Oversize Output: No Limits in Sight

The wide-format market continues to broaden. Since 1994, the value of wide-format retail printed output has reached $26 billion worldwide, reports IT Strategies, Boston. At last count there were over 50 wide-format machines available from more than 20 vendors.

Unrestricted by plate size, applications for digital wide-format output are limitless. Fine-art reproductions, textiles, wallpaper, ceramic tiles, bus wraps, rigid boards—you name it, there's a machine for it. Prices of 36″ wide-format devices range from under $10,000 for inkjet to $100,000 and up for aggressive solvent printers. Applications determine which is best.

Photo labs, service bureaus, sign shops and even quick printers have seized the market. But most commercial printers—many using wide-format inkjet for imposition proofs—seem to have shied away from oversized output as a revenue stream.

That's a shame, because it's "a large opportunity," says Agfa's Deborah Hutcheson, senior marketing manager for digital solutions, North America. "If they're doing an ad campaign for a cosmetic company, for instance, they're doing a lot of the collateral. Those customers also need banners, P-O-P displays, and building and vehicle wraps."

Recognizing this, the Graphic Arts Show Co. showcased application opportunities at Graph Expo and Converting Expo last month, assembling more than 20 vendors involved in that market into a Wide Format Pavilion in Chicago. Agfa, Encad, HP, MacDermid ColorSpan, Vutek and Xerox, along with consumable providers, ancillary equipment and wide-format printer distributors, were present.

Graph Expo debuts included Agfa's m series, speedy 50″ and 64″ seven-color inkjet proofers with new dye-based inks and advanced in-RIP color management; Encad's NovaJet 1000i, with advanced print head design and Intelligent Mask Technology; and Xerox's 8160 and 8142 inkjet printers. The 8160 prints widths up to 60″ at 150 sq.ft. per hour; the 8142 prints at widths of 42″. Scitex Vision launched WebSupport, its Internet-based remote service, for all its wide- and super-wide-format printers.

Emirates Airline draped the world's tallest window graphic—a 394′ Statue of Liberty image—on a 55-story downtown Dubai skyscaper, for the launch of New York-Dubai direct flights. United Colour Films, Dubai, used 365 quarts of ink, printing 20 hours on 16′-long, 600-dpi printers. Use of perforated vinyl allowed unrestricted views from inside.