Finally, we have some sex in the magazine. Each issue we ask ourselves how we can make Graphic Monthly catchy and arresting. And as we all know, nothing sells like sex. We do try to titillate as much as we can, and there’s no denying the alluring curves of some of the gear out there, but, you know, it’s hard to find the sexy in workflow. Now, thanks to Mike Stevens, our quick print columnist, we finally feature a porn star in our pages. See pg. 20 if you want to know more. 
 

Also in this issue, we introduce two new editorial departments (no sex in either, I’m afraid). One is a new column on management issues by industry veteran Lorne Patterson (pg. 22). Lorne has had a long career in the print business, including a successful stint as managing director of Bowne’s financial printing operations across Canada, where he aligned the operations in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver in a national printing network. Since 2006 he has run his own consultancy out of Vancouver and Puerto Vallarta (Ok, that’s pretty sexy). We’re happy to welcome him to the Graphic Monthly team.
 

The second section is something we call Shop Talk. It began running in our last issue and it will enhance our technology coverage by enabling us to write about key topics in a shorter format. This issue we look at developments in the ink world. See pg. 40.
 

Also, tis the season—the drupa season that is. Yes, it’s actually been four years since the last one.  And the big sport among industry watchers is trying to predict what new products will be unveiled—hopefully to provide a definitive answer to that age-old question: Where is the industry going?
 

You may remember that four years ago all signs pointed to a JDF drupa. Well that didn’t pan out as expected. For some time now, pundits and assorted watchers were predicting this would be the inkjet drupa. And in January, at a pre-drupa media event in Dusseldorf, inkjet certainly was hyped by several companies, including Screen, Kodak, EFI and others, each providing impressive numbers relating the global growth of the inkjet business. 

Inkjet is hot right now and everyone is going after a piece of the pie with a plethora of devices. For our cover story this issue, we turned up so many large-format machines from more than a dozen suppliers that we couldn’t fit them into the space allotted to the story. 

What drupa is hinting at showing us is the next generation of inkjet involving technology and products that go straight to challenging offset lithography in terms of quality, speed and cost.  Some suppliers will deliver purely technology demos, with marketable products years away, but some have indicated they will have working machines to showcase.

But inkjet wasn’t the only topic being talked up. The other big issue will be “green” as companies rush to wrap themselves in a blanket of earth friendliness and introduce services and products designed to help you make your shop eco-friendly. Look for booths made of eco-friendly material, cloth bags instead of plastic to carry the show collectibles, award announcements, programs you can implement, eco-chemistry and plates and so on. 
 

But those are just the broad brushstrokes that generate buzz. There will also be new toner presses available—look for Ricoh to have a new entry in this segment—more large-format offset presses, and more attention being paid to packaging. It may not become obvious where this industry is going, but there certainly will be a lot of options for getting there.