When worlds collide — a call to overhaul the National Print Awards

This year, at the four yearly PacPrint printing trade show (held in the Melbourne Exhibition Centre), it was obvious that digital printing is well on the way to taking a huge chunk of offset printing’s traditional market — see my blog on the subject.

The National Print Awards were held in conjunction with PacPrint on Friday 24th May at the Crown Palladium Ball Room in the Crown Casino complex at Southbank in Melbourne.

The interesting thing is that in 2013, PacPrint was 90% digital, and 10% offset. The National Print Awards, on the other hand, are almost exactly the opposite, with the vast bulk of awards going to offset printed products. Clearly the National Print Awards are in need of a major overhaul to align them with the realities of the printing world.

There is an amusing article in one of the daily print newsletters we subscribe to drawing attention to this misalignment. You can read the full article here. Here’s a small sample from the article.

“Astronomers are hard people to whip into a frenzy. But occasionally – just occasionally – something happens to excite their passions and make them sit up and take notice, or even duck for cover.

“It’s not often that you get two planets hurtling past each other – both going in completely opposite directions (although, I suppose that’s what “going past each other” means).

“But last Friday night [24 May] we had a near-miss of the most cataclysmic proportions, as ‘planet PacPrint’ soared at warp speed into the outer-limits of our imaginations, at once exciting and tantalising with glimpses of what ‘the future of print’ looks like.

“Meanwhile, we had ‘planet NPA’ [National Print Awards] drifting slowly along in the opposite direction, desperately trying to suck us back into the vortex of yesteryear

“Never was the disconnect more dramatically illustrated, than by the difference in composition of these two bodies – PacPrint proudly presenting the exciting new face of print – 90 per cent digital and 10 per cent offset – while the awards continue to flog those two processes almost in exactly the opposite proportions. What’s wrong with this picture?

“Why didn’t someone frog-march whoever it is that persists with these categories down the aisles at PacPrint to give them a taste of the sunlit uplands where digital is king because it generates so many new and exciting opportunities.

PacPrint13 — the week that changed the printing industry forever

PacPrint13, held in the Melbourne Exhibition Centre (“Jeff’s Shed”) towards the end of May this year, showcased a “dizzying array of new high-tech digital” equipment, providing visitors with an unequivocal indication of where the printing industry is headed.

PacPrint is held every four years, and four years ago, the floor throbbed with the incessant beat of large, multi-million dollar (and multi-tonne!) offset presses doing their thing. Digital presses were there too, but almost in a “me too”, or “don’t forget us” capacity.

This year, there were but two only offset presses on display, both shown by one company. Digital printing, however was everywhere. The names might not mean much to you, but they were ALL there — Ricoh, Lanier, Screen, Fuji Xerox and Fujifilm, Konica Minolta, Xeikon, Canon, Kodak, Agfa, Currie Group, Hewlett Packard (HP Indigo).

The paucity of offset presses prompted one wag to quip to a salesperson for the company showing the two offset presses on display, “is this some kind of new technology”. The quip resulted in a very interesting reply. “We will be releasing a fully digital version of this press by the end of the year”.

PacPrint2013 was probably the best and most comprehensive showcase of digital printing, finishing and online technologies anywhere in the world this year, and it was a clear indication that the industry is going digital.

The people behind Kainos Print have been around digital printing since it was first introduced to Australia in 1997. We’ve had vast experience, operated all sorts of presses, and probably forgotten more than most people have ever learnt about digital printing. Anything with a print run of around 750-1000 copies will usually be more economical to print digitally. Book printing, booklet printing, flyer printing, greeting card printing, postcard printing, calendar printing — they are all best produced digitally in quantities less than around 750-1000 copies.

With its smaller footprint, less waste, and lower power requirement, digital printing is also the environmentally friendly alternative.

Buyers of digital equipment have one giant shadow lurking over them — Benny Landa and his nano technology. First shown at Drupa in Germany in May 2012, this technology promises to revolutionise the printing industry. Benny has been to a large extent forgotten, twelve months after the sensational, show-stoprring debut of his presses at Drupa. However Benny says he will be shipping machines by the end of 2013. If he does, and if they become available in Australia any time soon — and with regard to delivery he has form in over-estimating shipping dates — an investor paying a million dollars for new digital kit today should be very nervous. You can read about Benny’s nano technology here.

