By Cassandra Balentine
Thoughout the year, DPS targets editorial to topics that affect those currently operating or actively considering digital print and related technologies. A core group of vendors service this market and the Readers’ Choice Award recognizes those 35 generating top interest in 2018.
The information is derived from our proprietary information request tracking and lead generation system, dpsmagdirect.com. The annual Top 30 Readers’ Choice Awards provide a snapshot of the products and services that our readers pay most attention to within each issue and article.
This year, we again see a big interest in digital print technology, as more than 46 percent of the vendors represented provide print engines, ranging from toner- and inkjet-based production presses to digital label systems, wide format devices, and printing services. Further, finishing comes in second with 27 percent of the winning companies focused on post-press products. Additionally, 20 percent are software/workflow providers and media/substrate vendors make up seven percent.
So without further ado, congratulations to this year’s Readers’ Choice winners! These vendors continue to showcase innovation in communications. If your favorite vendor did not make this year’s list, be sure to visit dpsmagdirect.com throughout 2019 to record your interest in their products and solutions.
Above: Blue Crest offers the IntelliJet print solutions.
Top 30 Winners
The top 30 vendors and five honorable mentions provided a company profile, as well as highlight up to three products that represent their ongoing commitment to the markets they serve. The products and associated INFO#s are presented in chart form for easy viewing. Visit dpsmagdirect.com for more information.
Aleyant
Founded in 2005, Aleyant provides robust software services to the graphic communications industry at value-driven prices. Aleyant creates web to print, estimating and production, and prepress automation workflow software for graphic arts professionals. By unifying production processes, the company expands its customers’ ability to be more available, efficient, and profitable. Aleyant’s software solutions can work together, creating an efficient, automated printing workflow. They can be used separately, together, or with third-party systems.
Avanti
At Avanti, our goal is to help you deliver more jobs in less time, with the confidence in knowing that every aspect of your shop is integrated into one powerful platform. Since 1984, Avanti has provided innovative, award-winning print MIS solutions that help print shops and marketing communication organizations automate all facets of their business and cultivate a more meaningful customer relationship. Avanti’s solutions are the most open in the industry; our JDF-certified Avanti Slingshot manages multiple lines of business. It handles large/grand format, digital and offset print, and mail/fulfillment workflows. From order entry to production and billing, Avanti Slingshot helps you work more efficiently, control costs, and move more jobs through the shop.
BlueCrest
BlueCrest, formerly Pitney Bowes Document Messaging Technologies, is a global technology provider of innovative, secure, and agile solutions that effectively and efficiently deliver high-value client communications and parcels. With the industry’s most comprehensive line of printers, inserters, sorters, and parcel solutions, BlueCrest helps clients—including some of the world’s largest high-volume mailers, postal organizations, and parcel logistics companies—drive operational efficiency and effectiveness. The company also offers mail, print, and data management software to optimize communications and innovative internet of things technology with real-time predictive analytics to boost productivity.
Canon
Canon U.S.A., Inc. is committed to helping our customers grow by providing an integrated array of automated, productive, user friendly, and profitable solutions. With one of the broadest portfolios in the industry we develop hardware—such as digital presses and wide format printers, workflow software, and professional services to assist a printer in growing their business and profits. Canon U.S.A. is dedicated to its Kyosei philosophy of social and environmental responsibility.
Colordyne Technologies
Colordyne Technologies is a leading manufacturer of efficient, high-resolution digital print solutions. Colordyne is committed to providing label and tag color on demand inkjet printers for a range of applications and industries at breakthrough speeds and cost effectiveness. Colordyne’s portfolio of digital color platforms demonstrates its specialization in scalability of the industry’s most versatile products.
Duplo USA Corporation
For over 60 years, Duplo has set the standard with innovative and reliable finishing products in the graphic arts and continues to lead the way with solutions that are automated, productive, and cost efficient. Today, Duplo manufactures a complete line of print finishing equipment from all-in-one slitter/cutter/creasers, folders, and perfect binders to sheet feeding, bookletmaking, and saddle stitching systems for offset and digital printers in both high production and small office environments.
Durst Image Technology U.S.
Durst Image Technology U.S. is a world class manufacturer of professional wide and grand format digital UV inkjet printers for today’s imaging industry. Durst products are designed for performance, reliability, and longevity, offering you the highest print quality, productivity, flexibility, and efficiency. Learn more about Durst product offerings and discover new business opportunities.
EFI
Headquartered in CA’s Silicon Valley, with offices worldwide, EFI is a leader in digital print. Offering value-added combinations of hardware, software, and consumables, the company is driving the print industry’s transformation from analog to digital color.
Epson America, Inc.
Epson America, Inc. offers an extensive array of award-winning image capture and image output products for the business, commercial print, graphic arts, engineering, photographic, signage, direct to garment, and fabric production markets.
