Sophie Matthews-Paul's Blog (9)

Sophie Matthews-Paul speculates on the news of the metallic ink just announced by Roland DG News is filtering through that Roland DG UK is making a major announcement about the launch of a metallic option which sits in its Eco-Sol Max ink family, with Sign and Digital Ireland offering the first viewing. This new addition means that silver can be used in conjunction with the existing CMYK ink set to create a whole new range of finishes. These will bring far-reaching options to digital display pr… Continue

It’s tempting to try to win business on price alone and never has this been more apparent than in the current economic climate where everyone is after a bargain and, in many sectors, there’s not as much work around as there was this time twelve months ago. Not everyone’s doing it, but stories continue to filter through about amazingly low costs for jobs which, formerly, would have commanded a premium rate. Producing wide-format digital print isn’t just about churning out miles and miles of ink… Continue

Spurred on by the release of Adobe’s CS4, my latest rant is about the blatant misuse of software and the enormous pride which some people seem to have when they’ve managed to get hold of a copy of a program without paying for it. What brought this to a head recently was that, once again, when in insomniac mode and trawling the endless corridors of the Internet, I found an alarming forum post. In it, an individual was offering around a cracked copy of Adobe Lightroom, complete with a series of re… Continue

At this time of year, when the nights don’t seem to be getting any shorter and television and radio provide little in the way of entertainment, I can often be found trawling the Internet in pursuit of something interesting to look at. On one of my recent nocturnal voyages around the World Wide Web it occurred to me how companies choose to promote themselves. This thought also brought to mind the many fruitless hours spent scouring sites for deeply buried information, not to mention days spent on… Continue

Is this “just another” recession, or is it far, far worse? At the time of writing this I’m knee-deep in reports from various companies in different sectors of the wide-format industry, but all are saying the same thing. Some have had their worst month or quarter ever recorded ― making the economic downturn of the early nineties (and, even, the seventies and the three-day week) feel like a breeze ― whilst others are faced with having to make staff redundant or considering shutting down completely… Continue

People talk to me about all sorts of industry topics but, in the past week or so, I’ve had three completely independent UK companies contact me with the same major complaint. All have invested heavily in top-end wide-format digital printing machines, all have paid for service contracts — but they've all been let down badly when they’ve made a cry for help. Yes, there are always two sides to every story but these three businesses are examples of the types of too many calls I’ve received in the pa… Continue

As we teeter on the brink of probable recession and watch the UK economy crumble, there are many companies who have invested comparatively heavily in wide-format digital equipment during the past decade. Even this time last year there was a heady optimism for businesses, small and large, to up their ink-jet capabilities and widen their service offerings. Today, however, the aura of doom and gloom is spreading but, having said that, there’s a huge advantage in most of these investments — and that… Continue

The first thing most people do when they start investigating a new bit of a kit is to hunt about on the Internet and find the specification. Very often, when it’s absolutely brand spanking new, information is scant and all that can be relied on is news in the trade press or the manufacturer’s own description of its latest collection of bells and whistles. This is particularly true of equipment on show at trade events. Having received yet another e-mail on the subject of misleading wording, I th… Continue

It seemed a splendid idea to start a blog – and then I promptly ran out of time to do anything with it. As if life isn’t busy enough already, now we’ve got Drupa on the horizon. The wide-format questions are being asked (and read Tim Greene’s message on The Wide Network on http://widenetwork.ning.com/) about whether Düsseldorf will host the exhibition which will “turn the market on its head”. Well . . . having visited FESPA Digital Printing Europe, as well as local shows, recently my answer to… Continue