scodix

Raising the Bar

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By Cassandra Balentine

In addition to the value digital print capabilities are known to provide—cost-effective short runs, variable data, and faster turnaround times—the latest print enhancement technologies add value and another layer to the possibilities of digital print.

In the last issue of DPS, we investigated several technologies that bring dimensional effects to digitally printed output. This week, we profile three print providers that invested in the technology to get an edge over the competition.

Presentation Folder
Established in 1977 as a letterpress shop, today Presentation Folder, Inc. operates one 70,000 square foot facility and employs a staff of 50. While the print provider serves a nationwide audience, it focuses on the Western U.S., specifically CA, and is headquartered in Orange, CA.

Joel Tardie, chief innovation officer, Presentation Folder, explains that the company operates with two core business models. The first is trade finishing for local printers, offering services such as spot and flood UV coating, digital raised spot UV coating, foil stamping, embossing, die cutting, and converting. The second is the production and sale of complete printed products, primarily presentation folders.

Using a combination of experience, skill, and the latest in digital print and finishing equipment, the company provides a range of high-value printing and finishing to both sides of its client base. A diverse range of printing and especially finishing equipment allows for a variety of specialty offerings.

For in-house digital production, the company relies on an HP Indigo 5600 digital production press, which offers many attractive features such as the ability to print on synthetics and high productivity of up to two million color or five million monochrome pages per month, producing color jobs at speeds of up to 90 pages per minute. Enabled by HP Indigo’s liquid ElectroInk technology and digital offset process, the device supports up to seven on-press ink stations. Targeting high-volume jobs, it includes white ink capabilities to create high-value, high-impact commercial applications.

In addition, the print provider’s finishing offerings include state-of-the-art features attractive to its network of trade customers. Conventional finishing equipment, including UV spot coating, embossing, and foiling, is often utilized as well as an offline roller coater and many lamination machines for digital finishing needs.

One device that helps set Presentation Folder apart from the competition is the Scodix Ultra Pro, which enables enhanced digital print features. With this equipment, the print and finishing services provider offers digital raised 3D UV effects that make its folders stand out. The product enables a high gloss, raised 3D look and feel that is comparable to embossing. Variable densities from one to 100 percent allow different levels of height and gloss to achieve tactile effects.

Presentation Folder invested and installed the Scodix Ultra Pro in the Fall of 2014. “We might enhance five percent of our jobs with Scodix,” estimates Tardie. “We use it on substrates from both offset and digital presses. We have even used it on large format printed sheets.”

The Scodix Ultra Digital Presses enable the production of tangible enhancements for a variety of applications including marketing literature, stationery items, book covers, boxes and premium packages, greeting cards, and photo albums with variable data capabilities based on a barcode system.

For Presentation Folder, enhancement work often includes logos and photos. Tardie says the shop enhances photos elaborately with Scodix because of the device’s ability to create sculpted, 3D effects with different levels and densities of the polymer. “Our primary product is a presentation folder, but we have done many types of digitally printed pieces from business cards to flyers, book covers, invitations, postcards, and packaging,” he offers.

The print provider recently accepted a job through a broker for a major golf company that wanted to create a package for its sales representatives to take on meetings to showcase the range of balls they offer. The package included a series of cards designed to emulate the actual boxes of different golf balls. The boxes themselves were printed on a metallic board stock using a UV offset press. To recreate the look, Presentation Folder used a metallic board stock and digitally printed them with white ink and CMYK on the HP Indigo. Then, the Scodix was used to emulate the embossing portion of the golf ball boxes.

Tardie says the decision to print digitally on the HP Indigo was easy because the client only needed 200 or so copies of each version. A similar conclusion was drawn for the embossing. Digital was the way to go for both convenience and savings for these short runs.

In addition to the cards inside of the package, Presentation Folder created the box. These were also digitally printed and then soft-touch laminated. Finally, they enhanced around the logo and overall blind pattern in the background using the Scodix. “The boxes themselves didn’t come with much direction,” recalls Tardie. “The client basically asked us if we could come up with a box to hold the cards. They didn’t call for Scodix either, but knowing we wanted a high-end look and feel, we thought we may as well try to see what we could come up with.”

The Scodix was used at 100 percent height/gloss for the logo, and the background pattern was ten percent density for a subtle satin effect. “The client loved it, and was happy to pay more for the Scodix on it,” says Tardie. “The nature of the digital process allowed us to show the client press proofs/prototypes on the actual stock, which ultimately helped convince them to upgrade and add the Scodix enhancement.”

