It can now print on thicker stock of up to 0.6mm thickness when simplex printing. The previous maximum was 0.45mm, which remains the limit when in perfecting mode.

The 1,650sph press can also print onto difficult substrates, such as textured grades.

Konica Minolta business technologies manager Kazuyoshi Tanaka said the firm had been working on further enhancing the quality of the print output since Drupa.

"Large commercial printers are our first target," he said. "They can expand their business using this technology. From books to packaging and beyond, the potential is immense and really diverse.

"We want to go-to-market as soon as possible," he added.

PrintWeek understands Konica Minolta held a number of high-level meetings with potential customers for the press at the show.

The next public outings for the KM-1 will be at the Print 13 show in Chicago in September.

Konica Minolta is also set to be the largest exhibitor at Ipex 2014.

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But instead of a one-off licence fee for the Creative Suite bundle, individuals will have to pay £38.12 a month, with groups forking out £53.20. Existing customers are being offered a discounted monthly fee for the new version of £22.22.

The company, which used its Max conference in Los Angeles on 6 May to make the announcement, is said to be keen to free itself from its traditional 18- to 24-month upgrade cycle.

"This is frustrating; it's almost as if their margins are dropping and they are trying to achieve an even keel," said Reprohouse managing director Graham Taylor, whose Chelmsford business uses Photoshop and Illustrator.

"It's bad enough releasing so many new versions, which don't have enough different options to justify upgrading. This is naughty; it will be prohibitive to smaller firms, who will look at other software, without a shadow of doubt."

But litho and digital printer Gemini Brighton managing director Dave Britton said: "We don't have the latest versions and upgrading depends on the fee; if there's no large outgoing cost for upgrades I would embrace it."

Patrick Marchese, co-founder of software developer Markzware said: "If the subscription model stays flexible it can be cheaper than purchasing the old bundles. But I think Adobe has questions to answer.

"For professional users with modern machines, a sub is a decent deal. For freelancers, large corporations and those who always lag to upgrade this subscription has them very concerned."

"Apple may be very happy right now; Quark may have a golden opportunity, depending on how Adobe overcomes some of the objections being raised. Maybe Quark could cooperate with a photo-editing software developer and a vector, Illy-like application developer to offer a bundle. A little competition is always good."

Rhapsody Media managing director Les Pipe said: "Hopefully this will mean consistency, as all our customers will eventually use the same product but this will probably take a couple of years. It will however cost us more.

"So this is good and bad. The new subscription model is a way for Adobe to gain more revenue, which is understandable to some extent. I'm keen for it to deliver consistency but I do not favour the extra costs."

Adobe used its conference to rebrand its desktop apps from Creative Suite (CS) to Creative Cloud (CC). New features for Photoshop CC include a camera-shake reduction tool to correct blur from camera movement. The bundle also includes InDesign CC, Illustrator CC, Dreamweaver CC and Premier Pro CC.

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Kodak also filed financial projections showing that it expects to achieve sales of $2.6bn (£1.7bn) and EBITDA of $200m next year, rising year-on-year to $3.2bn turnover and $500m EBITDA by the end of 2017.

If approved by the courts and its creditors, the future Kodak business will be based around commercial imaging and organised into two segments: Graphics, Entertainment & Commercial Film (GECF) which includes the graphic arts operations encompassing plates, CTP, workflow and digital controllers, along with entertainment imaging and commercial film.

The second business unit will be Digital Printing & Enterprise (DP&E) made up of the inkjet and electrophotographic digital printing operations, flexo packaging, functional printing and enterprise-level professional services.

Kodak's stated plans include "achieving worldwide packaging leadership by 2016" in the $250bn global packaging market via its Flexcel platemaking system, which uses SquareSpot, and by introducing new digital printing solutions for packaging that use Stream technology.

It also expects to grow the market penetration of its Prosper inkjet press by expanding OEM arrangements and moving into new markets.

