January 2001 Issue
Bright Lights, Big Cartons
Bert-Co Graphics uses a keen creative instinct to produce highly visible, highly celebrated offset packaging. by Jessica Millward, Associate Editor MAYBE IT'S THE water. Not only does Los Angeles breed an inordinate bevy of beauties and budding starlets, even the packaging produced by and for the Southern California market seems especially ready for its next close-up. Take Bert-Co Graphics, based at two locations in Los Angeles. As sheetfed offset packaging printers, the company's folding cartons have dominated pP's last two Excellence Awards competitions, and managed to nab numerous awards from the National Paperbox Association, the Paperboard Packaging Council, and the Software Publishers Association, among
Packaging Workflow Takes Wing
Stephen Miller, CreoScitex package printing applications specialist, reveals how 2001 may be a banner prepress year. by Terri McConnell, Prepress Editor This month CreoScitex is set to launch one of the most ambitious packaging prepress systems based on the PDF file format. On the eve of lift-off, we asked Stephen Miller, one of Prinergy Powerpack's senior astronauts, to give us his perspective on where this new technology will take us. pP: You've been in the industry during our most important technological growth period. What events have had the greatest impact on packaging productivity? SM: Well, it all began with inexpensive desktop systems. The price
Piece of (Sheet) Cake
Press developments make the dizzying heights of today's sheetfed offset a little easier to reach. by Jessica Millward, Associate Editor IT WAS ALMOST heartbreaking for the packagePrinting 2000 Excellence Awards Competition judges. Faced with about 50 sheetfed offset folding carton entries, they struggled to whittle the category down to only four winners; ultimately, only the slightest register flaws eliminated the competition. Such a resounding testament to the health of sheetfed offset prompts a question: What challenges do sheetfed printers face? And what solutions do press suppliers offer to enable those formidable folding cartons? Challenge 1: Freedom of substrate Four years ago, Hammer Lithograph
Reading Between the Hues
Package printers still put metallic inks to work more often than other specialty formulations, but printing with custom-blended colors is even more commonplace. By Kate Tomlinson, Assistant Editor TWO YEARS AGO, packagePRINTING's annual ink usage survey asked tag and label, flexible packaging, and folding carton converters to identify their top specialty inks choices. The response was overwhelmingly in favor of metallic inks—83 percent of respondents had put metallics to work during 1998. pP's 2001 survey revisited this topic to find not much has changed. Due to some new options in specialty ink, usage percentages are spread over a wider spectrum, but metallics are still
Web's Got a Friend
By partnering with other processes, web offset reaches its maximum productivity value. by Jessica Millward, Associate Editor THE QUALITY OF web offset printing has never been in question; its economy, however, has had its naysayers. But the new generation of web offset looks to be fueled by interdependence: using offset in conjunction with other processes to provide high quality while rationing costs. Given its in-line capabilities and speed advantage, web offset's doors may soon open to many more printers. The move to multi-process was certainly witnessed by last year's Labelexpo attendees. RDP Marathon, for example, highlighted its LF-series of variable repeat web presses, which
