Hardware - Wide Format Print

Life-Size Replicas of Rooms in Slum Areas Tell of Creativity in Hardship

Challenge

• Mount an exhibition of Bendiksen's photographs, conveying the need to engage with slum communities, who are creative and resourceful in hard conditions

 

Solutions

• HP Designjet L65500 and L25500 Printers were used to print the detailed interior walls of rooms and the urban landscape shots on the exterior walls. Both printers use water-based HP Latex Inks, reducing the impact of printing on the environment, and produce prints for both indoor and outdoor use
• HP Durable Frontlit Scrim Banner for high-quality, durable prints that can travel to multiple venues
• The exhibition catalogues were printed on an HP Indigo press 5000, chosen for its vibrant colours, sharp text, and on-demand printing capabilities, eliminating waste caused by printing too many copies

 

Results

• A walk-in installation with such life-size detail and powerful testimonial that viewers are transported into the living rooms of the slums and get a realistic insight into the daily life of the people residing there
• A modular exhibition easily transportable and adaptable to different venues of varied sizes and weather conditions

 

Magnum photojournalist Jonas Bendiksen's exhibition, The Places We Live, contains beautiful photographs with rich, saturated colours on high quality prints. But are the photographs not too beautiful to convey to viewers a feeling for the tough subject matter of the exhibition-the reality of living in four of the most poverty-stricken and most dangerous urban areas of the world? "What?!" reacts the photographer. "You don't think beauty exists in these places? What a lack of respect for people in the slums. They spend so much time creating beauty, just as people in the western world spend time beautifying their houses; why can't we show that in the slums?"

The Places We Live exhibition follows publication of the photographer's book of the same name and recreates the living rooms of 20 families from the slums of Jakarta, Mumbai, Nairobi, and Caracas. By taking a photograph of each of the four walls of a room inside people's homes and using the resulting large-format prints to build 3-D, life-size replicas of the rooms, Bendiksen creates for viewers a virtual experience of visiting the families.

More people in the world now live in cities than in rural areas, and more than one billion-a third of all urban dwellers-live in slums. The United Nations forecasts this figure to double within the next twenty-five years. Bendiksen's book and exhibition serve to create a platform for discourse.

"There is a message," he says, "about the need to engage with these communities as populated by normal human beings who have their own ambitions and agendas and their own variations amongst themselves."

When he started out on the project, Bendiksen was conscious of the fact that so many photographers had already gone out and photographed poverty and poor people. "So much of the material was predictable, clichéd, and full of stereotypes," he says. "I wanted to get away from that and to focus not on the extremities in the slums-the worst poverty, crime, or pollution-but on how people create normalcy in their daily lives in these conditions."

He spent three years photographing The Places We Live and was moved by what he saw. "I was constantly filled with admiration for the people," he says. "They live under very challenging circumstances in terms of crime and pollution, they get no services from the municipality, and everything they have, they build for themselves. People create jobs for themselves, if there's no school they make the school, if there's no child care they make it. They piece together any type of service they need."

The exhibition includes testimonials by the inhabitants, recounting daily life and presenting experiences ranging from hardship and despair, to successes, hard work, and ambition. "I look at the photographs as vehicles for people's stories to be told," says Bendiksen. "The personal testimonials by the slum dwellers are the driving engine of the project. The book and exhibition are really about the stories they are telling."

The Magnum group is part of HP's Experts and Mentors program, and on the visual side HP is lending a hand to make the viewer's experience as real as possible, providing Bendiksen with the necessary durable printing materials and access to the latest large-format printing technology in order to achieve the required high-quality photographic detail on the walls of the rooms as well as in the exhibition's accompanying catalogue. "It's important that the prints are as vivid as possible, as detailed as possible," says the photographer, "because we're essentially printing life-size walls. We really want people to enter these rooms and feel like they are virtually visiting the families."

The exhibition is modular in nature, and light weight for transport between venues. The system for joining rooms together is designed so that they can stand in a wide range of different layouts. Thanks to the durability of the HP printing substrates and the resilience of the HP Latex Inks to adverse conditions, the exhibition may be displayed in a variety of venues. "I've always thought it would be interesting if I could bring this work to the regions where it was shot," says Bendiksen, "to bring it to Africa, to Kenya, to India, and not just have it exhibited in New York, Paris, and London. So that's part of what we're building here, an exhibition that can be built anywhere by anyone, withstand any weather. It could be outside or inside, in a public space, or in a school."

The photographer doesn't presume to try to change people's attitudes to poverty overnight. Instead, he sees journalism, including photojournalism, as cumulative. "I hope viewers will also read an article or another book that will help them,'" he says. "And all this together will enlighten people. I certainly hope that this project will be a part of that puzzle and help people question their stereotypes about poverty and who poor people are."

