One of the frustrations I’ve had with covering the digital printing marketplace for the last decade and a half is that it’s a moving target. Especially in the last few years, there has been an explosion in the number of players and press models available. Liquid toner, dry toner, inkjet, magnetography, full-color, black-and-white, monochrome, spot color, full production, light production, high-speed transactional, direct mail. Of course, once you think you’ve got a handle on it, new players and new models emerge.

One of things I’ve always wanted to do is sit down and create a chart that would allow me to look across and see what’s what. Need to know which presses can print PMS colors? Flexible substrates? Background white? Just open the chart. But I never took the plunge…until recently. The result, released last month by The Industry Measure, is “Production Digital Press Specs: At a Glance.” I expected the project to be time-consuming. But once I got into it, the challenge was much broader and deeper than I’d anticipated. In fact, I think I might have shaved a year off my life in the process.

The report contains specs on approximately 100 presses from a dozen different manufacturers. I started my research, in most cases, by visiting vendors’ websites. I figured I’d access the spec sheets, fill in what I could, then contact the vendors for the rest. Have them double-check the information – done. Not quite.