Product Shipping packaging materials

In today’s modern economy of web-based shopping and internet auction sites, mail shipping is a booming industry.  Everyone from big business like Amazon.com to individuals selling old junk on eBay are in constant need of mailing supplies.  With such a huge variety of packaging and shipping supplies, however, how do you know what you need?  What packing material, for example is the best for a particular item—bubble wrap, styrofoam peanuts, or packing foam?  This article will give you a quick tour of shipping supplies and when to use them.

If you are going to be shipping things on a regular basis, your first investment should be a postal scale.  To avoid losing your shirt in shipping costs, you need to be able to quote your customers an accurate amount for shipping & handling.  As shipping costs depend on weight (and just a few ounces can make a difference in price), you need to know how much the packaged merchandise weighs.  For most people, a small, 1 – 25 pound postage scale will be sufficient.  If you are shipping larger, heavier items, however, postage scales come in higher capacities, some able to weight well over a hundred pounds.  Unfortunately, these larger, heavier scales are more expensive.

Next, be sure to waterproof your item before mailing it, just in case.  When shipping through either the Post Office or a package delivery service like UPS or FedEx, you never quite know where your package will end up, especially when shipping overseas.  It may be exposed to humidity, rain, or snow.  This is especially disastrous for merchandise sensitive to water damage, such as electronics, clothing, or paper products.

 To prevent water damage, enclose the item inside an airtight, waterproof bag.  For small or flat items, like jewelry, CDs, books, or documents, a simple plastic ziplock bag may be all you need.  For bulkier or oddly-shaped items, this becomes a bit more difficult.  Options here include plastic cling wrap, or better yet, shrink wrap.  Simply wrap the item in shrink wrap, apply heat (such as from a hair dryer), and the shrink wrap will contract and conform to the shape of the object, sealing it.  Finally, sealing all edges and corners of the mailing box with clear plastic packing tape is another good precaution to take.

For small and durable (unbreakable) items, a padded mailing envelope should be all you need.  Sturdier and harder to bend than thin paper envelopes, and padded to prevent impact damage when tossed or dropped, cushioned mailers do a good job at a low price. 

For larger item, of course, you will need to use a box.  Shipping boxes come in all shapes and sizes, and can be purchased both online, at the post office, and sometimes even at copy shops.  In general, corrugated cardboard boxes are better than paperboard boxes.  Corrugated cardboard is stiffer, sturdier, and the corrugated layer provides a degree of cushioning, like a built-in shock absorber.  Paperboard boxes, although they may be cheaper, are thinner, more flexible, and can crush or tear more easily.

Finally, unless the item perfectly fits the box and is very durable, you should pad the item in the box.  You have three general choices of padding material: bubble wrap, foam wrap, and packaging peanuts.  Bubble wrap provides better cushioning when wrapped loosely, but is bulkier.  Foam wrap is less bulky, but doesn’t provide as much shock absorption as bubble wrap.  Finally, packing peanuts are best for oddly-shaped items that leave a lot of empty space in the box.  Packaging peanuts completely surround the item, providing padding from bumps and shocks over every inch of the item. 

This article is only a guide.  Feel free to experiment with different materials, and find the combination that works best for you and your customers.

Promotional Display Kit

Businessmen on any scale, from corporate salesmen attending trade shows to small craftsmen peddling their wares are local fairs, all have one thing in common:  they need to display their products to the customers.  Although this sounds both obvious and simple at first, there are actually a lot of strict requirements product displays must meet to be efficient.  Obviously, they need to look professional, be well lit, and be colorful enough to attract a customer’s eye.  But they also need to be large enough to fill your vendor’s space and present your merchandise, yet also be portable, lightweight, and able to be set up and broken down with a minimum of time, effort, and tools.  Not surprisingly, commercial products exist to make this job easier for you. 

Trade show displays come in three general categories of increasing size and price.  Smallest and least expensive are tabletop displays.  In the middle range of size and price are freestanding floor displays.  Finally, largest and most expensive, are portable pop-up display booths.

Tabletop displays measure roughly five feet high by six feet wide, and is collapsible.  One halogen bulb provides illumination.  They come in two general types: black fabric panels or wooden panels. 

