No question that new technology paves its way into several business areas. In this Print Sample TV host, Pat McGrew is eagerly telling about the possibilities with laser die-cutting, but also about why making your own print samples is SO important. The samples in this Print Sample TV came from a Landa S10 and a Highcon Beam machine and was presented by the lovely folks from Virtual Packaging in Dallas. Enjoy!

At the Think Smart Factory event in Kyoto, we got the chance to talk to VP Marketing & Partnering, Hans Gut from Hunkeler. Hunkeler and Horizon have been working together for years, and of course, it makes sense for both companies to exhibit at each other's events like Think Smart Factory and Hunkeler Innovationdays. Where Hunkeler has focused on reel-based finishing equipment, Horizon has focused on sheets - and of course, their equipment interfaces with both printers, and other finishing equipment. In this interview, Hans Gut speaks about the automation opportunities, and that the need for even more automation is a huge demand from printers. Enjoy this interview!

Hudson Printing has been featured in our famous Print Sample TV episodes by Pat McGrew more than once because of the intense focus on quality and customer satisfaction. Hudson Printing has also got quite a lot of media coverage because of the company's investment in two Landa S10P presses. So we believe now it's time to visit the company to understand more about it, what drives it from a technology perspective, a human perspective, and of course, a business perspective. We nail it pretty well in this film from Salt Lake City. Enjoy it! https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-hudson-2b170016/  

The rebirth of Crown Van Gelder papers. After a few restless weeks, it is now officially a fact Crown Van Gelder is back in business! Today at 15:00, INKISH was invited to the Crown Van Gelder booth at the Hunkeler Innovationdays in Switzerland to hear and cover what went on at the Dutch Paper producer. It’s GOOD NEWS, so let’s find out together. Enjoy! LinkedIn Profile: Rodney Jansen

At the Komori Open House in Utrecht, EMEA Product Manager Craig Bretherton got the chance to represent Komori for the first time. He got into the position of Product Manager less than a year ago. At the Open House, he spoke about the Auto Pilot solution that according to Komori is similar to what other manufacturers have on their machines, but with a few VERY smart things that according to Bretherton is better. Listen for yourself.

Fast, good & Cheap is the slogan of this truly dense printing company in the San Francisco Bay Area, where almost all types of print production are possible. RGMT offset press, HP Indigo, Xerox Iridesse, Fujifilm Wide Format, and tons of binding equipment from Horizon enable the company to deliver fast, well, and cheaply. The two Nag brothers have a background as software engineers at Intel but decided to start their own business year's ago - and here we are with PrintPapa in the Bay Area - amazing how much technology you can fit into premises this size. Great meeting the brothers :-) LinkedIn Profile: Shawn Nag: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-nag-4839508/ Pallob Nag: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pallob-nag-555254b/

65 meters long, 20 meters wide, and 300 meters per minute corrugated production, but on top of that, full quality inkjet print integrated. Seems impossible, but it's here, and though the market might be limited, it opens up for entirely new applications. In this interview, Head of Digital RSR Sales / Global Senior Expert - Digital Print, Nils Gottfried, gives you the insight that explains the potential. INKISH will soon show the machine in one of our popular walk-throughs - we are still trying to figure out how to do it right - but we will :-)

Ten years ago, Highcon was founded. When the company was founded, it was among the very first companies who believed in the idea of doing digital finishing using lasers - and the very first using 3D print to create creases. Highcon has taken off and is today considered one of the leading companies when it comes to digital finishing - and of course, the use of lasers. The Highcon family of products have, of course, since then developed, and rather than ONLY showcase fine, almost, out couture Highcon has moved to be an industrial workhorse. Founder Aviv Ratzman in this conversation talk with editor Morten B. Reitoft about the past, the present, and unfortunately less of the future. However, with drupa around the corner, who knows, maybe there are new things in the pipeline. Great conversations and important as part of our executive documentation series.

