Printing Press’s April 2020 What’s Happening, is all about making school photography easier, with two new applications to that end. We also look at Canon’s ImagePrograf eService program that delivers a managed print service solution. In addition, we cover the new director of Durst North America and Drytac’s new facilities.
April 2020 What’s Happening
Canon eService Expands Large-Format Printer Management
Canon USA announced its eService cost-per-use program for large-format print providers. eService offers Canon authorized channel partners a free, user-friendly service that delivers a Managed Print Service solution. With usability in mind, the solution allows Canon’s partners to remotely monitor customers’ usage and service-related data from their imagePrograf, Pro series, TX series, TM series and legacy printers. 
With eService, customers may no longer have to purchase a printer upfront, or manually order supplies or services. Instead, by utilizing the program, customers can pay on a print-per-use basis. As a result, they can concentrate more on managing their business; any consumable or service is provided on an as-needed basis.
Customers also receive full-term service and support, including routine maintenance where available from a channel partner. Subsequently, they no longer need to worry about checking if there is enough ink or paper. In addition, Canon service authorized partners who use eService can remotely view consumable usage levels, the service status and history of a customer’s printer via a dashboard.
eService also automatically notifies print providers in cases when customers require consumables, or when an imagePrograf printer requires attention.
EyeQ Background Balancing for School Yearbooks
The creator of Perfectly Clear automatic image correction, EyeQ introduced a patent-pending technology called Background Balancing.
Background Balancing automatically balances the backgrounds of school portraits to ensure the entire yearbook page is cohesive, consistent and visually pleasing. Paired with Perfectly Clear’s automatic photo-editing and retouching technology, it saves time and money while making yearbooks look better. 
“We’ve had numerous companies come to us and say that the number one problem with yearbooks is the distracting backgrounds,” said Brad Malcolm, cofounder and CEO, EyeQ. “Manual color correction is very tedious, time-consuming and expensive. Using our image-correction expertise, EyeQ automated this process; this will make a huge difference in production cost savings. In the end, it’s all about developing new innovations that our customers are looking for, especially something as big as this.”
Background Balancing is a solution for photographers who don’t use green screens in school portrait photography. The exposure and color of the background varies from photo to photo; as a result, it needs to be edited for the yearbook. As part of Perfectly Clear QuickDesk, the workflow tool for photo labs and photographers, Background Balancing adds consistency to a formerly time-consuming chore. 
In recognition of the current stressful and challenging circumstances, EyeQ is offering two months of QuickDesk and QuickServer at a 50% discount and two months of Background Balancing at no cost. To see a demo of Background Balancing, visit https://eyeq.photos.
GotPhoto Adds Prepay Option for School Photography
A provider of sales and workflow platforms for volume school photographers, GotPhoto Inc. added prepay functionality to its platform. Starting as an online proofing sales platform for the U.S. market in 2017, GotPhoto offers an efficient way for photographers to manage sales and marketing activities.
“GotPhoto has added prepay to serve the North American market with an all-in-one sales and workflow solution,” said Benedikt Greifenhofer, CEO. “Our cutting-edge online shop now automatically matches the order as well as student data; and it transfers the order to the photographer’s preferred partner lab. This means up to a 50% time savings for our customers.” 
The GotPhoto platform is simple for both photographers and parents. The single cloud-based system eliminates work for photographers and adds marketing automation to help fuel sales. Photographers use QR codes or barcodes to match students’ photos with their data and preorders. Parents can securely order downloads or printed output from GotPhoto’s numerous print partners. For lab partners, GotPhoto provides ready-to-print orders to streamline production workflow. 
Germany-based GotPhoto was founded in 2012. It has 60 employees globally and operates in 12 countries on three continents. In addition, it opened its U.S. office in New York in July 2019. The company plans to grow its U.S. team to a staff of 25 by the end of 2020.
New Color-Logic Website Is Brand and Agency Friendly
Graphic designers and print providers often have difficulty explaining the intricacies of metallic printing and reflective substrates to brand managers and agency personnel. To assist them, the Color-Logic website was revised to make using mobile devices easier.
The new site provides numerous video landing pages showing movies of printed samples produced by Color-Logic licensed printers and technology partners. Annotated examples enable viewers to compare the metallic designs produced using offset, digital, inkjet, latex, flexographic, cold foil, gravure and screen printing. 
“Graphic designers can see visuals created in just seconds or with one or two mouse clicks using the Color-Logic Design Suite for Adobe,” said Mark Geeves, Color-Logic cofounder. “In virtually every case, hours—and often days—of conventional design time would be required to achieve the same effects without Color-Logic.
“Color-Logic eliminates the trial and error necessary when using only Adobe tools. The Color-Logic focus is not to inhibit creativity but to provide creatives with the tools yielding a predictable and reproducible outcome when adding metallic colors and embellishments to designs.”
Visitors to the new website will also find a listing of licensed Color-Logic printers worldwide. Furthermore, it includes the printing process they use. Color-Logic decorative effects utilize the existing workflows of printers and designers, to yield dynamic results without special equipment.
Durst North America Names New Director
Italy-based wide-format printer manufacturer Durst announced that Steve Lynn is the new director of Durst North America.
In this new and broad role, Lynn will focus on developing Durst’s growing software suite. He will also work to expand digital markets of narrow web and corrugate. Moreover, he will simultaneously support the product expansion of the wide-format segment.
“As Durst North America continues to expand its product portfolio and find new value-added aspects to provide to our customer base, it was essential we continue to invest heavily in resources, including top talent in the industry,” said Tim Saur, CEO and managing director of Durst North America. “Steve is a highly motivated team player with experience in leading large-scale, complex, technical solution sales, including hardware, software, services and consumables.”
Lynn has been involved with inkjet in service/support and sales roles for more than 25 years. He has worked in a variety of roles across sales and service functions.
“I am extremely proud to join the Durst North America team,” said Lynn. “The company has a strong reputation for leading innovation and product quality, and always with an exceptional customer focus. Durst is a fast-moving company that is bringing new innovative inkjet solutions to multiple print segments, along with the most modern software solutions.”
Drytac Opens New U.S. Office and Warehouses
An international manufacturer of adhesive-coated products as well as finishing equipment, Drytac added to its locations throughout North America and Europe. The company is opening new facilities in the U.S., to allow its customers to have easier access to its products.
The most recent opening was a new office and warehouse space in its home city of Richmond, Virginia. It is located at 5401-B Eubank Road, Sandston (a suburb of Richmond).
In addition, two other warehouses are opening: one in Northern New Jersey and the other in Atlanta, Georgia. These facilities will allow for faster delivery times.
“Our new office and expanded network of warehouses will better suit our customers; they will have faster access to our full range of wide-format print media, mounting and also protective films,” said Wayne Colbath, vice president. “Rapid project turnaround is essential in many markets served by Drytac; expanding our geographical reach will help our customers achieve this.”
