Digitally Printing Newspapers To Web Standards

Kodak Versamark's Ifra Expo '05 stand - 4I 200 - will feature daily newspapers from around the world, digitally printed and delivered to the show every morning.

Kodak Versamark's Ifra Expo '05 stand - 4I 200 - will feature daily newspapers from around the world, digitally printed and delivered to the show every morning.

The full-colour newspapers in different languages will be digitally produced by Kodak Versamark's customer Digitaldruck Bayerlein, in Neusass (Germany).

Special editions for IFRA will include The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), Times of India (India), Sovjet Sport (Russia), Beeld (South Africa) and Sports Nippon (Japan).

In a real-world example of digital printing, they will be printed at Bayerlein and delivered to the IFRA exhibition every morning when the exhibition opens at 10.00am.

Kodak Versamark has developed a Newspaper Printing System, based on the Versamark VX5000 digital printer, with the ability to cost-effectively print full colour digital newspapers on standard newsprint at web speeds of 150 metres per minute (500 feet per minute), claimed the company.

The system is also said to be able to produce 1,000 40-page colour newspapers per hour at a cost comparable to mono laser printing.

In addition, a full-speed in-line finishing system is under development that will be able to produce a folded, multi-section broadsheet or tabloid newspaper, or mixed broadsheet and tabloid.

The ability of high-speed inkjet-based systems to print newspapers in full colour offers a variety of benefits, according to Kodak Versamark.

Whilst today's mono laser-based systems can provide some of the benefits of remote printing, they cannot address the need for colour photos and advertising.

However, the company claimed that with the Versamark VX5000 printing system, most newspapers can be printed cost effectively with process colour on one side and black on the other side, an emerging application that will be demonstrated at Ifra Expo '05.

Digitaldruck Bayerlein is claimed to be the first company in the world to use the Newspaper Printing System, based on the Versamark VX5000.

Earlier this year, the company began production of digitally printed, four-colour newspapers for foreign publishing houses.

Previously, the respective publishers would offset print their foreign market editions, together with the national editions and then deliver them all over the world.

The new system offers the advantages of more efficient local production, combined with cost-effectiveness, high quality and true newspaper look and feel said Kodak Versamark.

Christian Bayerlein, the managing director at Digitaldruck Bayerlein, said the speed of his press is a great advantage for digital newspaper production.

He added: "For most publishers who want their publications to be available on the German market, standard distribution to the appropriate news stands is not economical.

In contrast, digital printing on a Kodak Versamark digital printing system is ideally suited for short-run newspaper production, since production and delivery can be handled locally.

Two weekly titles, the Washington Post Weekly and the Jerusalem Post Weekly, are currently being produced at Digitaldruck Bayerlein and distributed at international traffic hubs, such as Munich's central railway station or various airports.

Bayerlein receives PDF file data via e-mail or ISDN in the evening, prints during the night and delivers finished newspapers early in the morning.

Three-quarters of the print run is sold at the railway station alone.

With a claimed capacity of up to one million impressions per day, the VX5000 is an integrated digital printing system capable of producing 100 per cent variable data in black, highlight colour and CMYK process colour.

The roll-fed VX5000 system is designed to handle very heavy-duty production, yielding more than 2,000 pages per minute with an exceptionally low cost per page, said Kodak Versamark.

In addition to its ability to handle daily newspaper production, the VX5000 system offers a variety of model configurations to handle virtually any variable data printing application, making it suitable for custom, personalised marketing materials using multiple versions.

The Versamark VX5000-4/1W system can print most newspapers with process colour on one side and black on the other side, whilst the VX5000-4/4W printing system outputs full colour on all pages.

The throughput of the VX5000 printing system is not the same as offset production speeds but it is the fastest digital printer in the world, claimed the company.

It has a claimed print speed of more than 40,000 pages per hour and is said to be capable of multiple title newspaper production, with 'instant' changeover, whilst also being able to print a 10-sheet, 40-page paper, with 100 per cent process colour, or 50 per cent process colour and 50 per cent mono production.

Kodak Versarmark added that the system has a PDF-based workflow for greater efficiency and runs twice as fast as any other available laser printer, whilst providing the look and feel of standard newspapers with consistent image quality.

In addition to daily demonstrations at the Kodak Versamark stand, Kodak Versamark representatives will highlight the advantages of the new VX5000 Newspaper Printing System during two presentations held at the Drupa Pavillion.

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