The black fabric panel type has a professional business look.  Magnet channel bars are placed within the panels so you can hang banners, documents, and photos without piercing the fabric (which tends to make the fabric panels look ratty and threadbare after a few years).  Black fabric panels are commonly found at corporate trade shows, where the displays are used more for the presentation of company products than for displaying merchandise.  The magnet bars are strong enough, however, to hang lightweight merchandise from, and consequently the black fabric panels are popular displays among jewelry salesmen.

The wooden tabletop displays are made from finished, stained, and polished wood.  They can be found in almost any color of wood, but tend toward a light brown antique finish, which is the most popular.  Instead of magnet channel bars, the wooden tabletop displays contain ten shelves, making them better for displaying merchandise at fairs and events.
 
The second category is freestanding floor displays.  These displays stand ten feet high and six feet wide, and are illuminated by two halogen bulbs.  They are wheeled and easily moved about.  Both collapsible and portable, they come with a shipping case that can server double duty as a counter top.  Freestanding floor displays come in both the black fabric panel and wooden shelf variety.

The final category of trade show display is both the largest and most expensive: the popup display booth.  Specifically designed for trade show exhibits, the ten-foot high booth is lightweight, collapsible, and portable, yet surprisingly sturdy and strong.  It can be set up and taken down quickly and easily, and requires no tools other than your hands.

Of course, some people prefer to design and build their own booths or displays, customizing it for their particular product or merchandise.  For those who don’t have the time, training, or tools to do this, however, these standard ready-made display kits are a convenient alternative.

Digital storage media

When it comes to electronic storage, you have lots of devices to choose from at a wide range of prices.  Achieving the most cost-effective electronic storage system for your personal use or small business, however, requires knowing what device is best for what type of storage use.  How big is the data you need to store?  Do you need to store electronic data for a little while, or for years?  How often will you need to access the stored data?  Do you plan to reuse the same storage device over and over, or just once?  This article will explain which storage media are the most efficient to use depending on how you answer these questions.

For short-term memory, like saving project files temporarily, you want something small, portable, durable, reusable, and large enough to hold your files.  For long-term or permanent storage, you want something small, durable, and cheap. 

For short term storage, there are three contenders: portable hard drives, memory sticks, and rewritable CDs and DVDs. 

External hard drives offered the largest amount of portable storage space.  You can buy a portable hard drive enclosure for as little as $25-$30.  The size of the hard drive you put inside the enclosure, however, can vary widely in price, from as little as $25 for 40 gigabytes to over $100 for one terabyte.  Although technically portable, external hard drives are big, heavy, bulky, and usually need to be plugged into a wall outlet to run.  If you need to carry very, very large files (like database backups or raw video footage), a portable hard drive is your best (and possibly only) option.

Next up are USB flash drives, also knows as pen drives, thumb drives, and memory sticks.  This has emerged as the most common and popular form of portable, reusable data storage.  They can be found in all sizes at all prices, from 512 MB for $5 to 64 GB for $150.   They are lightweight, small enough to be attached to a keychain, and very durable (solid state memory has no moving parts).   They run off the computer’s power, are extremely easy to use, and can be reused indefinitely.  They are perfect for storing small files you want to keep with you like documents, pictures, music, and even (for the larger flash drives) videos.  As a form of long term storage, however, they are very expensive.  Why buy a 4 GB flash drive for $30 when you can buy a blank DVD for 25 cents?

Which brings us to CDs and DVDs.  A CD can hold up to 700 MB of data.  DVDs can hold 4.3 GB of data, and the more expensive dual-layer DVDs can hold 8.5 GB.  CD-Rs and DVD-Rs can have data written on them once.  CR-RWs and DVD-RWs are reusable—they can have data written to them, erased, and different data written several times.

The reusable CD-RWs and DVD-RWs, however, are not necessarily easy to use.  Whereas any computer can view data saved permanently to a CD-R, temporary data saved to a rewritable CD-RW or DVD-RW can only be viewed (or rewritten) by the program that wrote the data to the disk.  To view the data on multiple computers, you need to have the same CD or DVD writing program on each computer.  Although sometimes this isn’t a problem (such as when archived CDs and DVDs are only ever viewed on one computer), more often this is an inconvenience and a hassle, especially compared to the ease of portable hard drives and USB flash drives.  Furthermore, CD-RWs and DVD-RWs can only be rewritten a set number of times before they can’t be read anymore. 