This was a very fun and very interesting session with Conrad Fischer, fifth generation owner of the printing company Die Pharmadrucker. Interesting views, like, *you won't need a print operator in the future," or "We don't have ANY of the salespeople left before we transformed our offset printing company into a specialized company serving the pharmaceutical industry." Or what about "I don't want customers who decide what I should work with tomorrow." - Plenty of amazing statements - in German, but soon with English subtitles!

It's almost impossible to imagine, but years ago, most labels used in Rum and the luxury segment in the Caribbean were imported from the US or even Europe. That changed when the two Evelyn brothers decided to start a label business in Bridgetown, Barbados. The rest is almost history, but as the company keeps growing, so does the demand for technology, and INKISH were so honored to be invited to Barbados to visit the company, see the technology that Mark Andy delivers, Nilpeter and the newest member of the family, a Bobst DM-5. Now Caribbean Label Crafts has production in Barbados, Jamaica, and soon an entirely new facility in the Dominican Republic. Interesting to see how business skills, craftsmanship, and technology have now moved 70% of the entire luxury label segment to be produced locally. Great!

INKISH hosted for the first time ever our NON-EVENT. The Non-event is celebrating the people that have been in front of the camera, or been supporting INKISH during the past years. This is a new recurring event, and the idea is to give space for the people we have featured to connect in a new way. We invited 150 people, and 32 decided to join us. Our guests came from Japan, Canada, USA, UK, Belgium, Sweden, and Denmark - and we are confident that next year, even more, will come. We asked most of our participants to talk LIVE during the dinner - and here is Conni Dreyer from Denmark. Conni Dreyer is the CEO of Dreyer Kliche, which is one of the world's best producers of cliches for embossing and foil stamping. Her company has actually won several awards, and you can't find any luxury brand in the world that hasn't been produced by her and her team. Enjoy!

Connecting IOT devices across brands, types, and how this can bring more value to the PSP’s. Baldwin introduces AMP

Connecting hardware from different vendors may not be as easy as it sounds - so how will this be done? - Steve Metcalf, Baldwin Technologies.

Signcom is a well-known subsidiary of Igepa Group, and yet well-known, your humble editor didn't do his homework before meeting with the Finish Managing Director Samuli Vuorenhela. But what you don't know, you can learn - and it was truly great both to meet Samuli, but also to learn more about Signcom. At shows like the Sign, Print & Promotion, you really get to see a lot of equipment, substrates, software, and applications - and you can compare. I talk to Samuli about competition in the market, but also about the company's history. Great meeting Samuli, and I am confident that we will meet again! LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuli-vuorenhela-32a4282/

In this Print Sample TV edition, host Pat McGrew shows some really cool 'collector's items' made on a Fujifilm JetPress. In this Print Sample TV, Pat McGrew show two examples - a magazine and a box with cards - and both show the creativity of the people at Fujifilm, but also, of course, the great capabilities of their digital presses.

This is our first cherry blossom season here at our new facility. We just moved north of Kyoto onto the shores of Lake Biwa. We opened up the new Horizon Innovation Park. And that's where myself and the Horizon International team are now located. Right now, we can do demonstrations on every Horizon system. Some people would say that the printing industry is declining. We would say that it's changing. It's undergoing an evolution. Or it's more short run, more variable, more digital. The Japanese spirit is all about going from the smallest bit to the largest finished product, all in-house. Everything from the rollers to the circuit boards are produced right here. It was in 2019 when we held the first "Think Smart Factory" in Kyoto, Japan. What we want to show, automated solutions integrated from prepress to your press to your finishing in order to optimize your workflow. And what our workers can do during assembly is they can call those little robots to go to the warehouse, bring the necessary parts that they need. Our customers want to really feel the paper for themselves. They want to see the finished product. Here, the machines operating. As manufacturers, we want to present solutions and hear from our customers. Right now that's not always an option. Since the beginning, we've been adopting the newest technologies to be able to replicate that experience. They never expected that they would get this high quality. It's also opening up new doors. Because we get to take them on tours of our facility. Which you would never get to do when you're just at a trade show. Right now, we have a new training zone. Where we can have people from all over the world come and get hands on training with the machines. But when that's not an option, we have a training team here to help them out when they're in a pinch.

