Hello! We are back with a short printer industry news show.

Last week Canon Australia re-started the PIXMA inkjet printer brand with a substantial ad campaign and in-store promotion initiative, heralding a strong shift to a brand-focused sales approach.

Canon has invested something like $12 million in the PIXMA campaign, a big move in the company’s brand-building strategy.

The ad campaign with the tagline “Why Print When You Can PIXMA?” and a new PIXMA sub-brand logo was launched on TV, print and online media last week and in-store from 1 May. The campaign focuses on the creative possibilities users can discover with a.

The campaign is also supported by the PIXMA microsite, at www.canon.com.au/PIXMA, where a band mum hosts a series of activities, including sharing ideas on items to create with a PIXMA printer and choosing the right PIXMA printer for the consumers’ needs.

The advertising initiative is supported in-store. Points-of-sale will be supplied with collateral, which includes posters, wobblers, shelf strips, printer sleeves and claims forms.

Among the items promoted in-store will be a nationwide competition from 1 May until 31 July, which includes a grand prize World Tour worth $25,000. This includes travel credit that can be used for flights, trips, tours, accommodation and concerts.

Meanwhile, HP is up to make some rearrangements within the company, namely in its printing division. Usually a bad sign (reorganizations are usually done when a division is performing poorly,) this reorganization is more like an adaptation of the business to the realities of the market.

The old structure has a drawback that parts were separate from the devices, so things like ink and paper were separate from InkJet and LaserJet. Now all that deals with inkjet printing will be in the InkJet unit and LaserJet supplies like toner will live together with the printer.

InkJet and its supplies will be combined into one group, while LaserJet and enterprise, due to their natural union, will become a separate group. “We basically said ‘hey, let’s make this tighter’, so we can be more agile, reduce cost structure, enable growth and enhance the customer experience,” said Alyson Griffin, a spokesperson for HP, in an interview to InternetNews.com

Have troubles finding the right driver for your printer? Don’t anymore as Xerox introduced a universal printer driver - Xerox Mobile Express Driver – compatible with all printers, even those made by other brands. Here is what Xerox says about the driver:

The Xerox Mobile Express Driver is ideal for people who travel or work in multiple locations. It largely eliminates the need to download individual printer drivers for each product to which you print. Instead, download a single universal printer driver to your PC and print to virtually any PostScript device on your network, even to those made by other manufacturers.

Once “fast and easy” installed on a workstation, the Mobile Express Driver can (among other things):

• Automatically detect your location
• Tell instantly which printers are online (can be used as a spy tool) and discover printers in real time
• Automatically configure itself and save favorite printer settings for each application

Windows XP & Vista compatible, the driver is currently available in English only. You can download it from Xerox’ site.

We have all seen regular printers that produce pages, some of us have heard of 3D printers that create things. Somewhere in between, there’s a place for another kind of printers. PromoJET Solvent Inkjet Printer applies images on both flat and three-dimensional objects.

PromoJET flatbed inkjet printer uses 8 color solvent based inks which are formulated to adhere without pre-treatment to most materials:
plastics,
coated metals,
leathers, etc.
More difficult surfaces can be printed on with the use of a special pre-spray.

The printer is equipped with a 11×18-inch tooling table to place the parts up to 5 inches high. Specialized RIP software controls the color reproduction and the overall amount of ink laid on the product. It is claimed that the PromoJET printer can decorate a full table of parts in less than 3 minutes.

Printer specifications:

• 12″ x 17″ tooling platform
• 5″ vertical height adjust
• Automatic platform height adjustment (z-axis)
• Automatic nozzle cleaning system
• DC controlled reciprocating platform
• 8 color print head
• Control Pendant
• Opal ink start up kit (7x100ml containers)
• RIP software with volume control
• Print Driver for .AI, .PSD, .CDR
• Instruction and training manual CD, Printer Driver CD
• Maximum print area – 11.7 x 16.5 inches
• Ink colors – Cyan, Blue, Magenta, Red, Yellow, Photo Black, Matte Black, Gloss
• Connectivity – USB
• Maximum part height - 5 inches
• Maximum resolution – 2400 x 2400 dpi
• Compatible software – Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, CorelDraw

In today’s world you cannot save yourself from printing, but you can save on printing. Here you will some useful tips how to cut your printing costs.

Can you imagine what the business world would be like without printing? No newspapers, no contracts, no bonds, no checks, no paper money, no maps. This list is almost endless. You would end up with very same list if try to think of a world without paper. Today printers and paper come side by side.

The emerging technologies have long promised to deliver us from printing and use of paper. In 1975, Business Week magazine predicted by now we’d have a paperless office. But do we? The development of the internet and electronic documents was expected to force out the printed pages. So is the invention of electronic paper. But today businesses still print between 2.5 and 2.8 trillion pages worldwide and this number is expected to grow within next 10 years.

In today’s world you cannot save yourself from printing, but you can save on printing. Here you will learn how to cut your printing costs. These money saving tips are generally oriented to home users and small and midsize offices. However, everyone who’s looking for an efficient printing would find these tips useful.

OK, let’s get straight to the point. (more…)