Direct Mail Partners Expands Color and Personalization Services with

Diversified print and mail operation well positioned to help clients
make offset-to-digital transition and reduce costs

July 21, 2009 – Trumbull, CT – Océ, an international leader in digital document management and delivery, announced today that Direct Mail Partners (DMP) has expanded its color and personalization service offerings with the recent addition of an Océ CS665 Pro full-color digital printer. The acquisition of the new Océ CS665 Pro cutsheet system is the first step in a strategic expansion of Direct Mail Partners digital color production capabilities in response to market demand for smaller targeted runs, personalization and TransPromo communications.
Privately held Direct Mail Partners is headquartered near Dallas, Texas. The diversified print and mail operation offers a variety of services, including data processing, composition, inkjet addressing, presort, laser printing, bindery and fulfillment. Continuous improvement in quality, productivity and service, along with reinvestment in facilities, equipment and resources, has resulted in compounded annual revenue growth of over 50 percent since 2002. Approximately 100 employees serve customers from two locations: a 44,800 square foot facility in Carrollton, Texas and a 15,000 square foot production facility in Austin, Texas. The Austin location provides disaster recovery service, additional capacity and expanded market coverage.

Decision Driven by Quality, Price, Scalability

“We are excited about partnering with Océ as our vendor of choice for digital color printing equipment,” said Direct Mail Partners CEO Kevin M. Burke. “We selected the Océ CS665 Pro digital color printer as our new digital color platform due to its industry-leading color accuracy and consistency combined with the product’s high quality and scalability. The Océ CS665 Pro color consistency is more accurate than the offset printing standard. It lets us handle larger runs, while maintaining the highest level of consistency and accuracy, even across multiple printers.”
“The relatively low cost makes it feasible to purchase multiple printers for failover and capacity increases. While other vendors’ digital printers require larger upfront capital expenditures, with the Océ solution, we can better match our printer capacity to our clients’ requirements without overinvesting in more than we need,” Burke said.

“With Océ’s affordable entry point to digital full color, Direct Mail Partners can offer customers optimal pricing and quality, without the pressure of achieving return on investment for a much more expensive color solution,” said Eric de Goeijen, Vice President of Marketing, Océ North America, Production Printing Systems division. “This is why we designed the Océ CS color platform to offer maximum flexibility and reliable quality.”

As needs grow, companies like DMP can consider the Océ CS Tandem systems, which integrate multiple Océ CS665 Pro print engines with a centralized server, sophisticated color management software, and validated color consistency to deliver high-level color performance in one system. The unique configuration offers benefits that have historically been out of reach with large, single-box cutsheet color systems. Users can manage the resulting Océ CS Tandem solution from a single workstation, intelligently balancing workloads across engines—without sacrificing output quality. As a result, print providers looking to enter the production color market have a real alternative to offset presses and expensive, lower-quality color digital printers.

“With potential volumes exceeding a million impressions per month, we are excited about the scalability of the platform,” Burke said. The flexible growth path of the Océ CS665 Pro system allows DMP to add capacity as they grow. “We can ‘daisy chain’ engines for the best combination of footprint and cost. The print quality between runs and between printers means the printer is scalable, and failover can be accomplished while maintaining print quality within runs.”

The Economics of Color Investment

With Océ CS665 Pro systems, DMP can help customers transition more jobs to cost-saving digital color production for spot color, transactional documents, full-color marketing documents, short-run booklets and other materials. “When customers transition from offset to digital, they save a bundle in waste, storage and inventory,” said Burke. “The cost of mailing a four-million-impression job of 28,000 packets in July will be 25 to 30 percent cheaper than it would cost clients to produce internally. A lot of that comes from better capacity utilization.”
DMP’s first Océ CS665 Pro color system was just installed in the Austin location. Additional systems are planned for the Carrolton facility in the next few months. Said Burke, “We are working to mirror capabilities at both locations to ensure that we have full business recovery backup for our customers.” DMP will save time and money by taking on color work previously outsourced by the Dallas location.

