Editor’s Note. Andrew Leung a 4th year Graphic Communication student at Ryerson University recently wrote this essay on JDF. The use of JDF-enabled system are becoming widely adopted within the industry. This essay provides a concise review of the technology.
By Andrew Leung
To those who use it, JDF is considered one of the most innovative technologies in the printing industry. It allows workflow to become much more automated and help streamline some of the more cumbersome and repetitive tasks that often can cost printers a substantial amount of money; it was built to help eliminate waste. It costs nothing for printers to use the specifications for JDF, but the systems that incorporates its ability is where the cost lies. JDF is still relatively new, and while there are those in the printing and graphics art industry that have adopted its potential and capabilities, others are still skeptical about it, in the long run, JDF is here to stay.
Last month Canon’s bid for Océ was said to be in jeopardy after Hermes Focus Asset Management Ltd, which controls 3.3 percent shares of Océ, publicly stated it was “concerned that the offer terms do not represent a fair sharing of value between the shareholders of Canon and those of Océ” and they wouldn’t tender their shares.
Last week the business press reported that Canon is sticking with their offer of 8.60 euros ($11.83) per share. Masaki Nakaoka, chief executive of Canon’s office- imaging products operations was quoted saying the offer “is reasonable.”
Konica Minolta and Oce will terminate the joint development and commercialization activities of cut-sheet type monochrome and colour output systems for the production printing market undertaken by both companies under the joint development agreement.
For the time being, Konica Minolta will continue to supply its office printing systems to Oce on an OEM basis from its entire production line, and both Konica Minolta and Oce will continue to supply production printing systems to each other on an OEM basis, under the OEM sales agreement. Also, both companies will continue to supply consumables and parts and offer after-sales service for products already in the market.
Jim Hamilton of InfoTrends writes at InfoBlog, “The development relationship is over, and once the acquisition closes we can expect to see Canon products replacing the Konica Minolta offerings in the Océ product line.”
Baker & Taylor has announced a number of deals in the last week for the company’s TextStream digital book printing service . On February 4th B&T announced a partnership with PublishAmerica to provide print on-demand and order fulfillment for PublishAmerica’s 40,000+ titles.
“We chose Baker & Taylor because of its extensive distribution network, its incredible ability to manage the logistics of shipping and handling a large number of small orders to multiple locations, and the completeness of its printing package,” said Willem Meiners, PublishAmerica co-founder.
On Monday B&T inked deals with Fordham University Press, University of North Carolina Press and Penn State Press to provide print–on–demand services.
“Despite this slow take-off I do expect that this year we will see the sales of these presses accelerate into graphic arts and publishing applications” says Andrew Tribute. A recent article by Andrew looks at some of the key items that need to be considered by potential buyers of these presses. This includes substrates, ink types ink and the life of the print heads.
From June to November Xplor hosted 10 XDU On the Road meetings and the topic of Transpromo and multi-media marketing encompassed the discussions.
At a couple meetings we had comments from people that “they were tired of hearing the word Transpromo”. When challenged to come up with a better word, the banter was interesting and fun but the conclusion was “Transpromo” was the best description. Read the rest of this entry »
Whether you’ve been testing multi-channel marketing or are onto your 50th project, you always want to generate the highest responses you can get. If you’re considering including outbound tele-marketing to confirm data accuracy prior to mailing a printed control, then sampling the data also gives you an opportunity to collect additional data both on the company and the prospect. All new data captured during this phase should be considered as part of the creative criteria when developing segmented mail drops and other contact points.
Another tactic is to parse your data for gender specific mailing drops. This requires manipulating the data for universal count breakdown to determine value of prospects by gender. The creative development portion should include variations of the print (and all derivatives) to include theme, color, illustrations and if possible, physical shape.
Here’s why.
Everybody responds to images that are familiar and it’s easier to imbed your message when the prospect likes what they see and have opened up paths to their frontal cortexes to you. I know, that really sounds insidious, but essentially, if your message does not get there, then you’re not getting the R.O.I. you deserve. Read the rest of this entry »
The study compared response rates of more than 650 real-life personalized cross-media campaigns, with data from DMA and PODi to statistically demonstrate the uplift that can be gained from relevant, personalized communications.
Canon’s $1.1 billion bid for Oce NV may be in jeopardy after Hermes Focus Asset Management Ltd said in an open letter to to the Boards of Canon and Océ (PDF) that it’s “concerned that the offer terms do not represent a fair sharing of value between the shareholders of Canon and those of Océ” and they “won’t tender their shares.”
Orbis Funds, with about 10 percent of Oce, in November rejected Canon’s bid. Investor group VEB, which represented 211 shareholders with about 0.003 percent of Oce at its last shareholders meeting, judged the bid too low.
Canon announced its plan to buy Oce in November for about $1.1 billion in cash. A premium of 70% over the closing share price of Friday 13 November 2009.
Yesterday, Xerox announced a joint sales and marketing agreement with On Demand Books wherein the Xerox 4112 Copier/Printer will be integrated with the Espresso Book Machine – a fully integrated solution that prints, binds and trims books with full color covers on demand in retail locations and libraries. The Espresso Book Machine can produce paperbacks in variable combinations of trim sizes between 4.5″ x 5.0″ and 8.25″ x 10.5″ for a production cost less than one cent per page and can produce a 300 page book in about 4 minutes.
Patrick Gaskin, business development director at RedGroup Retail said that the decision to take the machine out of the store was due to logistics. “Space is at a premium in that store so the EBM was removed to make room for Christmas trade,” he said.
Staff from the Bourke Street store said that the machine had been moved to a warehouse. Currently, there is no option for anyone wanting to purchase or print any of the 100-plus books previously offered by Angus & Robertson.
Print21 cites low print and finishing quality of a sample they had printed at the Angus & Robertson:
The quality of the books printed, however, was disappointing. After paying $30 for one title, Print21 received a book with a chipped spine, off-centre titles and text that was almost too faint to read. A problem with the EBM also meant that the book had to be printed twice.
The EBM was originally configured with a lower end machine from Kyocera when it first came on the market.
