Peak industry association PIAA says it is closer to securing funding for print courses at Queenland TAFEs, following a breakthrough multi-stakeholder meeting in Brisbane.

Independent candidate for Hume, Huw Kingston, believes politicians should put their money where their mouths are, and to show he is serious about the environment he is doing away with the usual plastic corflute advertising signs, and using Oppboga recyclable waterproof cardboard - supplied by Starleaton - instead.

Some 270 staff and channel partners from across Australia have taken part in the Konica Minolta sales kick-off, which saw the company aiming to build on its ten years of successive growth.

Fujifilm will use its booth at Fespa Global Print Expo next month in Munich to showcase the Acuity Ultra, a superwide format printer targeted at the high end indoor graphics and outdoor signage markets.

Wide format systems supplier Mutoh has had its original LED-UV ink, or US11 ink, Greenguard certified. The certification on US11 ink is across the Mutoh ValueJet range including wide format printers and promotional printers.

Mimaki is launching a new flatbed UV printer, the JFX200-2513 EX, five years after its predecessor JFX200-2513 came onto the market.

EFI is being sold to US private equity fund Siris, which is stumping up $1.7bn in a leveraged all-cash deal for 100 per cent of the shares to acquire the billion dollar technology business, aiming to realise super-charged growth in packaging and textile printing for its returns.

The majority of Kwik Kopy franchisees are set to become members of peak industry association PIAA, with the owners' group unanimously voting to join at its biennial conference.

Press giant Heidelberg is launching boxuni - which it says is the world’s first web-to-pack platform and digital production solution for designing and ordering customised folding cartons – in partnership with one of China’s leading packaging manufacturers, Xianjunlong Colour Printing.

Making sure the new HP Indigo 20000 at Luminar is looking its best is Currie Group NSW account manager Will Currie (right), who bet Luminar owner Matt Ellis (left) that he would personally clean the press, in appropriate apparel, if Ellis signed the order.

The QLM Label Makers Group took top honours at the HP Asia Pacific and Japan Digital Awards as the Grand Winner - Labels for its Food Label: Pukara Estate Mosaic Series that featured 1000 unique label designs.

The Bottcher Systems buyout of Brissett Rollers creates a manufacturing and service company of scale in Australia using the best aspects of both companies. Under Mitch Mulligan (pictured) it intends to meet the market with a combination of German imports and local roller manufacturing.

Durst and Koenig & Bauer have signed their joint venture agreement, which paves the way for the joint development and marketing of single-pass digital printing systems for the folding carton and corrugated fibreboard industry.

One lucky Yupo printer will be on an all expenses paid trip to watch Australia versus Wales in the Rugby World Cup, taking place in Japan in September.

With the digital labels and packaging market set to grow by 13 per cent in each of the next two years XMPie regional sales manager Enda Kavenagh says adding value will be key to printers achieving maximum results.

Finnish, Russian, Korean and Slovakian exporters of A4 copy paper into Australia will be slugged with import duties, after they were found to have been selling dumped paper into Australia.