quark debuts xpress 6.5 3 · quark debuts xpress 6.5 3 news of quark xpress 6.5 and the company’s...

Inkjet Printing

UV Colors Stake Their Claim 7Inkjet printing systems were indazzling abundance in an impressivevariety of print widths and speeds atDrupa 2004. We discuss the mostimportant new features and develop-ments. New manufacturers, as wellas a number of distributors, showedinkjet printers at Drupa. For the firsttime, we saw new large-format print-ers by manufacturers from China,Canada and Slovenia both at theirown booths and at the distributors.

Cross-Media Publishing

Crossbase in Action at the Fischer Group 13Print and media companieswould like to generate products forprint, online and CD-ROM from asingle source in their database.Crossbase Mediasolution is address-ing this trend with its Cross Mediaplatform, bringing to life the conceptof “single-source publishing.” Wereport on how one well-known com-pany is using the platform to producemultiple products in several lan-guages from a single source.

Several conferences took place in October, including Graph Expo in Chicago,Ifra in Amsterdam and the Marketing Operations Management Conference inNew York. THE SEYBOLD REPORT covers news from these events.

Graph Expo

Quark Debuts Xpress 6.5 3News of Quark Xpress 6.5 and the company’s announcement of a new busi-ness division would have been easy to miss over the constant din of pressesand high-pitched chatter emanating from the show floor, but The SeyboldReport found the story and caught up with Quark’s CEO in a quiet suite highabove the melee.

Ifra

KPG Joins the Violet Club 4Kodak Polychrome Graphics introduced the long-awaited violet polymerplate, called the VioletNews Printing Plate. With a sensitivity of 40mJ, it isapproximately 20% faster than the Fuji LP-NV.

MOM

Mass-Marketer Motivation 5The inaugural Marketing Operations Management (MOM) conferenceattracted a small but dedicated audience with the radical promise of changingmarketing as we know it. Agencies and printers had better watch out.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

The Latest Word

Arbortext Buys Advent 2In a move that significantly bolsters itsprint page-composition capabilities,Arbortext announced it is acquiringAdvent for an undisclosed sum. Advent isthe developer of 3B2, a high-end page-composition system that is well-suited toautomated publishing of XML content.Arbortext develops a suite of toolsdesigned for standards-based editing and publishing.

E-Learning

Metadata in Corporate E-Learning 16

E-learning isn’t limited to new material.By using metadata and other tools,training content owners can convertexisting content into e-learning or createe-learning content to package with new content.

DEPARTMENTS

In The Bulletin 20

Vol. 4, No. 14 • October 20, 2004

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In a move that significantly bolsters itsprint page-composition capabilities,Arbortext announced it is acquiring

Advent for an undisclosed sum. Advent isthe developer of 3B2, a high-end page-com-position system that is well-suited to auto-mated publishing of XML content.Arbortext develops a suite of tools designedfor standards-based editing and publishing.

Arbortext said it expects to retain all ofthe 40 or so Advent employees, most ofwhom work in the U.K., where Advent isbased. Arbortext, based in Ann Arbor,Mich., had about 150 employees prior tothe acquisition.

The acquisition of Advent’s engineeringteam doubles the number of programmersthat Arbortext has devoted to print compo-sition. “Well over a year ago, we identifiedan opportunity to serve our customers byaddressing more-complex layouts thanwhat our product [E3] could support,” saidPG Bartlett, Arbortext’s VP of marketing.“Full automation is not enough. Customerswant automation, but they also want theability to tweak layouts after pagination.”

The acquisition comes on the heels ofArbortext’s 13th consecutive quarter ofrecord revenue. In the three-month periodthat ended Sept. 30, the company reporteda 55% increase in new business comparedto the year before. Among the third-quar-ter customers were Cypress Semiconduc-tors, Eclipse Aviation, HoneywellAerospace Electronics Systems, HP Ser-vices, LexisNexis and the Norwegian Min-istry of Defense.

Founded in the mid-1980s, Advent,along with rivals such as Xyvision andMiles 33, is one of the few suppliers ofautomated composition systems to havesurvived the onslaught of desktop publish-ing. The company claims to have about300 installations in both commercial andcorporate publishing. Its customers pro-duce a wide variety of publications, includ-

ing directories, books, journals, technicalmanuals, financial and legal documents,and industrial catalogs.

The 3B2 product is widely regarded asquite capable for complex, automated pub-lishing but inordinately difficult to master.Bartlett said that Arbortext plans to beginaddressing 3B2’s weaknesses immediately.A first step will be to make it easier to write3B2 stylesheets by adapting Arbortext’sStyler style-creation tool to work with 3B2.Arbortext also will begin overhauling 3B2’sdesktop user interface, though it will likelytake a year before that’s complete, Bartlettadded. For now, Arbortext will maintainboth E3 and 3B2 products. Farther downthe road, Bartlett foresees Arbortext even-tually melding 3B2 and Arbortext’s format-ter, E3, into one product.

Our take. This acquisition underscoresArbortext’s strategy to become a leader in“enterprise publishing” by supplying soft-ware that automates both print and elec-tronic page production. The 3B2 softwarecomplements Arbortext’s well-knownXML editing tools and will enable Arbor-text to target more typographically com-plex publishing applications in thecorporate setting, as well as to make amore concerted effort to sell into commer-cial STM publishing, where many publish-ers are in the midst of migrating to XML.

Advent finally gains the marketing andsales presence in North America that it hasalways lacked. Advent customers will nodoubt be relieved to see 3B2 in the hands ofa larger software firm that is committed toserving the XML publishing market.Advent’s competitors will no doubt be dis-mayed that Advent, after more than adecade of failing to establish itself in NorthAmerica, will now have its product soldunder the brand of one of the best-knownAmerican suppliers of XML publishingproducts. TSR

2 October 20, 2004 • The Seybold Report • Analyzing Publishing Technologies

The Latest Word

Arbortext Buys Advent BY MARK WALTEREditorial/Production Office

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The Latest Word

CHICAGO — The Graph Expo introduc-tion of Quark Xpress 6.5 on Oct. 12 andthe company’s announcement of a newbusiness division would have been easy tomiss over the constant din of presses andhigh-pitched chatter emanating from theshow floor, but The Seybold Reportfound the story and caught up withQuark’s CEO in a quiet suite high abovethe melee.

Kamar Aulakh, in place as presidentand chief executive since the beginning ofthe year, is relaxed and confident in his newrole. Having led Quark’s R&D operationssince 1995, he made clear statements aboutthe company’s products and its commit-ment to improve and support the productline.

Aulakh began by describing severalnew features and productivity enhance-ments to the latest version of Xpress, whichwill be available at no charge to registeredQuark Xpress 6 users in the next 30 days:

• QuarkVista, an Xtensions module thatallows image editing and image opti-mization within Xpress;

• QuarkXclusive, a Mac OS X-only toolcreated in partnership with HP, thatsupports variable data page creationand printing; and

• PSD Import, with which users canimport native Adobe Photoshop docu-ments into Quark Xpress. The ALAP-powered tool supports layers andalpha channels, and, according to

Aulakh, “works better than InDesigndoes.”

The new version of Xpress also sup-ports Citrix remote deployment applica-tions. This will be the last 6.x release.Aulakh said Quark 7.0 will ship next year.

Quark Commerce is a new businessunit in Quark’s stable that currently sup-ports desktop solutions, enterprise work-flow solutions and OEM/customersolutions (licensing). Under the Commerceumbrella, Quark will offer call center, e-store, pick-pack-ship and transaction veri-fication services. “We not only help ourcustomers create a catalog, but help themsell what is in that catalog,” Aulakh said.

“Our customers have told us that it isdifficult to get this piece from one supplier,another piece from another supplier, athird piece from another supplier. Our cus-tomers want a [single] stable solutionspartner, somebody they can partner withso that they can focus on increasing rev-enues rather than worrying about theirarchitecture and software solutions.”Aulakh said.

“We are talking to customers,” Aulakhtold TSR. “The one area we have beenfocusing on is changing the organizationfrom one focused internally, as a technolo-gy-driven company, to one that is external-ly focused on the customer.

“And we are working with our part-ners to develop better solutions. No onecompany can do it all by itself. There areareas where it just makes sense to partnerwith somebody who is the domain expert

in that area so we can provide a solutionfaster.

“For example we have licensed otherstechnologies and others have licensed ourtechnology components to put into theirsolutions. It’s a two-way street.”

TSR had to ask if that meant that apartnership with Adobe that might make itpossible to exchange Quark Xpress andAdobe InDesign files was in the offing.

“It takes two to tango,” Aulakh said,quickly reiterating Quark’s policy of open,XML standards throughout its productline.

“We will continue to support XMLwith every product offering that we have.We strongly believe that XML is the stan-dard for data manipulation. It is somethingwe support in all our products,” he said.

“Once the data is taken out, the cus-tomer can re-use it in any system they wantto as long as that system has an ability toimport XML.”

On the horizon, Quark XML Pro, a newtechnology (a feature of Quark Xpress 6.5 toship First Quarter 2005), which provides amuch-needed XML feature set for cus-tomers with long documents (books andjournals), or documents incorporatingmathematical formulas, grouping tables, etc.

Quark will also introduce QPS Studioearly next year. This small office/homeoffice version of QPS is for up to 12 users.

“We always had good technology, butour communication with the customerwasn’t good,” Aulakh admitted. “We feelcompetition is good, it breeds innovationand provides the customer with a betterproduct. We’ve grown as a companybecause of that competition.”

Aulakh went on to say that Adobe’slaunch of InDesign has had no financialimpact on his company.

“Twenty years we’ve been here,” hesaid,“and we will be here another 20.”