 

At a glance

Name: Jonas Bendiksen

Profession: Photojournalist

Began career: 1996

Represented by: Magnum Photos

Founded: 1947

Business address: Magnum Photos 151 West 25th Street New York, NY 10001-7204 USA

Telephone: (+1) 212 929 6000

Fax: (+1) 212 929 9325

Web sites: www.jonasbendiksen.com and www.magnumphotos.com

E-mail: mail@jonasbendiksen.com

Agfa Graphics and Shenzhen Brothers announced today that they have signed an agreement under which they will combine their Greater China and ASEAN activities to create a joint venture.

Shenzhen Brothers started finishing and distribution activities of Agfa Graphics master roll graphic films in 2000. Over the years, Shenzhen Brothers has built up through this partnership, a leading and successful distribution network in the Chinese printing industry.

In recent years, Agfa Graphics has made important investments in both digital prepress and new industrial inkjet printing technology. Today, it disposes over a broad, innovative and competitive product portfolio. Agfa Graphics has its own subsidiaries in the Greater China and ASEAN region and a state-of-the-art printing plate factory in Wuxi, China. Agfa Graphics has also built up important market positions throughout the ASEAN region.

The joint venture, named Agfa Graphics Asia, will be able to fully draw on the infrastructure, technology, manufacturing and distribution strength of its founding companies. It will also continue to have full access to the Agfa Graphics world class technology.

In its first full year of operations, the new company is expected to achieve sales of 200 million Euro. Agfa Graphics will be the majority shareholder with a stake of 51%. Shenzhen Brothers will own 49% of the company. Chairman of the Board will be Mr. Stefaan Vanhooren, President of Agfa Graphics, while Mr. Huang, CEO of Shenzhen Brothers, will become the CEO of the new company.

"Agfa Graphics and Shenzhen Brothers have been loyal partners in the past ten years, successfully serving the graphics industry in China," says Stefaan Vanhooren. "This joint venture is an important vehicle in achieving our ambitious growth plans in Asia for digital prepress and industrial inkjet. Shenzhen Brothers' high reputation and strong relationship with local customers, suppliers and government are a major asset to build out a strong and profitable market position."

"Technological innovation and cost leadership will be key drivers for future growth and success," said Mr. Huang. "Agfa Graphics' strong technological position and know-how will allow us to increase our business in both Greater China and ASEAN markets. Its excellent manufacturing capabilities and infrastructure in China will be of great importance in realizing our efficiency targets."

The new company with operational headquarters in Shenzhen (Guangdong) is expected to go life no later than Q3 2010 subject to regulatory approval.

Colortrac, the leading innovator in large format scanners and scanning solutions, has become the first wide format scanner manufacturer to achieve a BERTL (Business Equipment Research Testing Labs) "BEST IN CLASS" rating for both a CCD (charge coupled device) and CIS (contact image sensor) scanner.

The CCD-based Colortrac SmartLF Gx+42 professional colour graphics and the CIS-based SmartLF Ci 40 technical document large format scanners had both previously won BERTL's prestigious "OUTSTANDING" ratings which were accompanied by 4.5 Star Awards, the highest rating given by BERTL to any large format scanner.

Recognising that Colortrac SmartLF wide format scanners combine state-of-the-art technical innovation with exceptional value for money, BERTL upgraded its "OUTSTANDING" rating on these two Colortrac SmartLF devices to "BEST IN CLASS" for its 14th Annual Award presentation of BERTL'S BEST products (December 2009).

The Colortrac SmartLF Gx+ 42 is a new generation professional graphics scanner providing unrivalled color capture in a system bristling with productivity-enhancing, energy saving technical innovations unavailable in CCD devices from well-known industry brands. The Colortrac SmartLF Ci 40 is a low-cost, high productivity device whose uniquely practical front-exit media path distinguishes it from all CIS technical document scanners. Common to both is powerful ScanWorks and CopySmart software which provides professional, flexible and easy-to-use tools ideal for standalone or Gigabit network scanning.

In presenting the Colortrac SmartLF Gx+ 42 with the "BEST IN CLASS" 42" Wide Format CCD Scanner Award Certificate, BERTL summarized its benefits as follows:

• Combination of high resolution and CCD imaging technology creates a flexible, multi-purpose scanning system capable of capturing both very fine line and image details while reproducing color graphics in vivid, high fidelity colors.
• Award winning features such as instant-on, long-life 2D LED illumination, full 1200dpi optical CCD resolution, power-saving ENERGY STAR compliance and fast scan speed is unavailable in any other product.
• "Scan Once" software works in real time reducing the need to rescan, saving businesses time and money by making users more productive.
• In presenting the Colortrac SmartLF Ci 40 with the "BEST IN CLASS" 40" Wide Format CIS Scanner Award Certificate, BERTL summarized its benefits as follows:
• Its ease of use makes it ideally suited for AEC, CAD and GIS technical documents.
• The unique paper path makes this device an attractive buy as it can be placed against a wall and saves precious office space.
• Colortrac's optional ScanWorks scanning software offers users a multitude of options for manipulating scanned images that rivals the features and functions of those found in Photoshop and other similar software.
• Exceptional value for money-combination of software, pricing and fast black and white and color scanning speed make it an excellent choice.