Australian publishers say the book is not dead

Last week, the ABC ran a very interesting article entitled “Australian publishers say the book is not dead, it is being redefined by new technology”. Here are a few snippets from the article.

“Australians have always been in the top three book consumers, along with New Zealand and the Netherlands,” says Shona Martyn, publishing director of HarperCollins in Australia and New Zealand.”Really what we’re seeing is that, in terms of total numbers of books sold or downloaded, the number is actually up.”

“It’s just that . . .where they’re buying them from has changed.”

That change has involved redefining the very word ‘book’. In many cases, the pages of paper have been replaced by the screen of an electronic device.

It doesn’t look or smell or even feel like a book in the classic form, nevertheless it now qualifies as one.

“You know, people talked about the death of the book, but you’re still seeing a very vibrant market,” Ms Martyn said.

“It’s part of our cultural life, it’s part of what people enjoy.”

“Our challenge really is just to find different ways of connecting the author’s work, creativity and research with the people who want to read it.”

The article tells the story of one author who is releasing his book is serialised form — 120 parts daily. This is hardly new — Charles Dickens released many of his works in serialised form.
The article examines the growing appetite for eBooks, and claims that a quarter of Australians have downloaded an eBook. There is a lot of experimentation going on, but people are still reading, and that’s the most important thing.We are finding that authors whose self publishing endeavours start by producing an eBook, will graduate to printing a hard copy version of the book. Just a day or so ago, we had one author who originally produced an eBook, approach us for a quote to print 500 perfect bound copies of his book.

The ease of access to previous titles by an author, long after they’ve been removed from bookshop shelves is a big win for readers and authors alike.
The big “take home” from this article is that far from being dead, book publishing is alive and well. There is more incentive than ever for budding authors to self publish. There are more ways than ever to get your book before your intended audience.
You can read the full article by clicking here.
With our long experience as booksellers, publishers and now book printing, if you are interested in self publishing a book, we are uniquely placed to advise and help you to get your book into print or into an eBook format.

Kainos Print book wins gold medal at National Print Awards

Kainos Print is proud to announce that our customer, John Dwyer’s book, “The WOW Manifesto” was awarded the highly sought after and prestigious gold medal in the Small Business category, at the National Print Awards on Friday 24th May at the 2013 National Print Awards Dinner, held at the Palladium Ballroom in the Crown Entertainment Complex, Southbank, Melbourne. John’s book represents the epitome of the book printing craft.

John asked us to produce a book that embodied his WOW philosophy.

His designer, Gregg Carson, spent an incredible amount of time and effort to bring John’s vision of “WOW” to reality, using specially created graphics and customised images, as well as a huge number of photos and illustrations.

The book was entered in the NSW Print Awards in November 2012, and won the gold medal in the Small Business category. The award recognised the overall standard of excellence and the group effort required to produce the printed piece. The book was automatically entered in the National Print Awards.

We produce the stunning cover by combining a variety of techniques.

* We offset printed the cover (only 50 copies, which would normally be printed digitally),
* we applied two coats of silk touch matte celloglaze, creating a soft touch feel,
* we applied a spot gloss UV varnish over all the non-leather elements of the cover (this was applied twice),
* we applied a high relief UV varnish to simulate leather,
* we embossed various elements of the cover,
* we used digital printing to produce the internal pages,
* we hand case bound the books, and included a marker ribbon,
* we applied head and tail bands,
* we sourced and included special parchment end papers,
* we fitted brass corners on the outside front and back corners of the book.

The awards ceremony — the 30th since its inception — was held on the penultimate day of Pacprint 2013. Staged every four years, PacPrint is one of the largest and most significant trade exhibitions for the printing and graphic technologies industry in the Southern Hemisphere.The award was presented in front of some 500 representatives from a huge range of printing companies from all around the nation.