TSR

Graph Expo:

Quark Debuts Xpress 6.5, Quark Commerce;CEO Lays out Strategy for Company Partnerships

BY CYNDE WOOD

Volume 4, Number 14 • The Seybold Report • Analyzing Publishing Technologies 3

AMSTERDAM — At its Ifra press confer-ence on Oct. 11 Kodak PolychromeGraphics introduced the long-awaited vio-let polymer plate, called the VioletNewsPrinting Plate. With a sensitivity of 40mJ, itis approximately 20% faster than the FujiLP-NV. KPG’s plate has been in tests sincelast January and will be released commer-cially in the first quarter of 2005.

In a surprising move, KPG announcedat the same time that based on the samedevelopment, a commercial violet platewill also follow in the second quarter ofnext year. The plates will be in the sameprice range as thermal CTP plates. At theIfra Expo, exhibitors IPA (FasTrak),ECRM (Newsmatic) and Krause (LSJet)were already making use of the new KPGproduct. One Krause system was alsoexhibited at the KPG booth.

KPG said it sees an advantage in violetCTP for smaller companies because of thelower costs for the image setters. With theaddition of KPG, all three major plate ven-dors now offer a choice of thermal and vio-let CTP plates. Creo, the fourth-largestplate vendor, has so far announced noplans to go into violet.

KPG also introduced compact ver-sions of its thermal Newssetter, theNewsetter TH 100 CL and TH180 CL,which take up 40% less floorspace. Thesystem has an integrated loading systemand the slip sheet removal has been movedto the top of the conveyor. The system isscheduled to be available for the secondquarter of 2005 at prices expected to be20-30% lower than the standard systemsTH 100 and TH 180.

Other CTP exhibitors includedECRM, which was selling its newsmaticCTP system to smaller newspapers, andNAPP/MCDermot, which promoted theFlexo system only. Krause expanded itsrange of newspaper platesetters with thecommercial release of its entry-level system

CTP Easy, which it introduced at Drupa.CTP Easy is available at three differentspeeds, as Easy 80, 90 and 120, priced at69,900, 99,900 and 129,900 euros.

The main newspaper machine fromKrause, the LSJet, comes in seven differentmodels, with speeds ranging from 120 to300 plates per hour and prices rangingfrom 169,900 to 299,900 euros. Strobbelimited its Ifra presence to the exhibition ofpunch benders, and there were no plateset-ters from the recently acquired BasysPrintat its booth.

OFS Group and System Brunner PartnerThe Web-based inline plate quality controlsystem from Swiss company OFS,PQCS.net, which was introduced at Drupa,will go into further development with Sys-tem Brunner. First enhancements ofPQCS.net will include the integration of thevarious printing plate characteristic lines,according to Eurostandard System Brunner.The measuring results from PQCS can nowbe represented in the newly applied“Isokonturen-Diagram.” In addition, thesystem can now be integrated into JDFworkflows (details under www.pqcs.net),which has been done in a first customer siteusing Becomp’s TruPage Workflow-System.

The new developments of OFS groupand System Brunner will be launched earlynext year in the version 3.0 of PQCS.net,which then will carry the endorsement“powered by System Brunner.”

OneVision and PPI inDevelopment PartnershipGerman companies OneVison and PPIannounced a joined project developmentto achieve JDF-based integration of

OneVision’s PostScript and PDF optimiz-ing software AsuraPro into PPI’s PrintNetNewspaper and commercial workflows.Results from Asura Pro’s file checking willbe transferred via JDF to PPI PrintNet andwill be used there for status reports andfurther processing in PPI`s Output Man-agement System PrintNet OM.

Because AsuraPro is based on JDF-compliant job ticketing, it also will be pos-sible to compare the incoming productiondata for ads with the information receivedfrom PlanPag and AdMan systems tomake sure that the production data com-plies with booking data and productionplanning. The JDF-based interface, whichmakes use of the so-called private tags ofJDF, will be commercially available in thesecond quarter of 2005.

This was one of the rather rare exam-ples of JDF-based products at Ifra thisyear; in stark contrast to Drupa in May,none of the Ifra exhibitors adorned theirbooths with “JDF-compliant” posters orpanels.

While JDF was rather a non-issue atIfra, the XML-based integration of news-paper systems was one of the major topicsamong exhibitors as well as a series of sem-inars scheduled parallel to the Expo inAmsterdam. Also during the show, theAdsML Consortium unveiled the results ofits second year of work, AdsML Phase 2,which consists of three new XML stan-dards for exchanging ad information.These build on the AdsML Frameworklaunched last year, but currently addressthree key features: bookings, classified adsand ad content delivery. We also learned atIfra that during the CIP4 interop meetingin Vancouver earlier this year, major issuesof cooperation between AdsML and CIP4-JDF have been clarified, although thedetails still need to be worked out.

As expected, Ifra this year was quite ashow, although with the show coming justfive months after Drupa, major news waslacking. As was announced earlier, majorplayers in the market, including Agfa,Creo, Fuji, Heidelberg and MAN Roland,decided to stay away from the show, whichturned this year’s Ifra Expo into a rathernice newspaper get-together. TSR

The Latest Word

News from Ifra:

KPG Joins the Violet ClubBY MICHAEL MITTELHAUS


The Latest Word

NEW YORK — Early-stage marketsemerge in a swirl of definitions andacronyms. In the case of Henry Stewart’sMarketing Operations Management(MOM) Symposium in New York’s Brook-lyn Bridge Marriott in October, competi-tors for the “name this space” awardincluded EMM (enterprise marketingmanagement), MRM (marketing resourcemanagement), BRM (brand resource man-agement), MIS (marketing informationsystems), marketing automation and, ofcourse, MOM itself. For now, we’ll followthe lead of the conference’s chairman,Michael Moon of GISTICS, in using theterm “MOM,” and we’ll use it to describethe technology infrastructure thatimproves the efficiency, effectiveness andimpact of enterprise marketing processes.

Speakers made a strong case for such atechnology infrastructure. Opening speak-er Hunter Hastings, a consultant for theEMM Group, pointed out that growth iswhat matters to major corporations. Thejob of marketing is to deliver growth, andtying marketing initiatives to financial out-comes requires a process with metrics.Capturing the marketing process in soft-ware facilitates this and leads to improve-ments in productivity, speed to market andmore effective marketing spending.

Elana Anderson of Forrester Researchasserted that marketing is broken in partbecause we consumers are sick of beingbombarded by unwanted messages andpartially because these messages have inany case been diluted by fragmentation ofthe media. Also, marketers have not beenrigorous in executing and measuring theeffect of their campaigns. “Without assess-ment, marketing is just another cost cen-ter,” said one speaker.

A recurrent theme in marketing is thatthe profession has failed to win the respector a seat at the top table that it needs anddeserves. But this is the marketers’ ownfault for not being rigorous in driving outcosts from their supply chains and for fail-ing to tie their efforts to shareholder value.The key imperatives for marketers thesedays are transparency and accountability:They must demonstrate the value they

bring to the corporation, show that theyare creating growth in revenues and cus-tomer value, and prove that they are doingit efficiently. The theme of the MOM con-ference was that technology will help inthese endeavors.

MOM Technology InfrastructureWhat does MOM really mean? Compo-nents of what Forrester describes as the“marketing technology backbone” caninclude:

• DAM (digital asset management).• Workflow and collaboration tools.• Project management, planning and

budgeting tools.• Campaign management.• CRM (customer relationship manage-

ment).• A “dashboard” of marketing key per-

formance indicators (KPIs).• Business intelligence/analytics to sup-

port market segmentation and cus-tomer analysis.

• Personalized and general print collater-al, Web and email publishing tools.

• Elements of ERP (enterprise resourceplanning).

Clearly no one vendor supplies all ofthese elements. Exhibitors at the eventincluded DAM vendors Artesia/OpenText, EMC/Documentum, eMotion,INSCI/Webware, Interchange Digital andNorth Plains Systems (NPS). Some of thesecompanies offer workflow and collabora-tion tools, but none, we believe, aspires tocompete with marketing-automation ven-dors such as Assetlink, Aprimo, Dou-bleclick/Smartpath and Unica, which werealso represented. These companies claim toinclude a built-in DAM capability, thoughin truth it is typically limited.

In fact, we believe there is an opportu-nity to integrate a solid DAM system intoeach of the leading marketing automationplatforms. This was a point made explicit-ly by Carlos Montalvo of North Plains Sys-tems when he pitched NPS’s Telescopeproduct to the audience, asserting, “A mar-keting automation system without a DAM

is like a bank without a vault.” Given thatthe DAM value propositions of brand con-sistency, speed to market and self-serviceaccess to assets complement the efficiencyand effectiveness arguments of the market-ing automation vendors, this is a goodargument.

Absent were the CRM and businessintelligence vendors, companies such asSiebel, Epiphany, Cognos and SAS Insti-tute. Also missing were the smaller compa-nies representing the print fulfillment endof the marketing supply chain, such asPageflex, Printsoft and GMC. If exhibitorsmeasured success in terms of lead genera-tion, their return was probably low as theattendees appeared overwhelmingly to bevendors or consultants, and those Fortune500 companies that were represented typi-cally are already users of a MOM solutionrather than prospective buyers.

This, too, is typical of an early marketevent: Visionaries and early adopters cometo get validation from one another thatthey are indeed ahead of the mainstream,and to describe what benefits they havebrought to their businesses.

Case StudiesOne of the strengths of the conference wasits focus on case studies. Aprimo customerBank of America described how its 1,300users can now manage campaigns, processsupplier invoices through the system andget reports on some 3,700 marketing activ-ities. The system, brought in over the pastthree years, has resulted in a reduction inbudgeting and collateral approval cycletimes and a 228% improvement in invoiceprocessing capacity.

