Spencer & Associates Celebrates its Twentieth Anniversary! 

 Melville, NY, January 7, 2008 — Since 1989, Spencer & Associates Publishing, Ltd. has been evaluating digital printing, providing strategic consulting for key firms in the industry, and performing independent competitive test and analyses for companies for whom digital color printing is mission-critical. Celebrating 20 years serving the industry, Spencer & Associates continues to grow with the evolution of technology while maintaining an international reputation for independence and integrity.

 As the digital color market continues to make significant strides, Spencer & Associates continues its commitment to providing the insight and understanding necessary to keep pace. ''As we share our broad perspective on the industry and our ability to integrate and communicate complex business and technology issues, our clients experience benefits in marketing, sales, product planning, and business management'' said David R. Spencer, president/CEO. ''Our continuing achievements are founded on a commitment to the success of our clients. We continue to be unique in our ability to bridge technology and marketing. By providing solutions and information, not just data, we contribute knowledge as well as value.''

 Catherine Fiasconaro, vice president of operations, added, ''It is with our utmost appreciation that we would like to acknowledge our many esteemed clients. We are grateful for the pleasure of serving you and working to exceed your expectations. Your patronage and confidence in Spencer & Associates is truly valued.''

 A Brief History

 With decades of experience in the printing industry, David Spencer realized the difficulties of real-world ''apples-to-apples'' comparisons. On January 2, 1989 Spencer & Associates was founded with a mission: to analyze color print quality from the unbiased users’ perspective and to communicate this understanding to manufacturers and users alike. 

 It soon became clear that innovative tools were required – device-independent color test files. Barely one year into this endeavor the first such files were developed. Nearly a dozen different printers of varying technologies were tested, and their output print quality was analyzed. Thus began the Color Hardcopy Quality Factors series of study reports. Not to let high-resolution monochrome printing be forgotten, device-independent monochrome test files were developed and the Hardcopy Quality Enhancement study report was published. Nearly one hundred industry players licensed these test files, and the Spencer test files became a de facto industry standard.

 The strategic consulting business continued to grow as digital color moved mainstream. Spencer & Associates provided counsel to more and more of the major industry players and large corporate users printing anything from greeting cards to telephone books. Whether researching technical issues for legal clients, performing due diligence for potential investors, understanding real-user experience and preferences for printer manufacturers, educating sales and service staff, managing central location testing and focus groups on three continents, or communicating with the media, Spencer & Associates employed creativity, intelligence, technology, knowledge and experience to provide value.

 Early in 1998, Spencer & Associates announced formation of the SpencerLab Digital Color Laboratory as a separate functional division. Under the leadership of Catherine Fiasconaro, SpencerLab provides test and competitive evaluation services to the digital printing industry, in the areas of Print Quality, Throughput Speed Performance, Ink/Toner Yield and Cost-per-Print (TCO), and Functionality/Ease-of-Use of color and monochrome printers in every technology class, from drop-on-demand inkjets to digital color presses.

 As SpencerLab grew and tested many hundreds of printing devices, so did the test suites. In 2008 – with the sponsorship of more than a dozen key industry vendors seeking more meaningful measurement tools and standards – including Adobe, Canon, Eastman Kodak, Electronics for Imaging, Hewlett-Packard, Konica Minolta, Lexmark, Océ, Oki Data, Toshiba, and Xerox – Version 4 of the SpencerLab Printer Test Suite was released, an outgrowth of the merged color and monochrome suites.

 Past and Future

 Reflecting on the past twenty years, the incremental improvements in printing technology have become a revolution. ''In our first year, big news was that $1500 could buy a 300 dpi, 4-ppm monochrome laser printer; today you can buy a color laser printer from a top manufacturer with at least twice the resolution and twice the speed for only 20% of the cost. That’s more than 20 times the value in 20 years!'' notes David Spencer. ''Do you remember when inkjet print quality was a lowly competitor to dot matrix imprinting?  Now it has evolved to a serious competitor to traditional (silver halide) photo printing [SpencerLab was the first to statistically document this], and is poised to challenge offset in applications such as photo books, personalized (variable database) printing and transpromo materials. Consumer color inkjets, so useful, are now so inexpensive (name brands starting at under $40) that we complain about the cost of the ink and its yield. MFPs are competing with copiers as markets merge. Overall the changes are, well, simply awesome!''

 Catherine Fiasconaro continued, ''Candidly, we thought color would be a commodity and our mission would be accomplished in 5-10 years; however, 20 years later the digital-in—color-hardcopy-out world has gotten so much bigger and more complex that perhaps we are still at just the tip of the iceberg. We’re excited to be part of this industry and to be growing along with it. Our clients can confidently look forward to continued value, and excellent service and quality that is synonymous with Spencer & Associates.''

 Here’s to the next 20!!