Cincinnati Excited About Novel Equipment Choice

“I was totally amazed. I was shocked,” he recalls. “The color consistency is unbelievable. It matches the offset like you wouldn’t believe.”

Still, he had some reservations.

“I was very nervous about...buying a machine that nobody really knows about. It was nerve-racking,” he admits. But in the end, his visionary spirit took over. “I’m always willing to take that risk if it’s something I believe in.”

One bonus of the Meteor, he says, is its ability to handle thick stocks, including PVC, polyester and vinyl.

“We do a lot of posters, we do a lot of door hangers. We need that heavier weight stock,” he remarks. The shop has already produced plastic parking tags on the press.

Another feature Howe loves is the press’s ability to apply extra toner to create a glossy, more vibrant look. “We did it on a poster,” he says. “It made the colors jump up out of the paper at you.”

Though the press seems a perfect fit the the in-plant, the shop finds itself fighting the age-old perception in city government that color printing is an extravagance. Regardless, Howe has promoted the new press by inviting graphic designers to come and see what it can do.

“It opened up more ideas for them to add more color to documents,” he says.

In contrast to his initial skepticism, Howe now feels MGI’s technology will have a great impact on the industry in years ahead.

“I feel confident this is the kind of product people are going to want to have in the future,” he says. “The Meteor DP60 Pro has truly changed how we think about printing. We’re now able to undertake projects that were previously constrained by cost and capabilities, and we’re excited about exploring the multi-substrate aspects of the press and producing more variable data print jobs.”