Cold foil embellishment, what is it, how does it work, and what does it do for print? A few weeks ago, Jacques Michiels and Jan Majnik from INKISH visited the city of Turnhout, aka the “Printvallley of Flanders,” in Belgium. What they found was nonother than a concentration of some of the most innovative printing companies, yes even world leaders in their field like Cartamundi, where printing presses have been running already since 1765 and today has become the largest playing cards – and board game manufacturer in the world. Amazing and all originating from this rather small area in central Belgium. Our interest was drawn to one of the pioneers working with the Coldfoil technology for many years, Grafische Groep Matthys. So what is Coldfoil actually, how does it work, and what does it do for print? In this film, we take a deep dive into COLD FOIL. We show you all the different steps and how conventional cold foil is produced in an industrial environment like those operated at Grafische Groep Matthys. We ask our friends from the VIGC (the Flemish innovation center for graphic communication) - an independent organization also residing in Turnhout - how they see print embellishment evolving and to give some recommendations to printers looking into embellishment solutions and these kinds of work. So let’s meet the passionate folks at Matthys, who were willing to open up and share their story and passion in helping their customers SHINE - literally & vibrant! Great film. Watch it, Learn, Like it and Share it.

Established in 1866 and strongly focused on customer satisfaction, investments in new technology, and curiosity driving Kohlhammer Druck into the future. Often CEO Steffen Franzisi says that's not difficult - which gives you great insight and understanding into why we have two ears and one mouth. Kohlhammer Druck is located in Stuttgart and serves a wealth of well-known brands in both offset and digital. Great company with friendly people and a strong belief in the future, and what we like the most - not afraid of investing in technology driving the company forward!

In this film CEO Dayne Nankervis talks about the recent investment in the HP Indigo 100K. CMYKhub is an Australian trade printer working not only with print and binding, but also enhancement and embellishment - enjoy! LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dayne-nankervis-453b647a/

Head of Marketing Kevin O'Donnell from Xerox came to the Sign, Print & Promotion show in Helsinki to support the successful Xerox business in Finland - or did he come to meet with INKISH? Well - we got a chance to spend a good time together and learned a lot of good things about Xerox, CMYK+, XMPie, and, of course, the amazing Xerox Iridesse Digital Printer! Enjoy!

A scanner and built-in defect detection systems sound surreal, but that's exactly what Clyde Tillman from Litech USA shows Mark Vruno. Interesting to see how software, hardware and inspection becomes more and more important :-)

Cloudprinter.com enables their customers to integrate print-services into their IT which in return enables them to deliver in 140+ countries. The "secret" is the set of API's offered by cloudprinter.com that route the jobs to the printer able to deliver where the product is needed. cloudprinter integrates directly into the printer's workflow and therefore is an advantage for both buyers and sellers. But listen to this interview yourself and get much wiser. As usual, please watch, like, and share!

Vice President Business Development, Tim Roloff, explains in this film from eProductivity Software/EFI Connect 2022 the advantages of using dedicated cloud services from ISCorp.

Hard-working. Dead Serious. Quiet. No lunch. Loads of coffee. Whispering. Mostly males. White-boards, screens, and computers. CIP4 Inter-OP is serious business, or maybe it's even more. Some are friends. Some are competitors. Some are from large companies. Some not. CIP4 is the name of this group of serious people working on making all printers lives easier. It's a matter of defining a common language for offset printers, digital printers, large format printers, binding equipment, software like ERP, M.I.S., etc. CIP4 defines J.D.F., XJDF, and other standards. You may now know them, but your business is depending on them. Watch, Listen, Like, and Share.