Komori launches a new duplex offset press, the Lithrone GX44RP, with a maximum sheet size of 840×1150 mm.
Agfa turns 150. KBA celebrates its 200th birthday and rebrands itself back to Koenig & Bauer.
In the UK Smithers Pira releases a white paper on pre-owned presses that claims Heidelberg gear is the best. Koenig & Bauer and other press vendors are not amused.
Xerox finalizes its split into two standalone publicly traded companies. EFI acquires their Free Flow Print Server digital front-end business.
Fiery FS300 Pro is a major update of the EFI Fiery digital frontend. The DFE can drive presses across sheetfed, high-speed continuous feed, B1 folding carton and corrugated digital production systems. It includes an integrated spectrophotometer and its 27” screen has a built-in proximity sensor. When the operator stands in front of the screen, Fiery shows its usual home screen while it only displays basic information if the operator is some distance off.
The third edition of Xeikon Café attracts more than 800 unique international visitors and is used to announce Xeikon’s first entry into the production inkjet market with Panther UV inkjet technology and the Xeikon PX3000 press.
Inkjet technology is not just being picked up by more companies, the presses themselves also get bigger. The Onset M from Inco is a B1 size press.
PDF 2.0 is launched. It offers separate output intents per page, more consistent transparency handling, better encryption and a slew of other features.
Kodak reverses its decision to sell off its Prosper and Ultrastream inkjet operations. It cuts cost by reducing its global workforce by 425 jobs.
In the USA the number of establishments offering prepress and/or postpress services drops to 1,375, largely because these activities are outsourced less and handled directly within printing companies.
The members of the IBNS elect the Swiss 10 Franc note as their banknote of the year.
Cimpress post a big loss, sells off its photo album business Albumprinter and restructures Vistaprint.
Greenery (Pantone 15-0343) is the color of the year.
These are some important or remarkable events from 2017:
- Tension between the USA and North Korea grows when the latter test fires several ballistic missiles and tests its first hydrogen nuclear bomb.
- Cryptolockers, computer viruses that encrypt hard drives so that the data only become available after paying a ransom, hit both individuals as well as large corporations and (non) governmental organizations.
- Hurricane Harvey causes massive floods in the Houston metropolitan area while hurricane Irma wreaks havoc in Florida and the Caribbean.
- The Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar, flee into neighboring Bangladesh because of relentless persecution.
- The militants of ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, are defeated with the fall of Mosul, the city in northern Iraq that was to become the capital of the new caliphate.