ColorFX News
43RD ANNUAL PRINT DESIGN SURVEY
PRINT AND TRUSTSEVERAL OVERARCHING THEMES JOSTLED FOR THE LEAD HEADLINE IN OUR ANNUAL PRINT DESIGN AND PRODUCTION SURVEY. AMONG THEM: 
The continued predominance of print and collateral as the way designers earn a living. The growing interest in recycled papers and environmentally-friendly practices writ large.
The continued rise of digital printing and digital workflow. And the demand for greater education about efficient and effective print, prepress and paper options.
But in the end, we could not ignore the interwoven concepts of credibility and trust, which seem to light the path toward print’s role and future in graphic communications.
THIS LINKAGE OF PRINT WITH CREDIBILITY AND TRUST ARISES FROM A COUPLE OF POINTS EXPRESSED BY RESPONDENTS
POINT ONE. Print continues to display the classic strengths that have made it a powerful communicator over the ages: permanence, tangibility, sensuality, physicality, convenience, portability. These qualities and characteristics are more important than ever in the ephemeral world of digital communications, say many readers, because they offer an impact, a physical experience and a human connection that is disappearing from our daily lives.
‘Eight Edicts’ of Design for Digital Print
Parsons School of Design and Xerox Collaborate on Primer to Facilitate Productive Partnerships between Designers and Digital Printers
The new generation of designers is learning its craft in a world where everything happens in real time, driving new relationships with technology — and the printing industry.
Examples can be found in every growth area of the print industry. For example, print-on-demand services require designers and printers to share a commitment to frequent, rapid turnarounds. Personalized, variable information printing can improve response rates when creative teams closely coordinate targeting and production with database managers and print providers. And streamlined work processes can save incredible amounts of time and still deliver high-quality output — provided the designer and printer have the know-how to integrate their digital systems.
10 Tips for Creatives in a Digital World
In the last 20 years, the creative process has undergone a nearly total digital transformation, giving creatives the power to eliminate steps in the workflow, deliver new value and change the way clients are served. Here are some helpful hints for managing this expanded creative latitude.
- Follow the standards. Standards like SNAP, GRACOL, SWOP, PDF and PDF/X help enable today’s ever-faster turnarounds, ensuring smooth handoffs from creatives to pre-press and printer.
- Simplify the workflow. By moving to a total digital, standards-based workflow, many creative agencies and production operations move at much faster paces, with fewer people.
- Explore elegant digital typography. Much like offset, high-end digital presses are excellent for reproducing solid text with fine lines and serifs as small as four point.
Konica bizhubPRO1200 Series of Digital Presses
Konica Minolta announces their brand new bizhub PRO 1200 series monochrome digital press and that it will be powered by EFI MicroPress RIP. The combination of technology from the bizhub line and EFI will deliver high performance and much feature-rich document solution that will allow for more control over the pre-press processes. The new bizhub monochrome digital press is stated to combine the two most important elements in printing, quality and speed. The top model, the bizhub 1200 and the bizhub 1200 PRO, is docked at printing 120 ppm whereas the lower model, the bizhub Pro 1051, is at 105 ppm.
Kevin Kern, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. Inc. was quoted:
“Our bizhub PRO 1200 Series is built to be a professional replacement for offset systems in the digital era, so we once again joined forces with EFI, a leader in digital RIP and workflow technology, to drive these systems.”
Because the EFI MicroPress streamlines and automates workflows it allows for an increase in efficiency and reduction of cost. Natively, EFI MicroPress can process PostScript, PDF and XPS at a more efficient rate and accurate output. This is especially useful for last minute jobs because you won’t have to revert back to a native file to make any changes. The EFI MicroPress is also scalable to manage and handle up to 12 digital print engines to meet future growth.