Digital Printing-Toner - Cut Sheet (Color)

More features. Better finishing options. Lower cost. Manufacturers of black-and-white copiers see these trends and more. by Mike Llewellyn Last year, Drew Bilotta, director of Lockheed Martin Management and Data Systems, oversaw the installation of 150 black-and-white Konica copiers, mostly 7020s and 7030s. "At the end of the day, everything comes down to cost, and that's where they [Konica] had a significant advantage," says Bilotta. He explains that he was able to use a company-wide contract with Konica to leverage the best price. But while keeping costs down is certainly important to copier manufacturers, this is not their only strategy. Their black-and-white copiers

Canon USA has unveiled the CLC 3900 color laser copier/printer, touting its speed and affordability, as well as its outstanding image clarity. By MIKE LLEWELLYN Despite fighting through a tough economic climate, Canon came out swinging at a recent press conference with the introduction of a new addition to its CLC series, the CLC 3900. The 3900 color laser copier/printer "has no direct competition right now," said Mason Olds, director and general manager of Canon's Color Systems Division. "It's an entry-level product for a niche market." Canon plans to market the new copier/printer directly to in-plants because of its versatility, speed and ease

Controlling the input, management and distribution of documents could bring in-plants more business. New systems are the key. by Bob Neubauer These days, printing is only part of the picture for an in-plant. It's becoming increasingly necessary to get involved in other areas of a document's life, particularly the creation, management and distribution stages. Otherwise, in-plants will miss out on a valuable source of new business—something sorely needed as e-mail and the Internet replace traditional distribution methods. Knowing this, vendors are developing imaging systems that give in-plants control over digital storage and distribution, in addition to printing. Two such devices were recently

Despite the push for color, the future for black-and-white printing looks bright, especially as variable data applications grow. by Caroline Miller A WALK through any print trade show in the past year might leave you feeling that black-and-white printing is a thing of the past. Giant banners have been proclaiming the power of color printing. But actions speak louder than words. "There is an old phrase in marketing that says what you talk about and what you sell are often two different things," notes Mike Murphy, manager of marketing for DocuTech printing at Xerox. It's a sentiment that Kevin Kern, Konica's vice president of

In-plants that have installed high-speed digital color printers have had tremendous success—and a few disappointments along the way. We got their stories. by Cheryl Adams On September 13, two days after the World Trade Center attack, administration officials at Arizona State University, in Tempe, placed a call to the school's Design Print Services center. Bruce Whitehead, DPS manager, answered the call and took the request for 2,500 "No Hate" posters that would be put up across campus. "We have a lot of international students on campus, many of whom are Muslim," Whitehead explains. "The university administration was concerned about hate crimes and didn't

As the first in-plant to install the new NexPress 2100, World Bank has given the digital color device two enthusiastic thumbs up. by CHERYL ADAMS The first-run, beta-test results are in on the new NexPress 2100. World Bank's Printing, Graphics and Map Design unit installed Heidelberg's high-speed digital color printer in February. One of the first jobs to run was a publicity folder with the image of a book cover on it. "It got rave reviews," says Jane Bloodworth, business manager of the Washington, D.C.-based in-plant. "It turned out beautifully. The client loved it." The NexPress 2100 digital production color press is the

No longer a luxury, color imaging products are becoming crucial pieces of equipment for in-plants. by Bill Barrick Today's color imaging products run faster, are more reliable, give users more capability and cost less. The question is no longer whether companies can afford to outfit their in-plants with dedicated digital color imaging devices; the question, in this competitive economy, is whether they can afford not to. The power of color is beyond debate. Years of industry research (and common sense) confirm that color nearly always has a more powerful effect on readers than black-and-white. According to color expert Jan V. White's "Color for

Color copiers and digital duplicators are productive tools with many applications. by MARK SMITH IN THIS age of computers, flatbed scanners and color desktop printers, it's easy to forget that not every document is readily available as a digital file. Nor does every piece have to be printed in four-color to be effective. These are just two reasons why color copiers and digital duplicators continue to be productive tools. Both product categories can be considered entry-level digital printing systems from a price standpoint. The color copier category is harder to pin down in terms of target markets and applications. Manufacturers commonly call them

Today's digital, high-speed, black-and-white copiers provide advanced capabilities at a fraction of the cost of previous analog workhorse models. by JEFF SMITH The line between office and production equipment continues to become less and less distinct. "Distribute-then-print" has effectively replaced "print-then-distribute" for most applications in most environments. One of the primary causes of this shift in print distribution is the coming of age of digital office copiers, which, along with faster network printers, have provided an effective means to print electronically distributed documents. Today's digital, high-speed, office and production copiers are providing advanced capabilities to in-plants at a fraction of the cost of

In part two of our PDF feature, learn about some of the hurdles you'll have to leap to implement a PDF workflow in both the offset and toner-based environments. (See part one here.) by Heath Cajandig LAST MONTH, I discussed the history of the Portable Document Format (PDF) and the challenges it was created to overcome. But in the real world, can PDF files make things faster, easier and more efficient? First of all, let's talk about PDF in the offset environment. The promise of the PDF is that it can be created by a customer and then RIPed and printed by the