Kodak plans to start manufacturing Prosper presses in Asia "to accelerate cost reductions and better serve growth markets".

The company aims to develop a significant business in functional printing, such as touch screens, fuel cells and smart packaging materials using SquareSpot know-how for deposition technology.

In the statement, Kodak said that new products for direct printing applications in functional and packaging printing had been in development for the past three years, and were "ready for market introduction in 2014".

If all goes to plan the proposals could be rubber-stamped by mid-June, with Kodak likely to emerge from Chapter 11 in the third quarter of the year.

The likely return to Kodak's general unsecured creditors, owed $2.7bn, is still unspecified but is described as being "better than liquidation" which would involve a zero payout.

These creditors would receive a share of 40m shares to be issued in the new Kodak business.

Existing shareholders will be wiped out.

The small print of the filing reveals that in order to proceed with the sale of its Personalised Imaging business Kodak has also agreed a Fujifilm claim, made pre-Chapter 11, for $70m relating to a cross-licensing deal.

Kodak is yet to specify the make-up of its post-Chapter 11 senior management team, so it is not yet known whether chief executive Antonio Perez will remain with the business.

He described the emergence plan as "clear evidence of the outstanding dedication and innovative spirit of the people of Kodak in serving customers worldwide and in supporting the company's transformation to a commercially-based business."

The announcement comes just two weeks after Kodak filed a motion to sell its Document Imaging business to office equipment maker Brother Industries however the company confirmed that it was now withdrawing that filing.

KPP, which with claims of $2.8bn is Kodak's largest creditor, will acquire the company for a total of $650m in cash and other assets, a deal that the US firm said had "set the stage" for it to emerge from bankcruptcy proceedings. The agreement is subject to the approval of the US Bankruptcy Court.

Kodak entered into bankruptcy proceedings in January 2012 and following a major restructure is expected to exit Chapter 11 this year. It has so far delayed the deadline for filing its reorganisation plans three times, however a draft plan is expected to be filed today.

As part of the restructure the company originally announced its intention to sell the two businesses in August last year.

Kodak president Antonio Perez said: "The KPP transaction moves us past several key hurdles in our reorganization, resolving all potential claims worldwide, assuring continued operations outside of the United States, placing our Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging businesses with a new owner that recognises their value and is focused on their growth and success, and providing the remaining liquidity we require to emerge from Chapter 11.

"We are very pleased with the transaction, the value it creates for our stakeholders, and the dedication and creativity of KPP that made it possible to achieve this extraordinary result."

KPP Steven Ross said that the two organisations had been working collaboratively since the beginning of the case, and that the acquisition provided security for its members.

He added: "The businesses that we are acquiring will deliver long-term cash flows to support the plan's obligations. The financial stability that KPP will provide for the Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging businesses will be beneficial to those businesses' employees, customers and partners."

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Regan dismissed the notion that commercial printers were pouring money back into equipment, noting: "We speak to equipment manufacturers all the time and we're not seeing that."

Semper is the leading placement for skilled help in the graphics and printings industries and he said he had seen an uptick in demand for experienced press, digital pre-press and digital press workers.

But he added many commercial printers were reluctant to add new staff because of uncertainty over the implications of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a Obamacare), which takes effect next year.

Regan said some commercial printers with around 50 employees were opting for temporary workers because under the new healthcare rules, companies with under 50 employees will have the government subsidize some of the costs, but for companies with over 50 employees they don't.

"There's just a lot of uncertainty over the new healthcare laws," Regan said, adding that new healthcare rules impacting commercial printers are being put out on an almost daily basis.

Gecht also noted the ongoing strength of the company's Vutek GS architecture and added: "We introduced a two meter LED printer, which provides a more attractive entry price points for our LED queuing technology and expands our customer's addressable market."

Gecht said the company's new Cretaprint [CP3] ceramic tile printer had been very well received and noted the new Vutek HS104 was now in beta testing and on track to be commercialised in the current quarter. "The HS104 is the first product based on this next generation architecture, which enables us to deliver new, unprecedented levels of speed and quality," he said.

