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 On the second day of On Demand, Charlie Corr invited the big four in production print – Xerox (me) Kodak (Randy Vandagriff), HP (Larry Tracy) and IBM (George Promis) – onto the keynote panel that asked “Is Ink Jet the Technology Story of 2007?” These kinds of multi-vendor “confrontations” can sometimes get a little nasty, with speakers taking not-so-subtle digs at their fellow panelists’ products and making over-the-top claims for their own products. But this was no Jerry Springer event, due to a combination of the maturity of the panelists and the gravitas of the large audience drawn by this keynote event held in the main hall.
I was the lead off speaker and gave a comparative assessment of the various types of ink jet and electro photography – Chester Carlson always used that word instead of xerography. During my 37 year Xerox career I have worked with almost all these technologies, though most of the audience did not associate Xerox with ink jet. Xerox has at one time or another marketed piezo, thermal and continuous ink jet products. One of the observations I shared with the audience was that, while xerography is very complicated and difficult to understand, ink jet is the model of simplicity – some ink, a jet and paper – and it is very compact. But, once you get it working, xerography has a lot of self-stabilizing properties and is easy to control. With ink jet, there are alignment issues, maintenance systems, drying – the list keeps growing – that nullify the initial simplicity. And that is one of the reasons it has taken so long ink jet to move up market. A second point I spoke about is “the problem of water” – it takes more energy to dry an image made up of ink drops than to fuse one made up of toner particles. And water does terrible things to paper. Of course, I did not have a product to hawk, but some of the audience was aware of our solid ink products and how, since the acquisition of the Tektronix printer division, Xerox has been moving solid ink up the market in speed and quality.
When I took my seat after my talk, I opened the water bottle given to each on the panelists as we came on stage. As my luck would have it, it was carbonated sparkling water and it exploded all over me. I think the water heard the bad things I said about it and was getting back at me.
At the end of the talks, Charlie put a few questions to the panelists. On ink jet’s biggest challenges, we split 2-2 on reliability or substrate latitude. On which type of ink jet was superior – we all went for our own brand. And we all agreed that new technology in both electro photography and ink jet (all kinds) will offer customers a spectrum of Image Quality, print speed and price/page combinations than current offerings
Pete Crean
Xerox Senior Fellow
I was thrilled to moderate a panel of such caliber and as a result I am excited to announce the release of the podcast for all to hear. Printers today have to make fundamental decisions about business strategy; the discussions we engaged in on this digital printing roundtable that only touched the surface on these issues and these opportunities.
It is clear that companies can no longer count on quick fixes either in costs or process improvements to improve both the top and bottom line. We are challenged to drive better results from investments we make. Utilization should not be solely born to the productivity of the print engine but also to the maximization of personal resources which in reality is the best asset of a growing company.
I want to thank again all the participants of the roundtable. The launch of this podcast allows us the opportunity to extend the dialogue. I invite you to listen, enjoy and comment.
Gavin Jordan-Smith
Vice President, Commercial Print and Prepress Business
Xerox Production Systems Group
Thank you to Gavin Smith for organizing a lunch time meeting at On Demand of some folks who are not selling equipment and care deeply about the printing industry. Gavin posed some interesting questions and for me, it was worth the ride to Boston to see something in a new way.
What I saw was who was in the room. I'm pretty sure that everyone around the table was a baby boomer. Not a surprise, given that it was a group that was selected for their deep experience in the industry. I am baby boomer. Born in 1946, I've always enjoyed being at the leading edge of the "pig in the python". Best of all, I've spent the last 6 years teaching and working with the next generation of creatives at a premier design school.
I've learned that they are different. I like to call them Generation Google. They started using the Internet in 5th or 6th grade. Right behind them, are the kids who never knew a world without the Internet. The leading edge is now about 30 - 35. They came to the Internet later in life, but just as Vietnam defined my generation, the presence of the Internet is defining theirs.
From what I can learn, their attitude to printing is very different from ours.
First, they love printed products. I can't tell you exactly why, but I know they do. That's the good news for us.