Where CDs and DVDs really shine, however, is in long term or permanent storage, where cost is the key.  CDs and DVDs are cheap.  CD-Rs and DVD-Rs (where the data can only written once) are cheaper than the rewritable CD-RWs and DVD-RWs.  If you buy in bulk and on sale, you can CD-Rs for as little as ten cents each, DVD-Rs for as little as 25 cents each, and dual layer 8.5 GB DVDs for as little as one dollar each.  A pack of a hundred DVD-Rs, for example, will give you 430 GB of storage space for $30 – a much better price than portable hard drives or USB flash drives.  CDs and DVDs are small and easily stored, and fairly durable—as long as you don’t play Frisbee with them, that is.

Desktop publishing

Desktop publishing has been with us for almost twenty years now.  It has been a blessing to small businesses, allowing individuals to create at home what previously had to be ordered from printing presses or copy shops—brochures, newsletters, business cards, coupons, calendars, even small publications.  Before you jump into the world of desktop publishing for your small business, however, there are some things you should be aware of.  Not all desktop publishing software or printers are created equal, and of course the more fully featured and robust programs are more expensive.  This article will give you a quick overview of what to look for when setting up your home printing shop.

There are two basic components to setting up a home print shop: first, the desktop publishing software, and second, the printer and paper stock.  As a general rule, when buying equipment for your home press, it is a good idea to invest in the more expensive, more advanced equipment rather than whatever is cheapest.  If you try to set up a home print shop on the cheap, you will quickly bump up against frustrating limitations, and may even end up having to buy the more expensive equipment anyway.

Desktop publishing (DTP) software is essentially page layout software, allowing you to place headlines, images, and columns of text exactly where you want.  As with any software, there is expensive high-end version, midrange cost and quality programs, and cheap low-end versions.

The top high-end DTP software is currently a close race between Microsoft’s Publisher and Adobe’s InDesign.  Adobe’s InDesign is a professional-level DTP program with many advanced features, time-saving devices, and a clean interface.  It can be purchased separately, or as part of a creative suite along with Adobe’s Acrobat, Illustrator, and Photoshop.  Its advanced features assume a professional-level of prior knowledge, however, and there is a steep learning curve in using it.  And with a price tag from $400 to $950, it may be way more power than an individual or small business user needs.  Microsoft’s Publisher is also flexible and robust, and integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft Office products (a big advantage).  As always, Microsoft tries to combine advanced features with a clean, simple, and intuitive interface, and is more user-friendly for the novice user than InDesign.  Priced from $150 - $200, this may be the most affordable option for a small business needing a professional-level tool.

In the middle range, Borderlund’s Print Shop Pro Publisher stands out as the best value for the price at around $40 to $70.  Although not as fully featured as InDesign or Publisher, the features it’s missing are the ones an individual or small business probably wouldn’t use anyway.  Filled with point-and-click wizards and tons of ready-made templates, it is much more user-friendly for novices while still being fairly flexible and advanced.

Finally, there is Scribus, an open-source Freeware DTP program for Windows, Mac, and Linux.  For a free program, it is surprisingly full-featured.  It is designed for a professional market, and has more than enough for a small business.  Its main drawback, however, is the same as InDesign: it is not the easiest to use and includes a steep learning curve to take advantage of all its features.  Still, given its price, it makes a good program for temporary use until you can spare the money for a more advanced program.

Finally, don’t skimp when buying a printer.  The average printer is designed for home office use, and can handle standard 8½ x 11 printer paper, envelopes, and little else.  If you plan on running an amateur print shop for your small business, you’ll need a much more flexible printer.  Make sure any printer you buy can handle paper sizes at least up to 17×11, and thicker papers (such as card stock or glossy photo paper) without jamming.  These are the basics, but features such as a large color depth and high page-per-minute print speed are bonuses, especially if you plan on printing copies in the hundreds.  Ideally, you’ll want to purchase a large laser printer of the type found in corporate offices.  Although it may be a large initial investment, it will save you time, money, and frustration in the long run.

What is cardboard

As you answer these questions, this article will give you a quick tour of the different types of cardboard and their uses.

