Rochester Institute of Technology

9 Ideas for 
Making Print Pop
January 1, 2012

Finishing elements add cost, but they also add value. As print fights for its place in a digital world, we must find ways to make print more interesting and attractive. Print has a tactile advantage over books on screens: Print moves you without moving. Here are nine techniques for help enhance the "curb appeal" (to borrow a real-estate term) of your printed product.

Gene Therapy: Effective Digital Print Strategies
April 16, 2008

Ten years ago, digital, ondemand book printing officially burst upon the scene at Book-Expo America. With IBM’s roll-fed and Xerox’s sheet-fed equipment producing books on the show fl oor in Chicago, Ingram (then Lightning Print) and Bertelsmann (through OPM) invited the industry to get on board while the train was at the station. Since then, Lighting Print has transformed into Lightning Source, a subsidiary of Ingram Industries and the nation’s largest 24/7 book-at-a-time printer. Book and journal manufacturer Edwards Brothers, which had also been operating a one-off DocuTech service for some years before 1998, has expanded its reach and now has seven satellite digital

Are You the Weakest Link?
March 1, 2007

As I was preparing for this column, I came across the following statement in a brochure prepared by Strategos, strategic planning consultants, that I picked up at an event a few years ago: “What’s amazing is how often top management is surprised when dramatic external change happens. Why the surprise? Is it that the world is violently turbulent, changing in ways that simply cannot be anticipated? Perhaps. But we call them ‘inevitable surprises.’ Think about it. In retrospect, you could have anticipated most of the disruptions in your industry. You can build this capability into your organization. You can be prepared—before your competition.”

This Is Print
April 1, 2004

Everyone who has worked with color proofs knows that proofing systems are fundamentally flawed. A color proofer represents the output of the offset press. Logic tells us the ideal proof comes from the same press as the final piece: a 'press proof'. Ideally, it would also be a sample piece—an actual bound book, folded collateral, or multi-piece direct mail vehicle—rather than a color swatch, mock-up, or comp. The high cost of offset make-ready and short-run printing make on-press proofing virtually impossible on an offset press. But with digital color presses, it's not only possible … it's happening for high-quality applications. One example: the perfect-bound book

A 'World's First' for 'World's Oldest' Bookbinder
February 1, 2004

Acme Bookbinding's newest worker can't get injured on the job when doing back-breaking work. The reason: It's a robot. One of the most labor-intensive and expensive tasks in our industry is the chore of cutting cover materials for hardcover bindings. Generally, cutting cover materials is not a problem for large edition bindings. Kolbus and Crawley have furnished the industry with equipment where cover materials cut from rolls are de-curled, and are either sheeted or cut to size, with remarkable efficiency. Still, lifting a 54" roll of covering material, and mounting it into a cloth cutting machine, is hard, back-breaking work. These days, with larger edition runs increasingly

Inside the Digital Paper Labs at Xerox and HP
February 1, 2004

Scientists compete to make certain their company's papers don't stick, curl, jam, or smear. But even the finest papers can send a print job amok if environmental conditions are ignored. We take paper sheets for granted, never giving a second thought to the ream of paper we load into the short run digital press, laser printer, or copying machine. But the company that sold the paper is probably obsessed with every scientific detail there is to know. That, in a nutshell, explains why digital press and related vendors are going to great lengths to develop, manufacture, and sell paper that doesn't foul

The Demand For On-Demand
March 1, 2002

Print-on-demand (POD), like so many new technologies that have threatened to shake up the status quo of the publishing industry, has garnered its fair share of attention from both enthusiasts and naysayers. But philosophical debates and questions about its potential aside, there appears to be little doubt about the benefits of POD. Continuing, technological advances will most likely erase any nagging doubts about quality and profitability. One thing is clear, the market for POD is growing. In 2000, U.S. companies spent $3.1 billion for black-and-white POD systems and related services and supplies, according to CAP Ventures (www.capv.com). The research firm projects the market