Displaying 1-99 of 314 articles
Published April 4, 2014
Andy Tribute reviews the nanography printing process and where Landa is with commercial availability of its Nanographic presses. How the claimed advantages of Nanographic presses compare to modern sheetfed offset and liquid toner technology and inkjet systems from Canon/Océ, Xeikon and Konica Minolta.
Published April 4, 2014
Andy Tribute joins us from retirement to discuss Ipex, his local industry trade show. He discusses the challenges faced by Informa and how they transformed the event from a product driven show to a content-based show.
Published April 3, 2014
The Ipex 2014 event in London was not one for major product introductions. The size of the event was much smaller than originally planned due to the withdrawal of many of the major suppliers. Highlights include Konica Minolta, FFEI, LumeJet, Scodix, Riso and others.
Published April 2, 2014
Ipex 2014, which moved from Birmingham to London, was anticipated to be the key event for availability of the raft of new digital presses announced at drupa 2012. Unfortunately Ipex was hit with two major difficulties. First the printing industry did not appear to be recovering from the recession, and second almost none of the new products announced at drupa were going to be ready for release by March 2014.
Published February 4, 2013
Please excuse this article coming after my retirement last year and my statement that you had seen my last article. I am taking the opportunity given to me by Randy Davidson to write the occasional guest editorial if I see a subject that I feel needs my own ‘unique’ take.
Published October 9, 2012
Longtime WhatTheyThink contributor Andy Tribute films a farewell address to the industry, thanking his fans, mentors, and people who were instrumental to his career.
Published September 25, 2012
After 50+ years in the printing industry, and over a thousand articles, Andy's final article looks back to where it all began and looks forward to what the future may hold.
Published August 21, 2012
Andy gives his take on why he thinks Heidelberg has made the decision to withdrawl from Ipex 2014
Published August 7, 2012
Andy gives a followup on some of the responses he received to a recent article where he commented on HP’s decision not to exhibit at the IPEX trade show in 2014.
Published July 24, 2012
Last week the following significant announcement was made about the future of Heidelberg. Bernhard Schreier, CEO of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg), will not be extending his management contract when it expires midyear 2013 and will be leaving the company at the end of 2012.
Published July 10, 2012
A major piece of news in recently has been the decision of HP not to exhibit at IPEX. Andy gives his opinion on why he thinks this decision was made.
Published June 15, 2012
We often get some rather stupid approaches by companies trying to put out marketing messages to enhance their position in the eyes of potential consumers. Sometimes these approaches show just how stupid marketing people can be and in fact show just how little they know of the real situation in the market.
Published June 5, 2012
In my last article, I covered what I felt were the key trends in digital printing at drupa. In this article I want to look at some of the trends and try to put them into context in the market.
Published June 5, 2012
WhatTheyThink contributor Andy Tribute gives kudos to the drupa team for their iphone app and then dives into some great packaging and finishing solutions at the show from both Scodix and Highcon.
Published May 23, 2012
Looking back over what appears to be a very successful drupa one can see all the new announcements in both analog and digital printing and hopefully can put them into context.
Published May 15, 2012
Andy Tribute discusses Xerox's new production inkjet press, the CiPress 500 and some of the potential applications and strengths of the press.
Published May 8, 2012
While most of the attention at drupa has been concentrated on the subject of B2 sheet fed inkjet presses, and also on the impact of Benny Landa’s new Nanographic Printing Process, there has been another major development that has stayed somewhat under the radar.
Published May 7, 2012
One of the key themes of drupa is the B2 format digital press, where both inkjet and electrophotographic technologies are used. Looking back we first saw sheet fed B2 presses previewed at drupa 2008 by both Fujifilm and Screen.
Published May 4, 2012
The opening day of drupa had the press conferences from two of the industry' leaders, these being Kodak and Xerox, two companies from Rochester NY.
Published May 3, 2012
In a WhatTheyThink exclusive, Andy Tribute and Benny Landa discuss his return to the industry as well as an overview of his nanography press offerings unveiled yesterday at drupa. This interview is split into two parts, to view the second half click here.
Published May 3, 2012
Continuing from Part 1 of our interview, Andy Tribute and Benny Landa explore the vendor partnerships Landa Corporation announced at drupa.