The bank has adopted Six Sigma meth-ods for quality improvement and has foundthat marketing automation is invaluable insupporting this program and in providingreports for Sarbanes-Oxley auditors

A representative of Scotiabank ofCanada described how it is using a UnicaAffinity system and SAS analytics to deliv-er and measure campaigns that are drivenby events in their customers’ lives, such ashouse moves or paying off a mortgage. Theanalytics software identifies these eventsfrom address changes, payment recordsand so on, and personalized mailings areautomatically generated, along with areminder to branch sales staff to follow up.The bank claims that its $2 million invest-ment in MOM has yielded $1 billion in

MOM Motivates Mass-MarketersBY CHRIS LYNN


The Latest Word

incremental deposits.Finnish telecommunications company

TeliaSonera described its home-grown sys-tem for managing the marketing supplychain and standardizing processes involvedin its campaigns. Terry White of AmwayJapan, a billion dollar business, talkedabout the obstacles to implementingimprovements to marketing workflows.

A panel of users and consultants dis-tilled some of the accumulated wisdom ofthese and other early adopters, and severalthemes emerged:

• The inefficiencies in many large com-panies’ marketing processes are oftenastounding and represent “low-hang-ing fruit” for companies willing toaddress them. (For example, Amwaypreviously took 10 days to change aWeb page on any of its 28 sites; theprocess is now instantaneous. It usedto cost Philips $180 to distribute eachof its thousands of digital asset fromhead office to the field; now, the cost isa fraction of that sum.)

• Marketing groups need to centralizethe core of their communications toensure that they are data-driven andconsistent, while allowing some cus-tomization in the field.

• Marketing groups need to adopt stan-dardized processes for procurement.

• Great savings usually are availablethrough rationalizing the number ofmarketing services suppliers (Bank ofAmerica went from 20 market researchproviders to four)

Several of these themes echo the tech-niques used by operations people to ration-alize the manufacturing supply chain.Asked what vendors to Fortune 500 com-panies’ marketing groups (ad agencies,printers, premedia companies, mail hous-es) should be doing to ensure that they sur-vive the cull in suppliers that will resultfrom re-engineering their customers’ mar-keting departments, the panel was unani-mous: Adopt the same open attitude toprocess improvement as your customers,drive down your own costs, communicateopenly and frequently with your client —and don’t expect to be able to live off yourclient’s inefficiencies any longer.

The role of IT departments remainsambiguous. In the view of one speakerfrom the media and entertainment indus-

try, DAM is a business strategy and hasnothing to do with information technolo-gy. But that opinion was in the minority.Forrester’s Anderson said the number ofinquiries she is getting on marketingautomation has gone from zero to severalper week in the past six months, and thatthe enquirers are CIOs.

But CIOs are wary. Many CRM instal-lations have been less than unqualified suc-cesses, and with the exception of hithertoneglected database marketing groups, mar-keting people have been notoriously resist-ant to enterprise software initiatives. As wehave noted in earlier reports, the provisionof MOM functions as an externally hostedservice sidesteps the usual marketing-ITmiscommunication issues. In addition toDAM service providers such as eMotionand INSCI, Assetlink represents a MOMvendor with both licensed software andASP (application service provider) offer-ings. New York-based Sitaro and London-based Mtivity are pure ASP companies,charging on a per-user, per-month basis forWeb-based applications that support cam-paign management, collaboration, calen-dars, budgeting and measurement.

Where’s MOM Going?The presence of many major consultingcompanies at the conference reinforced thebelief that MOM is on the move. Accen-ture, BearingPoint, Inforte and othersspoke of the need for marketing transfor-mation and the change managementprocesses that must accompany it.

This conference provided considerableanecdotal evidence that process improve-ment thinking is finally coming to the mar-keting function. This is being driven by therealizations that the need to be creativedoes not preclude the ability to follow aprocess, marketing needs to do a better jobof explicitly linking its investments tofinancial outcomes, efficiency gains arethere for the taking, and technology canfacilitate these improvements. The growthimperative, concern about overcommuni-cation to jaded consumers and corporateinitiatives such as Six Sigma programs andSarbanes-Oxley audits are also drivingchange in marketing operations.

For software vendors, this represents abusiness opportunity, as well as a pressingneed for integration. Systems that capturecustomer and market data need to belinked to systems that:

• extract customer data based on seg-mentation criteria;

• use these data to select personalized orgeneral marketing messages and tem-plates within which these messagesmay be delivered;

• populate the templates with these mes-sages and selected (and up-to-date)media assets;

• publish and deliver the resulting mate-rials; and

• plan, orchestrate, control and measurethe overall campaign.

Such functions already exist to varyingdegrees in some companies, but they arenot well-integrated today. For most, Excelspreadsheets, FileMaker databases andemail as a collaboration tool represent thestate of the art.

MOM adoption represents a threat tomany service suppliers to large corpora-tions’ marketing groups. The threat arisesfrom the likely rationalization of the num-ber of vendors as procurement of servicesis centralized and standardized, and fromthe pressure to become more efficient thatwill be imposed (think about the automanufacturers’ squeeze on their tier 1 ven-dors over the past few years as they adopt-ed lean manufacturing).

Another, subtler, threat is that MOMwill provide corporate marketers with theability to systematically acquire and retain abody of marketing knowledge. Until now,marketing knowledge (what strategies andtactics work, how best to procure servicesand run a campaign and how the results ofdifferent initiatives compare) has beenembodied in both the corporation’s market-ing people and in service providers such asadvertising and direct marketing agencies.

But turnover in marketing staff has fre-quently left the service provider as the defacto expert on what works. This has pro-vided the incumbent vendor with a sub-stantial barrier to competition, since thecost of switching suppliers is high. Butwhen corporate marketers have the accu-mulated experience of the corporation’smarketing teams available to them online,and when they have both the mandate andthe means to become more efficient, agen-cies and print vendors will need to findnew ways to compete. TSR


Inkjet Printing

New manufacturers, as well as a numberof distributors, showed inkjet printersat Drupa. For the first time, we sawnew large-format printers by manufac-turers from China, Canada and Slove-

nia both at their own booths and at the distributors’. The biggest trend in large-format printers (LFPs)

was the printing of UV inks for weather and light fast-ness for outdoor advertising.

With so many printer vendors, there was bound tobe confusion. Adding to the confusion were the differ-ent, hard-to-distinguish formats and performance lev-els. But these levels are important if they are made forvastly different products and business sectors. In thisreport, we divide large format printing into the follow-ing categories:

• Inkjet technology providers• Large-format printers• Wide-format printers• Super wide-format printers• Flatbed inkjet printers• Industrial inkjet printers

Individual manufacturers produce printers for dif-ferent categories, posing a problem for systematic cov-erage, since these products must be mentioned indifferent categories. Furthermore, some printingmachines can print products for more than one catego-ry — rotary and flatbed printers, for example. To keepit short, we will only mention each manufacturer once.

Inkjet Technology

SpectraAt Drupa, more than 20 Spectra customers displayedover 40 inkjet printing systems with Spectra heads.Among them were large- and wide-format printers,flatbed printers, a digital high-speed printer, and mail-ing, addressing and imprint machines using the Spectraprint heads Galaxi and Nova.

At its own booth, Spectra demonstrated its ApolloII Printhead Support Kit, which will make it easier foran OEM customer to develop printing systems with up

to four 256-channel print heads. A new Spectra department, Spectra Technology

Integration, demonstrated two developments: theApollo Jetpress-System, which uses edible colors toprint on foods; and the four-color Merlin 4-44 printingmachine, which can print onto 30-centimeter widecontinuous rolls with speeds up to 100 meters perminute. Spectra also announced that a newly devel-oped microtechnology will allow for significantlysmaller and more precisely working jets in the future.

XaarArie Rosenfeld, Spectra’s chairman of the board,described Xaar as the leading manufacturer on theinkjet-head market. Xaar, a British company with pro-duction in Sweden, has 250 employees and producesmore than 200,000 128-dpi inkjet heads annually. Thecompany had about $50 million in revenues in 2003,and for the past two years more than half of its saleshave been in China, including 12 Chinese manufactur-ers of large-format printers alone.

For the first time at its booth, Xaar showed theOmnidot GS3 print head developed by Agfa, whichreaches with 720-dpi mechanical resolution an opticalresolution of 1,440 dpi. Xaar produces this print headfor Agfa, which offers five shades of gray, 3-12 pico-

Volume 4, Number 14 • The Seybold Report • Analyzing Publishing Technologies • © 2004 Seybold Publications 7

UV Colors Stake Their Claim

BY KURT WOLF

Inkjet printing systems were in dazzling abundance in an impressive variety

of print widths and speeds at Drupa 2004. We discuss the most important new

features and developments.

The Merlin 4-44Printing head printswith four colors ona 30-cm wide paperroll with a speed upto 100 meters perminute.

Spectra Inc.Lebanon, N.H.ph: (603) 443-5300www.spectra-inc.com

Xaar plcCambridge, U.K.ph: +44 (0)1223 423663www.xaar.co.uk/index.jsp

Inkjet Printing

liters drip volume and 11.7kHz output rate, but alsooffers it to other customers.

The Omnidot 760 GS8 has an even greater dripvolume and a more exact drip placement, and with360 dpi, it can print an optical resolution of 720 dpi.Meant for large-format and packaging print, it is oneof the most productive models on the market. Thebinary Omnidot 380 print head prints with 382 activejets 53.8 millimeters wide. With 180 dpi, the print headdelivers 80 picoliters drip volume and prints with a fre-quency of 4kHz for a maximum linear printing speedof 510 millimeters per second. It can print with sol-vent-, UV- and oil-based inks. The Xaar heads areimplemented by Dotrix (the.factory), Océ (ArizonaT220 UV / Arizona 60UV), Riso (HC 5000) and Seiko(ColorPainter 64S), among others.

Large Format Printers

Inkjet printers that can print 60 cm to 180 cm widesubstrates are now found in almost every print shopand belong in this area. Many are only used as standproofers in computer-to-plate production becauseprinting high-quality posters isn’t sufficiently prof-itable for offset printing businesses. But many high-speed print shops offer poster printing as part of theirservices. A small number of companies make moneyfrom their poster service, but the majority derive mostof their revenue from super wide-format printing.