-=Good Selling=-

Canon USA Introduces imageRUNNER ADVANCE C9075 PRO and C9065 PRO ...

Delivering new color capabilities to the light production marketplace, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital document imaging, today introduced the imageRUNNER ADVANCE C9075 PRO and C9065 PRO multifunction products.

“These new imageRUNNER ADVANCE models will provide high-speed color and black-and-white performance, exceptional print quality, advanced finishing and media support, solutions integration and reliability,” said Sam Yoshida, vice president and general manager, Imaging Systems Group, Canon U.S.A, Inc. “The new imageRUNNER ADVANCE C9075 PRO and C9065 PRO models will open up new opportunities for digital color printing in light production environments.”

Building upon the Company’s recent success in the production marketplace, these new models round out Canon’s digital color solutions portfolio to help meet the growing needs of a vast array of production users, from small copy centers and quick print shops to high-end commercial print environments.

“Canon’s success in the production space has been largely based on its ability to deliver a depth and breadth of quality products that are unrivaled in the market,” added Yoshida. “The new imageRUNNER ADVANCE is no exception. With a smaller footprint and cost that is easy to justify, these new models from Canon will bring an outstanding level of quality and functionality to this class.”

imageRUNNER ADVANCE C9075 PRO/C9065 PRO

Built using an entirely new system and hardware platform, the new imageRUNNER ADVANCE C9075 PRO/C9065 PRO models will be ideal for high-volume color environments, including Central Reprographics Departments (CRDs) and Print Service Providers.

The imageRUNNER ADVANCE C9075 PRO will produce letter-sized output at up to 75-pages-per-minute (ppm) in black-and-white and 70 ppm in color, while the imageRUNNER ADVANCE C9065 PRO will operate at up to 65 ppm in both black-and-white and color.

Incorporating a 10.4-inch upright full color LCD control panel, the new imageRUNNER ADVANCE models will have a new customizable user interface to help define and simplify specific user workflows and allow users to be more productive and efficient.

The imageRUNNER ADVANCE C9075 PRO/C9065 PRO will also have robust and flexible paper and media handling capacities. Through a variety of optional hardware accessories, the new models will have a paper capacity up to 9,300 sheets and will support sizes up to 13 x 19.2-inches and with a weight up to 300gsm (110 lb. Cover). Coated Paper and Tab Paper are also supported.

The new models will come standard with Canon’s Ultra Fast Rendering II (UFRII) printing technology, as well as optional Adobe PostScript 3 and PCL 5c/6 capabilities. For high color intensive users, there will be new imagePASS and ColorPASS print controller options available.

The new models will provide true 1,200 x 1,200 dots-per-inch (dpi) print resolution. The imageRUNNER ADVANCE C9075 PRO and C9065 PRO will deliver exceptional output image quality, yielding smooth, vivid and well-defined images by virtue of the new architecture and technologies.

Both models will utilize a new, high-capacity Single Pass Duplex Document Feeder with scan speeds up to 200 images-per-minute (ipm) for black-and-white, two-sided and letter-sized documents. In addition to fast output and scan speeds, the new models will be available with a number of robust finishing solutions, including multiple folding options, professional punching and booklet trimming.

The imageRUNNER ADVANCE C9075 PRO/C9065 PRO models are expected to be available for customer delivery in the fourth quarter of 2009 through Canon Authorized Dealers and Canon Business Solutions.

About Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions. Its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), a top patent holder of technology, ranked third overall in the U.S. in 2008†, with global revenues of US $45 billion, is listed as number seven in the computer industry on Fortune Magazine's World's Most Admired Companies 2008 list, and is on the 2008 BusinessWeek list of "Top 100 Brands." At Canon, we care because caring is essential to living together in harmony. Founded upon a corporate philosophy of Kyosei – "all people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future" – Canon U.S.A. supports a number of social, youth, educational and other programs, including environmental and recycling initiatives. Additional information about these programs can be found at http://www.usa.canon.com/kyosei. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting http://www.usa.canon.com/rss.