Gecht said EFI continues to benefit from good demand for Fiery for the new Canon and Xerox presses, adding that due to early positive buzz surrounding the new Fiery FS100 platform, the company expects Fiery related sales to maintain its 4% year-over-year growth.

EFI CFO Vincent Pilette told analysts: "The industrial inkjet segment generated $80m of revenue, up 7% year-over-year and contributed 47% of total EFI revenue. Demand for industrial digital printers was robust across our portfolio and UV ink volume grew 18% year-over-year giving us confidence that our customers are seeing solid demand."

In terms of regions, Gecht said the US market is very robust but added: "Europe continues to be a struggle. Customers don't have the same level of confidence and there's less spending...not just with the equipment, we see it also with the ink volume the growth is not as good as in the US."

Gecht was more upbeat about Asia Pacific, adding: "We feel very good about Asia and particularly in China. Brazil was good, relatively okay, emerging markets we are very pleased with. So, overall, I think the demand - honestly I could not be more pleased with where we are giving the headlines with the demand right now."

The deal means that Kodak's once-vibrant business for scanners, image-capture software and technical services will now be combined with Brother's office equipment business that includes fax machines and small all-in-one printers.

Kodak entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2012 and so this proposed sale will need the approval of US Bankruptcy Court, which is expected at a hearing later this month.

Once that approval is given, an auction with Brother as the "stalking horse", or initial bidder, will be run. But others bidders could come forward at that time and conceivably offer more for the Document Imaging assets and business.

"This proposed sale is another key step in Kodak's path to emergence - it moves us closer to realizing our strategic vision for Kodak's future," Kodak Chairman/CEO Antonio Perez said in a statement. "A sale to Brother, should they prevail, would represent an excellent outcome for Document Imaging's customers, partners and employees."

In addition to selling the Document Imaging business, Kodak had also previously indicated plans to sell its Personalised Imaging division, which includes its consumer film, photo paper, finishing and photo kiosk businesses. However, there is currently no timetable for when that sale might occur. In December, Kodak also sold a large portion of its digital-imaging patents for about $525m.

Last month Kodak finalised a previously-announced $848m finance facility with members of the Steering Committee of the Second Lien Noteholders and other holders of Kodak's Senior Secured Notes. Under the terms of the deal Kodak has borrowed an aggregate principal amount of approximately $473m and converted $375m in Senior Secured Notes into loans.

The agreement also lowered the amount of money the company needed to get from the sale of its noncommercial-imaging business to $600m.

In an interview with PrintWeek, Kodak Corporate Communications Manager Christopher Veronda said Kodak's Document Imaging employees, including a number based in Rochester that focus on R&D, will be joining Brother as part of the deal.

Veronda suggested the sale price for the Document Imaging assets was enough to ensure the company can continue on with its plans to exit bankruptcy this year. "The next step will be to file a plan of reorganisation (with the US Bankruptcy Court) and we plan to do that by the end of the month," he added.

In other Kodak news, the company said it is partnering with UniPixel Displays to transition part of a facility currently used for motion picture film manufacturing into a functional printing plant that will make touch screen sensors.

The two companies put up a combined $24m to covert the facility in Rochester that will eventually employ as many as 75 people when it it fully operational this fall. "Functional printing is a key growth area for Commercial Imaging," Perez said in a statement. "And Commercial Imaging is Kodak's future."

Monotype's Pencil to Pixel exhibition will run from May 3-9 at the Tribeca Skyline Studio in lower Manhattan and feature examples from the American design scene, such as "Typographic Sanity," the 1931 Linotype magazine published in Brooklyn, N.Y., and original Monotype Centaur typeface drawings by American typographer and type designer Bruce Rogers.