Hewlett-Packard is by far the market leader inlarge-format printers. Relatively early, HP beganimplementing professional character plotting in everypossible field of application, aside from the printingindustry. More than 20 manufacturers offer many dif-ferent models for pure poster printing in the graphicalindustry. We will discuss the most important develop-ments we saw at the Drupa.

CanonThe new Canon W6200, with pigmented ink, prints

format A1+ (up to 61 cm wide), rimless in just 1.5 min-utes. Like the larger W8200P (117.6 cm), it prints insix colors (C, M, Y, BL, CL, ML) with a resolution of1,200 by 1,200 dpi. Canon claims a light fastness of100 years indoors for brilliant colors. The 8200 is alsoavailable as a D-model for dye inks.

The W7200 and W7250 printers, with a specifical-ly developed 254 mm-wide print head, can print theA0 format (91.4 cm printing width) and A1 (61 cmprinting width) in 2 and 1.5 minutes, respectively. Witha resolution of 600 by 1,200 dpi and the six colors, itcan print in photographic quality. The A3+ printerW2200 also received a new print head.

EncadAlong with its parent company, Kodak subsidiaryEncad showed Kodak’s Novajet 1000i, which is avail-able with 152 cm or 106 cm printing widths. To makeuse of the high printing speed of 14 square meters perhour in production mode, they developed a verysophisticated drying method. The printer can be usedwith dye inks or pigment inks in resolutions of 300 by300, 600 by 600, or 1,200 by 600 dpi. The model 106is available for 10,436 euros, and the model 152 costs14,786 euros.

EpsonOf all of Epson’s large-format printers, the Epson Sty-lus Pro 10600 drew the most interest. It prints up to aformat of B0+ in 111 cm width, with a maximum1,440 by 720 dpi resolution, at a printing speed of upto 20 square meters per hour. When printing with sixcolors, one can choose between photo-black and matt-black. It uses the new ultra-chrome inks and costs12,754 euros.

MacDermid Colorspan Inc.MacDermid, an American manufacturer with a Euro-pean branch office in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands,demonstrated the new display maker X-12, which itoffers in 152.4 cm and 183 cm printing widths. The12-color printer, with two sets of six colors each, canprint 14 square meters per hour at 1,800 dpi. Theprinter has been fully automated for unattended print-ing, complete with automatic calibration for the print-ing head distance and color, appearance, warmair-drying and motorized spooling. It can print withdye ink or pigmented ink. The company guarantees alight fastness of nine months outdoors, and laminatedof three years.

Mutoh Europe N.V.Japanese manufacturer Mutoh showed its latest Rock-hopper 38, a four-color printer for the environmental-ly friendly Eco-Solvent-Plus-Inks in 96 cm printingwidth for less than 8,000 euros. It is designed to con-nect to the Mutoh Ultima Cutter to cut printed colorlabels. The digital transfer printer with printing widths


Gandi Innovationsshowed for the first

time its Jeti 5000printer (left) and

the Jeti 3150fllatbed printer.

Canon U.S.A. Inc.Lake Success, N.Y.ph: (516) 328-5000

www.usa.canon.com

ENCAD Inc.San Diego, Calif.www.encad.com

MacDermid ColorSpanEden Prairie, Minn.

www.colorspan.comMutoh U.S.

Phoenix, Ariz.ph: (480) 968-7772www.mutoh.com

Mutoh U.S.Phoenix, Ariz.

ph: (480) 968-7772www.mutoh.com

Seiko Epson Corp.Nagano, Japan

ph: 81-266-52-3131www.epson.co.jp/e

Inkjet Printing

of 165.3 cm and 228 cm made its debut in Europe. Theprinted transfer paper is transferred onto the printmedia via a colander.

For outside use, Mutoh showed the Rockhopper I-family, with 116.8 cm and 157.5 cm width, as well asthe Rockhopper II-family, with widths of 127 cm,162.5 cm and 220 cm. Its Eco-Solvent-Plus-Inks have alight fastnes of up to three years. The two Toucan-Printers, in 162.5 cm and 220 cm printing width, havelight fastness of up to five years printing with regular,solvent-based pigment inks.

Wide-Format Printers

This area includes printing systems less than 2 meterswide, but with a production of several hundred squaremeters per hour, they clearly don’t belong in the groupof large-format printers. The dominant supplier here isScitex Vision, whose Superjet, Pressjet II, Pressjet Wand Turbojet can achieve a printing width of 160 cm.Their hourly production rate ranges from 150 squaremeters with the Superjet to 400 square meters with theTurbojet.

The Turbojet, the fastest wide-format printing sys-tem on the market, prints in rotary or flatbed modes upto a format of 163 by 366 cm, with a resolution of upto 448 dpi. It prints on substrates ranging from coatedand uncoated paper to vinyl, banners, canvas or evenstyrofoam. It can also fill up the whole printing formatwith A0 or A1-Posters, or with smaller pictures. Eventhe Turbojets’ price of 650,000 euros is an indicationthat these printing systems don’t belong in the samegroup as large-format printers.

Super Wide-Format Printers

Four years ago, the only suppliers in this sector wereNUR Macroprinter, Salsa, Scitex Vision and Vutek.For Drupa 2004, the number of manufacturers in thisarea more than doubled. The newcomers are taking onthe established companies with lower prices made pos-sible because their printers are made in countries suchas China or the Czech Republic, where labor is rela-tively inexpensive. Customers might find their lowerprices appealing.

Gandi Innovations James Gandi’s eponomously named Canadian compa-ny previously built Salsa LFP Machines. After NURMacroprinters took over Salsa, the company was notallowed to distribute competitive machinery for twoyears. Early in 2003, Gandi started producing the Jetiroll printers. Gandi has already sold 120 machines andintroduced its first flatbed printer at the Drupa.

The Jeti 3300 prints with 12 Spectra print headsand six colors in 320 cm printing width. In six-passmode with a resolution of 600 dpi, it reaches 45 squaremeters per hour. The Jeti 5000 has 18 print heads and

prints in 5-meter width with equal quality at a rate of97 square meters per hour. On display for the firsttime, the Jeti 3150 flatbed printer with 24 Spectraheads operates like a roll printer, either with four or sixcolors. With four colors and in the highest mode, itreaches 68 square meters per hour, and with six colorsit can produce 50 square meters per hour.

In Germany, the printers are distributed by JetiGmbH, Rohrbach. The Jeti 3300 is available for22,000 euros. The first Jeti 3300 in Germany has beenrunning since March 2004 at the Regler silk-screenprinting center in Weiden, Germany, while a secondone was installed in Ingolstadt.

GrapoAt Xaar’s booth, Grapo s.r.o. of Olomuc, Czechoslo-vakia, showed its large-format printing system, Octo-pus X4 UV. It prints with UV ink in 204 cm width,using Xaar XJ-500 print heads, and 360 by 360 dpi infour colors. Used as a flatbed printer, it can print onplates up to 4 cm thick. As a rotary printer, it can bedelivered with an up- and unwinding mechanism. Themaximum printing speed runs at 24 square meters perhour, and outdoors the colors have a light fastness offour years. Cologne-based Colormy AG has taken overrepresentation in Germany and offers the Octopus X4UV for less than 100,000 euros.

Leggett & PlattThe manfacturer of large-format printers showed theVirtu RS 25 from its Swiss subsidiary, Spühl AG of St.Gallen. Spühl has manufactured the machines since theend of 2003 in metric measurements and distributesthem in Europe and Africa, as well as the Middle Eastand Far East. Leggett & Platt continues the productionin the U.S. for the North and South America markets.

The Virtu RS 25 is a flatbed and roll printer with a250-cm printing width that can print on plates up to7.5 cm thick. With 36 Spectra piezo heads, it prints sixcolors (four colors optional) with a resolution of 600


While Legett & Plattmanufactures theVirtu flatbedprinters for Northand South America,Spühl in Switzerlandmanufactures anddistributes theprinter in Europe,Africa, and the Nearand Far East.

Gandi InnovationsSan Antonio, Texas ph: (210) 344-9566www.gandinnovations.com/web-content/index.html

GRAPO, spol. s r. o.Olomouc, Czech Republicwww.grapo.com/base/

Leggett & Platt DigitalTechnologiesJacksonville Beach, Fla.ph: (904) 249-1131www.lp-digital.com

Inkjet Printing

by 423 dpi in two-pass mode, and therefore reaches 40square meters per hour. In one-pass mode with 300 by423 dpi, it prints with four colors up to 150 squaremeters per hour. A sophisticated and patented dryingtechnique makes printing on paper, foils and sensitivetextiles possible.

Lyson SystemsLyson is a British manufacturer of substrates and pig-mented inkjet inks for large-format printers such asMutoh and Epson, which are distributed by its sub-sidiary, Tiara Systems, under the name Tiara Opal 46and 63. The 116.8 cm and 160 cm wide printers pro-duce between 3.3 and 6.6 square meters per hour.Without further treatment, the pigmented inks offer anoutdoor weather and light fastnes of up to five years.The Tiara Opal 46 and 63 are offered for 19,000 eurosand 21,000 euros, respectively.

The Tiara Opal II family, with printing widths of127 cm, 162 cm and 220 cm, uses the same inks butprints with eight colors and produces up to 16 squaremeters per hour, at two times CMYK up to 30 squaremeters per hour. The 220-cm machine costs 42,000euros.

The proposed Tiara Tourmalin will print in 340cm width in two-pass mode up to 70 square meters perhour and in six-pass mode at 28 square meters perhour. It should cost about 90,000 euros.

3M3M Commercial Systems showed its 3M printer 2500UV, an OEM version of the Virtu RS 25 of Spühl, whichit sells for less than 500,000 euros. 3M offers customersa package consisting of printer, inks and print foils tooptimize outdoor weather and light fastness.

The new 3M Piezo Inkjet inks series 2600 UV are,according to 3M, the first flexible (meaning they adjustto curved surfaces), durable, UV-drying piezo inks onthe market. 3M offers the Vutek Ultravu 150 printer, a150 cm wide large-format spool printer that can print

up to 28 square meters per hour, exclusively in Europe.

