Printing Industries of America, Inc.

Headquartered in Sewickley, Pa., The Label Printing Industries of America (LPIA) announced the 2006 Fall Management Conference will be held Nov. 1–4 at the rustic Enchantment Resort in scenic Sedona, Ariz. The event is designed to provide label converters and packaging printers with critical, practical information through numerous sessions and unparalleled industry networking. Special emphasis will be place on effective strategies and tactics, operational challenges, investment decisions and procedures. In addition, solutions will be offered in the area of proven leadership, financial management, sales, marketing, and the HR side of the business. A highlight of the conference will be the LPIA Hall of Fame Dinner. LPIA

The Printing Industries of America (PIA), Alexandria, Va., is urging swift Congressional action on postal reform in response to the United States Postal Services’s (USPS) May 3 announcement of a plan to significantly increase postal rates in 2007. In a letter to Congressional leaders, PIA stressed that the nation is operating under severely outdated postal laws, and legislative overhaul is needed to keep the mailing industry, which accounts for 9 percent of the United States’ GDP, viable in the future. “The new proposed rate hike is another pocket-book reminder for businesses and individual consumers that the USPS is a 21st century entity operating under laws

The Printing Industries of America (PIA), Alexandria, Va., is urging swift Congressional action on postal reform in response to the United States Postal Services’s (USPS) May 3 announcement of a plan to significantly increase postal rates in 2007. In a letter to Congressional leaders, PIA stressed that the nation is operating under severely outdated postal laws, and legislative overhaul is needed to keep the mailing industry, which accounts for 9 percent of United States’ GDP, viable in the future. “The new proposed rate hike is another pocket-book reminder for business and individual consumers that the USPS is a 21st century entity operating under laws that

Dive Into Digital Experts discuss how to market and design for digital printing IT HAS TAKEN MORE THAN a decade, but digital printing is now mainstream. "Of all United States commercial and quick printers, more than 60 percent currently have some level of digital color capability," noted Frank Romano, professor emeritus of the Rochester Institute of Technology's School of Print Media located in Rochester, New York. "It is no longer a case of printers asking 'Should I', but rather, 'Which one should I buy?'" He also reported that print buyers are increasingly specifying digital output for many applications where offset once dominated.

1996, Bill Clinton was re-elected president, the economy was... ...solid and Madeleine Albright became the United States' first female Secretary of State. Compact discs were the optimum in sound quality and data storage. Labels crept their way into Business Forms & Systems Magazine, creating the BFL&S of today. And, mass numbers of pentium chip-powered PC's and laser printers made their way into homes and businesses, paving the road to the World Wide Web. With only a few years remaining in the 20th century, the mystery surrounding the new millennium intensified. People anticipated big changes, but the details of those changes were uncertain. However, the

iT HAS TAKEN MORE THAN a decade, but digital printing is now mainstream. “Of all United States commercial and quick printers, more than 60 percent currently have some level of digital color capability,” noted Frank Romano, professor emeritus of the Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Print Media located in Rochester, New York. “It is no longer a case of printers asking ‘Should I’, but rather, ‘Which one should I buy?’” He also reported that print buyers are increasingly specifying digital output for many applications where offset once dominated. “Even though offset printing is evolving to provide more economical and more competitive approaches,

"Be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary." Cecil Beaton, English Photographer & Designer, "The Secret of How to Startle" Theater Arts, May '57 In recent weeks, I have spent considerable time pouring over the BFL&S archives as well as past issues of a number of other trade magazines. While to some, creativity is an attribute best saved for the artist, throughout the pages of each issue, the call from distributors and manufacturers for creativity, ingenuity and innovation in business practices and products appears again and again. Certainly, creativity in

The Graphic Arts Association (GAA), Trevose, Pa., passed on a helpful hint to industry professionals for handling electronic files. It was published in the February newsletter, GAA Update, and comes from Joe Marin, a prepress technologist and instructor for the association's Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation. According to Marin, Acrobat Distiller allows for great control over image compression when creating PDF files. Using the automatic compression settings, Distiller will determine whether to use ZIP or JPEG compression, depending on the content of the image. ZIP compression--which is lossless--is used on images with sharp color transitions, and JPEG--which is lossy--is used for all

Printing Industries of America (PIA) will relocate to the current headquarters of the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF) in Sewickley, Pa. The boards of directors form both companies decided that this location, which is just outside of Pittsburgh, would be ideal for the combined headquarters of PIA and GATF, which consolidated in 1999. "This is the final piece to the consolidation puzzle," GATF/PIA President and CEO Michael Makin said in a recent press release. "We can now move forward to bring the full promise of consolidation to our members." Sewickley beat out the competition that included Waukesha, Wis., Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas and Denver. "The Waukesha bid was

Six distributors share the secrets and strategies that put them on top. Workflow What makes the same distributor retain the No. 1 spot on the BFL&S Top 100 Distributors list for four consecutive years? According to Rick Wesley, president of Workflow (formerly SFI), a Norfolk, Virginia-based distributor, the formula for success lies in managing customer supply chains effectively. "Our strategy for the past three years has been to do an analysis of potential customers' supply chain needs, propose a better solution than what they have, and then begin managing their products on the iGetSmart e-commerce platform," said Wesley. The iGetSmart system is the