"These artifacts are not simply for show, however," Rhatigan added. "They are chosen and arranged so as to tell a story about how the design of typefaces is informed, constrained, and even enhanced by technology; whether it's the technology of machine and molten lead or microprocessor and bitmap.

"That story of the relationship of technology to analog typography connects in an unbroken chain of development to the way Monotype creates typefaces and the means of using them today, 125 years after they started."

There will also be speeches and related events held in conjunction with Pencil to Pixel, including "From Logo to Experience," from New York-based brand strategy and design firm Lippincott. For more information on this free exhibition, including how to book a guided tour, visit www.penciltopixel.org.

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Congress recently including language prohibiting the end of Saturday delivery in a Continuing Budget resolution. "The Board believes that Congress has left it with no choice but to delay this implementation at this time " the USPS said in a statement.

"The Board also wants to ensure that customers of the Postal Service are not unduly burdened by ongoing uncertainties and are able to adjust their business plans accordingly."

The USPS board did stress the fact that it was still in favor of the move to five days, adding it would save about $2bn annually and is a necessary part of the larger five-year plan to return the Postal Service to profitability.

"According to numerous polls, this new delivery schedule is widely supported by the American public," it added. "Our new delivery schedule is also supported by the Administration and some members of Congress."

While Donahoe seemed to suggest at last month's National Postal Forum that the end of Saturday delivery was imminent, Arthur Sackler, coordinator of the advocacy group, Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, told PrintWeek: "It was incredibly hard to see how they could forge ahead without violating the law — I read their legal justification and found it not terribly strong."

Sackler did however note this doesn't not mean that Congress won't eventually turn around — perhaps as early as this summer when they begin putting together the federal budget appropriations process for the next fiscal year that begins 1 October.

"This battle isn't over, though my hunch is that restriction on ending Saturday delivery will continue (for this year)," he said.

In early February Donahoe publicly said he did not need Congressional approval to end Saturday delivery, citing the fact the government was operating a temporary budget resolution. That move that drew the wrath of some members of Congress who called the attempt "misguided."

But Sackler said Donahoe's standing in Washington, DC remains strong, adding he had not heard anything to indicate that Congress or the White House in unhappy in any way with his attempts to reform the service that lost nearly $16bn last year.

"He was with our South Hadley ( MA), Greenwich (CT) and Hudson, New Hampshire employees already this week and is now meeting face to face with our team in the UK," Loftus added.

In an interview with What They Think, Savage said that around 70 people - equating to 15% of the workforce - were being let go and that Presstek would be closing its Greenwich office and moving its legal and accounting function to its Hudson, NH site.

Savage added that there were also some layoffs on Europe, where the company is looking to simplify operations. No cuts are being made in R&D and engineering, which are protected.

Presstek officials have publicly been touting the benefits of the AIP acquisition since it was announced last August, stressing that it put the one-time publicly traded company on much firmer financial footing.

AIP, which also owns mid-web flexo press maker Mark Andy, reportedly paid about $26m for Presstek, which lost $73m between 2009 and 2011 alone.

Executives have also recently been suggesting that the Presstek 75DI - a 31" direct imaging press available in four to 10-color configuration that can print up to 16,000sph and includes support for 300lpi and FM screening - has been making solid inroads in the packaging/folding carton market for shorter run jobs.

Flint Group, whose Akzo Nobel Inks division - now known as ANI Printing Inks - bought his ink manufacturing business in 1998, hailed Werneke for "shaping the narrow web tag and label market and helping to build the industry as it is today".

Werneke foresaw the growing importance the environment would play in the printing industry and, in 1973, he began designing the first water-based ink for flexographic printing, arguing: "There have to be some changes made for the environment and for the energy crunches we have."

He then went on to develop a similar water-based system for label printing and built up his successful global business, which comprised US-based Louis Werneke and the UK's Label Inks, both of which were sold to Akzo Nobel.

Tributes to the "well-respected friend, colleague and industry icon" were given at a prayer mass on Monday (8 April) at Washbury-McReavy in Edina, MN.

