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The ability to produce high-quality digital printing has a growing number of commercial printers choosing to incorporate it into their traditional workflow. This market trend is confirmed by the recent revenue reports and announcements of digital equipment manufacturers. For instance, Xerox Corp. stated in its third-quarter 2007 earnings report that revenue from its production business—which sells digital presses and supplies to commercial printers—increased 6 percent, to $1.15 billion.
And at AIIM OnDemand 2007, Canon USA demonstrated several new hardware and software workflow solutions designed to assist commercial printers with the automation and integration of digital workflow processes.
It's now evident that high-end digital color equipment has become a working partner to conventional presses in many shops. So how are commercial printers responding to this changing market? And, what about paper—how are printers handling the need for papers that must perform on both digital and offset presses?
Enhancing Projects
Finlay is a full-service printer headquartered in Connecticut with a large client base in the New York Metro area. Providing high-end consumer brand management and business-to-business marketing solutions to clients such as Nine West, Pentagram, New York University, and the Morgan Library, Finlay has experienced many market evolutions in its 100-plus years of business.
"We see the inclusion of high-end digital printing as an enhancement that allows us to service a wider variety of needs for the discerning customer. Being able to participate in short-run projects, and integrate digital and traditional printing to best fit the project requirements, makes us a stronger partner in the eyes of our clients," says Todd Kalagher, president, Finlay.
With a number of HP Indigo digital color production presses and conventional MAN Roland presses on its floor, Finlay knows what it wants in a paper. "We see cross-platform papers as a necessity in the high-quality market. We are working with a sophisticated group of designers who don't want to learn an entire new set of papers. They want to be able to count on the ones they have been using for years, and we agree. The lines of paper that have extended their offering with digital sheets are the only sheets being specified," says Kalagher.
Property Values
What makes a digital or cross platform paper? Printing papers designed for digital presses require particular properties for optimal performance. The three main properties are formation, surface profile, and moisture level. These can be controlled by paper manufacturers to cohesively harmonize with the process of digital printing.
Many paper mills, such as Mohawk Fine Papers, have developed patented technologies for manufacturing papers that are engineered for high performance on digital color production presses as well as conventional offset presses.
Digital printing can be a powerful complement to traditional printing in today's market. TanaSeybert, a vertically integrated graphic communications firm in Manhattan, believes the current need for quick turnarounds, and the trend towards the elimination of standing inventories—combined with "just in time" printing—necessitates the investment of quality digital equipment.
"Our clients are growing more sophisticated and allocating more resources to variable-data projects. As we watch this growth, we are also seeing the demand for these digital projects to print with offset-quality results," says Eric Bernstein, president/managing partner, TanaSeybert.
Critical Variables
Bernstein often finds that many of today's clients require a pre-printed offset sheet that will later be run on digital equipment for variable-data imaging. The company considers paper stock to be a critical component of success.
"We look for papers with i-Tone treatment, or sapphire-treated stocks specifically designed for superior performance on our HP Indigo press," he says. Other areas TanaSeybert considers important in paper specification are consistent packaging, precise cutting, proper grain direction, and FSC-certified stocks with a high recycled content.
When choosing a paper for digital or cross platform printing, it is important to consider the equipment, and to check your equipment manufacturer's specifications regarding paper. All digital equipment OEMs publish parameters for paper, including thickness, texture, sheet size limitations, and whether your press requires paper made specifically for it. Buying digitally optimized papers ensure success job after job. Many paper companies offer tools that can help optimize your equipment.
For example, Mohawk's Digital Guide is a quick reference to the company's full offering of digital papers, listing which papers are recommended for optimal digital color on the most popular digital presses from Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, Canon, Kodak, Ricoh, Konica-Minolta, and Xeikon.
Both Kalagher and Bernstein agree that when buying papers for digital presses, they use the same criteria as they do for traditional offset: The paper must have the look-and-feel of conventional stocks; a great surface with no imperfections; no mottle; consistency from lot to lot; excellent ink adhesion; and a wide variety of cover and text weights available to fit every customer's needs.
"I would encourage anyone to explore the depth of their paper suppliers in order to understand what expertise they can offer someone buying quality papers. There are differences in the properties and reaction of digital papers. When you have a project where the cover and text are run using different methods that require perfect color match, you learn that the marriage of digital and traditional printing can make for complex projects, and you need more than a paper supplier. You need a partner," says Kalagher.
Chris Harrold is vice president market development, emerging print technologies for Mohawk Fine Papers.
author: By Chris Harrold