Second, they are not impressed by the expertise needed to prepare a PDF file that prints., Or the difficulty of getting it out the door at the right price. They don't know or care how Google works, they just want to know that it does, all the time, every time. As soon as it doesn't they will happily move to whatever does.The long discussions we have about quality, workflow, technology are irrelevent to Generation Google. They don't really know or care about the difference between digital and offset printing..except that offset printing takes much longer and is much more expensive and is often hard to buy. They expect to be able to do everything through a web browser. And to be able to produce whatever they want, when they want, where they want. The best of them are fearless in their youthful arrogance (reminds me of us 40 years ago.) They believe they can learn anything they have to, in order to be able to get what they want.
Third, they expect things to work. Lulu.com is not amazing, merely another functionality. Youtube is not amazing, just part of the infrastructure. And as far as I can tell, MySpace is not cool anymore, but as of yesterday Face Book is the networking platform of choice. Buying photo books from Ofoto to send a gift to grandpa is not amazing, it's merely a sweet, appropriate way of capturing and sharing memories.
Until the tipping point, about two years ago, boomers who got it where called thought leaders or evangelists. But now that Generation Google is coming on the scene, we have to run to catch up.
I'm hoping that I can get some of my Generation Google friends to post here. And perhaps you might ask your Generation Google clients or kids to do the same. If we can get a vibrant conversation going, we might be able to understand the future better... by listening to the future growing in our midst.
So... to see if we can get it going...
I would like to ask: What is it that makes print so wonderful?
Michael Josefowicz
Josefowicz Associates, LLC
I hosted the Digital Print Roundtable Tuesday and it seems fitting to quote a famous author born in Massachusetts in 1904….”Today was good./ Today was fun./ Tomorrow is another one”. Theodor Seuss Geisel. It is the subjects we discussed that fuel our eagerness to participate, to influence, to innovate and possible ignite a change.
Even though we talked for an hour I think we all wish we'd had more time. As we said after it was all over, if there's anything you didn't get to say, we can continue the discussion here on the blog. Also, keep an eye on the when the podcast is released. I encourage you all (even if you weren't around the table) to post a comment and ask questions.
I want to give you Xerox’s sincere gratitude for everyone's participation. It was clearly engaging and to my surprise I only had to play “the foul card” a couple times.
Gavin Jordan-Smith
Vice President, Commercial Print and Prepress Business
Xerox Production Systems Group
What continues to be the hottest application in digital printing today – photobooks! Where else can you get $2 - $3 a page for your digital output?
I am at On Demand in Boston this week and everyone wants to know how they get started.
One of the shows keynote speakers was Frank Cost , from RIT who helped me early on see what technology was making possible (get his fun book The Book as Child off the Internet at Lulu). He shared the podium with John Lacagnina, ColorCentric (a power iGen photobook printer!!) and the audience quickly flocked to the Xerox booth to see first hand what is happening after their talk. Frank came by and told me he is even considering as part of the RIT curriculum offerings a course based upon this application and technology.
Getting into this market is simple when you partner with Xerox, first you need to GET pictures (I recommend for starters MyPhotoFun (you can see them at the Xerox booth if you are at the show), next and most important you need to PRINT (I recommend iGen – we have the iGen book factory on the show floor), and then last FINISH (I like Powis for an entry level solution – also in our booth).
Even outside of the show photobooks are making news, when I arrived Monday the Boston Globe ran an article “Publish beautiful photo books” about how consumers are telling their stories in photos, words, and making books.
Hope you get a chance to come by and see me at the booth.
Brian Segnit
Manager, Photo and Book Printing
Xerox Production Systems Group
Wow! It is officially announced! The fastest cut-sheet, duplex print engine available: the Xerox Nuvera 288 Digital Perfecting System. As a research scientist who has worked to develop the toner used in this engine, I am very proud to see the product launch with such fantastic performance. Early customer experience has validated what we set out to do in the first place. That is design a toner, the Emulsion Aggregation or EA toner, which provides great image quality on a variety of papers at the same time as enabling more prints per bottle of toner. It's the smaller size of the toner that enables more prints from the bottle, and it's the uniform toner size and smooth shape that contribute to the great image quality. Our research on the toner design was done specifically for application to this engine. We optimized the components of the toner as well as the hardware parts together to ensure we got the best performance possible. Combine that with the research that was done to develop the advanced paper path, and the result is this fantastic printer delivering 288 high-quality, black-and-white prints per minute.