NUR MacroprinterIsraeli manufacturer NUR showed the NUR Fresco II8C 3200, as well as the new NUR Expedio 5000. TheFresco II 8C 3200 prints with 32 piezo print heads,using solvent-based pigment ink and eight colors, inresolutions of up to 370 dpi. It produces 21 squaremeters per hour in best quality and 37 square metersper hour at the highest speed. In four-color mode, itproduces from 24 square meters per hour up to 102square meters per hour.

The prototype of the 5-meter wide roll printerNUR Expedio 5000 can print up to 180 square metersper hour using UV inks. It also offers the choice ofprinting with four or eight colors. The first machinewent into operation this August at Gescom S.p.A. inViterbo, Italy.

NUR also showed its flatbed printer NUR Tempo,which can print with UV inks on plates up to a formatof 318 by 200 cm and 5 cm thickness. With its 16 piezoprint heads, it prints with four or eight colors at a res-olution of up to 360 dpi at between 25 and 82 squaremeters per hour.

Infiniti Europe N.V.Infiniti Europe of Kontich, Belgium, is the Europeansubsidery of the Chinese manufacturer Honghua Digi-tal, Shanghai. They showed their two product linesunder the names Xplorer and Infiniti, both of whichare available with Spectra and Xaar heads.

Infiniti Europe N.V. started distribution in Europein September 2003, and its managing director, LucTeblick, claimed at Drupa to have sold 26 machinessince then. The company showed its YF-3360LQprinter. It uses solvent-based pigment inks, has 320-cmprint width, eight picoliters and four Spectra NovaLQ-256 print heads, and is available for only 99,000euros in Europe. It prints with four print heads and res-olutions of 180 to 720 dpi. At 360 dpi, it prints 30 to50 square meters per hour. A new, 5-meter-wide printmachine is expected to enter the market in October.

Scitex VisionScitex Vision, the undisputed market leader in wide-and super-wide format, surpassed $100 million in salesfor the first time in 2003. At its booth, the companyfocused on the Scitex Turbojet and the flatbed printerScitex Gojet. It also introduced its super-wide-formatGojet printer, an inkjet machine that prints 320-cmwide. Priced at 140,000 euros, Gojet is Scitex Vision’sanswer to the new low-cost suppliers. Prices for theGrandjet and XLjet models remain unchanged.

The Gojet prints with 24 Xaar 128 print heads infour colors with pigmented ink and a resolution of 370by 370 dpi from roll to roll. It prints onto the wholespectrum of substrates; differences in quality arecaused by multiple overprinting. In the fastest two-pass


The 320-cm wideroll-to-roll printer

Infiniti YF-3360 LQ issold in Europe for

99,000 euros.

Infiniti-Europe nvKontich, Belgium

ph: 32 3 290 70 [email protected]

Lyson SystemsEast Sussex, England ph: +44 1825 764057www.marrutt.com/

contact.php

Scitex Corp.Tel Aviv, Israel

ph: 972-3-607-5855www.scitex.com

Inkjet Printing

mode, it prints 65 square meters per hour. Increasingthe quality using three-, four-, six- and eight-passmodes, it still produces 17 square meters an hour.Thanks to the multispool system, two more narrowrolls can be printed side by side.

Shenzhen Runtianzhi Image Technology Co. Ltd.Intent on establishing European distribution, the Chi-nese manufacturer from Shenzhen displayed its superwide-format printer, Flora 3204 E, at the Xaar booth.

With a printing width of 320 cm, four or six printheads, four or six colors and resolutions of 180 to 360dpi, the Flora 3204 E is comparable to American print-ers in features and productivity. It can print 60 squaremeters per hour in standard quality or 30 square metersan hour in highest quality. Like the other models in 150and 180 cm printing widths, it uses solvent-based pig-ment inks. The 220 cm wide model uses UV inks.

VutekAmerican manufacturer Vutek joined the price warwith its new Pressvu 200/600, priced at $199,000.With a printing width of 2 meters, it can print from rollto roll or onto inflexible materials up to 4.5 cm thick.It is available in models using UV inks in either four orsix colors. With resolutions of 360 by 600 dpi and sixcolors, it can print indoor or outdoor applications inphotographic quality. It prints up to 33 square metersan hour in production quality and up to 19 squaremeters per hour in highest quality.

The Ultravu family, with printing widths of 1.5, 2,3, and 5 meters, will continue to be available, butprices were lowered in August. The Ultravu 150 FCnow costs $135,000, the Ultravu 3360 FC is$199,000, and the 5-meter-wide Ultravu 5330 is avail-able for just $349,000.

Flatbed Inkjet Printers

In addition to the previously mentioned manufacturerof roll and flatbed printers, the following companiesdisplayed their models.

Durst Phototechnik AGDurst has sold more than 120 of its Rho 160 flatbedprinters over the past two years. For Drupa, the com-pany added white ink to the Rho 160, and called it theRho 160 Plus. The white ink can be used to frame apicture, as spot color for text or logos, to fill gaps in thebackground, or as a foundation for a colored medium.

The Rho 205/8 (205 cm instead of 160 cm feedingwidth) hit the market at the end of 2003. Prior toDrupa, Durst had already sold more than 40 Rho205/8. Compared with the Rho 160 (with eight printheads), it has half the print speed and a lower startingprice: 235,000 euros. In highest quality it prints 10square meters per hour (Rho 180 Plus prints at 18

square meters per hour), but it can be upgraded to 16print heads to produce 20 square meters per hour. Thefeeder/stacker, which was introduced at Drupa, takesthe plates from the stack and automatically feeds theminto the Rho printer, allowing one man operation evenat full production.

Inca Digital PrintersLike Elmjet and Xaar, Inca was spin off from Cam-bridge Consultants in England in 2000. The first prod-uct it brought onto the market in 2001 was the Eagle44. Since then, it has developed a product line thatincludes the Eagle H, the Columbia and the Columbia220.

Inca completed its product line for Drupa with theColumbia Turbo and the Spyder 150. From the begin-ning, Inca had a close partnership with silk-screen inkmanufacturer Sericol, which not only developed theinkjet inks for Inca, but also manufactured them andtook over the worldwide marketing of the print sys-tems. With more than 100 systems sold, the partner-ship has paid off for both companies.

The Columbia is available in three versions, up toa format of 320 by 220 cm. With its 16 Spectra Galaxyprint heads and four colors, the Columbia prints up to130 square meters per hour. With the installation of 64print heads, the Columbia Turbo now reaches 160square meters per hour in normal mode, 120 squaremeters an hour in medium, and 75 square meters perhour in highest-quality mode. Its resolution of 800 by1,200 dpi allows even six-point text to be displayedlegibly.

The Columbia Turbo, which will be installed forthe first time this year in Germany, costs $750,000.The Spyder 150 is a newcomer with a width of 152.4by 101.6 cm, which prints in three modes: 50, 40 and24 square meters per hour. As soon as it is ready fordelivery, it, too, will be installed in Germany this year,priced at $320,000. Sericol has assigned marketing toMetocolor GmbH of Siegen for Germany, Austria andSwitzerland.

Lüscher AGSwiss manufacturer Lüscher debuted its flatbed printerJetPrint 3530UV, which has a unique, fixed-standingvacuum table and uses Spectra Piezo print heads to


Scitex Vision offersthe GoJet in 320-cmprinting width for aprice of only140,000 euros.

Durst Phototechnik AGBrixen, Italyph: + 39 0472 81 01 11 www.durst-online.com

Inca Digital Printers Ltd.Cambridge, U.K.ph: +44 (0)1223 577800www.incadigital.com

Lüscher AGLeutwil, Switzerlandph: 0041 627677677www.luescher.com

Shenzhen RuntianzhiImage Technology Co.Ltd.Shenzhen, China ph: 86-755-82057358 www.runjiang.com

VutekMeredith, N.H. 03253ph: 603-279-4635vutek.com

Inkjet Printing

print with 1,024 jets per color. With UV inks from Sun-jet and a real resolution of 400 by 400 dpi, it can printon almost all rigid and flexible materials up to 80 mmthick, as well as gang printing. The eight colors can beprinted with four, six or eight (or two by four) differentUV inks, including white, and it can reach speeds of upto 100 square meters per hour (at eight colors).

Océ Digital PrintingShown for the first time two years ago, the flatbedprinter Océ Arizona T 220 was introduced as a UVprinter. It can print on flexible or rigid materials up toa format of 157 by 305 cm and 5 cm thickness, withsix UV colors CMYK, CL and ML. At a resolution of309 by 309 dpi, it prints 15.8 square meters per hourin four-pass mode and 8.4 square meters per hour ineight-pass mode, and costs 175,000 euros.

As a hybrid newcomer model for roll and flatbedprinting, Océ showed the Océ Arizona 60 UV, pricedat just 39,500 euros. The maximum print format is152 by 244 cm with a thickness of up to one centime-ter. Its ability to print UV inks directly onto uncoatedrigid or flexible materials makes it of particular interestto sign manufacturers, reprography companies and allprint service providers. In four-pass mode, it printswith six UV colors and 309 by 309 dpi resolution up to5.1 square meters per hour.

Zünd Systemtechnik AGAside from its slicing machines, Zünd Systemtechnikshowed three new flatbed printers. The UVjetXZ-Flatis based on the Zünd flatbed plotter and is available inthe 80 by 76 cm, 122 by 76 cm and 122 by 116 cmprint formats. It prints with four colors, 720 dpi realresolution, and has very precise material guidance. Itcan therefore print on 3-D lenticular lenses up to 24lines per centimeter. The printing speed is 2 to 6 squaremeters per hour.

Zünd has sold 275 machines since the end of 2001,and the UVjet 215-C55 is its most popular flatbedprinter. For Drupa, the UVjet 215-C55 was upgradedto six colors and made 50% faster. With a print speedof 13 to 26 square meters per hour at 360 dpi, and a

printing width of 215 cm, it remains one of the mostattractive printers.