"All together these enhancements improve efficiency and I think will be a natural upgrade for all iGen4 users," said Xerox UK product marketing manager Alan Clarke.

Most of the features are upgrades to the software and can be retro-fitted. The one hardware addition is the long sheet high-capacity stacker, which can take 660mm long sheets. To date longer sheets on the iGen4 have had to be delivered to the bypass stacker.

"80% of iGen4 customers take the long sheet option and we expect this to be as popular on the Diamond Edition and as the most requested upgrade from existing users," said Clarke.

Other features include automating image-to-paper set up, eliminating the need for users to check and adjust front-to-back image registration, and automated colour maintenance.

This uses the built in spectrophotometer to monitor colour quality and to automatically correct output or recalibrate if needed based on user-determined intervals, either time or number of sheets printed.

Upgrade price is dependent on the age of the machine and what digital front end the user has. All the new features are supported in the latest version of Xerox's Freeflow and EFI's Fiery controllers.

Xerox stopped selling the Creo DFE at Drupa, and firms using Creo would need to completely replace it with one of the two remaining controllers to take advantage of the new functions.

Pricing for the iGen4 Diamond starts at £250,000, while the iGen150 starts at £350,000.

Kevin Horey, Xerox VP or Production Product Marketing, told PrintWeek the upgrade was being rolled out in the United States and Europe, with an Asia Pacific roll-out yet to be determined.

The US list price is $662,000 and Horey said: "The iGen family really has a full portfolio now with this Diamond edition and the iGen 150, giving us different price points in the marketplace.

"And what this really does is give our current iGen4 customers the ability to add some things that they currently don't have - so there's an asset protection component with this model - while also offering enhancements for new customers."

As for the overall market for new press sales, Horey said: "The sales environment is certainly better than it was in '09 and '10, but again it couldn't have gotten much worse. The leading indicator we see is page volumes - when printers maximize their page volumes, it's time to either get another piece of equipment or upgrade. We've already seen that page volume growth and now that's starting to translate into new equipment."

Additional reporting by David Ward.

While it is light on detail, it states that the company is "looking at options to reorganize our operations in Europe" in line with a simplified organisational structure based around customers' needs.

These needs are said to be shifting in line with the shift in "the markets to drive our future growth and profitability", in what is presumably an allusion to the high growth BRIC economies.

In the memo, Nichols said: "Customers today tell us they need a focus on simple, easy to use and cost effective technology supported by world class aftermarket services.

"Where their products are manufactured is now less important than how quickly they can access the service and engineering support for them once they are built.

"We are redesigning our business model so that we can better compete in the markets that can drive our growth and can serve customers in the way they need us to."

Goss declined to comment on the memo or its plans for its French manufacturing operation in Montataire, which, according to local media reports, could be headed for redressement judiciare (the French equivalent of administration) this morning (3 April).

Goss currently has manufacturing facilities in North America, China and Europe (France), with global output over the past five years split roughly evenly between the three regions.

If the latest restructure of its French operations results in manufacturing moving out of the region - as seems to be implied by the memo - this could be moved to either the US or China.

The third key element of Nichols' transformation plan for Goss is to "build on our technological expertise and push into new (neighbouring) markets where our engineering skill and printing knowledge gives us a clear advantage over competitors".

Nichols cited packaging as the first example of this, following the company's recent activity in this market.

Labels in Motion is a subsidiary of XYMOGEN, an independent health sciences company with more than 25 years of experience providing quality vitamin supplements to healthcare practitioners.

Until late last year the company had been outsourcing all of its label production, but XYMOGEN decided to build and open a 135,000 square foot facility to handle that vitamin and supplement label production.

The Xeikon 3500 not only did that, but has also enabled Labels in Motion to attract outside customers in the food & beverage and cosmetic industries. "Runs of under 100 are our bread-and-butter and that's what's so great about this digital press," Chin explained.