Published May 1, 2012
As drupa prepares to open its doors to the public, I am wondering if two announcements in the past week may indicate a major change in the printing industry, and also a new lease of life for two of the leading offset press vendors.
Published April 24, 2012
These days when print is so competitive, printers need to be able to utilize technology to make them stand out from their competition. Andy looks at a new screening technology that may save money, improve productivity and enhance quality.
Published April 10, 2012
One of the key trends we are seeing today is the rise of the hybrid printing system. This is where a mix of printing technologies are used on a press or finishing system to allow for adding variable data to offset or flexo printed content.
Published March 27, 2012
We finally have got through the series of pre-drupa events and announcement press releases. So we now know a lot of what will be seen at the event. The following is a summary of some key products that will be shown in a few market segments.
Published March 20, 2012
Almost all the recent announcements, and certainly all the hype, in the digital printing market have involved high-speed inkjet printing. Little has been heard about the established form of digital printing, namely digital printing using electrophotographic (toner based) technology.
Published March 13, 2012
The past few weeks have seen many of the pieces of the drupa jigsaw drop into place as vendors define some of what they will introduce and offer in May. There are still a few announcements to come with HP and Xerox making their announcements soon.
Published March 6, 2012
Andy Tribute interviews Dr. Francis Lamy about their new breakthrough product, PantoneLIVE.
Published February 14, 2012
Andy takes a look at three companies and their products that he feels will be major highlights of drupa.
Published February 3, 2012
Andy Tribute takes a look at Langley Holdings which recently acquired the manroland sheetfed division.
Published January 24, 2012
The big news of the past few days has been that Kodak has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the USA. The announcement from Kodak was not unexpected as the company has been having financial problems for some time, and had appointed a specialist consultancy company late last year to evaluate bankruptcy protection options.
Published January 17, 2012
One of the areas where major future business growth is seen is in newspapers adopting high-speed inkjet printing as an alternative or replacement for offset printing. The various press vendors all specify newspapers as a key business area for them for the future. Yet when one looks at the market newspapers have just not moved in any way to adopt the technology.
Published December 13, 2011
There were two interesting announcements made by major suppliers last week. These were both in the area of MIS systems for printers. One might ask what is the attraction of acquiring an MIS company?
Published December 2, 2011
Today it is becoming much more common to find printers using more than one printing technology. In most cases this is adding sheet fed digital printing to complement a predominantly offset printing operation.
Published November 29, 2011
The major news in the past week has been German press manufacturer manroland filing for insolvency. This is the largest corporate failure in Germany for two years.
Published November 1, 2011
With the arrival of high-speed inkjet presses that challenge offset printing in many areas, one of the comments I regularly hear concerns the cost of inkjet inks and why one cannot buy inks from a range of suppliers, as one can for offset printing. Well things may be changing and this can be seen from the lawsuit in which Kodak is taking action against ink manufacturer Collins Ink Corporation alleging breach of contract.
Published October 4, 2011
Andy takes a look as HP switches to move further into being a software and services company with an emphasis on Cloud based operations.
Published September 19, 2011
Andy examines waterless inkjet printing by visiting the first US installation of the Xerox CiPress 500 at dmh Marketing Partners in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.
Published September 13, 2011
Every so often a new technology arrives that may have an impact on changing a market or replacing an earlier technology. Andy Tribute attends a new product launch from Océ and Canon at which they announced a new "breakthrough" technology for digital printing.
Published August 23, 2011
It was announced last week that Platinum Equity had acquired Quark Software Inc. Without an understanding of the digital media market over the past thirty years this may seem just like another investment by a financial investment company. For those of us who have been involved in the major changes that have happened, to us Quark is one of the key companies that had driven the changes in the industry.
Published August 2, 2011
A major item of news that came out in the week of July 25 was that Fuji Xerox were launching their first high-speed continuous feed inkjet press, the 2800 Inkjet Color Continuous Feed Printing System. Andy gives his thoughts on the similarities or possible coincidences developing in the high-speed inkjet industry.
Published July 26, 2011
One of the promises of high-speed continuous feed inkjet presses is that they will change the way we produce newspapers allowing personalization, targeted advertising and short run publications. So far this has not happened. What we have seen is the use of such presses for printing what are termed international newspapers at overseas locations.
Published July 12, 2011
Andy takes an in depth look at the News International announcements in the UK and what that will mean for Rupert Murdoch's worldwide operations.