The use of digital enhancement technology was useful for a couple of reasons on this job. First, Tardie notes that it was much more cost effective than embossing or doing a conventional spot UV. Second, it allowed the flexibility to get the job done faster, which was critical for this particular project. “As for the box itself, it definitely added excitement to a plain B&W print and was pretty much the only graphic on the box besides the logo,” offers Tardie. “Printing digitally also was very helpful in proofing as we were able to easily send one-off press proofs to the client to get the color as close as possible to UV offset printed boxes.”

The project took a couple of weeks to turn around, but Tardie says this was mainly due to artwork revisions. He estimates the actual production was closer to five to seven working days.

In the future, the company is interested in adding the foil attachment to its Scodix, but it’s not an immediate need as the shop still does well with its traditional foil stamping and embossing presses. The company is also considering a digital die-cutting option for short runs, and prototypes of custom die-cut pieces, especially packaging.

Kelvyn Press
Established in 1968 as a commercial printer and literature distribution service provider, Kelvyn Press Incorporated focused on the Chicago, IL financial services marketplace. The company expanded in 1998, and Financial Graphic Service (FGS) became the parent company, with a primary function of supporting financial services and insurance clients with their printing, production of annual reports, prospectuses, typesetting, and EDGAR filings.

The company operates three locations, including its 80,000 square foot headquarters in Broadview, IL; a 230,000 square foot fulfillment location in Naperville, IL; and a third 50,000 square foot facility in Braintree, MA.
In addition to its financial focus through FGS, Kelvyn Press specializes in corporate marketing and sales literature, direct mail, business to business communications, and promotional print. Services include traditional and digital print capabilities, a complete bindery, and mailing.

Among its digital offerings, the shop invested in MGI technology in 2014 as part of its digital print department, purchasing both the Meteor DP8700XL+ Press and the JETvarnish 3D Spot UV Coater and iFOIL integrated finishing suite.

The JETvarnish 3D features increased throughput for flat spot UV jobs and 3D raised effects. Tony Malacina, director of operations, Kelvyn Press, says he was drawn to the Meteor DP8700 due to its quality level and sheet size. “I’ve never seen digital equipment produce such high quality,” he states.

While investigating the Meteor DP8700, Malacina recalls the JETvarnish 3D and iFOIL integrated finishing suite. Realizing the industry was headed in the digital direction, he knew it was important for the business to transition itself as well. He envisioned the MGI JETvarnish 3D and iFOIL finishing solutions opening a new segment of business opportunities.
“We had a lot of clients doing small runs that wanted aqueous coating and crystal clear UV. To achieve this, we had to send the jobs out to be screen printed,” he explains. When Malacina noticed the capabilities of the JETvarnish 3D, he knew it could help eliminate outsourcing.

Since the investment in these technologies, the print provider has expanded its offerings, producing brochures, catalogs, invitations, envelopes, business cards, and books with enhanced print capabilities. The prototype options of the JETvarnish 3D and iFOIL allow the shop to experiment. He says there are many foil, color, texture, and substrate options to choose from and customers appreciate the variations of 2D spot coats, 3D enhanced textures, and embossed foil coloring.

Malacina finds that selling customers on the benefits of its digital enhancement technology is a rather easy feat. The company prepares before and after samples of client work to highlight the impact and enhancements of the JETvarnish 3D and iFOIL products.
In fact, he provides an example that hits close to home. “My wife is an author. She was printing her books and covers with a Web-based company. I begged her to give me a shot at the business, and when she finally set me up with one of her books, I did a couple of test copies using the MGI technology,” says Malacina. Once his versions were ready, using raised UV and foil, they put it next to her other copies from the previous print provider. “She’s already seen a 20 percent increase in revenue.” Since the test run, his wife has moved all of her book production to Kelvyn Press, which includes five novels and a novella.
The print provider also teamed up with Susan Hampton to publish her first book of poetry. Titled Heaven’s Pen: Heaven Whispers & So I Write, the book was printed on the MGI Meteor DP8700XL+ Digital Press and the cover was enhanced on the shop’s MGI JETvarnish 3D and iFOIL print finishing system with embossed foiling and spot UV textures.

The first run of the book incorporated spot UV coating, which was applied to the cover by the MGI JETvarnish 3D to highlight the design. However, Kelvyn Press decided that embossed silver foil details and text would make the design even more noticeable, and the team was able to quickly make the changes.