Zünd also introduced its next-generation flatbedprinter, the Ufjet 250-Combi. It will print in four or sixcolors, up to 250 cm wide, with a resolution of 400dpi. It can print on substrates up to 10 cm thick andproduces between 10 and 20 square meters per hour. Itwill be available at the beginning of 2005 for about280,000 euros.

Industrial InkJet Printing

The most important exhibitor in this sector wasDotrix, the Belgian company that was taken over byAgfa earlier this year. With UV inks, the.factory print-ed at Drupa packaging boxes on half-cardboard.

Conclusion Almost all of the manufacturers of digital color print-ers use dry toner printing. Only the HP Indigo uses“electro ink,” which is liquid toner that consists of oilwith offset ink pigments. That is why digital colorprints from an Indigo press look more like offset printsthan dry toner prints.

High Viscosity Toner (HVT) seems to be nearlyidentical to Indigo’s liquid toner. By offering HVT toall digital press manufacturers, ARL emphasizes thebenefits of its toner compared with dry toners. Thesmall pigment size of 1-2 microns, the very thin inklayer of less than 2 microns on the paper, the offset-likeappearance of the prints and the option to run pressesmuch faster because pigments will not be airbornewhen the speed accelerates are good reasons for drytoner press manufacturers to consider switching to liq-uid toner printers.

Whether press manufacturers will actually deliversuch HVT ink at the low price that ARL promisesremains to be seen. After all, overcharging customersfor ink cartridges with liquid toner is the main businessof consumer inkjet printer manufacturers.

Nevertheless, we would not be surprised to see aprinter for high-end production and quality with high-viscosity toner within the next two or three years. TSR


Agfa-Dotrix NVGent, Belgium

ph: +32 3 444 47 11www.dotrix.be/

index.htm

Océ N.V.Venlo, The Netherlands

ph: (31) 77 359 2222 www.oce.com/en/

default.htm

Zünd Systemtechnik AGAltstätten, Switzerland

ph: +41 (71) 757-81-00www.zund.ru


The Fischer Group (www.fischerwerke.com)is known worldwide as a manufacturerof building technology (Fischer FixingSystems), interior components for auto-mobiles (Fischer Automotive) and con-

struction kits (Fischertechnik). Based in the BlackForest community of Waldachtal, Germany, the Fisch-er Group (www.fischerwerke.de/index_flash.html) is alsoconsidered one of the world’s great idea factories andhas to its credit roughly 2,000 inventions in buildingtechnology and automotive systems.

In early 2000, the Fischer Group realized it neededto link internal data sources with the Internet and gen-erate price lists and catalogs in multiple languages.After a few false starts, the Fischer Group settled onCrossbase’s (www.crossbase.de) Cross Media Suite ofapplications. As a result, Fischer can now do databasepublishing via Adobe InDesign 3.0, produce catalogs,manage translations, provision data to external portalsand databases (www.crossbase.net), allow online accessto the Crossbase databases and convert data for CD-ROM. It also can generate sales documentationthrough the system.

Single Source for Multiple MediaThe main focus of Fischer’s project was to establish acentral online catalog that could be accessed internallyon the intranet and externally over the Internet. Thecompany also wanted to produce its print catalogalmost automatically and achieve tight integrationwith the company’s SAP enterprise resource planning(ERP) system.

At the core of the Crossbase system is a central,Oracle-based, media-neutral database called cross-base.data, which links all the modules. This is where allimage files, graphics, attributes and marketing text aremanaged and made available to the production mod-ules. The interface module for crossbase.pro is cross-base.out, which provides formats such as XML, CVS(concurrent version system) and the BMEcat standard

for electronic trade, and therefore ensures wide sup-port of existing computer structures.

Also integrated is a Microsoft Webserver IIS,which together with the crossbase.catalog moduleensures Internet functionality. Merging data from com-puter systems takes place via an easy-to-use CVS inter-face. Fully equipped, the Crossbase system has theideal infrastructure to generate media-comprehensiveprint and online products. At Fischer, Crossbase makesuse of InDesign 3.0, but the system is also available forAdobe FrameMaker or Quark Xpress.

Structure Establishes OrderCrossbase’s media-neutral database supplies print andonline production at Fischer with optimized file struc-ture and handles all types of data, including images,text, XML-Files, PDFs, etc. The user keeps track ofeverything through the internal media archive and hasdifferent views of the data sets. Depending on the mod-ule chosen, the database can generate documents for a

Volume 4, Number 14 • The Seybold Report • Analyzing Publishing Technologies • © 2004 Seybold Publications 13

Crossbase in Action at the Fischer Group

BY BERND ZIPPER

Print and media companies would like to generate products for print, online and

CD-ROM from a single source in their database. The German/Austrian company

Crossbase Mediasolution is addressing this trend with its cross-media DAM

platform, bringing to life the concept of “single-source publishing.“ We report on

how one well-known company is using the platform to produce multiple products

in several languages from a single source.

TSR correspondentBernd Zipper (left)meets with ArturFischer (left, center),the inventor out ofthe black forrest.Also in the pictureare Martin Schreiberand Thomas Kern ofCrossbase (right).


catalog, BMEcat, product or media view. This helpsFischer employees compile the necessary informationand ensures maximum flexibility during the mainte-nance, editing and revision of the articles and the pro-duction of various advertising media, such as catalogs,brochures, flyers, price lists and even online files for theWeb server.

This has made setting up for new articles very easyfor Martin Schreiber, who manages Fischer’s database.Merchadise management is converted into a CVS filethat functions as an export file, which is then imple-mented into crossbase.pro. Schreiber takes over theproduct view he has defined, duplicates it and importsthe data. He matches the images with the appropriatecaptions and approves the new article.

Schreiber can determine whether the end customeror only the specialized dealer on site can view the new

article in the online catalog. Due to the extreme speedof production, this is especially vital when it comes toimplementing new products. Schreiber uses templatesfrom the database as a model for each new action,which allows him to organize and modify the databasefor new end products for print and Internet.

During our visit, we saw the production of a cata-log for building systems consisting of 260 relativelycomplex pages that included images, charts and text.After the initial implementation of page templates andthe first production, approximately 230 pages of thecatalog were generated automatically via crossbase.proand InDesign.

Schreiber derives the language variations from this“master document” and generates them as layers forInDesign. Prefix and marketing pages, in part producedmanually, were linked with the end product. WithInDesign 3.0, PDFs are generated to deliver data to theprinter. After a preflight with Enfocus PitStop Profes-sional and internal clearance, the pages go to print.

Altogether, Fischer invested three months in creat-ing templates, transfering data, creating the text andproducing the final catalog. The company achieved allthis without increasing the total page count of the finalprinted product — a common occurrence with auto-mated page production.

To make this possible, a product structure was firstset up for each product. This means that in addition tothe actual article description through templates,respective associations for layout, charts and mediaused (images, etc.) also are defined. This will laterenable access to the seperate media elements. Themedia elements again are filed away in six differentvariations. Depending on the intended purpose, thisallows for usage of the appropriate file version in opti-mized resolution, size and color depth.

The text elements are arranged manually with pre-defined tags. From within the input interface, the usercan double-check the preview. A version converter viacrossbase.trans is available to help to translate the textinto different languages. Predefined text, image andlayout rules are inserted into yet another template,which defines the assignment to the correspondingpage. This happens via crossbase.layout, where therules and relations (the proportions of the individualpage elements) are defined as well.

Next comes the assignment of the page to a chap-ter and then to the end product. To do this, the entirepage first must be stored in a temporary buffer beforebeing automatically placed using InDesign.

The Fischer catalog required 50 different layouttemplates, but when it came to generating the languagevarieties, the effort paid off. Skeletonized data sets areavailable over the Internet for the approximately15,000 online catalog users (mostly specialized deal-ers). At the same time, the catalog is distributed toother external suppliers, so a customer can also gatherdetailed information about Fischer products. Through


The onlinedatabase enablesthe user and the

specialized dealeron site to view the

latest products and illustrations in

real time.

The productdatabase compiles

all information for alater product

presentation into adocument.


universal XML structure and a powerful Oracle data-base, user inquiries can be presented quickly and reli-ably, and with current information.

Fast, Effective ProductionBy implementing the system in “small steps” and col-laborating with Crossbase, Fischer was able to establisha well-rounded cross-media system. Crossbase not onlymade the necessary software available, but also consult-ed with Fischer during the implementation. “The mod-ular standard software gave us the flexibility to adaptthe solution tight to Fischer and the certainty to be supp-ported in the long run,” said Fischer database managerSchreiber. By customizing and predefining the structure,Fischer was able to optimize the administration and uti-lization of the system in terms of time as well as person-nel. Of course, Fischer had to install the right serverstructure (in this case, a Windows Server system), butthe biggest job was to set up the templates for a CI-com-patible layout. “After two or three months, we wereready to start production,” said Schreiber.

In the past, producing the Fischer print catalogrequired several months of set and layout work. Byusing Crossbase Suite with Adobe InDesign 3.0, Fisch-er reduced production time to just a few weeks. Thesystem proved especially beneficial when generatingforeign language versions of the catalog, and Fischerreduced total production time by 70%. The implemen-tation of Adobe InDesign 3.0 clearly improved the setquality of the print products, which is produced auto-matically via the crossbase database. Data is distrib-uted to the print shop via Adobe PDF.

As a result of the up-to-date provisioning of prod-uct data, usage of the Web site has skyrocketed. Morethan 15,000 users worldwide now utilize the Fischeronline catalog every month, and the previous effort toprepare data for presentation on the Internet has beenabandoned.

Previously, the provisioning of product informa-tion for the target groups of merchants and partnerswas done manually, but thanks to the Crossbase data-base, users can now compile and download imagesthemselves. The process has now been almost entirelyautomated, and customers and purchasing organiza-tions can now access BMEcat data directly. The totaleffort involved in compiling product information wasreduced by 80%. Furthermore, the system makesavailable to planners and architects importantapproval information that is always current and con-tains the effective date.