Published June 14, 2011
Andy Tribute attended the recent Océ Production Printing Summit and he comments on new Océ inkjet presses, the offering of pigment inks for certain markets, and the strategic alliance between Océ and manroland.
Published June 7, 2011
Everybody uses Google these days for a variety of services. Google has been eagerly branching out into business servies with Google Docs and now they're looking to take over the social media market but Andy's biggest concern is Google's corner on the ad space online.
Published May 31, 2011
I recently attended and spoke at the Xerox Forum, an event run in Berlin by Xerox Europe. I was speaking on a panel and was asked what I would recommend for printers to invest in within the next year. My answer was that I would recommend developing their Internet expertise in the area of web to print to make it easier for customers to work with them.
Published May 24, 2011
Andy Tribute interviews Monika Kissing, head of the press department at messe Düsseldorf to discuss the new dig:media 2011 event held last month in Düsseldorf, as well,as prospects for next years drupe event. dig:media turned out to be a successful event with more than 6,000 visitors.
Published May 3, 2011
In a recent article I covered the acquisition of part of St Ives Group, one of the largest web offset printing operations in Europe by a competitor, Walstead Investments, to create the largest magazine web offset printer in the UK. Since then there have been significant developments among Walstead’s competitors that are likely to change the structure of magazine printing in Europe. This article covers the latest developments in this market area
Published April 12, 2011
Things are looking great for Heidelberg. Andy Tribute looks at the recent moves the company has made to position itself financially and strategically and discusses how its relationship with Ricoh could influence its future.
Published April 12, 2011
Andy holds an interview with Dr Christian Compera, Senior Vice President, Digital Printing of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG to discuss some of the Heidelber/Ricoh digital printing strategy recently announced.
Published March 29, 2011
The planned sale of St Ives Web to Walstead creates the largest magazine printer in the UK. Is this trend for consolidation a key for bringing the magazine market under control with capacity geared more at publishers needs, and also bringing production prices back to realistic levels? Will this consolidation trend continue in other print markets?
Published March 23, 2011
Andy gives us an inside look at the recent HP T400 announcement and shares his commentary on what this means for the industry and the impact it will have. We also hear from Jim Hamilton of InfoTrends, who attended the event in Los Angeles.
Published March 15, 2011
Andy hadn’t heard much reporting on the process of adding inkjet printing heads to existing equipment - so he went out looking for it. He’s covered the latest and greatest on inkjet finshing , and he visited one of the largest UK direct mail printers to see how they’re utilizing the technology.
Published March 9, 2011
Andy's off relaxing on spring retreat, but he's still following the recent industry news. This week, he discusses Canon's announcement of the DreamLabo 5000, and their entry into the on demand, wide format, single-pass, color inkjet market.
Published February 23, 2011
Andy returns this week from Hunkeler's Innovationdays and shares some important insights from the event. He looks at the Xerox Inkjet Production System, Hunkeler's Full Book Finishing System, and some new products in the overprinting market.
Published February 23, 2011
As Heidelberg announces its plans to partner with Ricoh on a digital printing venture, Andy Tribute sees that Heidelberg has learned its lesson from its last foray into digital. He looks at the features of the press, its place in the pressroom and Heidelberg’s new relationship with Ricoh.
Published February 15, 2011
Hunkeler Innovationdays running this week in Switzerland will cover trends and developments in digital printing and print finishing for digital printing. The following is a brief outline of the event, identifying some major announcements being made. WhatTheyThink will report on the event, keeping up to date with the latest news.
Published February 9, 2011
Andy Tribute looks at the impact of disruptive technologies on the printing and publishing industries, and discusses how Memjet's inkjet technology will be the next disruptive technology to impact on the industry.
Published February 1, 2011
Andy Tribute looks at how the agreement between Océ and manroland is about more than just distribution but an opportunity for these two companies to leverage their strengths. And Andy tells us what's the big deal about Kodak entering the consulting business for the printing and publishing markets.
Published January 26, 2011
Andy covers his take on the recent announcement from EFI and Heidelberg and shares his impressions of two print samples using Harlequin's new printing algorithm.
Published January 18, 2011
The recent study by PRIMIR showed the changes in the printing market for offset and digital and looked at when the “tipping point” when digital would be of more value than offset would take place. This article looks at the PRIMIR projections and compares them with figures generated by Heidelberg. The assessment shows that the “tipping point” is still years away and that there is a good future for offset printing.