As digital continues to grow, Malacina is considering adding another Meteor press. He says he hasn’t even scratched the surface on what he can do with his print enhancement capabilities.

Fresh Color Press
Making its debut in 2003, Fresh Color Press is located in Eden Prairie, MN with two locations set a few blocks apart from one another. Between the two locations, it has 24,000 square feet of operating space and 22 employees.

The shop’s focus is creating high-quality digitally printed marketing collateral and direct mail products, serving primarily the Twin Cities area. However, the company also has clients throughout the Upper Midwest and a handful in other parts of the country.

A 100 percent digital shop, the company has operated Kodak NexPress production printing equipment since its start. It also offers large format display printing, which was introduced in 2011.

One of the features the shop appreciates about the NexPress is the Dimensional Clear Dry Ink offering for the fifth imaging station. According to Kodak, the feature consists of a dry ink that creates a clear “raised” layer on top of a page element after fusing. It can be used to enhance graphics, text, or a full-color image. The overall tactile effect is similar to thermography, but with a greater degree of control—the dimensional coating can be set to produce variable heights, so users can mimic the texture of a specific image.

When the option was introduced, the shop was already running three NexPresses and immediately ordered the upgrade. Today, approximately ten percent of the NexPress revenue for the print provider utilizes Dimensional Clear Dry Ink. Brian Johnson, president, Fresh Color Press, says the company made the decision to upgrade to this capability because they thought there would be market desire for dimensional printing.

In addition to dimensional coating, the shop also takes advantage of other fifth imaging unit options.

Johnson says the next big thing for the company would be investing in the next generation of the NexPress platform when it is available.

Setting New Standards
With digital print enhancement capabilities that feature high-gloss and embossing effects, print providers offer clients visually appealing graphics with a tactile advantage. dps

Mar2016, DPS Magazine

Dare to Be Different

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By Cassandra Balentine

Print providers strive to differentiate their products. One way to escape commodity pricing is to provide value-added output that others are not offering.

In addition to the personalization and short-run capabilities enabled by digital, print enhancement technologies provide special effects, including textures and raised and embossed features on a variable level. These solutions enable print providers to go beyond four- and four-color-plus-spot offerings to provide cutting-edge applications that demand attention.

As these technologies work their way into the mainstream, we expect them to make an impact. Currently, only a few vendors offer print enhancement technologies and many print providers have yet to embrace the opportunity, mainly due to market awareness and reliance on legacy print equipment.

Drive to Be Different
Digital enhancement technologies allow print providers to add value to traditional applications, improving profit potential while simultaneously opening avenues for expanded offerings.

The value print enhancement technologies bring to table—making material output more noticeable, engaging, interactive, and sensory in nature—attracts users to it. “Adding texture and foil to graphic design helps create a more dramatic, eye-catching impact,” says Kevin Abergel, VP of marketing and sales, MGI USA. “It also helps to stimulate bio chemical instinctual responses that lead people to reach out and touch the enhanced printed product. Many scientific research studies have shown that the relationship of human beings to physical objects is much deeper, richer, and meaningful than virtual objects.”

The industry is evolving and print enhancement technologies have a place in the future. “In today’s fast-paced word the print industry as we know it is changing,” says Amit Shvartz, VP of marketing, Scodix Ltd. He explains that printers understand that they need to differentiate themselves. To help achieve this, print providers offer customers additional value with options that were not previously available to short- and medium-run length jobs. “The alternative of being able to print digital foil in small quantities with variable data is unique. As a result, printers can now offer a tremendous range of options to their customers,” he offers.

Greg Gresock, worldwide director of product management, electrophotographic printing solutions, Eastman Kodak Company, print systems division, agrees, pointing out that print providers that go beyond four- and four-color-plus-spot printing and offer dimensional enhancements are able to differentiate themselves by offering attention-grabbing materials that are more visually and physically engaging.

Application Opportunity
More options lead to expanded opportunity in the digital print space. In addition, digital enhancement solutions offer the ability to upgrade traditional applications. The benefit of digital enables a cost-effective solution for short-run work as well as the ability to add variable enhancements on all run lengths without the need for dies, outsourcing, and makeready.

Shvartz suggests that print enhancement solutions can provide print providers with the ability to turn ordinary applications—like business/greeting cards, folders, book covers, brochures, labels, and packaging—into extraordinary creations. “The difference in end-product quality is so obvious that it’s easy to persuade customers of the value and the ability to increase both their business and profit margins,” he explains.