The National Print Awards are highly prestigious, and much sought after. There are more printers in the small business category at the Print Awards than any other. The other finalists in our category were on display at PacPrint, and they were very good, so we were quite nervous. Thus, to win is a major achievement and a triumph for the innovative approach we took, our attention to detail, and our commitment to meeting our customer’s tight deadline. It goes without saying that the same qualities we brought to bear on this book are part of our DNA and are brought to bear on all our work.
We are particularly pleased to win this award as it highlights our two main passions — book printing and self publishing. It shows that our book printing division can print anything from a simple 80 page novel, up to a book with a level of sophistication and quality good enough to surpass anything that any other printing business in the country can produce.
Our customer is a successful business consultant, and this is his first venture into self publishing. He sells the book in conjunction with his excellent consultancy seminars.
Having spent the best part of twenty years as retail booksellers, we are keen to promote self publishing. We are in the unique position of being able to advise our customers from a bookseller’s perspective as well as a printer’s perspective.
"The WOW Manifesto" book cover

Kainos Print book wins gold medal at National Print Awards

KainosPrint is proud to announce that our customer, John Dwyer’s book, “The WOW Manifesto” was awarded the highly sought after and prestigious gold medal in the “Small Printing Business with less than 15 Staff” category, at the National Print Awards on Friday 24th May at the 2013 National Print Awards Dinner, held at the Palladium Ballroom in the Crown Entertainment Complex, Southbank, Melbourne. John’s book represents the epitome of book printing craft

John asked us to produce a book that embodied his WOW philosophy.

His designer, Gregg Carson, spent an incredible amount of time and effort to bring John’s vision of “WOW” to reality, using specially created graphics and customised images, as well as a huge number of photos and illustrations.

The book was entered in the NSW Print Awards in November 2012, and won the gold medal in the category of “Small Printing Business with less than 15 Staff” which recognised the overall standard of excellence and the group effort required to produce the printed piece. The book was automatically entered in the National Print Awards.

We produced the stunning cover by combining a variety of techniques.

  • We offset printed the cover (only 50 copies, which would normally be printed digitally),
  • put two coats of silk touch matte celloglaze on it, creating a soft touch feel,
  • applied a spot gloss UV varnish over all the non-leather elements of the cover (this was applied twice),
  • applied a high relief UV varnish to simulate leather,
  • embossed various elements of the cover,
  • hand case bound the books, and included a marker ribbon,
  • applied head and tail bands,
  • sourced and included special parchment end papers,
  • put brass corners on the outside front and back corners of the book.

The awards ceremony – the 30th since its inception – was held on the penultimate day of Pacprint 2013. Staged every four years, PacPrint is one of the largest and most significant trade exhibitions for the printing and graphic technologies industry in the Southern Hemisphere.

The award was presented in front of some 500 representatives from a huge range of printing companies from all around the nation.

The National Print Awards are highly prestigious, and much sought after. Winning this award is a real triumph for our commitment to quality, our creativity, and our project management skills.

The demise of GEON (or a eye-opener on private equity)

The largest offset sheet-fed printer in the Australasian region, Geon, has gone. Geon was an ambitious project to reshape the printing industry, but after six years (one correspondent says eight years), under private equity management, Geon has finally collapsed.

When the company started operating, it bought up a considerable number of successful and respected printing companies throughout Australia and New Zealand including BlueStar, Penfold Buscombe, Impact Printing, Advance Press, Kiwi Labels, CaxtonWeb, and Webstar.

The demise of the company is detailed in a news article in the Print21.com.au article as follows.

The company’s private equity backers, Gresham, finally walked away at the beginning of February when it handed control of the company over to KKR/Allegro private equity investors which had earlier acquired $80 million of Geon debt from Lloyds International. At first there was talk of restructuring and turning the business around but after less than a fortnight, the new owners had called in the receivers. Almost immediately, the dismantling of the Geon group began in earnest.

First to go was the Christchurch-based Kiwi Labels business, which went to Blue Star NZ, itself recently returned from private equity ownership into the arms of former owner, Tom Sturgess. Then Geon’s NSW and Victorian operations went to Blue Star Australia under Geoff Selig who acquired the former Geon Banksmeadow and Parramatta sites in NSW, as well as its Mt. Waverley site in Victoria. These sites were immediately earmarked for closure with a “meaningful number” of Geon employees being offered positions at Blue Star.

Tom Sturgess came back for more 10 days later when Blue Star Group NZ picked up the remaining Geon assets in New Zealand with 50 former Geon workers being offered positions at Blue Star; another 185 former staff missed out.