FUJIFILM North America Corp., Graphic Systems Division
The Graphic Systems Division of FUJIFILM North America Corporation delivers solutions for workflow, consultative services, remote monitoring, color standardization and G7 implementation, pressroom products, CTP, proofing, digital printing, wide format, packaging, labels, and specialty printing. Fujifilm also manufactures and distributes Sericol inks and is a leader in the development of UV inks for screen printing, narrow web, and large format digital printing. Fujifilm is committed to minimizing the environmental impact of its products and operations, proactively working to preserve the environment, and strives to educate printers about environmental best practices.
GPA
GPA provides industry and product intelligence that drives business growth. Since our beginnings in 1940, we have evolved from substrate distributor to innovation facilitator, adding power to print and propelling the graphic arts toward an exciting future. Backed by GPA’s progressive products, people, and support, clients look to GPA for the inspiration and expertise that transforms ideas into results. As part of Fedrigoni Group, we deliver substrates, resources, and knowledge with a global influence. Our position allows us to provide revolutionary products that are exclusively available in North America.
HP Inc.
HP Inc. creates technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere. Through our portfolio of printers, PCs, mobile devices, solutions, and services, we engineer experiences that amaze.
Kodak
Kodak is a technology company focused on imaging. We provide hardware, software, consumables, and services to customers in the graphic arts, commercial print, publishing, packaging, electronic displays, entertainment and commercial films, and consumer products. With our world-class research and development capabilities, innovative solutions portfolio, and highly trusted brand, Kodak is helping customers around the globe to sustainably grow their own businesses and enjoy their lives.
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc.
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. is reshaping and revolutionizing the Workplace of the Future. With its comprehensive portfolio, the company delivers solutions to leverage mobility, cloud services, and optimize business processes with workflow automation.
Magnum Magnetics Corporation
U.S. manufacturer of flexible magnetic sheeting, strip, and custom profiles. We offer printable magnetic sheeting for multiple printing presses including offset, flexographic, inkjet, and digital. We will take the time to understand your application before recommending a magnetic solution.
Melissa
Melissa is a leading provider of address data quality and list hygiene solutions. Choose from MAILERS Online, the cloud-based service that easily prepares and presorts USPS-compliant direct mail with free NCOA processing and pay-per-job pricing. Get your first 5,000 records free, every job. We also offer our SmartMover service that taps into the most comprehensive databases to provide NCOA processing for U.S., Canada, and international customers. If you’re looking to integrate mailing list ordering directly into your applications, as either a private label for your customers or for internal marketing purposes—our LeadGen APIs are the answer. These APIs provide speed and convenience in seamless list ordering within your applications, plus open up opportunities for a new revenue stream. LeadGen APIs are available for consumers, occupants, businesses, and property owners.
MGI USA
The MGI Group is a global digital printing technology leader composed of MGI Digital Technology, Kora-Packmat, and Ceradrop. MGI’s digital printing and finishing solutions apply to a range of industries, including commercial printers, plastic card manufacturers, government agencies, packaging and label converters, in plants, publishers, and photo printers. MGI digital printing solutions include the JETvarnish 3D product series and Meteor Unlimited Colors multi-substrate press lines.
Muller Martini
Muller Martini is one of the world’s largest producers of print finishing solutions for commercial and book printers, trade binderies, newspapers, and digital book manufacturers, and most recently acquired the Kolbus perfect binding and bookline portfolio. Muller’s groundbreaking Finishing 4.0 platform delivers innovative systems, software, and machines that seamlessly accommodate offset, digital, and hybrid printed products while optimizing workflow. In addition, through MMServices, Muller Martini is a leading provider of performance enhancement programs, which offer continual improvement for equipment, people, and processes.
OKI Data Americas
OKI Data Americas continues to expand its presence in the color-critical digital production market with its proColor C9 Series print technology. OKI is market leader providing innovative print solutions leading the market with its new generation of digital production devices. All printers are characterized by the ability to produce unique, high-value color output on a wide array of media. Providing new revenue streams, OKI technology enables providers to print for profit in a market that is traditionally over-crowded, ultra-competitive, and price sensitive.
PressWise by SmartSoft
Designed by a visionary printer burdened by the traditional manual workflow process that still plagues many printers today, PressWise is an end-to-end software-as-a-service-based MIS and print workflow automation solution that comes complete with robust features such as unlimited web storefronts, estimating, quoting, order processing, workflow management, complete shipping integration, fulfillment, and the ability to integrate with most other third-party storefronts.
Propago
Propago helps many producers, enterprises, and marketers intelligently control and distribute marketing goods. Whether it is store signage, umbrellas, shirts, or stationery, Propago helps users manage and distribute marketing materials through a centralized location. Once implemented, end users can use Propago’s online personalization engine to customize marketing pieces instantly. Sales teams, affiliates, and partners across the nation can quickly utilize finished creative or create customized marketing materials on demand. Of course, permissions can be controlled so only specified users can access, modify, or approve content.
