As the largest print show on the industry calendar rapidly approaches, exhibitors continue to place the finishing touches on plans they started four years ago when the last drupa show ended. Drupa 2008 (May 29-June 11, Düsseldorf, Germany) will be the largest ever with the addition of new halls for this year's event, and beginning mid-January more details of what we can expect to see on the fairgrounds has been coming to light.
This year's Drupa International Media Conference, held January 13-18 in Düsseldorf, provided a platform for 10 exhibitors to present to the trade media, and since then more vendors have been forthcoming with drupa plans.
In his opening address, Werner Matthias Dornscheidt, CEO of Messe Düsseldorf (the drupa show company) declared, "No other event has as profound and all-encompassing an influence on the economics and technologies of the print media industry as drupa," adding, "But drupa is more than that—it's a living myth."
He alluded to attendees coming to see not only what's new but also glimpse into the future. "Can we expect visions or illusions?" he asked, assuring everyone that in the end, for vendors and printers alike, "drupa means profit."
Following are some insights shared at the conference and from other sources:

Taking the HEI-Road
Heidelberg remained quiet about new technology at the media conference, opting to discuss central themes. The German press maker will place a focus on business consulting, in addition to applications, technology and customer care initiatives this year.
Heidelberg's marketing will build on its Hei-Tech campaign, emphasizing value-added beyond technology: HEI-Value, HEIPerformance, etc.. Adriana Nuneva, Heidelberg's senior vice president of global marketing, emphasized "It's not an image show, it's a sales show for us."
The company's two halls, one completely dedicated to packaging, will be manned by some 1,000 people (about 800 sales, 200 hosts). A partnership with Adidas will "HEI-Light" various ways of promoting a brand in print. Although no technology specifics were given, Nuneva did promise surprises in the Anicolor technology area in their main hall.

Presstek Aiming Big
At the media conference Presstek's new CEO, Jeff Jacobson, was evangelizing the merits of direct-imaging (DI) offset printing, like prior CEOs before him. Jacobson and his new management team are setting the company's strategic vision, and by drupa will be putting things in place. He acknowledged the company has to improve cash flow and profitability, citing the importance of its go-to-market strategy. "If you control the channel you control your destiny," said Jacobson. The company revealed that about 200 DI presses are being sold per year, and suggested they need to tap into the larger commercial customers to grow their consumables
annuity business. This could see the development of a larger-format press. "We are going to develop the brand, one customer at a time," says Jacobson.
"We believe, to achieve where we want to go we're going to need a larger format press."

Stream Press
"The biggest news to come from Kodak was the announcement that a full-colour Concept Press featuring its much heralded Stream inkjet technology will be printing live at drupa. Stream is a continuous inkjet system that is not limited to water-based dye inks, and can therefore print on a wider range of substrates (coated and uncoated). With a resolution exceeding 600 dpi, and print speeds over 500 feet-per-minute, Kodak is calling the technology "offset class" for some commercial applications. At drupa, the Kodak booth will be organized around applications with its Unified workflow central to the set-up. Unveiled at the show will be a Magnus 800Z thermal platesetter, capable of up to 60 8-up plates per hour. Kodak's Print On Demand Solutions (PODS) Group will present an enhanced server and a new workflow initiative for its OEM partners at drupa 2008. Its new high-speed server, called Nuevo, offers up to a 10-times boost in performance, capable of processing over 1,000 pages-per-minute. The increased power facilitates entry into high volume applications like transactional (transpromo), direct mail and photo applications. The PODS Group currently supplies CREO colour servers to partners including Hewlett- Packard, IKON, Kodak, Konica Minolta, and Xerox. Its new offerings will include greater integration with Kodak's Prinergy and Insite software, and the company is developing solutions to move upstream, tying into enterprise marketing management systems and CRM systems to get involved with marketing/campaign planning.

Focus on Digital
Fujifilm launched its drupa campaign, "Digital Power at Your Control," at the media conference. Although not an official member of Print City, Fujifilm will have a presence in the Print City hall along with its own location in another hall. Demonstrating its breadth of offering, Fuji will feature campaign management controlled through its XMF workflow, with output to digital large format, digital toner and offset solutions.
On the product side, the company announced the new Brillia HD PRO-V chemistry-free violet hotopolymer plate will be demonstrated at drupa. One of the clear messages delivered is that Fujifilm is looking to attract the attention of its traditional offset market with its digital inkjet wide format solutions. FUJIFILM Dimatix, developer of inkjet printheads, have announced the global launch of a new printhead, featuring what it calls a new level of single-pass and scanning application.

Five Solution Areas
In February Komori announced it will be featuring eight offset presses at drupa, from a new five-unit 29-inch Spica perfector up to its System 38S 16-page web. The company will feature five areas on its booth, each with a different theme: extra added value; one-pass productivity; on demand changeover; flexible multi print; and preserving the environment. All the sheetfed presses will feature the new KHS-AI fast set-up system allowing improved makeready times.
Other new product highlights will include: the Lithrone SX629 with inline cold foil, UV coating and embossing; the new LSX40 featuring higher speed and larger sheet size; the Print Quality Assessment System (PQA-S) a camera set-up inspecting sheets inline (available on LS40 presses); and the launch of Videoscope, a monitoring system showing real-time details of sheet travel at different points on the press.