It has been great to play a part in the development of this outstanding product.
Patricia Burns, PhD
Xerox Research Centre of Canada
Mississauga, Ontario
Canada
My title is a twist on the long-time DuPont mantra “Better Things for Better Living … Through Chemistry.” DuPont stopped using it 25 years ago when the drug culture proclaimed “Better Living through Chemistry,” spoiling it for corporate America. But what Xerox is doing is clearly legal.
One of the big Xerox stories at On Demand centers on EA toner in Nuvera. EA is short for Emulsion Aggregation, the way Xerox grows the toner particles for the new members of the Nuvera family – the 100/120/144 EA Digital Production System plus the 288 Duplex press. As a life-long technologist, I am delighted to see that the materials folks, who are usually taken for granted and hidden in the labs, are being featured right in the title line. The four Nuvera systems introduced at On Demand are the first Xerox heavy production systems to use “chemical toner.” Of course all toner is chemical, but we mean that the small toner are formed in a vat of magic chemicals as contrasted with being ground down from large slabs of plastic, as we have been doing for decades. Ten toner particles fit across the diameter of a human hair, and it takes about a billion to add up to the size of one M&M.
I do have one concern with this EA branding. To some, it sounds like those gasoline or oil additives that you pour into your oil pan or gas tank that make your car run smother, get better mileage, perform better. . . and who knows what all else?! No such luck. You can’t just pour some “EA” into the toner hopper any more than you can put diesel fuel into your gasoline engine to get that better “diesel mileage.”
The Nuvera family being introduced this week represents a major engineering effort over the past few years. The new development system works hand in hand with fusing, and this new EA toner for Nuvera produces sharp matte prints that have the look and feel of the best offset prints. The images are made from smooth uniformly-sized toner particles which, customers tell us, deliver the top halftone photos and tints in the industry.
EA applied to three systems – oil-less, higher gloss, mono IQ (matte, thin, sharp) – what next? As part of the presentations I have been delivering to our customers, I have been talking about EA toner for a few years, explaining that EA is a process for building “smart materials” which are essential for simpler, more reliable printing systems.
So far, Xerox has applied EA technology to three products. We have built new plant facilities to satisfy the demand. First we put a little bit of wax/oil inside every toner particle so we could stop oiling the fuser roll, simplifying our color office multifunction systems. Then we mixed a new formula, EA HG, which gives higher gloss and brighter colors, still keeping the wax/oil advantage. This month, you see EA applied to production monochrome printers. And we are a long way from running out of places to apply this technology. Stay tuned!
Peter Crean
Senior Fellow, Xerox Innovation Group
Xerox
We have lots of cool things in booth 914 at On Demand this year, including new products, a giant Xerox iGen3 configuration that has never before been shown in public, and some fantastic print applications – many of which are completely finished in line in true “On Demand” fashion.
One application I am most excited about showing off is a new end to end solution called Collateral By Request. It is exactly as its name implies, a web-based solution that anyone from sales reps and distributors to executives can use to order the marketing literature they need. It then gets printed and delivered – and voila, the person has exactly the collateral they need, in the quantity they wanted, when they required it. And – the collaterals ordered can be personalized with regional information, photos, or anything else – you can even upload a database of names and addresses and send out personalized postcards – all automatically. The power of this solution is truly amazing – just think about insurance companies, for example, who have independent agencies everywhere – there must be thousands of them – and they can each order what they need, when they need it. Plus, instead of using a sticker to put their name and address on the back of brochure, it’s nicely printed as part of the brochure. How cool is that?! The thing I think about is that those insurance agents can sell many different brands of insurance – but don’t you think they will be more likely to sell the brand that they have nice, easy, personalized literature for? The types of businesses that can benefit from this go on and on – from product manufacturers and automotive to financial services and retail.
