The State of On-demand Printing

In what may have been the best held secret of Drupa, Xerox unveiled the iGen4. It didn’t look much different then the iGen3, but the improvements in the $640,000 machine were under the hood. The most impressive is the patented Auto Density Control technology, which uses a full-width sensor array to automatically detect and eliminate density variations and streaks while the press is running.

While exciting to discuss, these productive, high-quality, expensive color devices may not fit into your average in-plant. More appropriate are the mid-range addressing devices described earlier. The most conservative investment strategy these days is to buy something that has a capacity to meet most of your existing needs. If you can keep it busy and sustain that volume, then you have a good reason to discuss trading up or buying another.

Buzz Belies Reality

This excitement about high-speed color ink-jet technology may have created a tremendous buzz, but it was a premature and somewhat misleading buzz. Ink-jet printing is not going to kill offset or toner-based printing in the immediate future. However, the new announcements blur the advantages of each technology more than ever. The key to understanding which technology is best comes down to applications, quality, equipment cost (price per page, utilization rates) and break-even points.

Electrophotographic (toner) printing technology’s quality and speed continue to improve, resulting in a reduced price per page, even for longer print runs historically reserved for offset printing. As a result the break-even point for the latest toner devices can reach about 5,000 pages. The quality continues to improve.

Offset technology will continue to automate the makeready process with advances in computer-to-plate, auto plate loading, JDF transfer of information, auto blanket washing and ink key presets. And let’s not forget direct imaging (DI) press devices, which are being refined every year and are well suited to in-plants.