Take Control of Your Wide Format Printer – Awesome Webinar Replay #3
5-Days, 1-hr per day, a lifetime of learning!
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MUTOH Announces It’s “Imagine It” Webinar Series
MUTOH America “Imagine It” Webinar Series
On April 1, 2020 MUTOH began its “Imagine It” webinar series for users of FlexiSIGN, Adobe, Corel and other design software users who print to wide format printers.
Our theme says it all “Imagine it”.
Imagine your images printing perfectly, image being better and faster in designing your work, imagine being able to match colors with ease, imagine the business you will have when we get past this pause in business!
In this series of webinars to be held weekly, MUTOH’s professional staff will discuss dozens of topics that will assist attendees in the design and printing market.
Want to be notified of future webinars? email: kthompson@mutoh.com
We’ll put your contact info on our notification list and send you an email with all the right information to sign up for the ones you want to attend. For now you can use the links below.
April 1, 2020 1 PM How to Setup & Use Soft Proofing for Better Printing (Replay Here)
April 8, 2020 1 PM Are You Testing Your Printer Each Month for Performance & Quality? (Replay Here)
April 15, 2020 1 PM Is a UV-LED Printer in Your Future? MUTOH Has Something Special! Register Here
April 22, 2020 1 PM How to Match a Solid Color (Spot Color, Pantone, Logo Branding) Registration Pending
Let’s use our pause in business to get better professionally.
Going digital modernizes city traffic sign shop in Seattle
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For decades, the city of Seattle’s sign shop produced signs by screen printing or computer cut overlays. But today’s sign shop looks nothing like its past. Thanks to a dedicated team, the shop is clean, lean, and reliable; an example of what is achievable by transitioning to modern digital printing with the Avery Dennison TrafficJet Print System.
Leading the transformation was sign shop Crew Chief Robin Ford. While digital printing was not new to Robin, its use in the shop had been limited to non-regulated signs and decals. For years, Robin watched as the industry worked to improve technology suitable for digitally printed traffic signs. “We were looking for production speed,” Robin said. “We’re also looking at how it performs with reflective sheeting. Printing on reflective material was huge. Having multiple colors printed on reflective material meant that 70% of our signs didn’t need to be screened or plotter cut.”
His initial plan was to integrate the printer into their production for small batches only and continue to screen print and weed as needed. Three years later, the shop now runs three TrafficJet printers and has discontinued screen printing, going nearly 100% digital.
A nuisance for the shop operators, inks and cleaning solvents posed an environmental hazard. “We had to be fitted for respirators and work with our health and safety department to monitor wastewater and track chemical use,” explained Robin. TrafficJet inks are contained in sealed cartridges, with minor exposure to the atmosphere. “There is no noticeable smell with the TrafficJet printer and we’re no longer known for that awful screen printing smell.”
Robin brought up several examples of how the move to digital printing has helped his shop be more responsive to the needs of the public.
- Last year a rare snowstorm struck Seattle. The city needed 400 emergency road closure signs. “There’s no way we could’ve done that with screen printing or with plotter pens. The physical labor of weeding and then 8-10 hours of screen printing drying would take too long.”
An emergency bridge closure resulted in traffic engineering requesting a rush order of detour signs. “Being in a public service role, I need to be able to respond swiftly,” said Robin. The shop quickly produced 150 detour signs using digital printers.
With digital printing, Robin is quickly printing signs, eliminating the need to keep an inventory of purchased signs from outside fabricators. He has freed up shop space and reduced the capital costs of carrying a larger and complicated inventory of roll goods.
To learn more about the Avery Dennison TrafficJet Print System, visit reflectives.averydennison.com/
Sending Large Files is Easy with Any Web Browser
Firefox Send: Use With Any Web Browser
Firefox Send is a useful option to transfer big files with people who don’t want to rely on Google, Microsoft, or Apple. It lets you upload and encrypt large files (up to 1GB) to share online. To use Firefox Send, you don’t have to install an add-on. Point your web browser to the Firefox Send homepage and click the Select a file to upload button.
