Epson officially launches its revolutionary PrecisionCore inkjet heads into the Australian market. Consumer and business printers are first out the gate showcasing the next generation, scalable thin film piezo technology, with production devices dropping locally later this year.

The wide-format show in Munich is reinforcing the interest printers have in comparing new models from the leading providers. Nessan Cleary, Print21 European correspondent, sent this update from the show. Check out the June issue of Print21 magazine for a full report.

A historic gathering of the top echelon of catalogue and magazine printing executives toured the newly converted paper machine at Norske Skog's Boyer Mill in Tasmania.

Founder and CEO of leading industry recruitment company Stockdale Personnel moves on after 14 years. Tom Stockdale will step down at the end of June after confidently handing operations over to ten-year company stalwart, Sean Cathie.

Next up on the webinar slate is a hands-on, hour-long primer in app design from the Adobe brainstrust. This look at digital publishing is followed two weeks later by how-to guide for getting that vital finance application across the line.

The industry training initiative Future Print is picking up steam and results are blowing away expectations. Over 85 business are now signed up for the program and more than 131 new trainees are ready to start, with roughly a quarter brand new to the printing industry.

James Cryer had a busy week last week between LIA-Heidelberg graduates awards and a 3D printing seminar. Struck by the range and diversity in the industry, he asks are we really doing our best to recognise our young talent? And are we capable of making the changes needed?

More than 100 jobs are on the chopping block as Canon cuts Australian staff by 10%, but its Professional Print division looks set to survive the cull. A bulk of back-office support and admin roles will be scrapped as the business restructures in a bid to boost local profits.

Greg Grace, LIA Fellow, gives high praise to the training regimen of the Sydney packaging printer at the Graduate of the Year awards. “It’s a credit to the training practices of the company that two of its apprentices made it to the final. It says a lot about the quality of the management,” said Grace (pictured).

Representing over 60 per cent of the floor space that exhibitors will take at next year’s trade show in Sydney, GAMAA members are enthusiastic about the event’s new location. "I reckon it’s even better than the Darling Harbour space, it's where people live,” said Phil Rennell (pictured), chairman of PrintEx.

Industry specialist supplier, DES, to help online buyers purchase with confidence by promoting one of the largest ranges of late-model wide format printers in Australia. The website is aimed at introducing a new level of confidence as well as cost efficiency to the wide format equipment sector.

The latest in Nuovo Gidue’s digital flexo press technology, the Combat M3, has gone in at R. Wagner Prestige Labels, boosting production and opening up new markets. The M3 landed in February, and it has already more than doubled throughput for the business.

When Pantone published its first swatch book in 1963 it revolutionised the way we deal with colour. But long before there was PMS there was ‘A. Boogert’, an obscure artist who knocked out his own colour guide book in 1692 and beat Pantone to the punch by a whopping 271 years.

The Federal Government’s 2014-2015 budget has been welcomed by Printing Industries for providing certainty over the government’s economic policy direction and the likely impacts on business and consumer spending.

Having jacked up postage prices and entered direct marketing digital printing by installing a couple of high speed printers last year, Australia Post appears to be spruiking a ‘Complete Print + Deliver’ service by tempting businesses with PO boxes, like mine.

The $450 million merger of Ricoh and Lanier will have a new boss, Lanier’s own managing director John Hall. In a shock turnaround, Les Richardson will depart the business after nearly six years, despite earlier reports tipping Hall as the one to drop out after the merge.