Features

Founded in 1962, Fespa is a global federation of 37 national associations for the screenprinting, digital printing and textile printing communities. Its remit has been to organise exhibitions and conferences for these sectors and reinvest the profits back into print. But is that remit changing? I asked its CEO ahead Fespa 2017.

In its 30th year as a national exhibition Sign and Digital UK will bring together 180 suppliers at the NEC later this month. Given that this is a magazine aimed at large-format orientated PSPs - not a stand-by-stand guide - we have flagged up some of the newest products relevant to this readership, and also provide a breakdown of the talks and seminars that will be free to visitors to the show. Here goes…

…argues Blaise Humphries, Senfa’s Decoprint business unit manager. If you’re thinking of dipping your toes into textile printing why not use what you’ve got?

What’s having the greatest impact on your business at the moment?

The iPhone has peaked. You can read that a gazillion times a day in certain parts of the internet. Yet whatever the sales prospects for Apple’s core product - and, let’s remember, the iPhone 8 is due out later this year, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of this breakthrough technology - the smartphone has only just begun to transform the way we do business.

It’s less than 18 months since Oki Data Corporation completed the acquisition of Seiko I Infotech, a move that brought it into the large-format digital inkjet arena. So can this sector newbie compete in what is now an established marketplace?

What are the latest digital textile printer developments, and could any of this kit be right for your business? Richard Stuart-Turner reports.

The head of the US herd may be calling to scrap America’s Environmental Protection Agency, but will he be able to trample all over European inroads to a greener land? Walter Hale thinks not.

The secondhand market for large-format kit is now becoming substantial, so is it worth risking investment in a used machine? PDS International, which now shows a multitude of used large-format machines for sale on its website, provides an independent voice on the issue.

Yorkshire-based Leach has put together an innovations team to come up with possibilities that will slake its customers’ thirst for something a bit different

This time five years ago I interviewed your predecessor, the late Kathy Woodward, and asked if the BPIF would become more representative of the growing digital large-format sector. I think few would say that’s happened. What’s your view?

Taking new product to a new market is madness according to Ansoff’s Matrix. But Richard McCombe of Matic Media tells why he thinks PSPs can turn things around.