By mid-March, Geon Perth was looking to go it alone by means of a management buy-out and then, a few days later, Geon’s Tasmanian assets reverted to their former identity, Mercury Walch, under the ownership of the Todisco family. That just left the Queensland operations which failed to find a buyer and were closed down, the Eagle Farm site quickly being listed for sale or lease.

And that was that. Before you knew it, the waters had closed over Geon’s head and the region’s largest sheetfed printer was no more. All that remains is for those staff and suppliers left behind as the ship went down to see what they can salvage from the wreckage.

The industry has seen some hard times in recent years – great companies gone, some of whom it was almost unfathomable to believe could go out of business – but perhaps nothing matches the trauma of the past couple of months.

For me, however, the real learning curve has related to the business model of private equity businesses. The article referred to above provides a host of details which are very enlightening indeed about private equity. Here’s a small sample.

The collapse of Geon is not an indictment of the ‘failure’ of private equity because the business model it holds to is not the same as everybody else’s. Private equity plays by a different set of rules.

There’s an episode of the TV series The Sopranos in which Tony Soprano and the gang take over a sporting goods store after the owner gets into debt with them. Not surprisingly, Tony has no intention of becoming a shopkeeper. Over the coming days and weeks, he and his cronies systematically strip the store like locusts, running up huge debts and selling off the stock at less than cost price (sound familiar?) until eventually the credit dries up.

At one point, the exasperated store owner asks Tony what he’s doing, why he is deliberately running down a good business. “This is how a guy like me makes his living,” says Tony, referring to the old fable of the frog and the scorpion. “This is my bread and butter.”

Finally, with the business on the point of collapse, the owner, drunk, desperate and suicidal, asks Tony Soprano how it will to end. “The end?” replies Tony. “It’s planned bankruptcy.”

During the last US presidential election campaign, the Huffington Post made the same analogy between the modus operandi of private equity groups and Tony Soprano in reference to Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s history with private equity mob, Bain Capital. In the US, Bain has a reputation for buying up companies, loading them up with debt to extract higher dividends and then allowing them to go bankrupt. Romney’s attitude was exemplified by his opposition to any government bail-out of the US auto industry, commenting that “these companies need to go through a managed bankruptcy” as if going bankrupt is simply another form of re-branding.

The point is that, for private equity investors, bankruptcy is not necessarily indicative of business failure; it is a strategy for getting rid of debt and cutting costs. At least Tony Soprano was capable of empathising with his victims.

There is a whole host more detail in the article and I highly recommend it. Here once more is the link.

And here is another link to a story in ProPrint where a Geon insider speaks of the last days of the company with particular reference to his views on the company’s management.

The rise and rise of self-publishing

Publishing Market Shows Steady Title Growth in 2011 Fueled Largely by Self-Publishing Sector

Bowker, the global leader in bibliographic information (they issue ISBNs and produce “Books in Print”), released a report some months ago on print book publishing in the United States for 2011, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

The report gives the lie to the doom and gloom surrounding book printing and the accepted wisdom that book printing is on the way out. The report states “Bowker is projecting that traditional print book output grew six percent in 2011, from 328,259 titles in 2010 to a projected 347,178 in 2011, driven almost exclusively by a strong self-publishing market”.

Bowker states that this is most significant expansion for four years, but that removing self-publishing from the equation would show that the market is relatively flat from 2010.

The report highlights the significance of these figures thus.

“Transformation of our industry has brought on a time of rich innovation in the publishing models we now have today. What was once relegated to the outskirts of our industry—and even took on demeaning names like ‘vanity press’ is now not only a viable alternative but what is driving the title growth of our industry today,” said Kelly Gallagher, Vice-President, Bowker Market Research. “From that standpoint, self-publishing is a true legitimate power to be reckoned with. Coupled with the explosive growth of e-books and digital content – these two forces are moving the industry in dramatic ways.”

So . . . if you have a book in you, start work on it (or dust it off and continue working on it). You are in the vanguard of a powerful new movement that is democratising book publishing, taking the decision about what will be published and what won’t (and arguably what knowledge is “out there” and what isn’t), out of the hands of dollar driven mega-publishers, and putting that decision back in the hands of the author.