I may be biased, but I think the show overall will be focused on applications like this—teaching printers how to better use the technology, rather than just talking about the latest specs of a product. At least from our perspective at Xerox, the technology to do some of these cool applications has been around for a little while – but now we’ve put it into one package and wrapped the implementation services around it – making it so much easier to get into this type of business. And – if extra help is needed, we have analysts who can come in and set up everything for the customer – including programming the templates and standing up the web site.
So, stop by and say hi, and let me know what other cool applications you’re seeing.
Tracy Yelencsics
Manager, Worldwide Production Color Marketing
Xerox Production Systems Group
Next week at On Demand, I’m privileged to be the host of a roundtable on the subject of digital print. Big deal, right??? We talk about the transition to digital at Xerox all the time, so what is the difference?
Well, we’re bringing together a group of people around a table that have never sat together before… A people with a passion for PRINT. And we’re just going to talk.
Since many in the industry “are just not there yet” when it comes to the implementation of digital print, the goal of the roundtable is to generate discussion about how to help others get there. In reality, it’s going to be a small table, so I couldn’t host you all—but I can invite you to offer your two cents here on this blog. With your input before and after the virtual blogging table could be limitless.
Below are a couple of the starter questions I’ll be throwing out to the group. Let me know what you think — you’ll be helping us jump start the conversation in Boston:
• What are the key printing applications print providers should be selling in 2007?
• What are the top technical and educational issues vendors should be addressing when working with customers looking to transition to digital?
• What steps are vendors overlooking when it comes to teaching printers to sell digital/articulate the capabilities of digital?
• What should print industry vendors be doing to help print providers grow their volume?
• Where do you see the industry in the next 10-15 years?
Thanks in advance for your input. As for the actual discussion at On Demand, we’re going to podcast and post it here on the blog. Stay tuned…
Gavin Jordan-Smith
Vice President, Commercial Print and Prepress Business
Xerox Production Systems Group
It’s crunch time here at Xerox. We’re all going a little bit crazy preparing for one of our biggest shows of the year—AIIM/On Demand. It’s really the only show that covers the entire document lifecycle—from data capture to the printed product—and therefore touches every facet of our business. As a result, we’re going to be talking about it here and over on Big I little t for the next three weeks.
Here on In the Balance, those of us attending the show from the Production Systems Group will be sharing our experiences and observations from the On Demand side of the show—new and improved print technologies, market opportunities, attendee feedback, industry issues and more. Please join us—the intent is to interact and collaborate with our colleagues in the larger printing community.
If you’re attending the show, come see us at booth #914 (Hall A). Our theme this year is “Show Me,” meaning we’re not just going to talk about growing your business—we’re going to demonstrate applications that help identify and exploit growth opportunities. Give us your feedback in person or here on the blog. If you’re not attending this year, we invite you to use this as a resource for what’s happening at the show and to join the conversation with your own comments and opinions about what’s important to the printing and graphic communications industry.
See you in Boston!
Tom Wetjen
Vice President, Worldwide Graphic Communications Industry
Xerox
One hot topic that we’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about is workflow. At the recent printing trade show, AIIM/On Demand , many print providers shared with us ways that they are maximizing the capabilities of their equipment, but also expressed the need for vendors to help them get into the ballgame of higher value jobs.
For print providers, improving workflow can improve efficiency, but can also impact the entire business, and most importantly, the bottom line. The great importance of workflow, for the printing world as well as the larger business world, is evident in the fact that workflow was named one of the ten major innovations of the 21st century in Thomas Friedman's national bestseller, The World is Flat.
Print providers, as savvy business owners, are always looking for ways to become more productive and increase profits. And we’re listening, so you can expect some Xerox news; stay tuned…
What buzz did you hear at AIIM/On Demand?
Mike Salfity
vice president, workflow business unit
Xerox
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