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14 • PRINTACTION • OCTOBER 2009

ZAC BOLAN

Quark Promotes, MarkzwareSearches andAdobe Stays HomeC

hicago is a wonderful place to be dur-ing the waning days of summer – theafternoons ease into comfortable

nights for wandering along the Magnifi-cent Mile. I was looking forward to thistrip to Chicago. I was last in the city to at-tend attend PRINT 05 for an indepthlook at the burgeoning inkjet market(The Evolution of Inkjet, PrintAction Oc-tober 2005). As my plane touched downat O’Hare, I reflected on the changes thattranspired over the past four years.

In ’05 the economic picture was rosyand printers were investing heavily inemerging technologies. Their marketshad not yet fully felt the corrosive touchof the Internet and appliance-basedmedia. Newspapers were still churningaway delivering ads to apathetic con-sumers. On a personal note, I was on theverge of relocating to Beijing, China, towork in the thriving Chinese prepresssoftware industry.

These days the printing industry is lick-ing its wounds while crawling toward re-covery. Everyone proclaims cautiousoptimism while deftly navigating theirway through a tough but improving mar-ket. Ironically, this is the economic land-scape that I had chosen for my return tolive and work in the Western World.

Pundits eyes were on the opening ofthe first major North American printshow of the new economy – PRINT 09,marketed under the theme myPRINT inhopes of engaging disillusioned printers.Nobody knew what to expect… wouldthere be throngs of anxious printers,cheque books in hand or a scattering oflocal tire-kickers, all waiting for drasticclose-out pricing.

GRACoL-based profilingWithout quoting any actual figures, ReedBusiness Information, which producedthe Show Daily at this year’s exhibition,reported that overall attendance wasdown “significantly” from PRINT 05 andthat most visitors were from the localChicago region or adjoining states. I ob-served, however, that the mood on thefloor was one of prudent confidence.While major new product announce-ments at PRINT 09 were few and far be-tween, many printers dealing withbattered margins and reduced staffingwere looking for the ways and means toimprove efficiency. By all accounts, rela-tively few orders were signed at the show

but most exhibitors I spoke with still feltthe effort was worthwhile, recognizingthat a persistent downturn will not re-bound overnight.

Having said that, PRINT 09 was notcompletely devoid of new products. Em-phasizing the industry’s continued focuson toner-based printing, GMG Americalaunched its new ColorServer Plus colourmanagement solution for HP Indigo5000, 5500 and 7000 series presses. Uti-lizing GMC’s profiling ability, Col-orServer Plus determines the precisecolour state of the Indigo press and en-sures compliance with GRACoL printingspecifications. Earlier in 2009, CGSachieved this HP Indigo relationshipusing ORIS software. GRACoL (GeneralRequirements for Applications in Com-mercial Offest Lithography) is a colourstandard designed by IDEAlliance for thecommercial sheetfed litho market thatsets a reference point to match the outputbetween different presses and printingenvironments.

ColorServer Plus provides the capabil-ity to fingerprint, profile and manage anHP Indigo press workflow in compliancewith GRACoL specifications, whether im-aging proofs or full production runs. Ac-cording to GMG, the ColorServer Plus

application is suitable for running Indigopresses in a mixed toner/litho environ-ment, ensuring that customers see no dif-ference between proofs and their printedpieces, irrespective of the output source.

In the Web-to-print arena, Agfa intro-duced the latest iteration of its :ApogeePortal software with a new, more intuitiveWeb interface. Portal 6 has a dashboardinterface focused on making life easier forthe print buyer. Users can upload multi-ple files through a drag-and-drop inter-

face; approve jobs through an integratedColorTune Display; see soft proofsthrough the StreamProof high-resolutionproofing module, in addition to accessingCRM functions, including job overviews,messaging and preflight reports.

The :Apogee Portal integrates printbuyers into the printer’s production sys-tem allowing for upload, preflight and jobapproval with annotations. Users canview their soft proof as single pages,spreads or as a virtual blue-line through aflip-book browsing function.