Published January 12, 2011
Andy welcomes in the new year by talking about past technological change and what's in store for us in 2011. He also highlights some interesting news coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas relative to inkjet.
Published December 14, 2010
This past year several publishers realized they could increase their print runs for digital books beyond what was previously thought profitable. The key was high-speed, continuous inkjet printing. WhatTheyThink caught up with Pearson Publishing to explore their thoughts on this new format.
Published December 11, 2010
Published November 30, 2010
X-Rite has long been a leading supplier of color measurement tools, and with their recent acquisition Pantone they’re in the business ink color specifications. Now X-Rite is looking to move beyond the print world to become “The Color Company” for all your color needs.
Published November 16, 2010
Océ is already the leader in continuous feed inkjet presses. If things are working so well, it seems unlikely they would make a drastic change. At the recent Canon Expo though, they made an announcement that Andy Tribute claims will dramatically shift their strategy.
Published November 9, 2010
Why are so many companies in the print industry choosing three-initial names that prove completely indistinguishable from the next three-initial name. Whether it’s ABC or XYZ, Andy Tribute tries to sort out the confusion.
Published October 26, 2010
Digital book printing is one of the hottest areas in the print industry today. Andy Tribute went to visit King Printing – a medium sized printer of modest origins - that may have been the first to provide digitally printed books. He discovered a ridiculously innovative family–run shop that has kept itself on the edge of new print technologies.
Published October 20, 2010
The print industry lost a legend last month. Charlie Ying, and his company Atex, revolutionized prepress and changed the industry forever. Andy Tribute offers these memories of one of the great innovators of our industry.
Published October 12, 2010
There have been mixed reviews about Graph Expo. A slow start on Sunday. Not much offset. Andy Tribute, as always, was right in the thick of things. In this article he wraps up his thoughts on the event, and looks forward to Graph Expo 2011.
Published October 1, 2010
The most successful print supplier into the book printing market has been HP with their T300 press. Andy Tribute looks at the success of HP in this market. He also visits the first installation of the new HP T200 "entry-level" continuous feed color press at O'Neil Data Systems where it will operate alongside the O'Neil's T300 press.
Published September 28, 2010
Consultants in the print industry keep talking about the need for print companies to reinvent themselves. Andy Tribute takes a look at how Xerox has come back from the brink of bankruptcy to reposition themselves, and remain a power in the industry.
Published September 21, 2010
Working from “The Cloud” is changing the way we use software applications. HP and Google are leading the charge, and it promises major changes in the print and publishing industry. Andy Tribute examines the trend and discusses how the industry can get ahead of it.
Published August 31, 2010
We keep hearing that the future for print shops is to become “integrated communications providers”, but making the transition can seem like a daunting task to printers who are still stuck in the old print world. This week, Andy Tribute examines the adjustments printers need to make to survive.
Published August 17, 2010
Andy Tribute didn’t anticipate becoming an iPad evangelist, but now he’s hooked. He wrote a few months back that he wasn’t sure what he was going to do with it, but now he has seen the light. In his latest article he sings the iPad’s praises, and explains why it might just be the most important tool in your arsenal.
Published July 27, 2010
The rise of inkjet printing is making its mark on the print industry. Andy Tribute has been following this trend, and he’s noticed some unexpected changes in short run book printing, shrinks sleeves production, label printing and localized news print production.
Published July 13, 2010
The print industry is yet another area where the Chinese are making enormous strides. How will American printers compete? Andy Tribute might not have all the answers, but he has the perfect vantage point for providing key insights about what the Chinese are doing so right.
Published June 15, 2010
RR Donnelley is the largest commercial printer in the world, but they are also way ahead in high-speed inkjet. Andy Tribute moderated a talk at IPEX with Ronnie Sarker of RR Donnelley, and he’s reported his insights on how they’re staying ahead of the curve.
Published June 8, 2010
Published June 7, 2010
Published June 1, 2010
Based on our experiences at IPEX 2010, it’s finally looking like the mood of the industry has changed and we might be entering a period of economic growth. The event showcased developments in a variety of areas, but the greatest interest seemed to be in the rise on inkjet printing. Andy Tribute offers his thoughts.
