Better image quality, more versatile processing and expanded support for business-building are key advances

By George Linkletter, OutputLinks

For a print service provider, selecting the right digital print vendor is akin to getting married: you had better choose wisely since you will be living with your partner for a long time – and the cost of splitting up can be harrowing.

Kodak’s recent array of product and service announcements, released simultaneously at GRAPH EXPO for its North American audiences and at its European headquarters in La Hulpe, Belgium for the global media and analyst communities, underscore the firm’s understanding of this unique relationship and its keen focus on keeping it strong and vibrant.

Highlighting the list of remarkable advances is the launch of the next generation of the KODAK VERSAMARK Printing Systems, which feature the dual advantage of the industry’s smallest footprint and an innovative single-engine design.

A More Versatile Workhorse
The smaller footprint – making the devices ideal for installation in data center environments where typical applications include transaction and direct mail, newsletters and even newspapers – results from the use of compact, high-speed monochrome and process color web presses based on a single-engine duplex design and the next-generation of Drop on Demand (DOD) print heads.

Thanks to the unique combination, customers have easy scalability, i.e., the option of starting out with the digital advantage of variable messaging and imaging in monochrome format, and easily advancing to spot and full color as production needs change. 

The workhorse devices also offer a shorter web path than previous models, which means fewer web breaks and increased productivity, yielding better reliability and higher throughput at peak production.

Kodak already has “the largest installed base of color roll-fed inkjet systems in the world,” says Vince Ferraro, vice president of worldwide marketing for the Digital Printing Solutions unit of Kodak. 

With these new models, the firm expects to grow that base by offering new customers an easy upgrade path to high-speed color via “higher performance in less space,” according to Isidre Rosello, general manager, Digital Printing Solutions.

Specifically, the next-generation of printheads improves flat field density and reduces the variation in dot size within one module in the printhead, which reduces banding and results in higher print quality. In the area of jet reliability, the technology improvements yield improved roll-to-roll performance, while improved temperature controls result in increased jet reliability and extends printhead life over time.

The systems also help reduce costs and turnaround times by streamlining the production process by eliminating the two-step process of (1) printing offset forms and master documents and then (2) imprinting variable data offline.  Users can now produce a complete process color, personalized, two-sided document in one pass.

Also of note are the advanced controller capabilities of the KODAK 700 Print Manager, which handles a wide variety of application formats, including native IPDS support, PDF, PostScript and PPML/GA, all on the same digital front end, further extending the application’s reach.

Additionally, the devices feature a security ink capability, which enables the printing of government and other documents that provide fraud protection with high levels of VDP.  And a MICR capability can be used for check printing to facilitate automation in check processing, also while providing security.

The new VERSAMARK Printing Systems accommodate monochrome 1-up simplex to 5/4 and 2-up duplex. Speeds vary from 246 to 492 feet per minute at 600 x 600 dpi.  The line now includes 14 different models.

Fast, High-Quality … and Variable
The best of both worlds -- at once. That’s how one might describe the remarkable new KODAK PROSPER S20 Imprinting System with CMYK. The device features a hybrid printing technology that integrates offset-quality with process color personalization at blazing fast speeds. Just how fast?  Up to 2,000 fpm/610 mpm at 600 x 300 dpi.

The full-color imprinting system, which is ideal for commercial inserts and direct marketing applications as well as versioned ads in magazines and newspapers, produces high quality documents inline while leveraging and complementing existing web offset presses and finishing equipment.

Customers can use the specialty printing capabilities of offset – including metallic inks, heavy color saturation, scratch-off coatings and other specialty inks – to create high-value shells that can then be customized with process color digital printing inline at production speeds.

The integrated capability offers customers a real-world opportunity to generate new revenue via new opportunities – with one of the most cost-effective and uniquely efficient hybrid digital color solutions on the market.

Current PROSPER S10 Imprinting System with CMYK customers now have the option of upgrading to the new, fast S 20 System by leveraging their current transport without any changes in transport.

“Cost has always been the Achilles heel of high-volume variable data printing,” says John Hornby, chief executive of Lettershop, a UK-based provider of marketing print/mail and cross channel solutions. He says the S10 System is “significantly more economical and effective” than a full white paper solution.  “We’ve always had a strong litho operation, and it was natural to mount the KODAK PROSPER S10 System heads to our finishing line.”

