Features

UK manufacturing

Best of British: Ink in the veins

For more than 60 years, RK Print Coat instruments has been faithfully serving the global inks and coating sectors with indispensable test kits.

Wide-format

Star Product: Fiery Digital Factory v11.1

A wide-format-specific RIP for high-fidelity colour printing with high-end job management tools.

Wide-format printing

Me & My: Xenons 180

Chinese built machinery is now very common in the printing sector, though it’s not always obvious because some of it carries reassuringly familiar European or Japanese brands, which lend it a feeling...

'Drupa Lipa' vibes

Overmatter: Drupa tunes

The Drupa 2024 team recently treated selected guests, including lucky old Overmatter, to a taster of the Drupa Song that will be the opening soundtrack every day at the upcoming show.

A journey of self-discovery

Q&A: Owen Purkis, director of print services, Citipost

Owen’s journey in the industry began at 17 when he started working at his father’s print business.

Newspaper specialist

60 seconds with Sharman & Company

Sharman & Company started printing The March Advertiser and Fen District Gazette in March, Cambridgeshire more than 150 years ago.

Pet portraitist

Rising star: Geneve Gurr, fabrication finishing, Moss

Geneve carried off the Trainee of the Year Award at this year’s Printweek Awards. She’s 32 and has been working in the industry since 2021.

Maintenance

Keeping the wheels turning

It’s hard to know which is worse – a print company with not enough business, or a firm with enough work but plant that has broken down. Neither are ideal and both are worrying.

Making an exit

Succession and selling up

There are stories of print company owners moving on and selling up. And there are accounts of individuals dying leaving survivors to deal with the firm’s future. The reality is that no small privately...

Personal development

Lifelong learning

Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company and pioneer of mass production, once said: “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.

Magnificent magazines

Celloglas slimes up glow-in-the-dark Ghostbusters cover

At around 70,000 copies sold per issue, Empire magazine is proof that the sector is far from moribund. However, it did want its March 2024 issue to be a bit more dead – or rather, undead.

UK success story

Best of British: The road to success

Taopix was one of the first software developers to come up with a commercially successful system that allowed printers to implement web-to-print ordering for photobooks, since expanded to a range of...

DTG vs DTF

The direct approach to apparel

Printing to garments and other accessories is an excellent way to get into the growing apparel market, covering everything from promotional clothing through to fashion and sportswear.

“The glue between pre-press and finishing”

Star product: Ultimate TechnoGraphics Ultimate Bindery 5.8

A unique solution for creating and testing finishing workflows.

20% faster than predecessor

Star product: Roland DG VersaObject MO-240

A compact high-resolution colour printer for 3D objects.