At the recently concluded PrintFair 2018 held in Hyderabad, Konica Minolta showcased a whole gamut of digital printing solutions. The company demonstrated its AccurioPress C6100 color digital press, AccurioPress C2060 color digital press, bizhub PRESS C71hc color digital press and bizhub PRO 1100 black and white digital press. Also on display were samples finished on MGI Jetvarnish 3DS.
Accurio Press C6100 is a fully modular line of digital printing technologies and solutions, digital press suites, software and cloud-based tool for integrating, managing and executing a seamless production color workflow. The machine tackles paper sizes of minimum 100 × 139.7 mm and up to a maximum size of 330.2 × 487.7 mm (with optional banner kit: max 1,300 mm) and has printing speeds of up to 100 ppm and 85 ppm for A4-sized sheets on all medias up to 400 gsm.
The Accurio Press C2060 offers features and technology including high-speed dual scanning at speeds up to 240 ipm for hard-copy originals; 1200 x 1200 DPI resolution with 8-bit processing for smoother, more realistic images.
The bizhub PRESS C71hc incorporates advanced color reproduction capabilities of the manufacturer’s proprietary high-chroma toner that produces enhanced printing outputs. The printer also comes with an optional banner tray to support the printing on media up to 13 × 47. It has a print speed of 71 color pages per minute.
The bizhub PRO 1100 has a high-speed 100 pages per minute B&W output, high paper and toner capacity, standard built-in print controller and compact footprint to save space on the production floor.
Talking about the response at rintFair 2018, Deepak DV, manager pre-sales – PP, PP & IP marketing division, Konica Minolta India said that overall the expo was good for the company in terms of footfall. “The first and the last day were slow but the second and the third day were pretty good for us,” he said.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