† Based on weekly patent counts issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

All referenced product names, and other marks, are trademarks of their respective owners

TWIK "This Week in Kodak"

Kodak announced it will have a large booth at the upcoming Print 09 trade show in Chicago, IL in September.

Details:
- Will sow the new Kodak PROSPER system, a high speed b/w inkjet imprinting system
- NEXPRESS SE3600 production color system
- 120ppm top speed or 3600 sheets per hour
- new Intelligent Calibration System using a Kodak i1220 ICS color scanner
- new, improved Enhanced Dry Ink toner
- 25% more yield from toner bottles
- new, improved developer for more consistency
- fifth toner station for clear toner, which works with off-line Intelligent Dimensional Coating
- DIGIMASTER EX300 production b/w system
- 18,000 impressions per hour or 300ipm
- uses two b/w engines to print on both side of paper (similar to Xerox Nuvera 288 or Oce’ 6250)
- optional Watkiss SpineMaster and PowerSquare 200 bookletmaker able to make books
of 8 to 200 pages with square spine with text on spine

-=Good Selling=-

KODAK Stream Inkjet Technology Hits the Market with

All products using Stream Inkjet Technology now branded KODAK PROSPER CHICAGO, June 16—The commercial inkjet platform of the future is available today, as Kodak rapidly advances its breakthrough Stream Inkjet Technology. In commercializing the S10 Imprinting System, formerly referred to as the Stream Printhead, K
All products using Stream Inkjet Technology now branded KODAK PROSPER

CHICAGO, June 16—The commercial inkjet platform of the future is available today, as Kodak rapidly advances its breakthrough Stream Inkjet Technology. In commercializing the S10 Imprinting System, formerly referred to as the Stream Printhead, Kodak also announced it is branding all products using Stream Inkjet Technology under the KODAK PROSPER family name.

The new KODAK PROSPER S10 Imprinting System, the first product deploying Stream Inkjet Technology, is successfully installed at customer beta sites worldwide and is now commercially available. The monochrome continuous inkjet solution for inline digital printing on high-speed web devices delivers offset class, variable data printing with significant savings on production costs for direct mail, catalogs, magazines, newspapers, inserts, and transactional documents.

go here for rest of press release

-=Good Selling=-

RISO REDEFINES HIGH-SPEED LOW-COST DIGITAL COLOR WITH

RISO REDEFINES HIGH-SPEED LOW-COST DIGITAL COLOR WITH
LAUNCH OF NEW INKJET PRINTERS

Revolutionary ComColor® series prints up to 150 color pages per minute for
about half the operating costs of comparable toner-based MFPs
Danvers, MA – June 17, 2009 – RISO, Inc., a leader in digital printing technology, today introduced its much-anticipated ComColor® series of full-color inkjet printer/MFPs to the North American market. With ComColor’s print speeds of up to 90-150 ppm (A4), RISO continues its claim of providing “the world’s fastest cut-sheet inkjet printers.”

“There is an unfulfilled demand for faster, more reliable digital color at less than three cents per page,” said Todd Deluca, President and COO of RISO, Inc. “In today’s economy, organizations are actively seeking some new breakthrough in truly affordable printing technology. While many industry observers say that the future of production printing is inkjet, RISO provides that breakthrough today with our unique and powerful ComColor high-speed inkjet printers.”

Five new models comprise the ComColor printer line, which employs RISO’s FORCEJET® imaging system and a robust piezo drop-on-demand inkjet technology designed for production environments. The ComColor 9050, 7050, 7010, 3050, and 3010 models are distinguished by print speed, image area, paper source capacity, and accessory compatibility. These five new models are designed to appeal to a broad range of customer print volumes, applications, and budgets. VDP color applications ideal for ComColor include transactional and transpromo documents, direct mail, booklets, value-oriented marketing collateral, and more.

In addition to color applications, these inkjet printers are extremely cost efficient in producing monochrome output, with an operating cost that can drop to less than a half cent per page. Considering that the majority of all cut-sheet page output is black and white, this low page cost is very beneficial to high-volume users. ComColor offers the unique value of a single device that competes aggressively with low running costs of high-speed monochrome printers while also offering low cost color.