We at Kainos Print are uniquely placed to help you, having spent 40 years between us as booksellers, and longer involved in book publishing and printing. A good starting point is our book printing introductory page which you can find here.

The link to the whole Bowker article can be found here.

Do typos matter?

Here’s an article that’s been sitting in my in tray for a while. It is a timely call to pay attention to detail in our written communications.

In an age of tiny keyboards and emoticons, you may think typos don’t matter. Not so, according to someone who’s been addressed as Mr. Renay Seagull.

In the era of tiny keyboards and social media, flying thumbs and emoticons, English majors everywhere are having conniption fits. Typos are inevitable, but do they really matter? For business leaders and entrepreneurs, the answer is Yes. Hell yes.

Bad grammar and typos might be amusing on signs and restaurant menus, but they’re an entirely different matter coming from a business professional like you. Leaders need to communicate with clarity and authority, regardless of industry or keyboard size. Sloppy typing skills dilute your message, and, at worst, seriously diminish your credibility.

Any personal communication such as mass e-mail, letters, slide presentations, articles or other marketing materials must always be reviewed for grammar and typos. There’s nothing like slogging through hundreds of e-mails and coming upon a subject line that says, “Coonecting through George.” Without opening the message, I’ve already formed an opinion about the sender — and it isn’t good. In this case, the sender was applying for an open position on my team. You can guess how that turned out.

Want to get a customer or prospect’s attention? Spell their name incorrectly. Nothing says, “We don’t care about you,” like a misspelled company or recipient name. From someone who has seen every possible spelling of Rene Siegel, including Mr. Renay Seagull, let me tell you, Hell yes, it matters. That’s not a typo. That’s just wrong.

Are there exceptions? You bet. Texting, Skyping, instant messages and Facebook comments are rife with hastily written typos — and that’s ok. But you can still try to keep messages succinct and spelled correctly. Auto-correct and screen glare work at odds with deadlines to derail a well-intended response. Typing full-length emails on a tiny smartphone is never easy, so if the message is important, you might want to wait and use a full-sized keyboard.

What can you do to minimize typos in your personal communication?

Read it out loud. When my fingers are flying and I’m cranking out e-mail, there are times when my fingers don’t catch up to my brain. Words like “from” turn into “form” and won’t be caught by spell-checkers. They leave a sloppy impression with the reader. Take a minute to read your draft out loud, which will help catch any words that shouldn’t be there or any that should.

Borrow another pair of eyes. If it’s important, if you’re tired or in a rush–especially if you’re in a rush — ask someone else to read what you wrote. If I’m sending a critical e-mail, creating something that will been seen by many, or if I’m dealing with a prickly situation, I want to make sure I’m typo-free so that my authentic message comes through.

Separate social media from the rest of your writing. Remember there’s a time and place for TTYL, 🙂 and cr8tv wrtg. Birthday wishes and comments about weekend adventures don’t fall into the same category as business communications.

You can set the standard for your company by writing in a way that shows you care about quality, professionalism and clear communication. How you communicate speaks just as loudly as the actual content of your message. Regardless of technology trends and busy schedules, a few extra seconds can reinforce a great personal brand.

Another way of guarding against typos which I have found quite useful is a brilliant piece of software called “Dragon Dictate” (for the Mac). I have been using it for a several years now. It is remarkably accurate, and, of course, spells correctly all the words I usually get  wrong.  It comes into its own if I have a lot to write. I am a fast typist, but this software is many times faster than typing.

Dragon Dictate is not above making mistakes, and you need to read your dictation carefully, but it is a lot more accurate than my typing!!

Catalogues drive sales ‘up to 40%’ to prove print is still king

We reported in a recent blog that following the world’s biggest printing trade fair, Drupa which has just finished in Germany, the Australian printing industry is very negative, and talking itself down, whilst elsewhere in the world, the printing industry in buoyant and powering ahead.

The article below, which first appeared in ProPrint’s daily newsletter on Thursday 24th May, is a rare positive piece of reporting on the Australian print industry.

Catalogues still have a “staggering reach” and despite the increasing spend on new media, print still wins at getting consumers to open their wallets, according to experts.

Australian Catalogue Association chief executive Ken Bishop, AIW chief executive Paul Ward and Franklin Web director Phil Taylor have talked up catalogues following a report in The Age that colour catalogues were “the medium with the highest level of influence on shopper purchases”.