In the consumables world, PRINT 09marked the introduction of Xing Graph-ics, a Chinese manufacturer of thermalCTP plates, to the U.S. print market.Well-known in the Asian and Europeanprint markets, Xing Graphics launched itsnew thermal process-less technology, aswell as the FIT Series Thermal CTP Plate.Chinese plate manufacturers are makinginroads in the international markets astheir products mature.

Adobe’s Internet addictionAfter four busy days looking at everythingfrom the latest MBO folder to a dazzlingvariety of business-card slitting machines,I spent my last day at PRINT 09 wander-ing the North Hall looking for old friendsin the prepress software world. I set outin search of Adobe’s booth, as this com-pany has always been a mainstay at theseprinting shows. After a cursory sweep ofthe hall, however, Adobe was nowhere tobe found. I realize that times are tough(Adobe just announced a 29 percent dropin its Q1 profits for the current fiscalyear), but fact remains that Adobe is still

PRINT 09 was marketed as myPRINT, putting on a fresh face for an embattled industry.

Quark’s new Promote application allows small-business users to create attractive marketing materials with professionally designed templates, and then buy print via mail order or through the Quark Neighbourhood Printer program.

Peakperformance.

Like its Himalayan namesake, Agfa’s :Anapurna

family of UV inkjet solutions are truly at the top of

the world. Whether you want photo-quality results

on a variety of media or high-speed printing options

at speeds of up to 473 feet per hour, these engines

are robustly engineered and maintain affordable

cost of ownership. Plus, :Anapurna’s UV-curable

inks provide users with a wide and compelling

colour gamut. Agfa Graphics’ :Anapurna family of

UV-curable inkjet printers are the driving force in

industrial wide-format inkjet printing.

:Anapurna, the standard in UV-curable inkjet printing.

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OCTOBER 2009 • PRINTACTION • 15

turning a profit, and in spite of Adobe’spush in new-media directions, the bulk ofits empire still rests on a foundation ofprint. Adobe owes a presence at theseshows in respect of the community thatbuilt its business.

As if to emphasize the perception thatAdobe has moved on to greener onlinemedia pastures, the news broke duringPRINT 09 about its acquisition of Omni-ture, a well-known Web-analytics entity.The floor was buzzing with speculationabout Adobe’s intentions with this un-likely accession. Most felt that it signalledAdobe’s interest in expanding its Webportfolio to include support for e-com-merce and online marketing – yet an-other step further away from print.

Quark, on the other hand, chose to ex-hibit at PRINT 09, so I made my way overto the company’s booth to see what Icould find. I knew that Quark’s develop-ment cycle for XPress was between majorreleases, so I didn’t really expect to en-counter anything new. I was pleasantlysurprised to be mistaken in my assump-tion.

Quark Promotes!The erosion of the large business sectorduring this economic downturn hasspurred unprecedented growth in thesmall and medium business (SMB) mar-ket, as new companies with low over-

heads fill the gaps left by the receding bigplayers. To date, VistaPrint has capturedthe lion’s share of the supporting printbusiness with its viral, free printing offerthat entices legions of small businesses toprint their collaterals with regional man-ufacturing facilities. It is no coincidencethat during the past year, VistaPrint en-tered Fortune magazine’s list of top 100fastest growing companies at a very re-spectable rank of position number 16.

For any printer to show that kind of growth indicates this company hasidentified and monetized a previouslyoverlooked market. Success inspires im-itation, though to date no other onlineprinting service in North America hasbeen as widely embraced as VistaPrint. I would not have considered Quark to be a viable technology supplier in thisdynamic market, as the company has always been focused on a more internaldesktop experience and enterprise pub-lishing. A new product called Quark Promote, however, might be the catalystof significant change for this once mightysoftware giant.

What is Promote? Simply put, QuarkPromote is a free, downloadable applica-tion that enables small- and medium-sized business users to browse a variety ofprofessionally designed templates. Theuser can then modify any of the templateswith their own copy, graphics and pho-

Sun Chemical – with Chicago Bulls’ cheerleaders – added some life to an otherwise sombre show floor.

