{"id":150,"date":"2011-09-14T09:32:38","date_gmt":"2011-09-14T16:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/?p=150"},"modified":"2011-10-29T08:11:59","modified_gmt":"2011-10-29T15:11:59","slug":"getting-to-say-i-told-you-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/?p=150","title":{"rendered":"Getting to say I told you so"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(without a nagging tone of voice)<\/p>\n<p>It is rare that a parent can enjoy the sheer thrill, the ecstasy of being able to revel in saying \u201cI <em>TOLD<\/em> you so.\u201d Heck, the more I think of it, it\u2019s rare that anyone can say it.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s rude; it\u2019s shrill; it\u2019s condescending, but boy is it fun!<\/p>\n<p>For years I have been lecturing on the future of digital printing. I have taught hundreds of students in Graphic Communication about the electrophotographic printing process, about the various devices that image with powdered plastic and electrostatic energy. It\u2019s delightful stuff, but I think that toner has met its match with ink-jet.<\/p>\n<p>And I have felt this way for years. Ink-jet printing machines of various types have swept into the screen printing arena, taking the lion\u2019s share of the sign market, creating new industries for point-of-purchase, three-dimensional display, and interior d\u00e9cor fields.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Kevin-Shimamoto.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-153\" title=\"Kevin Shimamoto\" src=\"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Kevin-Shimamoto.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"453\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Kevin-Shimamoto.jpg 453w, https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Kevin-Shimamoto-300x220.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 453px) 100vw, 453px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">This is the Xant\u00e9 Excelagraphics printer featuring Memjet ink-jet technology. It\u2019s fun to watch it print, because it seems so unlikely that it can print as fast as it does.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>For wide-format, photographic, and display signage (wide-format is defined as printing up to 48 inches in width), ink-jet is essentially the only way to go. Only very-large-format offset presses can compete, and there are very few of those around. When they do compete, it must be on long runs, so ink-jet wins most of the time.<\/p>\n<p>For office printing, workgroup printing, and general business printing, toner leads by far, with ink-jet being the realm of college students in dorm rooms with hundred-dollar ink-jet printers and expensive ink habits. Toner is expensive also (we just don\u2019t hear about it as much).<\/p>\n<p>For about a decade I have been aware of the work being done by Memjet, and their corporate sponsor, Silverbrook Research. There have been a lot of articles and industry rumors about the company. About six years ago I was briefed by a Memjet executive about their MEMS fabrication efforts and the idea of a massive ink-jet head.<\/p>\n<p>The videos started showing up on the Memjet web site a few years ago showing labels literally shooting out of a high-speed printer in full color. The others showed a (poor, lonely) toner printer warming up while the Memjet prototype printer fired-out finished pages at less than a second each.<\/p>\n<p>The one that got my attention was the wide format printer prototype printing a huge panoramic photo at a speed that humbles those of us with conventional boustrophedontic (I can go years without being able to use that word) ink-jet printers.<\/p>\n<p>So, we as an industry have been salivating for years over the coming-very-soon Memjet printers, and it\u2019s delightful to see two of them here at GraphExpo this year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Len-Lauer-03.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-151\" title=\"Len Lauer 03\" src=\"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Len-Lauer-03.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"432\" height=\"310\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Len-Lauer-03.jpg 432w, https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Len-Lauer-03-300x215.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Len Lauer, President and CEO of Memjet, announces the Excelagraphics-Memjet collaboaration at a press conference on Monday, September 12. Behind him is Frank Romano, who introduced the product, and used the phrase \u201cdisruptive technology\u201d to describe the machine. I usually blanch at the use of that phrase, but in this case I agree with him. Memjet technology (and similar devices) are in fact disrupting conventional printing systems, and will continue to do so in the near future.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>One is the Neopost AS-950C digital color printer; the other is the vaunted wide-format Excelagraphix printer from Xant\u00e9 which uses a set of Memjet heads to print a 42-inch path at either six or 12 inches PER SECOND.<\/p>\n<p>I own an Epson 44-inch wide-format printer. I use it for fine art printing, commercial posters and graphics, and for photographic printing. When it prints at the resolutions I love (1440 and 2880 ppi) it takes a long, long time to make a print. But, I love it.<\/p>\n<p>Imagine a printer of similar (I intentionally didn\u2019t use the word \u201cequal\u201d) quality printing many times faster, and then imagine the impact on the graphic arts industry. Imagine a printer that can produce a 96-inch long poster, 42 inches wide in eight or 16 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>One no longer has to imagine that. It will soon be available from Xant\u00e9 (spring, 2012 we are told) with this new machine.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/ColorDyne-press.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-155\" title=\"ColorDyne press\" src=\"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/ColorDyne-press.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"489\" height=\"314\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/ColorDyne-press.jpg 489w, https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/ColorDyne-press-300x192.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 489px) 100vw, 489px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">This is the ColorDyne press, a label printing machine that uses Memjet ink-jet heads. One other Memjet product was visible at the show, an envelope printer.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>And, Memjet executives whispered in my ear on Monday evening that they are working with two other wide-format printer manufacturers to bring other versions of their high-density print head to market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(without a nagging tone of voice) It is rare that a parent can enjoy the sheer thrill, the ecstasy of being able to revel in saying \u201cI TOLD you so.\u201d Heck, the more I think of it, it\u2019s rare that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/?p=150\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":309,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions\/309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}