The effort to install such a system is immense, butFischer’s implementation of the Crossbase Suite is agreat example of how “enterprise publishers” will pro-duce documents in the future. “Our personal demandin production is to deliver just in time and accurately,”said Schreiber. “With Crossbase, we were able to cometo a solution with optimized effort at the right time,”he said.

ConclusionCertainly a system like Fischer’s Crossbase Server can-not be set up in a single day; just the training for across-media system is a hard job. But once the systemis in place, the user is one step closer to automating theentire print production chain. Installing a cross-mediaplatform will necessitate changes in workflow. All thesteps of creating and designing a layout have to bedone before the user starts to bring in the content. Thismeans that the user will have to test a layout with realdata and modify the designer’s ideas to fit the layout.The benefits are that industry users, catalog producersand others who need well-structured catalogs willachieve a production speed they had never imagined.

TSR


The entire catalogis also availableautomaticallyonline. This isimportant so thatthe final customercan find the rightproduct andapplication mode.

The data in theproduct databaseare transfered toInDesign 3.0 in automated form.The screenshot still shows theprevious version of InDesign 2.0.

E-Learning

Driven by metadata and Web technolo-gies, e-learning is a publishing platformthat presents opportunities for contentowners and publishers. Corporate e-learning was a $4.5 billion market in

the U.S. in 2004, according to a report by Internation-al Data Corp.

Why E-Learning?Traditional corporate education is expensive, time-consuming and constantly changing. Some societalmetatrends compel companies to embrace e-learning,but ultimately the factors driving e-learning are lowercosts, more efficient training, responsiveness to rapidchange and learning management.

E-learning, which is delivered contextually when-ever and wherever the knowledge is needed, sharesmany similarities with workflow training or perform-ance support, including a modular structure and usercontrol of the learning. Network delivery makes it easyto roll out updated knowledge and track who has andwho hasn’t reviewed new material.

The modular structure and management systemensures that each employee sees the content relevant tohis or her needs. As business needs evolve, the e-learn-ing content at the central location is updated andimmediately made current for all users, whatever theirlocation or time zone.

Management functions in many e-learning imple-mentations provide supervisors with immediate feed-back on skills and adaptability. And e-learning makesit easier to manage large volumes of content and main-tain its currency because it is built on databases andmetadata — data about the data.

Metadata, Sharable Content Modules, LMSShareable Content Modules (SCOs), also known aslearning objects, are re-usable blocks of training and anessential element for delivering customized e-learning.What makes these SCOs useful is that information aboutthe content and how it can be used is created as metada-ta and is stored separately from the content, either in adatabase or packaged with the content as XML (eXten-sible Markup Language is a superset of HTML).

SCOs are most efficient where units of learning canfit into multiple courses; the modularity prevents wast-ed effort. Content from multiple sources can be linkedusing the metadata associated with the learning objectinto multiple flexible courses.

The Department of Defense-sponsored AdvancedDistributed Learning (ADL) Initiative(www.adlnet.org), a consortium of government, indus-try and academia, has developed interoperable stan-dards for learning tools and course content. The majoroutcome of this working group is the Sharable Course-ware Object Reference Model (SCORM), but the ADLInitiative is also developing standards for repositoriesof electronic content, game-based learning, simula-tions, intelligent tutoring and “traditional” perform-ance support.

Other standards for shared repositories of knowledge include the Dublin Core Protocol(www.dublincore.org) and the W3C organization’sResource Description Framework (www.w3.org).These related initiatives use metadata to describe thecontent and express that metadata in XML. While theXML descriptions of data are different in each proto-col, interchange is possible because XML not only con-tains the content but also describes the purpose of thecontent. XML is extensible because XML schema (setsof tags) can be created for almost any purpose.

XML and MetadataUsing an XML-based workflow allows for integrationamong metadata authoring, packaging of content,learning management systems (LMS) and publishingsystems. It provides the flexibility to customize deliveryto be network-aware.

In the ADL’s SCORM standard, XML is used topackage and distribute metadata. Other e-learningimplementations store metadata in a database andassociate it with the content. For practical purposes,they provide the same benefits (without interoperabili-ty). The metadata is more important than where it’sstored. Metadata within databases can be converted toXML using a number of conversion tools or functionsbuilt into the database. Metadata is valuable no matterhow it’s expressed and should be stored separately from

16 October 20, 2004 • The Seybold Report • Analyzing Publishing Technologies • © 2004 Seybold Publications

Metadata in Corporate E-Learning

BY PHILIP HODGETTS

E-learning isn’t limited to new material. By using metadata and other tools,

training content owners can convert existing content into e-learning or create

e-learning content to package with new content.

E-Learning

the data. (See the SCORM XML example, page 19).For clarity, it’s important for the tools to hide the

complexity of the metadata from the authors. Theauthor should only be presented with metadataoptions that are congruent with the content andschema being used.

SCO Reference ModelSCORM defines the technical foundations of a Web-based learning environment that assumes the existenceof a learning management system. For SCORM, theLMS refers to a suite of services that launches content(and tracks assets), keeps track of learner progress,manages the sequencing of learning objects and reportson student mastery. By promoting a set of open stan-dards, SCORM makes the content independent of theLMS. SCORM-compliant content will work with any

SCORM-compliant LMS.SCORM achieves interoperability by packaging

information about the content within the learningobject package. This Content Aggregation Model(CAM) within SCORM contains learning object meta-data, which is a dictionary of XML tags that describeslearning content in terms of what the content is, whoowns it, what it costs (if anything), technical require-ments, educational purpose, etc. These tags areexpressed in CAM as XML: machine and human read-able ways of identifying what each piece of metadata isreferring to — self-identifying data, if you will.

Beyond the individual CAM, SCORM defines howcourses are assembled from individual learning objectsinto a package with content and an XML file (mani-fest) that describes all the contents and how they relateto each other in a course.


The corporate e-learning market offers multiplemodels for creating and delivering e-learning,

from companies that create tools to full-serviceproviders that will create content, build courses andhost the results. Companies rarely fit neatly into a sin-gle category because most provide overlapping serv-ices. These are by no means the only solutionproviders, but they represent a cross-section of what’savailable.

Content Creation and PublishingAny HTML or rich media creation tool can be used tocreate content for e-learning. Macromedia Flash is apopular tool both for animation development and asa front end for e-learning applications linked toonline databases.

Web-Based Learning SystemsThese use standard Web technologies, usually viasome form of ASP (application service provider)model delivered to a user’s browser. Typical of thesolutions available in this market are those fromKnowledge Planet (www.knowledgeplanet.com) andAllen Communication Learning Services (www.allencomm.com).

Project-Centered Enterprise LearningInternational Data Corp. expects this market to reach$23 billion this year. Large organizations with specificlearning objects create custom solutions using third-party tools or hire complete service providers to man-age the process for them. Typical of this class ofprovider are conference participants Commandtext(commandtext.com), Image Plant in New York andTechBoooks (www.techbooks.com). Another providerto consider is General Motors’ choice, Unext(www.unext.com).

Courseware and Value-Added ServicesThese providers offer integrated learning solutions to

create ready-to-play Web-based courses from exist-ing training content or from a stock of standardcourses. Typical examples are Vcampus (www2.vcampus.com), SkillSoft (www.smartforce.com)and MindLeaders (www.mindleaders.com). Suppliers inthis category are frequently educational portals or e-tailers, as well as service providers. For example,Aerolearn (www.aerolearn.com) is both an aviationindustry knowledge hub and an ASP service provider.

Knowledge Hubs, Portals or Educational E-tailersThese providers have courses available for purchasedirectly by the public for self-paced learning or corpo-rate use. They are particularly valuable for smaller cor-porations that lack the resources for largeinvestments in project-centered enterprise learningor to build courses. Knowledge hubs tend to aggre-gate around specific industries: ABAeLearning(www.aba.com/default.htm) for retail and small busi-ness; the Association of Independent CorrugatedConverter’s (www.aiccbox.org) Knowledge Hub for thecorrugated box industry and Intelligent Assistance’ssoftware-based Hub (www.digitalmedia-hub.com) fordigital media content creators, for example.

This category also includes larger organizationsthat manage the complete e-learning functions foruniversities or other education providers. Bisk Educa-tion (www.bisk.com), for instance, sells e-learningdirectly to end users on behalf of its content partnersusing a subscription model. Like Bisk, Cardean Uni-versity (www.cardean.edu) and E-Learning Institute(www.elearninginstitute.com) not only provide e-learn-ing courses directly, but will work with content part-ners to convert conventional course material to ane-learning form and manage the entire process.

At the other end of the e-learning spectrum aredirect-to-consumer trainers such as Brainbench(www.brainbench.com/xml/bb/homepage.xml) andTek.Xam (www.tekxam.com). TSR

— Philip Hodgetts

E-Learning Solution Sources

E-Learning


This SCORM XML example has no training contentbut contains the name, keywords, language ver-

sion, format, location, educational tag and rightsinformation about a single JPEG image. It does notcontain the actual “anchored.jpg” that it refers to.The JPEG itself is in the Course01/Lesson01/pics folder.Keeping the metadata separate from the data allowsit to be more flexible.