Once the uploading gets completed, Send creates a link that you can then send it via email. At a time, you can send a link to 20 recipients (one download per recipient). You can also set a password to encrypt the file. Each link created by Send will expire after 24 hours. The file also gets deleted from the Mozilla server and leaves no traces.
Be sure to visit www.mutoh.com for details on award-winning wide format printers.
Need more ways to send large files? Check out this article: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-ways-to-email-large-attachments/
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MUTOH the No. 1 Wide Format Printer Manufacturer in the World Expected to have Enormous Impact at Printing United
MUTOH Expected to Have a Huge Impact at the Printing United Show
Looks like MUTOH, manufacturer of the world top line of wide format printer is preparing to have a huge impact at the Printing United show. They will have all of their Product of the Year printers to show as well as their all-new XPJ ExpertJet series of wide-format eco-solvent printers.
The “XpertJet 1682SR 64” Eco-Solvent Printer from Mutoh has a staggered dual-head design that provides ultra-fast print speeds. It’s capable of producing smooth gradations while delivering high-quality printing even with reduced resolution thanks to the 7-color ink configuration (CMYK Lc Lm Lk).
The newly designed platform is packed with features like automatic bi-directional alignments, a user-friendly touch panel, added LED lighting, and an upgraded media feed flange that allows operators to easily and quickly load media and exchange multiple rolls. These features are designed to increase user-friendly operation and maintenance while continuing to offer high production, high-quality output. The “XPJ” 1682SR is paired with Mutoh’s “MS41” Eco-Solvent ink, which offers users a larger color gamut, outstanding durability, and improved dot gain.
Features:
- 64″ Eco-Solvent Printer
- Uses Mutoh’s new MS-41 Eco-Solvent ink
- Environmentally conscious 1-liter ink bags
- Staggered dual-print heads
- Print speeds up to 1000 sqft/hr
- User-friendly touch panel
- Automatic Bi-Directional Alignments
- New media feed flange
- Internal LED Lighting
- Mutoh edition FlexiSign & Print RIP software
- 30kg take-up included
- One-year on-site limited warranty
Meet the Experts at the MUTOH Booth
All printer product managers will be attending the show and they are experts in UV-LED, Eco-Solvent and Dye-Sublimation & Textile printing. Even if you just have a few questions about the market or a process or how to set a job up, they can help and want to help! So stop by booth 4404. Come by and see how a MUTOH wide format printer might just be the answer for your shop or just meet with the experts!
Be sure to visit www.mutoh.com for more information about all MUTOH wide format printers.
You might also want more information about the training sessions we offer: www.thinkmutoh.com/events
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Using Color in Your Design
Understanding Color Choices
Here’s a video that will guide you through understanding how to use color in your design. It is done in a simple fashion so it’s easy to understand.
Find out what colors look good together! After viewing, show us some examples of your own work! Explain why you chose the colors. We’d love to see it. Enjoy! http://colormind.io/bootstrap/
As you can see, matching or harmonizing the right colors is not hard, it just takes a little thought and practice. Would you like to learn more about color matching, color printing, and design? If so, you would love to attend one of our live training seminars hosted throughout the USA.
Find out more in one of our live training classes held throughout the USA!
Read MoreWhat’s Next in Wide Format Printing?
Wide Format Printing? Think in Terms of Dog Years
You’ve heard it I’m sure “Every year of a dogs life is like seven humans years.” That’s kind of how it feels to me when it comes to how fast technology is evolving in the wide format print business. Seems like every year that goes by there are leaps in technology.
But what do we mean by technology? The wide format printing industry is very broad and includes wide format printers, inks, media, finishing equipment and much more.
Seems like you buy a component and in the next year or two you are already behind in technology. But is that something to be concerned with? Not usually. I think most equipment is fine for a good 5 years. Remember, that’s like keeping it for 35 dog years! After that, yes it’s time to look for an upgrade.
