Drupa attendees learning about photo personalization with Mediaclip Hub
Fresh from drupa 2016 in Düsseldorf, Germany, the Mediaclip team is prepared to embrace the positive industry trends. There were more than 1,800 exhibitors from 54 countries at the quadrennial event, showing everything from traditional printing to 3D printing, functional printing and packaging printing, for lines of business like publications, commercial printing and industrial printing. Of course, with the preponderance of inkjet technologies, the opportunity for photo printing and personalization were well represented.
Inkjet technology has been poised to take over for conventional printing for the past few drupa exhibitions, but it looks like this is the year it will actually come to pass. Inkjet is now providing high quality output on a broad array of substrates; press vendors showed an amazing number of packaging and label applications, direct-mail catalogs, sales and marketing collateral, books, magazines, and transactional communications. These opportunities all drive the message that personalization – especially with photos and graphics – is now becoming affordable on a mass scale.
One of the reasons why inkjet is becoming more interesting is, not only are there now hundreds of substrate choices, but also presses featuring different page sizes. For example, B2 format presses, first announced around 2012, are now reaching the market from vendors like Fujifilm, HP and Konica Minolta. This versatile cut-sheet format could be used for applications like personalized or short-run printing of P-O-P displays and marketing materials.
The larger B1 size is also seeing some invigoration, with new products from the Fujifilm/Heidelberg collaboration, the Heidelberg Primefire 106, and the Landa S10.
Inkjet variety
Inkjet systems are also coming in more and more varieties, with new cut-sheet, roll-to-cut-sheet and roll-fed production inkjet systems coming in at various price points. In particular, these cut-sheet systems provide personalization and customization output opportunities to a greater range of photo and printing businesses.
As inkjet becomes more and more productive – and cost-competitive with traditional offset printing – the market opportunities for personalization opportunities also increases. And, of course, other printing technologies are not sitting still; liquid and dry electrophotography was featured on high-speed printers from a variety of vendors.
Mediaclip is at the leading edge of these trends, and can adapt to all of these innovations. As an open-architecture SaaS platform, Mediaclip is able to accommodate many software platforms and devices. At our drupa exhibition within the HP booth, Mediaclip showcased the workflow between Mediaclip Hub and HP PrintOS, where visitors saw how PrintOS can streamline the workflow between the Mediaclip Product Designer front-end and the HP presses. This was just one reason the Mediaclip Hub is becoming the preferred platform for printers, retailers, and manufacturers to create and to sell an infinite number of personalized products including photobooks,packaging, wall art, canvas, gifts, calendars, business products, and more, on their own branded web store. Our smart design themes, 3D realistic previews – coupled with merchandising and cross-selling opportunities – set us apart from other photo website service providers.
If you’re interested in learning more about Mediaclip’s photo personalization solutions or would like to see the tools in action, please contact us at sales@mediaclip.ca and a representative will assist you with your inquiry.