Bishop said they had “a staggering reach” as they made it into up to 6.5 million letterboxes twice per week.

“Catalogues are still a really effective people-mover. They still encourage people to go to a store and visit a website to do some research before they make a purchase,” he said.

Taylor said some Australian retailers had told him that about a third of their sales were driven by catalogues – and that they could get a 40% jump in sales when one went out.

Retailers may be struggling, but they can’t afford not to invest in catalogue advertising, he added.

Bishop said he wasn’t worried about a decline in catalogues as research showed they continued to remain effective. However, Ward was more cautious.

“I think it will plateau at some stage, but whether it declines I’m not sure. The trouble is we don’t know what’s around the corner with the online space because it moves so quickly.”

All three men told ProPrint that catalogues needed to keep up with the times to remain relevant.

Catalogues have evolved by moving online, adding QR codes and altering their appearance by changing stocks, sizes and finishing, said Bishop.

Taylor predicted they would become more interactive – people would read their catalogues and then use their iPhones and iPads to make purchases.

“Catalogues will bring the shopfront to the kitchen table,” he said.

Ward said the future of catalogues depended on “[making] them work as hard as we can for the retailer”.

One way to do that would be to monitor consumer preferences in order to make the marketing more targeted. He said that was something AIW Printing was working on, but didn’t want to go into detail.

Ward said although it was impossible to predict the future, he was reassured that all the retailers he had spoken to remained committed to catalogues.

“While there are people happy to receive them in the mail and read them they’re not going to away quickly.”

Interview with Benny Landa — detailed explanation of the revolutionary new Nanography printing method

Here is an excellent and very revealing interview with Benny Landa, on his truly revolutionary new digital printing technology. The interview provides more detail on the new technology than anything else I have been able to find.

This interview first appeared in the UK edition of the PrintWeek daily trade newsletter just before Drupa 2012 opened in Dusseldorf, Germany.

“I’m more energised and excited than ever”: an interview with Benny Landa
By Jo Francis Wednesday, 02 May 2012

Can Benny Landa do it again? He spearheaded the digital printing revolution in 1993 when he launched his Indigo E-Print 1000, promising “a print run of one”. Now, after selling Indigo to HP in 2001, he has sensationally returned to print with Landa Digital Printing and Nanography – a new method of printing that he believes will be the basis for a second digital revolution.

On the eve of Drupa 2012, PrintWeek’s Jo Francis asks Landa about his fresh ambitions to transform print by creating a new industry standard.

Benny, we spoke with you at Ipex 2010, where you received a Champions in Print award, and it felt very much as though you’d stepped back from your involvement in print. Not in a million years would we have imagined seeing you with a brand new print technology at Drupa 2012. Welcome back – how does it feel?
Fantastic! I’m more energised and more excited than I’ve ever been.

At the time you told us you were working on a new venture in nanotechnology in the field of energy. At what point did it become something that had a print application?
Years ago, at Landa Labs, we needed to develop super small particles for our energy work. Nobody had a way of doing that so we had to develop our own method for producing these tiny nano particles. We had a breakthrough in making them, and I guess, because I’ve spent my whole life in printing, the moment I saw it I thought “Hey, maybe this will work for pigments too”. That’s when suddenly the bell went off and the light bulb lit, and we realised we had the answer for print.

Why are the nano pigments so special?
Many materials dramatically change their properties when you make them as nanomaterials – metals, for example, dramatically drop in their melting temperature. And all sorts of optical properties appear. Organic materials also change their properties and become much more efficient absorbers of light, so you need a lot less pigment if it’s a nano pigment. And almost as important, nano pigments only absorb light, they don’t scatter it, so you get pure colours.

How big are your nano particles?
Our pigments are a few tens of nanometres in size. They are very small and have totally different properties from regular pigments. They are light absorbers on steroids. They really are amazing particles.

You say Nanography uses ‘ink ejectors’ rather than ‘inkjet’. What’s the difference – how does Nanography work?
Basically our process works like this: with inkjet you eject drops directly on to paper. We don’t do that. We use very similar printheads, but they eject droplets on to a heated blanket conveyor belt. We have had to do some special modifications to the printheads to make them work well with our process, but they are very similar to inkjet heads.