First of all, “cardboard” is a generic term that refers to any type of heavy-duty paper based board.  Although there are a dozens of different types of cardboard, they can be broken down into three rough categories: card stock, paperboard, and corrugated fiberboard.  Each has their own specific uses.

Cardboards are measured in “points”, which refer to thousandth of an inch.  For example, cardboard that is 0.009 of an inch thick would be “9 point”, and cardboard 0.024 of an inch thick would be “24 point”.

The fist type of cardboard is card stock (also called cover stock or pasteboard).  Card stock is generally up to ten points (0.010 inch) thick.  It is thicker and more durable than regular printer or photocopier paper, but thinner and more flexible than heavier forms of cardboard.  Card stock is used for items that need to be stiffer or more durable than regular thin and fragile paper.  Postcards, playing cards, business cards, book covers, and scrapbooks are some of the industry uses for card stock.  Although most commercial printing presses can be easily be set to handle printing on card stock, it would be a good idea to double check the technical specifications of your printing press to make sure it can handle up to ten-point paper.

The second type of cardboard is paperboard.  Paperboard is over ten points (0.010 inch) in thickness.  This type of cardboard is most commonly used in commercial packaging, such as milk cartons, cereal boxes, etc.  It is stiffer and stronger than card stock and thus can support the weight of consumer products, but still flexible enough to withstand the bending that occurs during packaging and shipping while retaining its shape.  The average printing press is not capable of printing on paperboard without jamming.  Printing on paperboard requires a printing press specially designed to be adjusted to print on paperboard as well as regular paper.

The last type of cardboard is corrugated fiberboard.  This is not technically a different type of cardboard, but rather a composite material created but combining two pieces of paperboard with a piece of zigzag, or “corrugated”, card stock between them.  This design makes the resulting cardboard very rigid and strong, while also providing cushioning, making it excellent for storing fragile item such as glass, pottery, or fresh fruit.  Large sheets of corrugated fiberboard are folded and glued into shipping boxes, which is the primary use for this type of cardboard.  Corrugated fiberboard come in six standard thicknesses, ranging from 3/16 to 1/32 of an inch thick.  Printing on corrugated fiberboard requires a special printing press designed to handle this thick and stiff type of cardboard.  Generally, and cardboard printing press can’t be used to print on regular paper as well.

We hope this overview of cardboard types has helped you determine what kind of cardboard you need for your various projects.  If you do not have a printing press capable of printing on paperboard or corrugated fiberboard, you may find it more cost-efficient to order the boxes and packaging materials from another printing press than to purchase your own.

Recycled Paper

Recycled paper has been around for quite a while now.  Some businesses embrace it, seeing little price difference between new and recycled paper, and an opportunity for good public relations by helping to protecting the environment.  Other businessmen remain apprehensive and skeptical, not sure if paper recycling is really helping the environment all that much, and wondering how good the quality can be in paper that is, by definition, used.  How do you know if recycled paper is right for you?  To help you decide, this article will explain how paper is recycled.

Recycling paper benefits the environment in two ways.  First, by recycling paper, fewer trees need to be cut down to create new paper.  Recycling one ton of paper prevents two tons of trees from being felled.  Second, paper that is recycled is not sent to landfills that pollute our environment.  Currently, about 35% of all trash consists of paper products. 

To recycle paper, two things must be done.  First, ink must be removed from printed paper.  Second, the recycled paper must be re-pulped back into cellulose fibers.
 
Ink is removed from recycled printed paper though an industrial method known as the Deinking process.  In Deinking, a combination of a chemical bath and mechanical agitation is used to separate the ink from the paper fibers.  Recycled paper is re-pulped by mixing it with water and agitating it.  This breaks down the hydrogen bonds in the paper, and it splits back into paper fibers (as anyone who has handled a wet newspaper knows from firsthand experience).  After the ink has been removed and the paper broken back down into fibers, it can be bleached, pressed, dried, and cut into fresh, clean sheets of paper.

How good is the quality of recycled paper?  Paper can generally be broken down into two quality categories.  Groundwood paper is cheaper, but weaker and becomes yellow and brittle with age.  Woodfree paper is stronger and more durable, but also more expensive. 