Peter de Winter-Brown, Colortrac's Sales and Marketing Director, said "With a 27% growth in sales, 2009 was Colortrac's best year ever. Receiving BERTL's "BEST IN CLASS" award for our SmartLF Gx+ 42, (which also won Wide-Format Imaging's "Top Product" 2009 award), as well as the SmartLF Ci 40, was the icing on 2009's cake. BERTL's awards are a tribute to Colortrac's relentless technical innovation and its commitment to providing SmartLF large format scanners with an unbeatable value for money price tag. Colortrac looks forward to 2010 and earning an even bigger slice of the cake through the growing recognition of its superior large format scanning technology at prices more buyers can afford!"

 

Roland DG will use Packaging Innovations 2010 to showcase its 30” UV-curable VersaUV LEC-330 and its unique prototyping capabilities to the packaging market. With its versatility to print onto almost any substrate and the white ink capability, all at a highly competitive price point, the integrated inkjet printer/cutter is set to revolutionise proofing in the packaging design sector.

The VersaUV LEC-330 offers a cost-effective proofing mechanism for specialist packaging mock-ups. Not only is it able to print CMYK, cut and crease onto a wide variety of materials, but it also uses both gloss and matte spot UV varnish to produce doming and embossing for use in creating effects like faux animal skin and Braille.

Says Mat Drake, Print Product Manager, Roland DG (UK): “We’re very excited about showcasing the LEC-330 to the market at Packaging Innovations, where we’ll be speaking to those associated with packaging production for highly prestigious and demanding brands. We believe that the LEC-330 can give packaging companies a distinct advantage over their competitors by adding real value. The LEC-330 prints white ink, allowing for full colour proofing of packaging designs or prototypes on clear and plastic stocks. It can also profile cut intricate shapes and patterns, removing the need to manually cut the package or prototype following the printing process. In addition, as it’s UV-curable, it will print on almost anything, making the scope for packaging creativity almost limitless. With this functionality, proofing times and therefore costs can be significantly reduced.”

Roland DG will be demonstrating the extensive potential of the LEC-330 and its integration with standard workflow solutions such as EskoArtwork Visualiser software and GMG’s ColorServer, ensuring that design and pre-press processes flow seamlessly with the LEC-330.

List price for the VersaUV LEC-330 is £36,999/€40,999 plus VAT. For more product information, please visit www.rolanddg.co.uk/content/public/products/LEC330.aspx

 

 

 

New Océ ColorWave 300 multifunctional printer cuts space requirements and cost of wide format printing

 

Océ today announced the launch of the world’s first single footprint multifunctional printer that can print, copy and scan wide format documents in both colour and black & white.

Saves space and additional investments

Companies no longer need to invest in separate printers for large format colour and B&W documents. The new Océ ColorWave® 300 is a true single footprint system for printing, copying and scanning. It is perfect for businesses with limited space, as only one system is needed instead of two to print in both colour and B&W. This saves Océ customers 50% in floor space. The system offers architects, engineering, construction and commercial printing companies an ideal alternative for conventional wide format toner systems.

 

One system for all printing, copying and scanning – in colour and B&W

The Océ ColorWave 300 is the first multifunctional wide format printer with a truly integrated scanner. All the functions can be controlled from one simple user panel. Therefore, customers only need to maintain one IP address. Unique Océ technologies, like Océ Image Logic and Océ Dynamic Switching ensure perfect results every time. The powerful controller swiftly handles all file formats – HP-Gl/2, PDF, DWF, JPEG – without sacrificing speed. Users can also print and scan documents via a USB flash drive.

 

One for tomorrow that helps businesses grow sustainably

This system offers an economical way to add color to enhance technical documents, such as construction drawings and designs for new cars, and improve colour promotional materials. It delivers the ease of use and workflow efficiency of an Océ B&W system and the versatility of a colour printer. Because the Océ ColorWave 300 is based on thermal inkjet technology, the system does not produce any ozone, dust or odors.

 

Launch of innovative products to continue

Océ expects that markets will remain challenging throughout 2010. In order to further strengthen the company’s competitive position and drive sales under difficult market conditions, Océ will continue to introduce innovative products such as the Océ ColorWave 300 printing system. This is particularly relevant at the moment as customers are more likely to invest in systems and services that directly add value to their business. Market analysis shows that the majority of Océ customers select products launched within the last 12 months.

