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14 JUNE 2014 • INKJET'S AGE www.MyPRINTResource.com Kodak PROSPER 5000XLi Press The KODAK PROSPER 5000XLi Press combines the feld-proven performance of the PROSPER Press Platform with new press-management technology that constantly monitors and adjusts settings to ensure the highest quality output. The PROSPER 5000XLi Press features the fastest, most accurate writing engine on the market. Kodak's newly for- mulated, nano-particulate pigment inks are matched to the PROSPER 5000XLi Press's writing system, ofering greater durability on coated papers and a color gamut up to 30 percent wider than ofset printing. To help ensure crisp, readable output, the press also features a new text en- hancement feature. MyPRINTResource.com/10877185 Xerox CiPress 325 The Xerox CiPress 325 Production Inkjet System comple- ments the company's CiPress 500 Production Inkjet System. For printers with lower average monthly page volumes, the twin-engine device makes it easier to enter the burgeoning high-speed inkjet market. CiPress 325 ofers fast, high-volume production at 325 feet per minute (fpm)/100 meters per min- ute. It prints at 600x600 dpi resolution so marketing materials, transpromo jobs, catalogs, and manuals come of the press in crisp, vivid color. MyPRINTResource.com/10711737 about some level of customization which, in addition to the much- vaunted advantages of boosting direct mail response rates, also has the back-end benefit of facilitating recipient tracking and other analytics. At the same time, print direct mail is increasingly part of a larger overall campaign—nothing new there—but now printers are start- ing to take advantage of opportunities in overall campaign manage- ment, where software controls, automates, and links the electronic and print components. Production inkjet is proving to be the ideal hardware platform for this. "Everything evolved a lot," said Julie Loyer, Communication and Sustainable Development, Cascades Fine Papers Group. "With the versioning and the personalization, inkjet provides pos- sibilities that we didn't have before." The Story So Far In the past two or three years, following the usual technologi- cal growing pains, production inkjet has started to gain momen- tum, with new systems and new installations pushing the limits of what the technology can accomplish. Inkjet adoption has come—to some extent—at the expense of offset work, but more so at the expense of toner-based digital printing. Monochome, then color, systems emerged and proliferated, with systems like Canon Solutions America's JetStream and ColorStream series, Fujifilm's J Press, HP's T200/T300/T350/T400, Kodak's Prosper, Ricoh's InfoPrint 5000, Screen's Truepress, Xerox's CiPress, and others coming to prominence and dominance. The first wave generally comprised web-fed devices, but cut-sheet systems, such as the Fujifilm J Press 720 and Canon Solutions America's new "Niagara," are emerging and look to take a significant part of market share, especially as the quality, in many cases, can be said to rival offset. The new inkjet systems—highly touted for transactional and book printing, to name two top applications—are also changing the face of direct mail. Or, to be more precise, are proving to be a key player in a face that is already changing of its own accord. Changing Channels It's tempting to think that print direct mail is a stagnant, if not moribund, segment of the printing industry. After all, marketers Some say, 'That variable- data stuf is all hogwash because end users still don't have what they need.' Indeed, one of the biggest barriers to efective variable- data deployment has been out-of-date, incomplete, or just plain bad data. QPsupp_13-16_0614 NextGen.indd 14 5/15/14 11:56 AM