"We're able to have three different rolls print simultaneously and we've been able to make really exquisite cosmetic labels as well as produce high-quality soft labels for food products."

The Xeikon 3500 features true 1,200 dpi resolution, can produce up to 3.8m square feet monthly, and can handle web widths of up to 20.3", enabling the production of not only large labels but also regular size labels with faster throughput. It also features one-pass white printing capabilities and can print metallic or clear labels.

Chin noted that unlike traditional printers, the label industry survived the economic downturn fairly well and is now looking to expand as consumers up their purchase of all types of labeled packaged goods. "We've been very busy recently, and last month added eight new clients over nine days," he said. "But we will eventually look to establish a national footprint."

Xeikon America made the sale and in a press release, its President Michael Ring said: "We are seeing more and more companies like Labels in Motion who have a vision to be leaders in creating labels that have an impact on the consumer, and recognize the compelling advantages of speed, quality and versatility that the Xeikon 3000 Series of label presses offer. It's great to see Labels in Motion seizing the opportunity and we're very pleased to partner with them."

"Obviously the need to demonstrate these specialist capabilities is becoming standard practice amongst the multinational agency groups and holding companies, with the WPP/Hogarth initiative probably the most aggressive example of this," said Owens.

Craft has essentially been formed by the rebranding and repatriating of McCann Worldgroup's existing global agency studio resources, including the Loveurope satellite studios dotted throughout McCann's network.

Commenting on McCann's decision to set up it's own production network, Owens said: "For the Love Group, whilst this changes the nature of our historic McCann partnership, we look forward to maintaining a healthy working relationship with them, as we share some important and long-standing mutual production client relationships.

"From the perspective of the independant production market, we don't expect any great impact. In truth there are very few examples of network production businesses truly expanding beyond the confines of their own groups and we see the success of Craft inextricably linked to the success of McCann on the world stage."

As with the Tag/WPP separation, McCann's decision to set up Craft Worldwide will inevitably present Love Group with the opportunity to grow its direct to client business.

Former Tag chief executive Steve Parish told Campaign in 2011 - some two years after WPP transferred its work to Hogarth - that the production firm's client mix had gone from an even split between agencies and advertisers to as much as 80% direct to client in the space of five years.

Owens said that he wished Craft "the best of fortune", adding that the relationship between McCann and Loveurope had delivered "many years of award-winning work and great commercial success for McCann" and "an excellent stabilising base for our own business to grow and evolve into the full service multi-channel production group it is today".

Estrela added that Domtar will honor the suppliers agreements Xerox has in place in the US for the time being. "Short-term it's going to be business as usual," he continued.

"We're going to continue to supply them Domtar paper in Canada. In the US we'll continue with some of the supply agreements with the other manufacturers, but over time we'll bring some of that tonnage into our system internally."

Though Xerox does not have any paper manufacturing capability of its own, its brand is very well thought of in both the office and commercial printing paper space.

"We'll continue to make that paper; we're just taking over another step in the process," Estrela said, adding Domtar will be picking up some Xerox employees in the US as part of the agreement.

Estrela emphasized there will be no change in Xerox paper pricing or supplies, noting: "About the only thing that could change is maybe a phone number or contact information. But we will be able to start building relationships with some of the 1,500 paper clients they have, so it's a win-win for both sides."

Though it is getting out of the paper reseller business, Xerox said it will continue to manufacture, sell and support consumables such as toner and ink.

In a statement announcing the deal, Xerox Senior VP-Global Paper and Supplies Frank Edmonds said: "As Xerox broadens its business to focus more on services and innovative document technology, we saw an opportunity for our paper business clients to be better served by a leader in the industry.

"Xerox benefits through a trademark licensing agreement with Domtar; Domtar adds a well-regarded brand to its portfolio; and our respective clients get a simplified, ‘one-stop' experience through Domtar's extensive offerings and distribution network."