So we eject the drops of ink on to the heated blanket, then we dry the ink image completely by driving the water out of the image with hot air. All you have left is the pigment and the polymer. It’s an ultra-thin layer of polymeric film. Then, you just laminate that film on to the paper by pressing it on to the paper. It transfers with 100% efficiency.

You just press it? It doesn’t need any heat or anything else to make it transfer?
That’s right, it’s just using contact. So the image is on the surface of the substrate, but it’s ultra thin. And because when it’s transferred it’s not a liquid, it’s a plastic film, it sticks to the paper. The moment it touches the paper it’s bonded to it and perfectly dry. All the moisture has been driven off before you touch the paper.

It sounds a bit like a temporary tattoo, or a decal. Is it something like that?
Yes, you could liken it to a decal. But because it’s so very thin, it follows the contours of the paper, so it hardly changes the gloss levels, which is what you want. And it sticks tremendously whether it’s paper or any plastic packaging film, including polyethylene. It’s super simple, but the results are unbelievable.

What about the quality?
There is no printing process that produces these kinds of results. None. We talk about print qualities, not print quality because the combination of qualities is so fantastic. The dots have outstanding sharpness, gloss, uniformity and scratch resistance. I mentioned the unusual properties of nano materials and one of them is abrasion resistance. And because of the very high optical density of the pigments we can print high coverage without any issues.

What have been the main technical challenges in developing it? We’ve seen some inkjet presses have problems with issues like ink drying and the requirement for pre-treated stocks. What was your eureka moment?
One was the breakthrough in producing nano pigments. The second was the realisation that we could do this with aqueous inks, which are preferable both from an economic and from an environmental point of view. There’s nothing like nature’s own pure, clean solvent – water.

What do you say to people who find nano- technology quite worrying, in that they fear the particles could go out of control or leach into the environment in unexpected ways?
Nature is full of nanotechnology. We eat it every day, we drink it. The ones that are dangerous either float through the air or are poisonous and can penetrate the skin. Our inks are innocuous. We use food grade materials that are compatible for packaging.

When you launched the Indigo in 1993 you had one model. You’re coming to Drupa with six including B3, B2 and B1 sheetfed models and two web presses. That’s very ambitious. Tell us about the thinking behind this portfolio of products.
You can do a lot when you take years to do it! We designed these different models to cover the key commercial segments.

Are there other print-related areas where your nanotechnology could be relevant? What about other sizes, such as wide-format display printing?
Very-wide-format is not immediately going to go to Nanography because our process requires the blanket. Every technology has its sweet spots and I think inkjet does a great job for outdoor signage and will continue to do that for a long time. Just like xerography has its place and a sweet spot. I think for mainstream commercial packaging and publishing – that’s ours.

What’s your sweet spot on run lengths?
It depends how you define it, by A4 pages or B1 sheets. For B1 sheets it’s in the thousands, which is a fantastic breakthrough in terms of crossover. We’re talking about significant run lengths.

What about using Nanography for coatings and laminating?
We expect that some of our heads will be used for lacquers, special colours and protective coatings.

Could there be a stand-alone coating machine?
Maybe.

Who have you partnered with on the press chassis?
All the web machines, from bottom to top are done in-house. The sheetfed machines, because of the crucial nature of grippers and sheetfeeding, we buy from a vendor.

Who is it?
Komori. They did the engineering and manufacturing, to our design.

Are you manufacturing the NanoInk yourself?
Yes, absolutely. And the blankets. We also ship the NanoInk as a concentrate and it’s then diluted in the press using the customer’s tap water. The machine deals with filtering and de-ionising it. This means a smaller carbon footprint and it reduces cost. The containers collapse to have almost no volume and almost no ink left in them, and you can dispose of them along with plastic beverage bottles. So, environmentally, the new technology is completely innocuous, it’s recyclable – just a totally green product.

What front-end software will be driving the presses? Or is it in-house?
There are two answers to that. The first answer is that we are working with leading front-end companies for front-end capability. We’re not going to develop our own, we develop only those things that we have to develop that you can’t buy elsewhere, and in this case you can buy it.

The entry-level configuration of each of these products doesn’t have a fancy RIP. It behaves like a printing press. Instead of sending plates to the press you send a job.

