Inkjet’s Age Designing for Inkjet: Paper Takes Center Stage From the onset of creative development, designers should take into consideration not only the look of a piece, but how it will print. By Joann Whitcher The inkjet design process presents challenges for designers as well as print service providers (PSPs), especially for those coming from a conventional printing background. “We have to unlearn what we always knew; those old rules don’t apply and now we need new rules,” said Jennifer Wren, color solutions engineer, Eastman Kodak Company. From the onset of creative development, designers should take into consideration not only the look of a piece, but how it will print. Success with inkjet starts with design preparation, said Ed Wong, director, product marketing production printing business group, Ricoh. One way to prevent these challenges from completely ruining a project is with better communication and setting the right expectations between the print providers and the designers, Wong said. Wong, along with most industry experts, agree that print providers need to take a more proactive role in setting those expectations. In order for designers to truly unlock the potential of production inkjet, they need to understand how their designs can take advantage of the eff ects that can be created when design settings are adjusted based on an understanding of soft ware, hardware, ink, and paper. “You don’t want to stifl e creativity; you want to optimize what they create and print it eff ectively,” said Wren. “Print providers need to guide their clients during the composition stage, educate them on how to output a fi le correctly, and how the job will look compared to off set or toner,” said Sheri Jammallo, corporate enterprise marketing manager, Canon Solutions America. “Canon Solutions America recently published an excellent industry educational book that covers this topic called ‘Th e Designer’s Guide to Inkjet.’” The Road to Production Printing Inkjet has come a long way over the past 10 years. In its formative years, inkjet was the bread and butter of addressing systems, eventually becoming the go-to output method for transactional production. “Transactional was a good place for inkjet to start,” said Dave Johannes, senior vice president of operations, IWCO Direct. “It was pretty manageable (in terms of design and production), because everything was line art or black and white. Th e transactional space is less demanding.” Th e direct mail titan bought its fi rst inkjet printer at the end of 2010; in 2015, it became the fi rst U.S. company to install the new Océ VarioPrint i300 cutsheet and Océ ImageStream 3500 inkjet machines. As inkjet’s technological advancements continue to move forward, so does the range of media the machines can output. However, while improvements are ongoing, paper continues to present a challenge for all parties involved, from the ink manufacturers 24 Printing News ® September 2016 PrintingNews®com
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