Paper sent to be recycled is often the weaker, less durable groundwood paper, since this is the type often used for short-term purposes in offices and homes for things such as newspapers, phone books, and printer and photocopier paper.  Some of the higher-quality woodfree paper, however, usually finds its way into the mix in the form of recycled magazines and catalogs.  Consequently, as a general rule, recycled paper usually falls into the lower-quality groundwood paper category, although recycled paper is generally not as strong or as bright as papers made from new, original wood pulp.  Fortunately, this also means that recycled is the same price or only slightly more costly than new groundwood paper.

This is not a hard and fast rule, however.  The lower-quality groundwood paper can be recycled into the higher-quality woodfree paper though a chemical pulping process, so it is possible for recycled paper to be stronger and more durable than new groundwood paper.  This increase in quality, however, is also reflected in an increase in price.

Finally, new wood pulp is sometimes added to the mix of recycled paper to increase the quality.  Therefore, blended recycled paper tends to be stronger than 100% recycled paper.  If you have concerns about the quality of recycled paper, chose mixed or blended recycled paper over 100% recycled paper.

Making Paper

Walk into any photocopy shop and you will quickly discover that there are literally hundreds of different types of paper.  Paper comes in every imaginable color, size, thickness, and quality.  How do you know what type of paper to use for what application?  What is the difference, for example, between groundwood and woodfree paper, and why does the later cost more when they look identical?  The differences lie in how the paper is made.  Therefore, in order to understand the differences, you need to understand the basics of the paper making process.  This article will attempt to give you a crash course in paper making, explaining the differences in the different types of paper along the way.

Paper is created by pressing together damp fibers, usually cellulose pulp made from plants (such as wood or cotton), and drying them into sheets.  To give you a very concise overview, the paper making process consists of six stages: pulping, mixing (optional), pressing, drying, finishing (optional), and cutting.

First, in the pulping stage, organic fibers (most commonly wood) is pulped, or broken down into fibers, and mixed with water.  How the wood is pulped determines the paper quality.

In chemical pulping, wood is cooked in a chemical bath that breaks down and separates the lignin (the compound that holds plant cells together) from the cellulose fibers.  The lignin is then washed away.  The resulting paper is stronger and more durable.  However, because over half of the wood (in the form of lignin) is washed away, the yield per paper batch is as low as 40% of the original wood.  Consequently, this high quality paper (known, strangely, as “woodfree” paper) is more expensive.

In mechanical pulping, wood chips or logs are fed into rotating stone grinders that crush the wood into fibers.  Since the lignin is not removed, the yield per paper batch is up to 95% of the original wood.  Consequently, this type of paper (called “groundwood” paper) is cheaper than woodfree paper.  The presence of lignin in the paper, unfortunately, makes this type of paper weaker and less durable, causing it to become yellowed and brittle over time.

In the second, optional mixing stage, chemical additives can be added to the fiber pulp.  Bleach is commonly added at this point to make the paper white.  Fillers, such as chalk or china clay, may be added to make the paper batch better suited for either printing or writing.  Finally, sizing chemicals can be added to fine-tune how absorbent the paper is, tailoring it for ink, paint, or other printing mediums.

Third, in the pressing stage, the cellulose fibers are pressed together to form paper.  This achieved two things.  First, the fibers are pressed into the proper size and thickness for the batch of paper being made. Second, the excess water is squeezed out, leaving behind only the paper fibers.

Fourth, in the drying stage, the paper is fed through a set of ovens until the paper is dried to less than 6% moisture.

Fifth, in the optional finishing stage, the paper may be coated.  Coated paper has a thin layer of a material such as china clay applied to one or both sides and then polished.  This makes the paper more suitable for high-resolution images.  Coated paper may come in matt, semi-matt, or gloss finishes.  A glossy finish provides the best optical density for printed images, and thus is commonly used for photographs. 

In the final stage, paper is cut into the appropriate lengths.  This may be huge rolls for printing presses, or 8½ x 11 inch sheets for photocopiers.

The printing process

When shopping for printing equipment or supplies, you are instantly bombarded with a hundred choices in a hundred price ranges, with confusing specifications and technical jargon your only guide.  How do you know if you’re getting a deal, or getting ripped off?  To make sure you get the best quality for the best price, you need to understand the basics of printing.  This article will give you a quick crash course in the printing process.  This will hopefully give you to better understand how printing works, and perhaps shed some light on the confusing labyrinth of technical specifications and specialized terminology.