Komori’s booth sported a colourful 1960s tie-dye theme.

Chinese plate manufacturer Xing Graphicsintroduced its new thermal processless technology, as well as the FIT Series thermalCTP plates to the North American market.

It’s all yours!Quality or speed? Quality or profit? Guess what, you don’t have to choose because now you can have it all!Xeikon has set a new revolutionary reference for print quality: 1200 dpi at 4 bits per spot for the sharpest and crispest details,

ultra-high definition and the smoothest tone transitions. And Xeikon proves that speed doesn’t have to come at the expense of image quality. Uncompromising quality and speed, these are the must haves for any profitable business.

Quality, speed and profit

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16 • PRINTACTION • OCTOBER 2009

product printed and shipped by mail, orsent to a select local printer. While the netend-user experience is similar toVistaPrint, Quark has taken a completelydifferent approach to servicing the SMBmarket. Instead of producing print workin regional printing plants, Quark hascreated an aggregation service bringingtogether designers and printers (allXPress users) to enable SMB customers toproduce highly customized marketingcollaterals such as business cards,brochures, flyers, letterhead, envelopesand postcards – with an option to use alocal commercial printer.

Simple and effective onlineThe way in which Quark Promote worksis quite simple: Professional designers useQuarkXPress to assemble tasteful collec-tions of coordinated marketing materials.Each collection is based on a theme and fora specific type of customer – for example ahair salon. The templates are loaded withvarious colour themes, allowing the userto differentiate their collaterals while en-suring visual harmony with predefinedcolour palettes. Using the EDIT functionin the Promote application, the SMB cus-tomer then enters copy, changes picturesand tweaks the design to suit their specificrequirements.

The user can choose from a variety offonts, themed royalty-free vector and rasterimages or simply right click on any graphicelement and substitute their own imagesfrom their local hard disk. When finishedcustomizing the templates, the user can savethe file locally for future use, or choose tosend a prepress-ready PDF to a commercialprinter. From the perspective of the SMBcustomer, they are paying one price toQuark for everything. In reality, the de-signer gets a royalty for their templates, theprinter gets a prepaid job and Quark keepsa slice of the proceeds for hosting and ag-gregating the service.

In an apparent win/win/win/win sce-nario, Quark Promote promises to be allthings to all participants. Owners andemployees of small businesses get free design software, access to professionallydesigned templates with copy and an online portal to competitively pricedprinting. XPress designers get a market-place for their templates while printersget press-ready PDF files for pre-paidprint jobs. Not to be left out, Quark takesa cut for bringing it all together.

Besides the obvious monetary motiva-tion, Quark stands to be the big winner inother ways. With a financial incentive topromote QuarkXPress, designers and com-mercial printers might actually tip the pagelayout software scale back in Quark’sfavour, especially considering Adobe’s per-ceived step back from the hardcopy graphicarts world. Intelligently, Quark is movinginto new revenue streams as the market forconventional DTP software continues tostagnate.

In beta you say?Quark Promote is by no means a fait accompli – the site and software are cur-rently functioning in beta mode meaningthere are only a few templates available. So,if you own a day spa or hair salon you canproduce some attractive brochures. As Pro-mote approaches its launch date, Quarkpromises to introduce a broad selection of templates designed for many verticalmarkets as well as multi-purpose templatesfor use by any business in any market.

During the beta phase of Promote, printcustomers are limited to ordering their dayspa or hair salon marketing materialsthrough Quark, with delivery by U.S. PostalService. When the Promote service leavesbeta, users will also have the choice of keep-ing their money local by choosing a neigh-bourhood printer for their projects. QuarkPromote’s Neighbourhood Printing Pro-gram has the potential to connect millionsof small and medium businesses withnearby printers to produce high-quality,customized materials. Anyone that has paidfor a print job to be shipped by mail can

tos. Alternatively, Quark provides a fullselection of stock, royalty-free images tochoose from which are specifically ap-propriate for the selected template. Thetemplates are more than just pretty pic-tures, also containing professionally writ-ten marketing copy that users can modifyand customize to suit their unique busi-nesses. To my knowledge, never beforehas a print aggregation business modelincluded copy writing as a service.

