25 years ago, the finishing touches were being applied to Melbourne's new Southbank Exhibition Centre, readying it for its first major exhibition in May of that year - PakPrint 96, whick took up all 30,000 square metres of what became known as 'Jeff's Shed' after then Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett. In Just 8 months, PacPrint 2021 (with a 'c') will open its doors.

Two teams worked 12-hour shifts at wide format printer Vivad’s Melbourne facility on the weekend to print 4,600 sqm of polyester fabric needed to cover empty seats at the Australian Open, after crowds were kept away during Victoria’s latest Covid lockdown. "We had the team and we had the capability with our Durst Rhotex printing technology."

The ground-breaking new Nozomi printer operates up to 3-4 times faster than the most productive shuttle-based printers, says EFI. “High-volume sign and graphics businesses can achieve a new, higher level of productivity with the first single-pass inkjet printer from Electronics For Imaging, Inc. dedicated to display graphics.” 

Durst has joined an EU-funded project to develop software that enables predictive maintenance in print production facilities. "We are calculating appropriate algorithms that make predictions about maintenance requirements."

Textile printing technology manufacturer says its fourth quarter revenue grew 49% year-over-year to $72.3 million. Full-year 2020 revenue was $193.3 million compared to $179.9 million previously, with a net loss for full-year 2020 of $4.8 million.

As DTG continues to blossom, Ricoh has set the studio up and released a new video offering an insight into the core benefits and key features of the Ricoh Ri 2000 Direct to Garment (DTG) Printer.

ASGA has announced the winners in the postponed ASGA/FESPA HP 2020 national signage awards. The winning companies will find out which awards and how many they may have won at the Awards for Excellence dinner in September.

A new joint venture agreement between Visual Connections and the Print & Visual Communication Association (PVCA) provides certainty for the future of the industry’s flagship events, and cements the two associations’ longstanding partnership which dates back more than 50 years.

Australia will join 18 countries in the initial roll-out of HP’s first-of-its-kind Sustainable Impact Program aimed at helping customers and partners to deal with issues including climate change, social justice and ‘the digital divide’. “A commitment to Sustainable Impact isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s also good for business,” HP said. 

Industry group Women in Print says Debbie Burgess from Bright Print Group will become its NSW Patron for 2021, replacing Natalie Taylor who stepped down from the role last year. “The search for a replacement was critical to maintaining a strong NSW Breakfast Series and Women in Print program for the year ahead," it said.

The digital platform drupa preview will present a conference programme showcasing the printing industry’s hot topics one more time (23 February, 2021) before making way for the inaugural virtual.drupa in April 2021. Industry players including Bobst, Heidelberg and Konica Minolta are taking part in the preview event, confirming their commitment to the virtual drupa show.

Emerging national supplier of Large Format Print consumable and hardware Total Image Supplies moves to bigger premises to keep up with stock and inventory demands from customers. There will be more staff appointments in the near future. It goes to show, despite Covid - there is opportunity for growth.

VIVID, the leading Melbourne-based Australian online signage manufacturer, has made a total million-dollar investment in the latest dye-sublimation printing and finishing technology – making it easier than ever for customers to create quality textile displays with big impact, and increasing capacity by 400%.