September 16, 2002 -- CHICAGO, IL - Jody Ballard knows a good deal when he sees one. He’s been involved in the printing industry for more than 20 years, first as a PIP franchisee before making Best Choice Printing his own six years ago. The Jacksonville shop owner faced a decision earlier this year that most printers have dealt with since 9/11; with slower sales, how could expenses be trimmed to make the bottom line more profitable? Ballard’s answer was to purchase an A.B.Dick QP25II two-color press. Approximately 60 percent of the workload at Best Choice are two-color jobs and Ballard had gotten about 27 million impressions out of his Heidelberg QuickMaster in the last six years. But the machine had become very costly in maintenance contracts. “Sales slowed after 9/11 and that forced me to look hard at my expenses,” said Ballard, who employs six people at his 2,500 square-foot shop. “The QuickMaster did a good job but when I realized it cost me $14,000 last year, I knew it was time to find something else.” “The QP25II has many strong features and the price was very attractive. There’s not much difference between the QP25II and the QuickMaster in productivity, but the price difference was so tremendous and it saves me a considerable amount of time. The ink clean up and set up is much faster,” said Ballard. What Ballard was referring to is a revolutionary micro-set ink fountain, which simplifies the set up of variable ink coverage for first-time jobs. The high capacity inker is calibrated to control ink density in specific coverage areas and the ink clean up attachment completes ink roller color washes in 90 seconds. That was key to his decision because of the sheer volume of newsletters, forms, letterhead and brochures he prints for local manufacturers, church groups and auction companies. “The quickness of the color change is allowing me to get more jobs done everyday, so we are more productive and that’s impacting our bottom line,” said Ballard. “The T-heads are also much easier to use, the changeover to paper stock is faster and the water system elimi-nates the guessing game when it comes to ink densities.” The QP25II’s newly designed second color head, combined with the patented Constant Contact Register System, uses direct feed with an impressive tight register system to deliver quicker turnaround, high quality work for four-color process, screens and halftones of images up to 12 1/2” by 17.3”. A Varn Kompac II continuous dampener with auto recovery moisture system is responsible for achieving sharp, dense images from a range of inks. “One of most impressive things about the QP25II is how easy it is to use,” said Ballard. “My pressman was new to the business when we installed it but he was able to pick it up rather quickly. Having the additional blowers on the feeding end for envelopes was another bonus. It took us forever with the QuickMaster because it wasn’t set up to handle them.” A.B.Dick Company is a leading worldwide supplier to the graphic arts and printing industry, manufacturing and marketing equipment and supplies for all stages of document creation -- prepress, press and post-press -- as well as continuing service and support. For more information contact Scott MacKenzie, Vice President, Marketing, 7400 Caldwell Ave., Niles, IL. 60714. Telephone (847) 779-1900, fax (847) 647-6940, web: www.abdick.com.