Clancy . . . overflow . . . the best bits . . . funnies

With all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed the completion of the deal with Sun Chemicals will trigger the expected restructure of Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group (GCG). Former KPG chief executive Jeff Jacobson will head up the Graphic Solutions & Services (GS&S) division and act as GCG chief operating officer. Nachum Shamir, formerly president of Kodak Versamark, becomes president of the Transactional and Industrial Solutions division.

The Kodak takeover of Creo is still before the regulators in the USA but no problems are anticipated. When that achieves completion Creo will also be subsumed into GS&S.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––


Some times you have to take technology tests at face value.
Heidelberg is claiming that its PrintOpen came first in an independent test of nine software products ranked by colorimetric accuracy. According to Dr. Abhay Sharma, an associate professor in the Department of Paper Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Imaging, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences of Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michican, USA, (phew!) who carried out the tests; “Evaluations based on the colorimetric intent provide an indicative set of metric figures that can be used to make valid cross-vendor comparisons. Heidelberg PrintOpen created the most accurate profile in our tests.”

And Clancy, at least, can’t argue with that.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

There’s a new Trendwatch report out in the US on digital cameras and scanner that contains some nuggets of reality. Such as;

The advent of digital ad delivery has done more to impede the market for scanners among magazine publishers and their printers than digital photography

In Spring 2004, 23 per cent of print and prepress firms planned to invest in a digital camera, most of them in the $1,001-$5,000 range;

Between 1998 and 2004, the percentage of catalogue publishers who say they produce their own production scans in-house rather than outsourcing them increased from 21 per cent to 43 per cent; at the same time, the percentage of book publishers saying this only increased five percentage points;

In the past six months, more than half of design and production firms have reported that high-resolution digital photography for print work has increased in the past 12 months;

The increasing focus on new media-like the Web and newer media whose resolution demands are significantly less stringent than those of print-will drive the future imaging needs of creative firms.

If you want to buy the report click onto www.trendwatchgraphicarts.com

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Here’s a piece of information previously unknown to Clancy – PANTONE digital chips were first developed for Xerox and to date are the only ones available for digital printing. The company has just commissioned a new set of digital chip books for the iGen3 and the DocuColor 8000. One can only wonder why other players in the sector don’t also feel the need to establish an acknowledged colour benchmark for their output.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

There’s obviously money and status in being a green printing company these days. Following on from the lead of Focus Press in NSW and Finsbury Green in SA, another printing company, Spectrum Printing Australia of St Leonards, NSW has nailed its socially responsible colours to the mast and gained accreditation from the Australian Ecolabel Program. The verification of its environmental practices covers everything from packaging to paper and raw materials. Spectrum proudly boasts that with the exception of book covers, binders and folders and official documents, printed matter produced does not contain metal dyes or metal foil.

The Ecolabel Program measures companies against a standard it identifies as ‘21-2004 Printers and Printed Matter Standard.’

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

And finally . . . this revealing speculation came from close to home and has afforded Mrs. Clancy endless chuckles.

If a man opens his mouth to say something and there is no woman present to hear him … is he still wrong?