VALHALLA, N.Y. (January 7, 2009) – "It's been a great addition to our shop," says Jim Larkin, owner and president of Rhode Island's Graphic Innovations. "It saves us materials and labor and that's tremendous."

Larkin's referring to the company's new Fujifilm Acuity HD 2504 wide format flatbed digital printer installed earlier this year.

"We knew we'd be able to direct work to it right away, but we didn't expect to see the savings in time and materials so quickly," he added. "We can produce a higher quantity of jobs with less labor because we don't have to go through three and four steps for each job. With the Acuity, we can print it directly to the media we're using and we're done."

The Acuity UV flatbed printer can print directly onto rigid media up to 8' x 4' and up to almost 2" thick and, by eliminating the necessity of laminating and mounting prints, Larkin says Graphic Innovations has been able to turn jobs around much more quickly.

The Acuity flatbed printer is ideal for creating trade show graphics, backlit displays, exhibit displays, wall murals and posters, perfect for Graphic Innovations' specialization in display graphics. The device's imaging technology produces sharp, crisp type and line work as well as smooth skin tones and solid colors and, because the media remains stationary, can easily handle media of various sizes and quantities.

The device's flexibility in media handling was one aspect that Larkin liked about the Acuity. "We looked at various devices, but the Acuity had a lot of the features that we were looking for, including a large print area despite a small footprint, variable dot capability and quick imaging times."

Larkin said that even though the Acuity has been in operation for just a few months, he and his staff are already beginning to look at jobs differently. "Before, if we got an order for 25 boards that were all a different size, we would've assumed that we were in for a really tough day. Now, it's not a big deal and we don't have to interrupt work being done on other devices. It's a much smoother workflow."

Larkin launched the business in 1996 and, today, Graphic Innovations is the only true large format printing company in Rhode Island. The company does a large volume of vehicle wraps – more than any other company in the state – and is able to do everything in-house, including installation. The company continues to grow and Larkin is hoping the Acuity will play an important role in that growth. "It's been a great addition to the shop," Larkin adds. "I knew it would be great when we bought it and it's lived up to everything I thought it would be."