Published June 1, 2010
Published May 26, 2010
Published May 24, 2010
Published May 19, 2010
A busy day of announcements, including the new HP T200 inkjet, a new solid ink Xerox inkjet, and debate about digital versus offset. Plus a little note about volcanic ash over Britain. Andy Tribute's got it all covered.
Published May 18, 2010
Is the economy turning the corner? Has the printing industry recovered? IPEX 2010 may give us a good idea. Andy Tribute's IPEX preview covers new technology and product rollouts, a potential new Xerox inkjet product, new sheetfed products, Indigo, toner, the Canon-Oce merger, and what may develop with offset. IPEX 2010 could be a great indicator for the industry going forward, and What They Think will have it covered.
Published May 4, 2010
If one reads many of the projections being made about the future of printing there is a belief that offset printing is in serious decline and the new high-speed inkjet printing will kill the offset business. Various claims have been made that we could see offset being replaced in almost all areas by inkjet printing by 2020 or earlier. What do I think about that? I think it is a total load of rubbish.
Published April 30, 2010
The planned acquisition of Radius Solutions is complementary to EFI’s other MIS software solutions for the printing industry.
Published April 13, 2010
The first B2 format sheet fed digital presses will come to market this year. This article doubts there is a market for the B2 format compared with the market for the current B3 format digital presses. Among the reasons for this are there are few applications that cannot be handled on the B3 format digital presses, and the increasing efficiency of B2 format offset presses and the arrival this year of Presstek 75DI B2 format D.I. press.
Published April 9, 2010
Xeikon and Basys Print are likely to have new owners before Ipex starts. One of the largest private investment companies in Europe has made an offer that values Xeikon and Basys Print at $96m. At Ipex, Xeikon will introduce a new industrial label press they claim to be the most productive press in the industry. They will also introduce an enhanced Xeikon 8000 press for document printing.
Published March 30, 2010
This article looks at how HP partnered with Europe’s leading monochrome book printing group CPI in creating a totally new fully automated book production solution. This is a system that takes in digital data and outputs with out any manual intervention totally finished books. The article also provides an update on the current market status of HP’s T300 high-speed inkjet printing systems.
Published March 16, 2010
With Ipex rapidly approaching more and more companies are putting out advance information of what they will showing at the event. Today’s article covers Heidelberg, Atlantic Zeiser, EskoArtwork, Enfocus and Kodak. The more we hear the most interesting Ipex appears as a not to miss event.
Published March 12, 2010
Published March 8, 2010
Published February 20, 2010
I read Frank Romano’s interesting opinion article last Friday concerning both Heidelberg and Komori deciding not to exhibit at Graph Expo this year. Frank puts the reasons for this down to the changing industry and timelines for different technologies. While in most cases Frank and I sing from the same song sheet, in this case I have to disagree with him.
Published February 16, 2010
Last week’s Ipex Media summit in London outlined what we can expect at the Ipex show in May. In this we can expect to see many of the products previewed at drupa now becoming available in the market. The article outlines the size and scale of Ipex and why it is such as important show this year. It also gives a few briefs on new products being shown there.
Published February 2, 2010
This year is being seen as the real start for sales of high-speed inkjet presses. This article looks at some of the key items that need to be considered by potential buyers of these presses. This includes substrates that can used, the types of ink and the life of the print heads.
Published January 19, 2010
The world of publishing has hardly been impacted by developments in digital printing, unlike other areas of printing. Almost all the developments in digital printing have been aimed at short-run commercial printing, variable data printing, and more recently web to print operations particularly in the business to consumer area. It is only in the area of reprints of monochrome books where reprinting by offset would be too expensive for publishers that digital printing has had an impact in the publishing space. It would appear that this year will see the start of a change as book publishers look to digital printing to change their business models to reduce their capital tied up in inventory. This is becoming possible through the use of high-speed continuous inkjet presses that will allow a switch from offset to digital printing for first runs of books. It is however unlikely that we see either many newspapers or magazine publishers moving to the use of digital printing at this time unless they rethink their advertising driven business models.
Published December 21, 2009
Published December 15, 2009
On a recent visit to the USA I was invited to meet with executives of HP’s Inkjet High Speed Production Solutions division to discuss the current status of its program for the HP T300 inkjet web press. I found this to be an interesting visit as almost nothing had been written about what HP had been doing by either the trade press or the industry analysts following Print 09.
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