When the creative phase of productionis complete, the SMB user then navigatesto the PRINT window of Promote wherethey can choose between having their

Continued on page 31

attest to the potential savings of printing lo-cally and picking the job up – somethingVistaPrint cannot compete with. Anyprinter using QuarkXPress is invited to be-come a part of the Quark Promote ecosys-tem and benefit from increased profile andaccess to new customers, whether throughthe internet or in person.

Currently, the Quark Promote applica-tion is Windows only and service is limitedto the United States, but a Mac version isunder development. Quark is schedulingthe service to launch in Canada sometimein Q1 2010 and is currently building its net-work of design and print partners. Printerswishing to participate in the Quark Pro-mote ecosystem must be members of theQuarkAlliance. Information about theNeighbourhood Printing Program is pro-vided on the Promote website (quarkpro-mote.com).

Markzware is searchingMost printers will recognize the Markzwarename from its renowned preflight applica-tion, FlightCheck, and its invaluable con-version tools for QuarkXPress and AdobeInDesign documents. FlightCheck usesMarkzware’s patented Common ReaderArchitecture (CRA) to peer inside docu-ments in search of imperfections. Thissame CRA has now been repurposed in anew product called PageZephyr(pagezephyr.com), which can search forcontent inside previously inaccessible pro-prietary file formats from both Adobe andQuark.

The trend of repurposing content for on-line use has greatly increased the value oflegacy files, which can be very time con-suming to search, or impossible if you nolonger have the legacy-authoring applica-tion. As a result, the proprietary contentwithin these files is rarely repurposed andnever realizes its potential as a media asset.

Markzware’s Mary Gay Marchese em-phasized the irony in this situation: “Most

often, the data has simply been forgotten,due to the inability to easily and inexpen-sively access, reference, and reuse the con-tent. It’s incredible that, irrespective ofso-called open technologies like PDF andXML standards, such an enormous amountof digital content still hasn't been preservedand made available for future access ormonetization.”

The PageZephyr application improvesproductivity and lowers costs by allowingusers to search by keyword or phrases andfind valuable content in old files. Textsearches can be performed in any language,but PageZephyr is not limited to textsearches – the application can also searchby other attributes such as file size and cre-ation or modification date.

The selected data is then displayed in astoryboard format within PageZephyr andcan be edited and then output in RTF orTEXT formatted files. The final version ofthe application will include a word proces-sor with text formatting capabilities. Inter-ested seekers can download a beta ofPageZephyr from the Website.

A chance for growthAttending my second major graphic artstrade show this year has opened my eyes tocertain realities facing our industry: Whilea large amount of marketing is being doneonline and newspapers and magazinesstruggle to compete with the instant accessof Web-based media, print seems to bemaking a slow and painful recovery. Mar-gins are down and the need for efficiencywill take a greater role in determining fu-ture capital acquisitions as printers adapt tothe new print reality.

The long overlooked small and mediumbusinesses, meanwhile, will likely do moreto drive the global economic recovery thanthe big boys. Even in an economic down-turn, VistaPrint has proven that that SMBcustomer is a valuable source of new pagesthrough the press. With Promote, Quark isgoing in a new and exciting direction thatstands to benefit the myriad of small designand print businesses as much as the SMBcustomers they aim to serve.

With PageZephyr, Markzware has rec-ognized the value of latent content thathas lain dormant in many enterprisearchives and retooled their business tofree this media.

As for Adobe, well, it looks like they’vegot “Google” eyes…

Zac Bolan’s blog: blog.softcircus.com

OCTOBER 2009 • PRINTACTION • 31

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Zac BolanContinued from page 16

The next generation of graphic arts: Students from Kaukauna High School in Wisconsinmake the rounds at PRINT 09.