Ricoh
Ricoh helps companies grow their businesses, improve customer engagement, and increase efficiencies by focusing on profitability, cost reduction, and document integrity. Its Commercial & Industrial Printing Business Group empowers customers in various markets to achieve this affordably and with customized solutions. In an increasingly fast-paced world, Ricoh helps print service providers work smarter so they can efficiently cut through the noise with effective, eye-catching applications. Through in-house expertise, customer feedback-based product development, and industry-leading partners, Ricoh is committed to leveraging its hardware, software, and world-class professional services team to serve the rapidly growing commercial and industrial print markets.
Rollem International
Add value to print with die cutting, slitting, scoring, and perforating for high-quality finishing. Eliminate excess labor, guillotine cutters, and touch points. A Rollem device scores digital stocks without cracking and deliver full-bleed slitting and perforating simultaneously or individually. We offer free consultations on print finishing solutions for all size printers.
Screen GP Americas LLC
Long known as the graphic art’s dominant player in CTP and workflow, Screen is now one of the world’s leading manufacturers of production class inkjet print engines for diverse markets such as commercial print, direct mail, transactional, and publishing, as well as label and packaging and point of purchase and display. Screen inkjet solutions help our customers grow revenues, decrease costs, and find new business opportunities.
Signs 365
The pioneers of trade-only grand format printing.
Standard Finishing Systems
Standard distributes a broad line of feeding and finishing products including Horizon perfect binders, collators, folders, saddlestitchers, die cutters, slitters/creasers, and bookletmakers; and Hunkeler unwinders, rewinders, cutters/stackers, dynamic perforators, and inspection systems for continuous feed printers. Standard has applied its knowledge of the conventional offset print finishing industry to engineer effective solutions for the expanding digital and inkjet print markets.
Therm-O-Type Corp.
Manufacturer of the Zip line of digital finishing equipment, the NSF series foil stamping/embossing/die cutting presses, foil fusing equipment and supplies, thermography, and business card slitting equipment.
Xeikon America, Inc.
Xeikon, a division of Flint Group, is a long-standing leader and innovator in digital printing technology. Grounded in the principles of quality, flexibility, and sustainability, Xeikon designs, develops, and delivers web-fed digital color presses for label and packaging applications, document printing, and commercial printing. These presses utilize different imaging technologies, open workflow software, and application-specific consumables.
Xerox
Xerox Corporation is a technology leader that innovates the way the world communicates, connects, and works. We understand what’s at the heart of sharing information—and all of the forms it can take. We embrace the integration of paper and digital, the increasing requirement for mobility, and the need for seamless integration between work and personal worlds. Every day, our innovative print technologies and intelligent work solutions help people communicate and work better.
Zünd America, Inc.
Zünd digital cutting systems are ideal for graphics, packaging, and other industrial applications. With a complete palette of cutting, routing, and even laser tool options for processing rigid and/or flexible substrates, the Zünd G3/S3 and dual-beam D3 are adaptable to any production environment. The recently added OCC Over Cutter Camera registration, which is capable of registering all visible marks in mere seconds in one shot, boosts Zünd finishing productivity even more.
Honorable Mentions
The Top 30 vendors represent only a portion of the essential companies targeting digital print and document environments. Therefore, we couldn’t stop there! We also present five honorable mentions.
Esko
Esko is a global supplier of integrated prepress software and equipment solutions for packaging and sign and display manufacturers. Esko’s complete design and automated workflow products and Esko Kongsberg tables help drive profitability by reducing time to market and raising productivity of companies involved in digital print.
Mactac
For more than 30 years, Mactac has been at the forefront of product development for narrow format sheets, labels, digital printing, mounting, laminating, screen printing, and cut vinyl needs. You can rely on us for industry-leading quality and unmatched service, and trust that we have the next up-and-coming innovation that is going to transform your business. That’s our unwavering commitment to you.
MBO America
Established in 1984, MBO America brought the renowned MBO brand to the U.S. Merging with Herzog + Heymann, manufacturer of specialized folding equipment, put MBO on the map as the most comprehensive, single-source provider of first-class folding equipment and technology. MBO America is the only distributor that covers all bindery areas—folding, mailing, digital, die cutting—via its parent company’s solutions and partnerships with the most revered brands in post press.
RISO, Inc.
RISO, Inc. is a leading supplier of cutsheet inkjet printers and accessories. The company’s compact, high-speed production printers provide fast, affordable full-color digital printing for everyday communications at speeds of up to 160 pages per minute. RISO’s digital duplicators include one- and two-color systems that reliably produce millions of copies, are environmentally friendly, and are easy and inexpensive to use.
Roland DGA Corporation
Roland DGA Corporation serves North and South America as the marketing, sales, distribution, and service arm for Roland DG Corporation. Roland DG is a worldwide leader in wide format inkjet printers for the sign, apparel, textile, personalization, and vehicle graphics markets; engravers for awards, giftware, and ADA signage; photo impact printers for direct part marking; and three-dimensional printers and CNC mills for the dental CAD/CAM, rapid prototyping, part manufacturing, and medical industries.
Editor’s Note
Congratulations to this year’s Top 30 Reader’s Choice and honorable mention winners. These companies help push the industry forward, promoting innovation and disruption among their peers and customers. dps
Nov2018, DPS Magazine
