Category: Tech Knowledge

Show and tell

Jun 6, 2012 |

With the main trade shows of 2012 done and dusted it’s time to assess the technological trends they highlighted in the wide-format arena.

So, we’re midway through the year and we’ve had three big exhibitions – Fespa Digital, Sign and Digital, and Drupa – with all their attendant announcements and product launches, but have we seen anything that's really new in terms of technology for the large-format display graphics sector? Rather than simply list the various announcements, which we’ve already covered through the previews and the news pages, here we’ll look at the bigger themes and trends highlighted by the events.

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Getting the really big picture

Getting the really big picture

May 4, 2012 |

Nessan Cleary reports on the technical trends and developments related to superwide inkjet printers.

There’s wide-format and then there’s superwide – but it can be hard to define exactly what a superwide printer should be. Obviously these are going to be wider printers, but how wide? 

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All change?

Apr 16, 2012 |

Things are happening that will push through the barriers wide-format has with VDP adoption. Nessan Cleary explains.

Variable data is one of the great promises of digital printing, making it possible to vary parts of a job across a complete run. We’ve all seen examples of variable data printing because it’s a core technology in transactional printing on things like our bank statements. 

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Make a difference

Apr 16, 2012 |

Your customers want print with a ‘wow’ factor? You can give it to them. John Charnock, director of Print Research International, looks at the special effects you can now incorporate.

‘Special effects’ is such a generic term that it could cover almost any type of print beyond four-colour output. But for the sake of this article let’s take a look at three key areas of development: effects with inks, with substrate and with software – or indeed the combination of any of the three.

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Joined up thinking

Joined up thinking

Mar 9, 2012 |

When it comes to investment there’s a temptation to think mainly in terms of hardware, but it's the software that can really make the difference.

Software is often seen as a bolt-on extra like a printer driver or a Rip, or else as a solution to a particular problem, such as colour management or adding cutting lines to a design. But if we look at some recent announcements we can see a number of new trends emerging that suggest a different approach to organising a wide-format business.

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