Digital opportunities abound at Drupa

Will Drupa 2012 be the great window of opportunity? More importantly will it restore the worldwide print’s confidence?

Noel D’cunha, Deputy Editor of PrintWeek India
Printweek

In addition to the hardware and software, there are interesting trends which shall unfold at Drupa.

For instance, cheap cross-media solutions for SME printers in India, that’s a big thing. Can Indian print firms leverage this? For example with software as a service (SAAS).

My colleagues in UK sent us a link of MindFire. This software solution allows print firms to offer email campaigns, Twitter, FB and sms integration.

The key devices on my radar are

  • FujiFilm’s JetPress 720 B2 sheetfed inkjet presses for the folding carton marke
  • Heidelberg which is premiering with the Speedmaster SX press platforms (between their SM and XL range) plus the digital launch of the Linoprint.
  • Ricoh enters the wide-format market with a four-colour device aimed at CAD, construction and quickprinters.
  • Canon has announced that the Oce Colorstream 3700 high-speed inkjet and the Arizona 318 GL UV flatbed will be launched.
  • Epson will show the SurePress X single-pass digital label press, its first UV ink product, and enter into the the digital dry labels with the SureLab SL-D3000 for on-demand photo and card printing.
  •  Holding centre stage at the FFEI stand will be the Caslon digital inkjet web label press, that will incorporate a new digital spot colour printing unit that prints digital UV-curable white ink. 
  • Xerox will demonstrate the waterless inkjet press at Drupa, which can print on ordinary offset papers without any coating.
Source: PrintWeek