First of all, there are many different types of printing.  Inkjet and laser printing are perhaps the most well known because they are the technologies used in home computer printers, but many other types of printing exist.  Screen printing, for example, is used for fabrics.  Relief printing is used for catalogues, pad printing is used to print on three-dimensional objects, rotogravure is used for magazines, and flexography is common for packaging, labels, and newspapers. 

This article, however, will focus on offset lithography printing, which is currently the most common industrial printing process.  About 40% of all print jobs are produced with offset printing.  Offset printing provides faster, higher-quality printing in larger volumes than other commercial printing processes.  Currently, offset printing also provides the most efficient cost-to-performance ratio.

Offset printing is an indirect printing method, meaning the image (text or graphics) is transferred from one surface to another.  In a nutshell, the image to be printed is wrapped around a printing plate, which is mounted on a cylinder.  Another cylinder coated in ink rolls against the printing plate cylinder, coating the image in ink. As the printing plate cylinder continues to roll, the image is transferred from the printing plate to a rubber blanket around another cylinder.  The print media (usually paper) is then rolled between this blanket cylinder and simple blank cylinder (called the impression cylinder).  As the paper passes between the two cylinders (called rollers), the pressure transfers the image from the rubber blanket cylinder onto the page.

Keeping the ink only in the image areas (and avoid smudging, other imprints, etc) is essential to print quality.  Keeping the ink only on the image areas and away from the non-image areas is achieved by using the principle that oil and water do not mix.  Printing ink is oil-based.  Therefore, before the paper is passed between the blanket and imprint cylinders and has the image transferred to it, the paper is run through a dampening system to apply a thin layer of wetting agent (called a fountain solution).  When the ink is applied to the damp paper, the water in the fountain solution repels the oil-based ink, keeping the ink from bleeding into the blank non-image areas.  At the same time, the ink on the image area repels the fountain solution.  This is how a tidy, crisp, high-quality print image is achieved.

How large the circumference of these cylinders is determines how large of an image can be transferred.  For example, a printing press with 8½ inch rollers could print on 8½ x 11 inch paper, but not on 11 x 14 inch paper.  Printing presses are usually named for their roller circumference size, such as a 17 Inch Press or a 22 Inch Press.

Heidelberg Printing Machines

Heidelberg Printing Machines, a precision mechanical engineering company headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, is the largest producer of offset printing presses in the world.  It is the only company that produces equipment for all stages of the printing process: prepress, press, and postpress.  In the development, production, and sale of sheet-fed offset printing presses, Heidelberg is the global industry leader, commanding a market share of over 47percent of this segment of the industry.

Sheet-fed offset printing is used mainly to produce high-quality color print media, including catalogues, calendars, posters, and labels.  Heidelberg produces two main families of printing presses: the Printmaster and the Speedmaster.  Printmaster presses are smaller, less expensive printing presses aimed at the small and medium sized business market.  Speedmaster are larger, more expensive industrial printing presses designed for high volume and productivity, and are highly automated.  Heidelberg also produced as vast range of accessories and specialized equipment, allowing their customers to adapt their Printmasters or Speedmasters to the specific requirements for specialized functions.

Printmasters, being designed for personal use and small businesses with limited budgets and office space, are smaller and less expensive than the industrial models.  Measuring 35×50, they are only slightly larger than a typical photocopying machine.  They are designed for the on-expert, with an intuitive interface that is easy to learn and operate.  They are highly automated and need little supervision, freeing up business owners to be more productive of focus on customer service. 

There are two models in the Printmaster series.  The Printmaster QM 46 is designed for individual and small business user, being smaller, less expensive, and printing in one or two colors.  The Printmaster GTO 52 is designed for medium-sized businesses and is essentially a tiny industrial model.  Although it is larger and more expensive, it is more flexible.  It can be used for a wider range of printing jobs, and can handle a larger volume of printing jobs faster.  It can print in up to four colors. 

The Speedmaster series, designed for large business industrial use, is larger (up to 120×160, depending on the model) and more expensive.  The Speedmaster series focuses flexibility and customization.  Through customization and the addition of extra equipment, each Speedmaster model can be tailored to your specific requirements.  Of course, all Speedmaster models also feature the high-quality printing, automation, and high price-to-performance ratio of all Heidelberg machines that has made this company the industry leader. 

