Traditional Printing Under Pressure: Short-Run Demand Rises as PrintChina Spotlights Inkjet and Cloud Printing

As mobile digital technology continues to advance, the traditional printing sector is encountering fresh challenges, while demand for specialized printing keeps growing. In the U.S. printing market, commercial print runs are moving toward shorter volumes and tighter job turnaround windows, pushing the industry toward short runs and fast delivery. At PrintChina, two new products were introduced for the domestic printing industry: the Rastek H652 inkjet printing equipment and PrintMe, a cloud-computing-based cloud printing solution. Fred Rosenzweig attended in person and gave an exclusive media interview.

Industry Positioning and Strategic Planning

In print production, software and hardware must match well to achieve better-than-expected results. In its early stage, the company focused on color and workflow software, but later moved toward inkjet, among the most advanced technologies in printing. Today it offers comprehensive color management software, printing workflow software and color digital controllers, as well as VUTEK UV super-wide-format printing equipment and digital printing equipment. By the year referenced in the source, color digital controllers were in use worldwide, workflow software was serving printing companies, and super-wide Vutek inkjet machines were producing every day.

Leveraging experience in traditional printing and digital production, the company began looking for ways to help traditional businesses shift to digital printing. Short-run jobs are increasing, and each job's handover time strongly affects production efficiency. When a traditional printer faces a multi-job environment and still relies on manual scheduling, it needs substantial manpower for coordination and is prone to errors that reduce overall efficiency. Workflow can manage cumbersome job scheduling and help printers achieve efficient, low-cost job changeovers. Through workflow management, production cycles and quality can also be protected, improving end-user satisfaction.

Beyond workflow, another flagship product—Vutek super-wide-format printing equipment—helps traditional businesses explore personalized production across fields such as personalized home decoration, auto detailing, outdoor advertising, exhibition stand construction, wine bottles and more.

Printing can be applied not only to common paper and fabric, but also to ceramic tile, glass, wood panels, sheet metal, plastic and nearly all other materials, giving traditional businesses a new path for business growth.

Fred Rosenzweig explained that in China, extra-large outdoor building advertisements have been produced with EFI Vutek equipment and have earned a Guinness World Record. During the Beijing Olympics, EFI Jetrion's personalized-data Olympic tickets and related equipment played a key role in producing giant outdoor decorations for venues. For the upcoming London Olympics, GS5000r will once again print a very large image for the Games.

Printing Momentum

At the new product launch, beyond large-format Vutek inkjet equipment, the cloud-based printer Printme drew particular industry attention. Fred Rosenzweig said the product was not especially new for the company: PrintMe had already been launched earlier, ahead of any equipment vendor now proposing cloud printing. Earlier, Fred Rosenzweig was already able to remotely print files from a BlackBerry phone. The reason for formally announcing the cloud printing concept now is the company's hope to use the cloud to stimulate overall print consumption, promote the technology, and eventually let businesspeople easily output files from their mobile devices.

Fred Rosenzweig stressed the company's R&D stance on this technology. He said the company's mission is to develop devices that can connect with cloud terminals. Its expertise lies in print drivers that can work with all printers on the market. Through its technology and the cloud, different files can be processed and output easily on any cloud printer on the market. The company hopes this concept will drive the entire printing industry forward, not merely print files or match drivers for one printer brand.

Digital Trends at Home and Abroad / Helping Enterprises Move Forward

Forty to fifty percent of the company's revenue comes from markets outside the U.S., and overseas sales of its printing products and inkjet output devices have also exceeded a certain level. To strengthen its software market share, the company also hopes to expand through acquisitions of software development companies in Europe and Asia.

Discussing global digital printing, Fred Rosenzweig said printers in developed markets such as Europe and the U.S. are moving toward high efficiency and high performance to control costs and protect margins. These printers handle more jobs per unit of time but smaller volumes per job, and they demand more from variable data and job-to-job changeovers, making digital printing a strong fit for their production model. Digital printing is also developing well in those regions.

Compared with Europe and the U.S., China's digital printing application base remains relatively weak. This is closely related to China's large population and relatively longer runs per print job. In some respects, traditional printing still holds a very dominant position in China. In the inkjet/wide-format segment, however, China has long been a global leader. As inkjet printing technology develops, Chinese inkjet users are quietly transforming.

Although China's digital printing development remains relatively weak, Fred Rosenzweig believes that once market demand rises, it will grow very quickly. The company hopes to help Chinese printers prepare well for the changes ahead.

Cooperation for Mutual Growth

Heidelberg USA announced a partnership to distribute and sell Vutek inkjet equipment. Fred Rosenzweig placed great importance on the Heidelberg relationship. He said the company treats Heidelberg as a strategic partner: first, its products have been recognized by Heidelberg as able to meet customers' end needs and support shorter delivery cycles; through Heidelberg's sales channels, the products can better help traditional printers move into digital transformation. In addition, Heidelberg has already started cooperation with Ricoh, and servers connected by Ricoh will use the relevant technology. The company therefore values the Heidelberg partnership highly and expects it to bring mutual development.

—Reposted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-370007.html