Heidelberg to offer print media courses
Heidelberg Canada’s Print Media Academy is offering three new courses directed at all print media professionals. Understanding the Print Media Workflow runs on May 23rd and is a comprehensive overview from design to finishing. Productivity Enhancements for Print Media Applications runs on May 30th and is particularly relevant to managers, who will be able to use many of the techniques discussed to improve their workflow efficiency. Quality Control for Print Media—Managing Variables in Colour takes place on June 6 and addresses process and specialty colour applications.  All the workshops will be led by Chris Kular of Ryerson University. Further information is available by contacting Jacquie McCarthy at 905.362.4500 or This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Ernest Green to sell, distribute VUTEk printers in Canada
EFI recently announced that it has entered into a distribution arrangement with Ernest Green & Son, Ltd., for distribution of its VUTEk product line. Ernest Green & Son is the largest independent graphic arts dealer in Canada, with staff in more than 10 cities across the country.
Doug Green, President of Ernest Green & Son states, “We consider the VUTEk product line from EFI to be the premier product available in its class, and the EFI and VUTEk name recognition is critical to us.” Ernest Green & Son is Canada’s largest independent distributor of graphic arts products and services. Established over fifty years, the company has enjoyed a continuous growth based on its reputation for unmatched customer service in combination with the highest quality of pressroom consumables available.

Manufacturers get a break with new federal budget
In the recent federal budget, finance minister Jim Flaherty has made some proposed tax breaks which would be considered good news for printers and other manufacturers. Included among the recommendations are a two-year write-off period for manufacturing businesses on equipment, increasing the capital cost allowance on manufacturing and processing buildings, and increasing capital cost on computers.
Jayson Myers, chief economist at Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters states “We’re very pleased,” after lobbying the government for the allowance. “The two-year write-off was probably the most important priority for manufacturing. I think it will really help to offset the impact of the Canadian dollar. I expect we will see more investments.”

Standard Finishing Systems named Xerox 2006 Finishing Partner of the Year

Standard Finishing Systems has been honored by Xerox Corporation as the “2006 Outstanding Customer First / Service Support Finishing Partner of the Year.” Presented for excellence in customer and service support, this award recognizes the significant contribution of partners to the success of Xerox and its customers. Standard has now been the recipient of a “Partner of the Year” award for four consecutive years.  
“Standard’s contributions in 2006 were key to helping Xerox achieve our annual partnership sales objectives,” said Jerry Murray, Vice President, Product Marketing, Production Systems Group, Xerox Corporation.  “They also helped us increase customer satisfaction with excellent service support.”

Standard offers a range of in-line and off-line feeding and finishing solutions in cooperation with Xerox, but the award was based primarily on the outstanding worldwide success of the Horizon ColorWorks Series of in-line bookletmakers for the popular Xerox DocuColor digital color presses.

Agfa Graphics divests Xitron
Xitron Joins Vanguard International Group of Companies.
Agfa Graphics announced that it has sold Xitron, Inc, which was acquired by Agfa as part of the company’s Autologic acquisition at the end of 2001, to Vanguard Graphics International Group of Companies.

StockLayouts announces The Design Kit
StockLayouts has announced the release of The Design Kit. This comprehensive collection of graphic design templates, with printed portfolio display catalogs presents a complete solution for graphic designers, commercial printers and marketing professionals seeking to market, sell and create printed marketing materials for their clients and customers.

The Design Kit contains hundreds of template designs for a wide variety of business types. The five-volume design collection includes online access to the templates at http://www.stocklayouts.com/ plus DVDs of all the editable files for use with QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign, Adobe PageMaker, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Microsoft Publisher, and Microsoft Word on Mac or PC. The accompanying portfolio catalogs are intended for use as reference for the service provider’s customer or as a collaborative tool for designers. Each page presents a unique business design set that is attractively displayed on a colored background and printed on heavy card stock. The catalog includes a durable, three-ring binder with tab dividers to organize the design set pages by industry category.