At the low end of the Speedmaster series is the Speedmaster SM 52.  The smallest and least expensive, this model still includes an 18-roller inking unit for fast, high-volume printing, and UV inks and coating for scratch- and scuff-resistant high-gloss surfaces.  Midrange models include the Speedmaster SM 74.  Ideal for commercial print shops, these midrange models combine the speed, volume, and quality of industrial printing with the flexibility of an all-in-one unit.  This model features a modular design and preset configurations, allowing it to quickly be converted to print almost anything–business stationery, brochures, leaflets, forms, postcards, greetings cards, dust covers, labels, etc.  Finally, at the high end of the Speedmaster series are the Speedmaster XL 145 and XL 162.  Enormous and expensive, these models are designed for high-speed peak performance, able to meet even the tightest production schedules while still delivering the highest standards in quality, productivity, and reliability.

Office software

When it comes to office software—word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software, etc.—Microsoft Office far and away dominates the market so thoroughly that most people are unaware of any alternatives.  There are, however, other office software suites out there.  This article will explain the range of options available to you.

First, the Microsoft Office Suite is by far the most common office software.  The basic office suite consists of Word, Excel (spreadsheets), PowerPoint (presentation), and Outlook (email).  Other office programs are available, however, such as Access for databases, Publisher for desktop publishing, Visio for flowcharting and Expression for web design, along with a host of more specialized programs like Project, InfoPath, OneNote, SharePoint, etc.  The Microsoft Office Suite is powerful, fully featured, and very flexible.  Office documents are interchangeable between the different office programs, which have been a major selling point for years, and one of the reasons why MS Office has become so dominant.  Unfortunately, Microsoft Office is also expensive, costing about $500 dollars per license.   Furthermore, new versions come out every few years, requiring another expensive upgrade to stay current with the world of business documents.

Following as a distant second in the office software race, IBM’s Lotus SmartSuite is still found in many offices throughout the world.  The Lotus SmartSuite includes Word Pro, Lotus 1-2-3 (spreadsheet), Freelance (presentation), Approach (database), Organizer (information manager), and FastSite (website design).  Supporters of Lotus SmartSuite claim it has all the features of Microsoft Office, including interchangeability of documents between office programs, as well as some features not found in MS Office.  Lotus SmartSuite can read and write MS Office documents, although MS Office can only read a few vintage Lotus file formats.  This lack of compatibility may have been a big factor in the slow decline of Lotus SmartSuite’s popularity.

The most recent Lotus release was the SmartSuite Millennium Edition released in 1999, although updates have been released almost yearly since then.  At $300 per license, it is still expensive, but significantly cheaper than Microsoft Office.  Lotus SmartSuite runs on Windows 2000 and XP, but currently not Vista.  In 2007, IBM announced it would be releasing a new office suite called Lotus Symphony.

Sun Microsystems’s StarOffice is another contender in the office software race.  The StarOffice Suite includes StarWriter (word processing), StarCalc (spreadsheet), StarImpress (presentation), StarBase (database), StarDraw (graphic design), and StarMath (a formula generator).  StarOffice offers a full list of features, interchangeability between office programs, and can generate PDF and Flash formats of documents (a feature MS Office lacks).  The most recent version, StarOffice 9 released in 2008, supports reading and writing of Microsoft Office file formats.  MS Office, however, cannot read StarOffice documents.

A StarOffice license costs about $35, and is per person, not per machine (as in MS Office), and each person can install StarOffice on up to five computers.  For example, a small business owner can install StarOffice on their office Windows PC and Linux or Mac computer, their home computer, and their laptop, all for the cost of just one licensing fee.

Finally, there is OpenOffice, an open-source office suite available for free and rapidly gaining in popularity.  Offering all the features of comparable MS Office programs (and sporting some features similar MS Office programs lack), many feel OpenOffice is as good as or even better than the Microsoft Office Suite.  Similar to StarOffice, OpenOffice includes Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheet), Base (database), Impress (presentation), and Draw (graphic design).  OpenOffice supports a vast array of file formats, including reading and writing MS Office files.  With similar functionality to MS Office at no cost, OpenOffice is a fine choice for a small business on a tight budget.