As for customer acceptance, Hornby says, “when we put an S10 digitally-produced hybrid piece in front of customers, they believe it was all produced with litho proof of quality – until we actually point it out to them.”

The device offers “slack web” flexible mounting options and can seamlessly integrate with web offset presses and web finishing lines using a variety of third-party printing towers.

‘Investment protection’ is another way to view the value of the S10 and S20 Systems, according to Vince Ferraro, vice president of worldwide marketing for the Kodak Digital Printing Solutions unit. He calls the devices “a tremendous way to increase response rates and Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) while utilizing a legacy offset infrastructure.”

And, as he points out, “Kodak is the only company currently capable of delivering this high-value inline solution.”

Expert Consulting to Grow Revenues
In the print world, digital is clearly the path to a better future. The technology offers the opportunity for growth via both higher volumes and better margins. 

Yet switching gears – from a mass-market, one-to-many orientation to a highly personalized, one-to-one capability – can be challenging. 

In fact, in many cases print service providers just “don’t have the expertise in marketing that is required to take their services to the next level,” says Deb Strranaghan, director of KODAK MARKETMOVER Business Advantage Solutions.

Which is why Kodak’s new MARKETMOVER Managed Campaign Services is expected to be so valuable and popular.

Managed Campaign Services is a suite of services designed to help print service providers bring to market and sell high-value, data-driven, multi-channel direct marketing campaigns for their clients. And just as important, printers won’t need to make a significant capital or resource investment to develop the new capability.

Customers using these new, focused services will have access to a team of experts – as part of KODAK MARKETMOVER Business Advantage Solutions – who can provide marketing-related consulting and customized KODAK Solutions.

These experts bring extensive knowledge in data analytics and marketing science that enable print service providers to deliver multi-channel campaigns that will differentiate their business and build customer loyalty.

Kodak’s specialized analytical capabilities and campaign management technology, along with a full set of support services, makes the process easy while the joint go-to-market model provides expertise and guidance to get the offering up and running quickly and easily.

MARKETMOVER Solutions consultants will work with printers to identify the strongest candidates among existing clients, and then help to market and deliver high-margin marketing services. Acquisition of new account accounts comes next.

Partnering with the MARKETMOVER Managed Campaign Services team has already yielded concrete results for some managers. Larry Miles, vice president of sales for McClung Companies, a high quality offset and digital printing firm based in Virginia, is one of them. 

He says the consulting services have helped his company open up markets that were unavailable before, emphasizing that the “in-depth analytical capabilities and the team’s professionalism allow us to engage with customers that we would not have been able to engage on our own. We are now playing at another level.”

Improved Image Quality
Underscoring these and other recent advances is the ongoing Kodak commitment to best-possible image quality, which is evidenced in the results of a just-released study by the SpencerLab Digital Color Laboratory. 

The independent study found the KODAK NEXPRESS SX3300 Digital Production Color Press achieved an overall highest rating in photographic print quality, and demonstrated the best all-round performance across the majority of attributes evaluated.

The results showed the NEXPRESS Press had the best-in-class realism for sky, water and foliage; and high realism for skin tones. It also had best-in-class sharpness and high smoothness, and the best monochrome/neutral gray output.

Other devices evaluated in the study were the HP INDIGO 7500 Digital Press, the XEROX iGen4 Press, and XEROX Color 1000 Press. The study evaluated glossy and matte prints produced at each manufacturer’s facility.

David Spencer, CEO of SpencerLab, says “we were extremely impressed by the improvements demonstrated by the SX with HD Dry Ink, bringing its photographic print quality right up to Best-in-Class.  In this test of four digital presses, all able to make very high-quality photographic prints, the KODAK NEXPRESS SX 3300 showed its true colors — its excellent capabilities.”

The NEXPRESS SX Digital Production Color Platform with Print Genius has been designed to meet the needs of commercial printers, photo product printers, direct mail houses, in-plant printers, and data centers. Features include speeds up to 131 ppm, a longer sheet size (26″/660 mm), smaller ink particle size with the new KODAK NEXPRESS HD Dry Ink, new KODAK NEXPRESS Light Black HD Solution, and a new matte printing effect option.