“Our customers will view the ComColor series as the fastest, leanest, toughest, greenest inkjet printers on the planet,” said David Murphy, Vice President of Marketing for RISO, Inc. “With the ability to reliably produce 500,000 pages per month, ComColor is a truly unique digital color print solution for organizations looking for high speed and low total cost of ownership (TCO). Add in ComColor’s versatility, intuitive operation, security and environmental features, and these inkjet printers offer customers something not available with comparable toner-based production printers.”

With their low power consumption, streamlined design, and operating costs at about half that of comparable photocopiers, ComColor printers are energy efficient, easy to use, and very cost efficient. All five models are ENERGY STAR rated and offer printing, scanning and copying capabilities.

The ComColor series expands on RISO’s previously introduced HC series inkjet printers, which the company will continue to market as an active product offering. The ComColor product will be available throughout the Americas in a launch schedule to be completed over the next few weeks. RISO provided a preview of these printers to print industry editors and leaders today during the PRINT 09 Media Days in Chicago, IL.
About RISO, Inc.

RISO, Inc., headquartered in Danvers, Massachusetts, is a wholly owned subsidiary of RISO Kagaku Corporation, Japan's leading manufacturer and distributor of production inkjet printers, digital duplicators and supplies. RISO, Inc. sells high-speed color and monochrome printing solutions throughout the Americas. RISO provides fast and affordable full color digital printers for everyday communications, at speeds of up to 150 pages per minute. Its line of digital duplicators includes one- and two-color systems that reliably produce millions of copies, are environmentally friendly, and are easy and inexpensive to use.
\
To learn more about RISO’s ComColor series, visit http://www.newinkjet.com or call
1-800-876-7476. Visit RISO, Inc.’s corporate website at http://us.riso.com.
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Substrates provider GPA renews HP Indigo partnership

Chicago, IL – GPA, a widely recognized market leader in providing substrate solutions for HP Indigo digital presses, proudly announces that they have been granted the designation of HP Preferred Partner for a second year in a row.

The HP Media Team designed the Preferred Partner program to establish a standard of excellence for partners who exhibit best in class service and support, provide extensive depth and availability of HP Indigo certified substrates, and excel in supporting HP Indigo’s sales and marketing efforts. The renewed partnership between HP Indigo and GPA will continue to help owners of HP Indigo technology achieve a competitive advantage and profitable growth in the digital marketplace. “The first year of our partnership with HP Indigo was very exciting as HP unveiled new press technology highlighted by their 7000 digital press, while GPA unveiled our new Ultra Digital catalog and new Ultra Digital swatchbook featuring the widest range of Indigo substrates in today’s market. We remain committed to demonstrating our leadership in Indigo substrate innovation and outstanding service, as it has been a key to creating profitable growth for our HP Indigo customers,” said Bob Niesen, Vice President of Marketing for GPA.


As an HP Indigo Preferred Partner, GPA will continue to help leverage the unmatched capabilities of the HP Indigo press by pioneering new applications. GPA’s ongoing commitment to the HP Indigo community is evidenced by the resources it has committed to help its customers grow their business: the Ultra Digital Swatchbook that includes over 100 printed samples of the latest and most innovative substrates, the Ultra Digital Catalog which features an extensive offering of over 230 in-stock substrates for HP Indigo, a broad line of FSC certified products, dedicated technical and application support, and free 12” x 18” or 13” x 19” product samples of their entire range of products.


“GPA is extremely honored to once again receive the designation of HP Indigo Preferred Partner. GPA's extensive product offering and commitment to the success of the HP Indigo customer is unparalleled. We look forward to ever greater successes in partnership with HP Indigo for years to come,” says Michael Ratcliff, President and Chief Executive Officer, GPA.

-=Good Selling=-

Ricoh C900 Pro

Caught this video on the tube, KonicaMinolta calls this "fast plastic", however what this really means is that it's sturdier than a steel fram and can take more vibration.