The December 2018 edition of What’s Happening takes a look at a convenient photo card ordering service, trendy new photo inkjet paper, and Legacy Textured paper for pros. We also cover the new J Press 750S inkjet press from Fujifilm DNP’s silver pearl and metallic papers for its dye-sub printers.
December 2018 What’s Happening
Minted Launches Easy Services for Holiday Photo Cards
A design marketplace of independent artists, Minted added services and features to make creating a holiday card easier.
The services include Text Us Your Photo. Once a photo is texted to Minted, a stylist chooses designs suited to the photo—for free. Consumers can text a photo to 415-915-CARD and answer a few simple questions from their mobile phone. A stylist texts back five holiday card designs selected especially for, and styled with, the photo. The saved designs are loaded into the consumers’ accounts, where they can pick a favorite design and check out. 
Minted’s curated collection of holiday card designs are created by independent artists from around the world. Design-coordinated envelopes as well as premium paper and printing techniques complement the cards. Options include foil press and letterpress, vellum overlays, custom foil and pre-lined envelopes. Customers can personalize their greeting, colors, fonts and shapes.
As part of the Minted Envelope, customers enjoy free custom envelopes and recipient address printing on holiday card orders. They can opt for the all-script addressing, featuring hand-styled fonts. They upload the addresses and Minted takes care of the rest. Minted also offers custom postage stamps.
Moreover, Minted provides a concierge address book with its address collection service. Customers enter the e-mail addresses of friends/family; Minted sends them an e-mail inviting them to enter contact information, which populates automatically in the customer’s address book.
DNP Silver Pearl & Metallic Media for Dye-Sub Printers
DNP Imagingcomm America Corporation introduced new Luxury Media options for their DS620A and DS820A dye-sublimation photo printers. The Luxury media meets the demands for personal prints as well as enables pro photographers to expand their customers’ print options.
“Our new Luxury media options represent the best quality print offerings in the dye-sublimation market,” said Shinichi Yamashita, president of DNP IAM. “The metallic and silver pearl media allow amusement and attractions photographers and photo professionals to take their output options to the next level. These stunning prints will immediately provide them with an impressive way to differentiate their offerings and wow their customers.” 
The new metallic media accentuates “eye-popping color for vibrant images,” while silver pearl media provides natural-looking skin tones. This media, which also softens edges to deliver a fine-art look, is ideal for printing individual portraits as well as group photos.
Both metallic and silver pearl media are available as a premium, single-roll package. Moreover, they are both compatible with DS620A and DS820A DNP printers. The new media also can accommodate a range of print sizes, including 5×7, 6×8 and 8×12 inches.
New Canon Printer Papers: More Options for Creativity
Canon USA unveiled three consumables for select Pixma printers. Restickable photo paper, Magnetic photo paper and Photo Paper Plus Glossy II provide new opportunities for users to create and decorate their personal space.
For decorating personal gadgets, labeling items throughout the home or adding a little decorating “zhuzh” to a college dorm, Restickable photo paper sticks and resticks. Available in 4×6 inches, the paper is compatible with Canon’s inkjet printers released from June 2013. They include the new Pixma TS9521C, TS9520, TR4520, TS9220 and Pixma TS6220 printers. This allows owners to print their own photos, graphics or text to fit their restickable needs.
Magnetic photo paper is also available in 4×6 inches. With this paper, users can stick their creative prints onto any magnetic surface throughout the home, in the office or on a school locker. Compatible with Canon inkjet printer models manufactured from June 2013 through today, Magnetic photo paper provides users the ability to step away from the traditional picture frame and create imaginative ways to display their memories.
Photo Paper Plus Glossy II “makes it hip to be square.” Mimicking social media pages, the square photo paper is 3.5×3.5 inches, eliminating the need to cut traditional photo paper to fit square spaces. Photo Paper Plus Glossy II is compatible with Canon Pixma TS8220, TS6220, TS9520 and TS9521C printers.
The new consumables are available for purchase at the suggested retail prices of $5.99 for the Restickable photo paper, $7.49 for Magnetic photo paper and $7.99 for the Photo Paper Plus Glossy II.
Fujifilm Debuts All-New J Press 750S
Fujifilm North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division, debuted the third-generation J Press 750S. It will be available in North America by year-end. The inkjet press provides “an unsurpassed level of productivity,” generating 3,600 B2 sheets per hour. It also has a new maximum sheet size of 23×29.5 inches.
The flagship J Press 750S takes the core technologies of the 720S and raises the bar with Fujifilm’s latest quality, productivity and environmental enhancements. It features Fujifilm Dimatix Samba printheads, a six-up letter-size imposition and increased speed. This is all accomplished while reducing the footprint by 15% and energy consumption by 23%. 
“With the new J Press 750S, you can now print a six-up letter-size imposition, and with the increase in speed, we have doubled the sellable output of our previous version,” said Ed Pierce, product marketing manager, Fujifilm North America, Graphic Systems. “As a further advantage, the uptime on J Press is reported by customers to be near 95% or greater.”
Utilizing the newest generation ultrahigh-density/high-precision Dimatix Samba printheads and Fujifilm’s aqueous pigment Vividia ink, the 750S prints output said to exceed the quality of offset printing. It “delivers exceptional flat tints, ultrasmooth gradients, perfect black tints, pin-sharp text, ultrafine line work and perfect flesh tones,” Pierce added. It also offers an extensive color gamut reaching upward of 90% of the Pantone library.
The inkjet press additionally incorporates an inline scanning procedure of each sheet for consistent quality throughout a print run. Further enhancing this capability, Fujifilm introduced an optional full sheet scanning function. The enhancement ensures each printed sheet matches a preapproved image quality standard.
Epson’s Legacy Textured Paper
Epson’s Legacy Textured is the latest addition to its Legacy Paper line. Created for artists selling their work, Legacy Textured is comprised of a mould-made paper base that lays cotton fibers down randomly to eliminate curl. Moreover, its heavily textured surface simulates old-world handcrafted watercolor papers.
Legacy Textured has a heavily textured surface with a matte finish and is 100% cotton. The 310 gsm paper is free of OBAs (optical brightening agents). It delivers a high Dmax for deep blacks and an expanded color gamut volume. It also accepts a high ink load.
“We collaborated with industry-leading photographers as well as artists to help develop a media that blends qualities of old-world handcrafted paper with the latest digital imaging enhancements,” said Jeff Smith, product manager, Professional Imaging, Epson America. “It is designed to produce rich blacks and also vibrant colors. Legacy Textured exhibits unparalleled qualities for artists looking to create and sell exhibition quality prints without compromising print quality.”
The paper is undergoing eight-factor print permanence testing at Wilhelm Imaging Research, the world’s leading independent permanence testing laboratory. Moreover, testing includes color and black-and-white prints. Epson UltraChrome HD, UltraChrome HDX and UltraChrome Pro pigment inks and SureColor P-series printers are producing the prints. WIR is also testing the paper with high CRI (Color Rendering Index) museum-quality LED illumination.
The paper ships late December. Cut-sheet 25 packs will come in three sizes: 8.5×11 inches, $45; 13×19, $119; and 17×22, $179. Legacy Textured will also come in 50-foot rolls in the following widths: 17 inches, $189; 24 inches, $249; 44 inches, $499; and 60 inches, $679.
