One news item that drew little attention earlier this month was the planned acquisition of Graphic Microsystems Inc. by Advanced Vision Technologies (AVT). For many companies in the commercial printing and publishing markets these two companies are not well known, but in their respective fields the companies are market leaders.

AVT an Israel based company with a vision statement of See the Brains behind the Eyes states it is dedicated to bringing the printing industry to a level of automation that other industry segments, including pre-press, have been enjoying for years. It claims to have achieved a technological leadership position in this quest. The company has developed integrated solutions for improving print quality via on-line automatic monitoring, inspection, alert, and other vision-based press controls for both the packaging printing and labels printing markets.

Graphic Microsystems Inc (GMI) claims to be the world's premier supplier of closed loop color control systems, color management and reporting software and remote digital ink fountain control systems. The Company's products are sold to leading commercial, semi-commercial, newspaper and specialty printers in the heatset and coldset web printing markets as well as printing press OEMs worldwide. In addition, GMI also supplies the industry with press controls such as closed loop color-to-color register and ribbon/cutoff control systems. The Company's remote digital ink fountain control and closed loop color control products can be found at over 3,000 and 700 sites worldwide, respectively. GMI systems are offered either directly by the company or through distributors, and by agreements with press suppliers. These include Goss, MAN Roland, KBA, Komori, Nilpeter, Manugraph, Timpson and Muller-Martini.