print businesses today are increasingly run based on data-driven decisions. cococo offers a cloud-based solution for integrating all of a shop’s equipment and software to collect the data to make those decisions. Andreas Aplien, Founder of cococo, explains how.
Published July 8, 2025
After 175 years in business, the company operates a well-established global network, with manufacturing and support centers in multiple countries, and has installed more than 400,000 printing presses worldwide since its inception. Like many other print equipment manufacturers, they went through some rough times, but today they are in a much better position. The question now becomes how do you maintain and leverage the leadership position and refocus for continued growth?
Published July 8, 2025
David Zwang talks to Janet “Jan” Steiner, a champion of the trades and founder of Trade Works USA, a company dedicated to empowering and encouraging teens and young adults to explore skilled trades as a future career. Amazing story!
Published July 8, 2025
Heidelberg is a ubiquitous name in the print industry. After 175 years and lots of changes in the markets, industry and technology, they are prepared for the future. David Zwang talks with CSO/CTO Dr. David Schmedding.
Published July 7, 2025
Here we are, 13+ years after the initial introduction of the Landa Digital Print technology. Today, there are more than 51 machines installed, and many more in the pipeline. The Landa Press technology, and their customer-centric support relationships, are fairly unique, and that is why they are growing. However, there have been internal and external headwinds to that growth, and on Sunday, June 29, Landa Digital Printing filed for a Title 10 reorganization plan in Israel.
Published June 27, 2025
David Zwang talks with Benn Murphy, Director of CMP, a Sydney, Australia-based commercial printer evolving into digital and wide-format printing.
Published June 26, 2025
David Zwang talks with Sacha-Vittorio Paolucci, Head of Sales for OneVision, about the changing nature of the challenges their customers face, the latest being the need to automate.
Published June 25, 2025
David Zwang talks with Tom Peire, CEO of FourPees, a company that has evolved from a print software distributor to a systems integrator.
Published June 24, 2025
David Zwang talks with Sajiilth Pallippuram of Bindwel, a 30-year-old manufacturer of binding equipment, about the company's integration with other finishing equipment and the growing trend toward automation.
Published June 19, 2025
David Zwang talks with Cees Schouten, Operations Director for Geostick, a 100-year-old Netherlands-based label printing company that over the past century has evolved from letterpress to flexo to digital.
Published June 17, 2025
The Paperboard Packaging Council brings together carton and box converters to share, learn, and grow. David Zwang talks with VP Executive Director Emily Leonczyk about this valuable resource.
Published June 17, 2025
In this video, sponsored by HP, David Zwang talks with Sarah Gossett, CEO of Nova Brand Projection, which was launched in 1996 as an offset and digital printing company specializing in fast-turn print materials. Today, the company has transitioned to a company that helps companies “project” their brands to market via traditional print materials, promotional products, branded apparel, etc.
Published June 16, 2025
Kirk Rudy has been designing and manufacturing bespoke finishing, mailing, packaging, and RFID solutions since 1967. Today, it still in the family but has transformed to meet today's challenges. Dave Zwang talks with CEO Caroline Kirk.
Published June 11, 2025
In this video, sponsored by Four Pees, David Zwang talks with founder and CEO Tom Peire about the top challenges faced by print service providers, the value of “connected automation,” and how Four Pees' solutions help address these challenges.
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