 

 

 

 

Challenge:

• USA TODAY needed to update its fleet of printers used for production proofing. The printers needed to reproduce accurate colours for the proofing process, be compatible with custom newspaper stock and provide a reliable, cost-competitive printing solution for the long term.

 

Solution:

• The HP Designjet T1120 Printer is a reliable printing solution designed for low total cost of ownership, high productivity and reproducing accurate colours.
• HP Vivera inks, including a three-black ink set, produce a wide range of colours and fine detail for professional prints.

 

Results:

• USA TODAY is experiencing a 10 percent increase in printing speeds using the HP Designjet T1120 Printer. This increase enables the production team to speed up their production workflow, catch errors faster and stay on schedule.
• Outstanding quality from the HP Designjet T1120 Printer enables USA TODAY to produce additional applications such as high-quality special-edition commemorative prints for display purposes.
• How to get ahead in the newspaper business

 

The newspaper business is notoriously fast paced and competitive, especially now that it must contend with online - and largely free - news sources. USA TODAY has stayed ahead of the game in terms of costs and productivity, thanks to a tech-savvy production department dedicated to adopting the latest digital inkjet technology for its proofing process.

Ron Cobbs, operations manager, has been a key player in the adoption of digital technology from the start. "We stepped into the fray early in terms of bringing digital technology into the newspaper industry. Starting ten years ago, we transitioned to doing inkjet proofs using HP Designjet printers.  Before that, all proofing was done on a web press, which was much more costly."

Along with Cobbs, Mike Grinder, production technician, helped jump-start USA TODAY's companywide digital transition at its 40 domestic and international print sites. Today the two colleagues are retooling the newspaper's proofing capabilities once again, upgrading the workhorse fleet of HP printers with the HP Designjet T1120 Printer.

Cobbs took a fresh look at available products before deciding on tried-and-true HP technology and the accurate colour reproduction and media compatibility offered by the HP Designjet T1120 Printer. The new HP technology builds on many of the digital benefits USA TODAY had been experiencing - enabling the print reproduction quality advertisers expect, while lowering production costs and improving workflow even further.

 

Accurate colour reproduction

As a major source of revenue, advertising is the lifeblood of newspapers. Any change in the technology or workflow must not detract from the newspaper's ability to serve advertisers. Accurate colour reproduction is essential to the proofing process, as staff check the colour of digital inkjet proofs against specifications to ensure advertisers are satisfied.

"We're finding some print houses and agencies we work with now have the same HP device and third-party software we use for colour management, so they can accurately reproduce the ad proofs there," says Cobbs. The colour consistency of the HP Designjet T1120 Printer and the rich gamut of HP Vivera inks allow USA TODAY's third-party vendor for colour management to accurately recreate the ad no matter where the proofs are printed.

Precise colour reproduction is also important for the newspaper's editorial content. USA TODAY uses a relatively high percentage of colour photos and graphics in its publications. Checking proofs against the originals allows the newspaper's production team to ensure matching skin tones or colours in graphs and charts. Thanks to the printer's resolution and wide range of colours, USA TODAY can achieve the exact colour it needs, every time.

 

Media compatibility enables time savings

The type of media USA TODAY uses is also essential to accurate colour reproduction. In fact, media compatibility was an overriding factor in USA TODAY's decision to go with the HP Designjet T1120 Printer. When proofing, the production department needs to see colours exactly as they will appear on newsprint.

The HP Designjet T1120 Printer has extensive media versatility, including compatibility with more than 35 types of Original HP media. To enable printing on USA TODAY media, the team puts its newsprint on rolls that feed into the HP Designjet T1120 Printer. "We also use HP high-gloss media to produce high-quality special-edition commemorative prints for display purposes," Cobbs adds.

Versatile media handling and reliability also help the production department save time. "Even using our custom media stock," Cobbs says, "we have no problem at all with feeding and handling." Printers in the newspaper's Virginia headquarters run nearly constantly-18 hours a day, six days a week, he adds.  "A simple paper jam could throw us off schedule, but we haven't had any downtime."

The media versatility of the HP Designjet T1120 Printer isn't the only feature helping to boost productivity. Grinder has also noticed a 10 percent increase in printing speed with the upgraded technology, in addition to the Original HP inks' ability to dry fast, allowing proofs to be handled almost immediately.

 

Digital technology helps newspapers thrive

As the newspaper and publishing industries grow increasingly competitive, HP is designing a broad portfolio of inkjet technology to enable them to operate efficiently. When the installation of HP Designjet T1120 Printers across USA TODAY's print sites is complete, the company's production will be able to benefit from increased productivity and lower costs.

Cobbs sums up their success transitioning to the new HP technology: "We're extremely pleased to have set up a digital proofing system that meets the needs of USA TODAY's production team, our advertising customers and internal customers in the editorial department. The HP Designjet T1120 Printer provides a dependable, reliable product at a great price point, backed by the service and support we need."