Selling Presses and Services
MAN Roland announced in mid-February that it will be recycling the same motto as drupa 2004, We Are Print, and this year its major themes include value-added printing on sheetfed and applied innovations on web presses. The company's ROLAND 700 DirectDrive sheetfed press with simultaneous plate changing will be running this year, and once again a showing of inline foiling and coating is to be expected on its 40-inch 700 HiPrint press. The company is also promoting its PRINTVALUE offering which consists of four brands: printservices (service and support); printcom (pressroom products); printnet (printshop networking system); and printadvice (business consulting services).

Moving Up
Evolving With You is the theme for Ryobi at drupa 2008, and in late February the company well-known in the small-format press market announced it's taking a big step with the introduction of a 40-inch press line. Called the Ryobi 1050 series, the 16,000 sph press is expected to be ready to ship by 2009.

From CTP to POD
Dianippon Screen, the leading manufacturer of computer-to-plate systems worldwide (including its OEM partner machines), is using drupa as a launching pad to establish its presence in the print on demand market. According to Screen, the CtP market worldwide is almost at its peak. Although a new CtP solution for new large format presses will be announced this year, the company forecasts that by 2011 print on demand will grow to become its primary contributor. Screen's portfolio of print products includes inkjet technology for the high-quality wide format display market (TruePress Jet 2500 UV), high-speed transaction and direct mail market (TruePress Jet520), packaging solutions and industrial print applications (TruePress Jet650).

Packaging and Inkjet To Come
"Still trumpeting its slogan "The New Business of Printing" from two drupa shows before, Xerox is extending its reach beyond technology and workflow solutions, and a major theme for the company at drupa will be helping customers with business development. Four product areas of focus include: digital books/ photo books; collateral; direct mail; and transactional printing. A Heidelberg press will be located on the Xerox booth, highlighting hybrid workflow and colour matching. The company also alluded to the packaging market becoming a focus for Xerox, promising key announcements/partnerships with a packaging focus. Technology demonstrations at drupa will feature inkjet products for the future. Keeping details a secret, talk of innovative inkjet heads and applications for a wide range of substrates was mentioned. Stay tuned. Xerox did announce a new continuous feed b/w engine, 650/300, fastest in their portfolio using dry toner and flash fusing.

Mail and More
Domino Printing Sciences, celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2008, will continue to expand its array of inkjet offerings extending its reach beyond industrial and high-speed bindery/on press applications to include entries into the broader lettershop environment. The company will launch the K-150 solvent or UV dropon- demand piezo solution. With a small footprint the printheads can be integrated inline on a press for addressing or offline for mailing applications. Domino's L400, first shown last fall, is the company's first thermal inkjet solution for lettershops (using Lexmark printheads). Integrated into its own BaseLine mail feeding system, the L400 promises competitive advantages in speed and quality.

Ricoh Goes Pro
With a new emphasis on the production printing market, Ricoh will launch its Pro brand of digital printers at drupa. The first models showcased will be the 90 page-per-minute Pro C900 (printer only) and C900s (with scanning on top). The printers can run at top speed on stocks up to 300 gsm up to 13 x 19-inch sheets. They use integrated EFI controllers and will print at 1,200 dpi. The unique engine, manufactured by Ricoh, uses new pulverized toner and a belt fusing unit. Features will include customer replaceable parts for less service calls, on-the-fly toner replacement and a variety of inline finishing options. Full production machines are expected to hit the streets by Oct. �08.

Five Prevailing Themes
At the drupa Media Conference, EFI's CEO Guy Gecht told the crowd it can expect a lot of upgrades and new products from his company at drupa, but what he really wanted to talk about were significant trends he believes are affecting the industry and EFI. The "Big Five", as Gecht identified them include: consolidation (EFI is made up of Fiery, Jetrion, Vutek and its print MIS solutions); the power of information (a nod to the necessity of management information systems); digital printing (the growth of wide format); industrial printing opportunities (the niche where Jetrion's inkjet solution fits in for labels and packaging); and the environment (a nod to Vutek's enviro ink option and the general mood towards the "greening" of print).

Workflow Integration
Dalim Software, the German-based developer of automated prepress workflows and collaboration tools, will be providing updates to its line of products including Twist (automated workflow), Dialogue (soft proofing solution) and Mistral (project collaboration tool). Adobe's PDF Print Engine has become native in all Dalim applications. A highlight from Dalim will be a technology demonstration of Dalim's Virtual Library, a new application software that operates as a meta-data collector that can drive virtual 3-D previews of publications or documents based on data in the files.

Competition for Sheetfeds
In early March Goss International announced its theme for drupa will be New Ways for Print. The Goss FPS press, introduced at drupa 2004, will again be shown with slide-apart units and cutoff change capabilities. The company also says a new Goss press system will be operating at the show that will be competitive with common sheetfed applications. The company will also highlight its 96-page Sunday 5000 web press and printing units from other Goss presses will be displayed in the booth.

COLOUR CONSISTENCY
X-Rite (and its subsidiary Pantone) will unveil new solutions for colour specification, colour management and colour communication. The company will address colour consistency through all stages including design, profiling, prepress, proofing, ink formulation, QC and print, and will address requirements for globally accurate, reproducible and predictable colour output across all media types.