But I could do variable information if I wanted to?
Yes of course. They are specified to be digital presses in all respects.

How much server power is it going to take to drive one of these presses doing variable data at max speed?
For most of the customers in this market I don’t think that’s where they initially want to go. It’ll be an option they can add. For the most part, high-speed variable information isn’t where the mainstream customers need to be initially.

How do you plan to go to market?
We believe Nanography will become an industry-wide standard. In my experience of this and other industries, no standard became universally accepted when it was offered as a monopoly by one company. Xerox invented xerography, and it was alone for 15 years until Canon, Ricoh and others came into the marketplace. We plan to offer Nanography to a broad range of partners.

We’ve had news of your first licensing deals with Komori and Manroland Sheetfed. Can we expect more?
Yes. You can expect others to be in the market with Nanographic products. We think the important thing is not the competition, the important thing is giving the customers the ability to succeed. And customers like a choice. We have the greatest technology in the world. For it really to become a standard – and to do so quickly – we need to open it up. The fact is, customers today are sitting on their hands. They’re not buying offset presses. They see a decline in print, the emergence of digital media, so they think “I’ll wait and see what happens”. We don’t want them to wait too long, so in our view the best thing is for multiple vendors to offer Nanography. We think this can have a profound impact on the industry. (Ed. During Drupa, Landa announced a partnership with Heidelberg.)

Are you already talking to other potential partners, or is that going to start at Drupa?
We’re already talking to people who are very interested in pursuing this strategy. You might have thought that multiple press vendors wouldn’t want to be in the market if they don’t have sole rights to a product. That was the thinking years ago. That’s not the problem today. Their customers would love to buy from them, but they aren’t buying. And that’s the problem everyone needs to solve: how do I get customers to buy? So I think we have a compelling value proposition and expect others will join us as partners. We plan for this to be embraced pretty broadly. Look at how many companies offer offset printing, or inkjet.

When will the presses be commercially available?
We’ll be placing presses in customers’ premises some time in the latter part of 2013. At Drupa, we’ll be taking letters of intent with deposits. We’ve already been deluged by customers who want the first machines, and this is a way for customers to secure their place and we’ll know who’s really serious. We can’t promise them a specific date, but we will give them preference.

What do you need to work on between now and then?
We want to get rid of the bugs we have, and that’s just a matter of time, say six-to-eight months. Secondly, production engineering and value engineering. And thirdly, testing. We want to put a lot of miles into these machines before we put them into customers’ hands. I learned a few lessons at Indigo and I absolutely don’t want machines in customers’ hands until the customers are prepared and the machines are ready. All that takes time. But I’m patient.

What sort of thing is a bug at the moment?
Defects and flaws. But I’m an expert at flaws! The end-product last time [Indigo] is now the industry standard for high quality output. Quality is something we understand. It’s not an added feature, it’s absolutely essential.

You say Nanography has “unmatched” cost-per-page. Can you give us some details about the pricing model for the equipment, the ink, etc. Will there be a click charge?
It will depend. In our case we will most likely offer equipment and clicks. Customers like to have a choice.

Do you think inkjet – in some form – will become the dominant digital print technology in general?
First of all I think Nanography is different from inkjet. You really can’t squirt water on to paper and expect it to be the solution for commercial print.

Your new presses will be competing with some of the models made by your old company. Does that feel a bit strange?
The market is so vast, and the playing field so huge, I don’t think people will be wringing their hands saying “Oh, do I buy a Landa or do I buy an Indigo?” because we play in totally different parts of the space. Every technology has its sweet spot, and no digital technology has yet been able to enter the sweet spot we’re talking about.

Benny, it’s fair to say you are renowned for the energy and passion you bring to all your ventures. At Drupa you will be hosting the five daily theatre presentations on the Landa stand, which sounds like some feat – where do you get your energy from?
You’re worried about me getting tired with five presentations a day? I jump out of bed every morning. I pinch myself. I have fantastic people around me, committed hard-working, passionate believers trying to do the impossible. And somehow the impossible becomes possible. It’s really fantastic and very exciting. Last time, with Indigo, I wanted to do everything myself. This time, to do this in my lifetime, I want to see it become ubiquitous. I think that’s the best thing for the industry and the best thing
for us.