Dick Thornburg

Bar codes mean profits for both the distributor and the customer By Janet R. Gross The industry is nearly 30 years old and its traditional products still account for a majority of sales, but new technology and applications are transforming it as the market grow rapidly. No, it's not forms, but bar codes. Bar codes represented an $8.3 billion North American market in 1997, according to Venture Development, with industry growth rates pegged at 13.5 percent annually through 2001. Distributors can profit in two ways--by selling bar-coded products and by offering supplies. Either way, knowledge of the customer's hardware, software and the application is essential. Rowan Business Forms,

Use variable imaging to modernize mature product lines By Carol A. Katarsky As technology continues racing along at its feverish pace, many printers are looking for ways to add value to their products. One of the most promising developments in this area is variable imaging. Graphic Systems Services (GSS), Kettering, Ohio, provides offline transport systems and inline variable imaging systems for forms manufacturers. GSS' director of sales, Dick Prentice, said the most common, and oldest forms of variable imaging are bar coding and numbering, but new opportunities abound in direct mail, labels, on demand publishing, shipping forms with tracking information, invoices and statements, as well as many other