Abergel says one interesting attraction of digital enhancement is that it can be applied to many different print applications based on customer need, interest, and budget.

For example, MGI often sees its customers using the technology to help increase margins and revenues on standard commercial print applications. On the other hand, the technology also enables entry into profitable new markets, including book publishing and point-of-sale merchandising projects.

Abergel explains that with enhancement technologies, traditional finishing applications are more profitable because production costs are removed. “Likewise, the new applications increase revenue streams because in many cases, they are based upon expansion of both existing and new customers. In other words, our customers are adding dimensional texture and foil effects to products like corporate brochures and restaurant menus that never had them before.”

Gresock sees dimensional opportunities in direct mail and promotional materials, as well as publications, business communications, business cards, and specialty print solutions. “These applications are the most common because they are areas where the need for attention- grabbing printed materials are prevalent. By offering dimensional print solutions in short runs and on short turnaround schedules for items like brochures, book covers, inserts, and durable mailers, print providers are able to differentiate themselves from competitors and help their customers achieve marketing and printing goals,” he adds.

Another area for opportunity is the short-run customization approach to product segmentation. “Our digital enhancement technology can easily create a seasonal variation—like Summer or Winter; a product portfolio segmentation—for example, regular or deluxe; and a market-specific version—like English or Spanish,” says Abergel.

Drilling further into short-run customization is the opportunity for personalization through variable data publishing (VDP). “The growth in digital printing over the last ten to 15 years has in many ways been driven by variable data,” says Abergel. “We see the same phenomenon beginning to occur in digital finishing and print enhancement. Personalization and customization will be the key drivers to getting fully integrated into multi-channel communications,” he adds.

On the enterprise end, the ability of customer relationship management systems to produce segmented databases for short-run production enables many IT departments to assemble output lists that are linked as well as indexed for variable data capabilities. Abergel says MGI uses the terms variable data finishing or variable data foiling (VDF) to describe this process.

He offers a recent example where the company promoted its capabilities on the 2015 Graph Expo show directory. MGI created 20,000 cover cards with unique names and serialized numbers on each piece. “The response was remarkable, we found people sorting through the piles trying to find their own name and take the magazine home as a souvenir of their experience,” recalls Abergel.

Print providers can use enhancement technology to increase profitability by offering personalization options. “The advantages start before the job begins, when printers and finishers present multiple versions of the potential finished product at the time when they bid and quote the product,” says Abergel.

Gresock adds that variable data capabilities enable commercial printers to customize their offerings and increase profit margins by providing more targeted marketing and advertising collateral in industries like newspapers and direct mail. “When you combine VDP with dimensional print effects, printers are able to deliver extremely effective marketing collateral that is targeted, attractive, and informative to the consumer, and provides a high return on marketing investment dollars to the advertiser.”

The Technology
As providers of enhancement technologies continue to spread the word on the advantages of their solutions, it’s important to understand what makes these offerings tick. Here, we provide a technology breakdown of solutions from Eastman Kodak Company, MGI, and Scodix.

Kodak
Kodak’s NexPress technology features the ability for Intelligent Dimensional Coating as part of the Fifth Imaging Unit Solutions portfolio. It enables 3D effects for specified text and images and is one of nine available print enhancement solutions currently offered on the platform. It is available for all NexPress presses sold in the last ten years.

The Kodak NexPress Intelligent Dimensional Coating Solution is driven by Kodak NexPress Dimensional Clear Dry Ink, which is loaded into the Fifth Imaging Unit of a NexPress Press. Gresock describes Dimensional Clear Dry ink as a dry ink that creates a clear raised layer on top of a page element after fusing.

The Kodak NexPress Dimensional Coating Solution operates on the Kodak NexPress Digital Production Color Press Platform and can be implemented in several ways. In the creative design and prepress process it can be integrated through the design of textures and graphical overlays specifically to enhance underlying artwork.

It is also available through pre-loaded, pre-built textures such as pebble finish, linen, or canvas textures. These are selected as a job ticket item within the NexPress Digital Front End to enhance the printed application.