<?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”UTF-8”?><!DOCTYPE RECORD SYSTEM “..\..\..\dtd\IMS-MD01.dtd” >

<RECORD xmlns=”http://www.imsproject.org/metadata/”>

<METAMETADATA><METADATASCHEME>

ADL SCORM 1.0</METADATASCHEME>

</METAMETADATA>

<GENERAL><TITLE>

<LANGSTRING>Navigation Lights while anchored

</LANGSTRING></TITLE><CATALOGENTRY>

<CATALOGUE>ADL Sample Courses Catalog

</CATALOGUE><ENTRY>

<LANGSTRING>anchored.jpg</LANGSTRING></ENTRY>

</CATALOGENTRY><LANGUAGE>en</LANGUAGE><DESCRIPTION>

<LANGSTRING>Vessel at anchor with deck illumination

</LANGSTRING></DESCRIPTION><KEYWORDS>

<LANGSTRING>underway vessel</LANGSTRING></KEYWORDS><KEYWORDS>

<LANGSTRING>navigation lights</LANGSTRING></KEYWORDS><KEYWORDS>

<LANGSTRING>anchored</LANGSTRING></KEYWORDS>

</GENERAL>

<LIFECYCLE><VERSION>

<LANGSTRING>1.0</LANGSTRING>

</VERSION><STATUS>

<LANGSTRING>Final</LANGSTRING></STATUS><CONTRIBUTE>

<ROLE><LANGSTRING>Graphical Designer</LANGSTRING>

</ROLE><CENTITY>

<VCARD>BEGIN:vCardORG:ADLI Project, Concurrent Technologies CorporationEND:vCard

</VCARD></CENTITY><DATE>

<DATETIME>2000-01-27</DATETIME></DATE>

</CONTRIBUTE></LIFECYCLE>

<TECHNICAL><FORMAT>

<LANGSTRING>image/jpeg</LANGSTRING></FORMAT><SIZE>13843</SIZE><LOCATION>

Course01/Lesson01/pics/anchored.jpg</LOCATION>

</TECHNICAL>

<EDUCATIONAL><LEARNINGRESOURCETYPE>

<LANGSTRING>Figure</LANGSTRING></LEARNINGRESOURCETYPE>

</EDUCATIONAL>

<RIGHTS><COST>

<LANGSTRING>No</LANGSTRING></COST><COPYRIGHTOROTHERRESTRICTIONS>

<LANGSTRING>No</LANGSTRING></COPYRIGHTOROTHERRESTRICTIONS><DESCRIPTION>

<LANGSTRING>U.S. Coast Guard, Commandant Instruction M1667202C

</LANGSTRING></DESCRIPTION>

</RIGHTS>

</RECORD> TSR

SCORM XML Example

E-Learning

Although SCORM compliance is a worthy goaland adds the maximum value to the content, most cur-rent e-learning is not yet SCORM-compliant.

Deriving MetadataMetadata cannot be created automatically. A goodauthoring tool will require entry of appropriate meta-data during the authoring process. Certainly, SCORM-compliant tools will “force” entry of all requiredmetadata, but additional metadata for custom solu-tions has to be derived and added manually intowhichever system or database is being used.

Tools and SolutionsThere are many routes to take when implementing e-learning. Corporations can convert existing content bybuying the tools or hiring a service provider, or theycan outsource new content development, authoringand hosting. If you create and deploy e-learning withina corporation, you’ll need to choose tool vendors care-fully and make sure you have adequate in-houseexpertise to handle the tools.

Most e-learning projects use a combination of in-house management tools and include content devel-oped by external specialists to create or install thenecessary infrastructure with tools for easy additionand modification of content by staff members.

If you take a standards-based approach, your ven-dors will have to establish precisely which standardsthey are compliant with and how compliant they are.Ask them to demonstrate interoperability with third-party tools and especially to show interoperability withthe established tools in your workflow. You’ll needtools for creating and managing content and for build-ing curriculum, as well as tools for incorporating meta-data. In addition to determining the most appropriateLMS for your needs, you’ll need hosting, bandwidthand SCORM-compliant delivery tools.

Content CreationContent can be created in any rich media content tooland integrated using standard Web technologies, orcontent can be created with custom tools designed fora pure XML-based workflow and delivery.

Basing content development on XML andSCORM standards allows it to be re-used in cus-tomized curriculum or remedial instruction. If you’rebuilding content and curriculum together, an XML-based workflow for content creation, integration anddelivery is recommended.

All content will need metadata, either XML-basedwithin a SCORM framework or in a form suitable fordelivering and managing the content, usually a database.

Tracking and EvaluatingLearning management systems by definition manageand track the progress of learners by controlling accessto e-learning and reporting results to management.Custom e-learning implementations frequently trackusers directly. The custom training solutions created forFortune 500 companies by Image Plant, a New York-based provider of e-learning solutions, for instance, aredelivered directly to a salesforce’s PDAs, so SCORMtools are not relevant. Not only is each component inthe training targeted, but it can be tracked in real time.Management sees up-to-the-second user and assess-ment statistics via a dynamic Web page.

LMS is usually independent of any current docu-ment or content management and is more closelyaligned with human resources departments’ enterpriseresource planning systems. Currently, an LMS is main-tained independent of the ERP system, but LMS func-tions might be added to ERP systems in the future.Custom integration with ECM or CMS systems couldbe created using XML data interchange.

To create custom metrics, plan them during theproject-initialization phase. Run with a small testgroup as a class of users to measure and evaluate thatthe metrics are being accurately tracked (technologicaltesting) and represent useful and accurate data. Evalu-ate these results before doing a full implementationand your final results will be closely aligned with yourorganizational goals.

SummaryAs a growth market, e-learning presents a tremendousopportunity for publishers looking for new marketsand for corporations seeking to reduce their overalltraining costs. E-learning is built around modular con-tent that can be re-used in multiple contexts. Usingstandards-based content modules and learning man-agement systems provides maximum compatibilityand flexibility moving forward, though not every e-learning solution is (or will be) SCORM-compliant.

Simply having content modules is not enough. E-learning requires metadata describing the content andits uses. Expressing the metadata in XML form permitsmachine-derived flexibility. When developing or speci-fying e-learning solutions for your company, start withyour goal in mind and work back to the specific toolsor solution providers you need. TSR

About the AuthorPhilip Hodgetts is CEO and content writer for IntelligentAssistance (www.intelligentassistance.com), which developsreal-time, intelligent multimedia support and coachingtools for digital media artists and content creators.


Volume 10, Number 1October 6, 2004

Adobe and GeoTrust Partner ToClassify Sensitive DocumentsIn an era of loose lips, leaked documentsand phishing (collecting personal identifi-cation data via e-mail solicitations), AdobeSystems has found a way not only to lockthe contents of a PDF file but to verify thedocument’s provenance and restrict its re-use electronically.

Newsstand. Funds managed by CVC Capi-tal Partners acquired the printing inks andprinting plates operations of BASF; TheHayzlett Companies acquired GraphicCommunications World; Presstekannounced that the purported securitiesclass action lawsuit brought against thecompany and its former CEO and formerCFO has been dismissed; Pitney Bowes isconsolidating all of its operating activities;The U.S. National Labor Relations Boardaccused Quebecor World of violating fed-eral labor laws; A&F Computersystemehas chosen Smart Connection Enterpriseby WoodWing; Magazine Publishers ofAmerica and its member companies haveunited to launch a three-year initiative toboost awareness in the advertising commu-nity about the effectiveness of consumermagazines; IO Integration merged withMedia Automation Specialists of Dallas.

Volume 10, Number 2October 14, 2004

Graph Expo, Chicago. The InternationalCooperation for the Integration of Process-es in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4)announced the election of its AdvisoryBoard and Board of Directors; Xeroxintroduced a color wide-format inkjetprinting system; Xerox also announced aline of wide-format paper and specialtymedia designed to maximize print qualityon wide-format printers; Creo and Xeroxlaunched the Spire CXP3535e color serverfor the Xerox DocuColor 3535 color copi-er/printer system; Creo and KBA North

America demonstrated Creo Spotlessprinting in the KBA booth; Creo also isdemonstrating new automation features inCreo’s PDF packaging workflow; The Pre-press Training Solution announced imme-diate availability of two new onlinetraining courses; HumanEyes Technologiesdebuted HumanEyes Capture3D; Agfaand Lastra for the first time showed anddemonstrated their plate and CTP systemtechnologies; Agfa also introduced its:Grand Sherpa m series of seven-color,piezo-electric inkjet proofers; Agfa’s new:Acento platesetter is now shipping inNorth America; Agfa and Dynagramannounced the certification of DynaStripwith :ApogeeX 3.0; Jetrion LLC introduct-ed new coating developments; EFIlaunched its next-generation Fiery System6 Software and the Fiery Q5000 colorserver; EFI announced the Fiery GraphicsArts Package, Premium Edition; EFIannounced a strategic initiative tobring Web-enabled variable data print-ing solutions to ad agencies, designers,graphic arts professionals and com-mercial printers; EFI is upgrading itsfamily of PrinterSite Web-based prod-ucts for print management customers;EFI has joined forces with ManhattanAssociates; Enovation is offering Ver-sion 2.0 of OneFlow; Global Graphicsis previewing the latest version of itsJDF Enabler for the Harlequin RIP;Group Logic demonstrated two newMassTransit file transfer workflows;Group Logic showed automated filedelivery and production automationfor prepress workflows using new JDFsupport built into its MassTransitEnterprise product; Heidelberg USAannounced another addition to itsvalue added consumable products;Integrated Color Solutions announceda new RIP Partnership program; Océdemonstrated a wide portfolio of solu-tions to increase business for graphicarts shops and commercial printers;XMPie announced the launch of itsnewest software, uDirect developedspecifically for Adobe InDesign CS.

In Other News. Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp. announced a significant investmentin News International Ltd.; Oce’s third-quarter revenues decreased by 1.1% to645.7 million euros; Canon U.S.A.announced the addition of the newimageRUNNER Pro 125VP andimageRUNNER Pro 150VP; Creoannounced that it will expand the capacityof its West Virginia printing plate manufac-turing facility; Adobe Systems announcedthe VDP Resource Center; Adobe alsoannounced new benefits to the AdobeSolutions Network Print Service ProviderProgram; Sun Chemical announced that ithas acquired the brand protection assets ofVeritec Group Inc; Scanvec Amiable hasagreed to acquire Treved, LLC; Bowne &Co. announced that it will sell Bowne Busi-ness Solutions to Williams Lea; RISO isintroducing a new series of Printer-Dupli-cators; Rochester Institute of Technology’sSchool of Print Media will be home to agravure research library. TSR

In The Bulletin

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