Xerox focuses on specialty photo applications
Xerox is reinforcing its commitment to the fast-growing specialty photo market at the 2007 Photo Marketing Association International Convention and Trade Show. The company scored a pair of awards and is showcasing technology and initiatives that demonstrate the strength and reach of its digital photo specialty and photo book offerings. This is Xerox’s first major showing at PMA, the world’s largest annual photo imaging trade show.

“Xerox is serious about being a key player in this growing and profitable photo specialty market,” said Quincy Allen, president, Xerox Production Systems Group. “We’ve come to PMA with superior digital technology and the solutions and partnerships to help customers capture a wide variety of revenue-generating photo applications from retail storefronts to centralized production labs.”

According to InfoTrends, the North American market for photo books, greeting cards, calendars, posters and various novelty items will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 24.5 percent through 2010, reaching $800 million in revenues.

PB Danka to distribute Kodak printer in Canada
Canadian companies and institutions needing quality and highly productive printing solutions can now purchase the KODAK DIGIMASTER EX Digital Production System from Pitney Bowes Danka Canada, according to a reseller agreement between Kodak and the graphic communications supplier.

This contract enables Pitney Bowes Danka to provide customers with the reliability, speed and quality of the DIGIMASTER EX110, EX125, EX138 and EX150 Digital Production Systems. The DIGIMASTER system offers exceptional flexibility for roll feed or cut sheets and complete in line finishing, including booklet making, three hole punching, perfect binding and booklet factory capabilities.

“Pitney Bowes Danka has a skilled and effective sales and service organization across Canada. This reseller agreement increases Kodak’s access to Canadian corporate, government, education, data center and commercial printer accounts,” said Kevin Joyce, Managing Director of Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. “We look forward to working with Pitney Bowes Danka to grow its sales in key markets.”

Transcontinental’s Remi Marcoux named to the Order of Canada
The founder of printing conglomerate Transcontinental, Remi Marcoux, has been named as an appointee to the Order of Canada. The highest civilian honour will be given to Marcoux in an induction ceremony later this year.

Syncron CyberKare appointed reseller of Dalim Software Solutions in Canada
Blanchard Systems, master distributor of Dalim Software products in North America, announces Syncron CyberKare has been appointed reseller of Dalim Software products in Canada.

Founded nine years ago, Syncron CyberKare is the result of the recent merger of Syncron Technologies and CyberKare. The company provides forward-thinking solutions to integrate systems into efficient, expandable digital environments, creating cross-organizational, real time information workflows between marketing, CRM, DAM and beyond. Solutions typically include asset management, collaborative mail servers, color proofing and workflows.

Syncron CyberKare believes the addition of Dalim Software solutions to its product portfolio will enable it to provide complete, sophisticated production automated solutions for their customer base of printers, and ad agencies, who have brought many prepress services in-house.
“We’re very excited to represent the Dalim Software suite of products. We have experience implementing high-level asset management systems, and believe our customers will benefit from production automation. There are many prepress operations our customers are doing manually, where production automation will return significant cost savings,” remarks Ron Lokaisingh, CEO, Syncron CyberKare. “Dalim Software products are solutions we can build on top of our clients’ existing workflows to provide more sophisticated, cost-effective ways of operating.”

UCLA scientists create each letter of the alphabet at the microscale
UCLA scientists have designed and mass-produced billions of fluorescent microscale particles in the shapes of all 26 letters of the alphabet in an “alphabet soup” displaying “exquisite fidelity of the shapes.”
The letters are made of solid polymeric materials dispersed in a liquid solution. The research will be published March 29 in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C, where it will be illustrated on the cover. The scientists anticipate that their “LithoParticles” will have significant technological and scientific uses.

“We can even choose the font style; if we wanted Times New Roman, we could produce that,” said study co-author Thomas G. Mason, a UCLA associate professor of chemistry who holds UCLA’s John McTague Career Development Chair.