Finally, it can be implemented through coverage settings on the NexPress Digital Front End, where the Dimensional Dry ink is placed wherever CMYK inks exceed certain coverage thresholds to give a raised effect similar to thermography. “There is no need for specific design work in prepress and it is a simple job ticket selection,” says Gresock.
Dimensional printing takes place inline, maintaining press productivity while creating high-impact results that grab a reader’s attention. “The process is clean, simple to implement, and functions in a single pass on the NexPress Press. For short-run applications, the NexPress Dimensional Printing Solution is a lower cost than analog or other digital alternatives,” says Gresock.

MGI
MGI offers a growing portfolio of digital print enhancement products that center around its flagship JETvarnish 3D and iFOIL solutions. All of the integrated MGI JETvarnish 3D and iFOIL systems offer 2D spot UV coats, 3D dimensional textures, and embossed foil with VDP and customization options. The JETvarnish 3D product can be purchased and used as a stand-alone solution. The iFOIL module is an inline product that connects to the JETvarnish 3D and MGI Meteor DP Series of digital presses.

There are currently seven versions of the JETvarnish 3D and iFOIL products, and Abergel says more are on the way. The company also produces a customized version of the JETvarnish 3D and iFOIL products for Konica Minolta, an exclusive worldwide distributor of the JETvarnish 3D and iFOIL S Model Series.

MGI debuted the iFOIL T Model at the 2015 Graph Expo. It is an inline, toner-based foiling solution that integrates with the Meteor digital presses. The company also premiered the roll-fed JETvarnish and iFOIL W Models at Labelexpo in Belgium. The W is a digital print enhancement system for label production.

All of the JETvarnish and iFOIL products offer multiple coating and dimensional texture effects in a single pass with up to three foil colors applied concurrently. MGI products do not have click charges. Abergel says this means multiple passes and “exponentially greater effects can be accomplished if the customer is interested and the operator has time.”

The MGI JETvarnish and iFOIL system utilizes inkjet varnish application methods and a hot foiling process. “We have three curing methods—UV, infrared, and LED. These curing options and the ability to adjust settings for different substrates, finishing materials, and temperatures create a powerful set of tools for digital print enhancement,” says Abergel.
Additionally, the MGI JETvarnish 3D and iFOIL systems are designed with a native touchscreen software application, which includes a time and materials cost calculator so that operators and managers can estimate project delivery requirements, manage work schedules, and accurately bid and quote jobs to ensure optimal profit margins.

Abergel says the operational software of its digital embellishment system allows users to control the application of varnish and foil down to the pixel and micron levels. “A print in a standard format is all that is needed to run the system and apply the enhancements,” he explains.

The JETvarnish 3D and iFOIL system are designed to serve as print enhancement systems, not as printing presses. However, Abergel says that by using varnish as an adhesion surface, it is possible to “print foil” in a variety of ways, such as to produce personalized names, text, numbers, and images.

“Traditionally, it has been impossible to create individualized, embossed foil applications due to the high cost, time, and effort needed to produce dies. So, for a personalized, 10,000 piece print run, you would need to produce 10,000 separate dies. That is obviously not a workable solution,” observes Abergel. “With MGI VDF, every piece that comes off the line can be personalized for a separate customer name and done in embossed foil up to 200 microns high,” he concludes.

Scodix
The Scodix philosophy, according to Shvartz, is to approach each individual customer through the specific application(s) they require. For example, the Scodix UltraPro Press allows users to deploy any application needed for enhancement all in one system, whether it be Scodix foil, Scodix SPOT, Scodix Metallic, Scodix Variable Data, or Scodix Braille.
“Our objective is to provide customers with innovative applications that are cost effective, robust, and reliable. We strive to deliver enhancement capabilities that give print providers the tools they need to differentiate themselves from the competition and produce high-quality end products that could never before be achieved in short, medium, and even long runs,” says Shvartz.

Scodix solutions are based on inkjet technology with a host of innovative, proprietary, and patented technologies designed to support the use of inkjet for its range of applications.

Software is included with every Scodix solution. Further, they are designed to support any design software currently in use by its customers. “The vision is to offer the Scodix enhancement through the current tools they use,” he offers.
Shvartz says Scodix provides all digital enhancements in one solution. “We have successfully developed a unique platform that serves a range of applications, including digital embossing and digital foil.”

Enhanced Capabilities
Digital print enhancement technologies address demands to offer more attractive and engaging print solutions across a variety of print segments, including commercial printing, photographic services, and specialty print. With these tools, print providers can break out as true marketing partners.
Even with a small percentage of vendors currently serving this market worldwide, it is clear immense opportunities are on the horizon. dps

Jan2016, DPS Magazine