Printing and Imaging

Variable data makes the leap

June 10, 2018June 10, 2018 gretchenapeck

By Gretchen A. Peck

Commercial printers and their print-buying clientele long ago recognized the benefits of personalized print and built workflows that took in vast volumes of disparate data and blended it with static print images. The ability to customize each and every page that comes off a press changed the marketing and advertising game forever—for the better.

For example, consider email marketing. Experian Marketing Services’ 2014 publication, 2013 Email Market Study, found that personalized emails inspire six times the response, transaction, and revenue rates than non-personalized messages. And the effectiveness of personalized print is equally compelling. The study reports that customized promotional mailings may garner as much as 29 percent better open rates.

Now, digital large format print service providers (PSPs) are taking a page from the commercial print playbook and rolling out variable data print (VDP) for their own breed of print projects.

Publishing by Digital Output magazine, April 2014

Printing and Imaging

Answering the riddle of environmentally friendly media

June 10, 2018June 10, 2018 gretchenapeck

By Gretchen A. Peck

Though printing celebrates significant progress in its efforts to be more environmentally considerate, large format still has a long way to go—starting with how the industry at large deals with media. Part of the reason why large format graphics may be lagging behind is confusion.

Casually tossed-about terms like sustainable, “green,” and environmentally responsible are relative to one another. Is media green if it isn’t comprised of some percentage of recycled material? Is it green only if it can be inserted into standard recycling streams? Can substrates be green if they have to be finished with the introduction of a chemical-based solution? Is it green if it can be used and reused with ease, without loss of integrity, such as textile-based print?

Print service providers (PSPs) are tasked with juggling these questions and supplying answers to their customers. In return, they look to media vendors to provide sustainable products. Here, we profile PSPs who are helping solve the sustainable media riddle.

Publishing by Digital Output magazine, May 2014

Printing and Imaging

Prototyping and Short-Run Packaging

June 10, 2018June 10, 2018 gretchenapeck

By Gretchen A. Peck

Without question, digital inkjet has transformed virtually every segment of the print industry—commercial print, sign and graphics, books, and publications. Many predicted that digital inkjet would also transform packaging—not in the sense that long-run inkjet production would entirely replace more traditional print methods like flexography, screenprinting, and offset. Rather, it was seen as an enabler to the creative process, allowing for better comping, prototyping, and in some cases, short-run production.

However, since the advent of quality roll-fed and flatbed print engines, digital inkjet printing has yet to live up to its packaging potential.

Published by DPS Magazine, July 2014

Printing and Imaging

Packaging Promises

June 10, 2018June 10, 2018 gretchenapeck

By Gretchen A. Peck

There’s been a lot of punditry and speculation about how digital print will impact packaging printing, whether it would go the way of commercial print, with shorter print runs and variable data-driven versioning. However, after more than a decade of predictions that digital print—narrow and wide format—would forever alter the packaging landscape, they’ve yet to manifest.

When having a conversation about “packaging,” it’s important to be specific about its sub-segments, suggests Simon Lewis, director, strategic marketing for Hewlett-Packard’s (HP) Indigo Division, who categorizes package printing as labels and label-like products such as shrink sleeves, folding carton, flexible packaging, and “others,” which include specialty packages produced using more exotic media such as metal and glass.

Publishes by DPS Magazine, May 2014