Keep Your Computer & Software Up-to-Date
Now some of you I have become acquainted with over the years, take great pride in keeping equipment and software as long as possible. I know a few of you that still love to run Windows XP or Vista and older software for instance. Well, okay, I certainly won’t stop you and you have the right to exercise your freedom of choice.
Me? I’m a technology freak. Over the decades of service to the sign & print market, I’ve seen how new technology helps shops to get faster and more efficient and most importantly to grow. However, as that technology is needed, your computer and Windows operating system must keep up.
Plan Your Budget for Updates
If you are like me, you hate paying that insurance bill. Seems like you pay and pay and rarely if ever use it. The exception might be life insurance, since at some point we will all use that one. But we get insurance on our house, our car,and our health. That said, we simply know month to month that we need to budget some of our money for that cost.
If you are going to be keeping up with technology, it’s going to take some planning and it might feel a bit like insurance, but you’ll need to save a little of your profits each month to apply to upgrades when you need them. Like I said previously, that might not be for 3 years or so, and that can give you a great budget when you need to use it. Put away just $100 and month and you’d have $3600 for upgrades, $200 and you’d have $7600 in just 3 years!
Consider Software Subscriptions
Another way to budget monthly is to use subscriptions. I now it may feel like you don’t own a software using this method, but many times when a software company offers a subscription form of payment, they include all upgrades for free or at a very discounted rate.
One example of this system is FlexiSIGN & Print from SA International, www.thinksai.com. They offer the option of “buying” their software in two forms. You can purchase the software and then pay for upgrades. Buying it would cost yu between $3000-$4000, and upgrades can be $200-$700 or more depending on how long you wait. Hoever, if you subscribe to the software, you can get the highest level of it for about $50/mo. if paid yearly and they will give you the updates for “free”. The subscription is not such a big blow to your budget and of course can fee up money for other technology.
Adobe products also offer the subscription model, but there is no option, you MUST get it on the subscription bases.
What’s Next on the Wide Format Equipment Frontier?
As far as equipment, wide format printers, laminators, heat presses, etc. probably the wide format printer is the most rapidly changing piece. Today there are printers with Eco-Solvent inks, Latex, UV, and Dye-Sublimation as well as water based for direct to textile printing. The fastest growing market is in dye-sublimation and UV printing. Print equipment is getting both smaller and larger. In other words, you can get smaller format printers for the craft and specialty markets and larger for the more industrial applications.
Watch the Market
First to the market, first generation printers typically have a premium price, because they satisfy a market demand. Second and third generation printers typically will have competitors and while they may be better than the first generation, they may also be less expensive in order to compete.
For instance, MUTOH is going to release its new PJ2508UF PerformanceJet 4×8 ft. UV-LED in September of 2018. One of the advantages to you is that others have already released similar technology but MUTOH has studied the issues from other machines as well as the market demands and therefore it’s release will have many improvements and advantages over competition at a cost savings to the buyer. Basically you get more for the money!
The MUTOH RJ900x has been wildly popular due to the low price for such a high quality dye-sublimation printer. The RJ-900X incorporates a new generation “Wide Model” print head (4 color sections, 360 nozzles/color), which will enable the highest resolution printing for Aqueous, 2880 dpi. The RJ-900X delivers superior line sharpness and photo quality with continuous tones, smooth transitions and a wide color gamut. Offering various print resolutions for different applications, the RJ-900X delivers a high speed 360 dpi printing 676 sq/ft/hr. The CMYK printer can be utilized with a variety of ink sets.
With the market headed toward more and more dye-sublimation for products, this may be a great choice for taking your shop to the next level of profits.
Keep an Eye Out for More technology Advances
As you know, things change fast in this market. There are rumblings of better inks, faster wide format printers and even eCommerce solutions on the horizon. If you haven;t dome so, start that monthly saving for the updates and check back here for news on advances!
You may also want to read some great information about industry advances at these great site:
https://www.sgia.org/ Specialty Graphic Imaging Association
https://www.signs.org/ The International Sign Association