The International Sign Association (ISA) today called its 2008 International Sign Expo “the biggest sign show ever.” Held March 26-29, 2008, at the Orange County Convention Centre in Orlando, Florida,  the event drew large crowds and – for the fourth consecutive year in a row – boasted more exhibit booths than any previous Expo. In addition, this year’s event hosted thousands of international visitors in Orlando, with a total of 3,723 individuals representing 111 countries outside the U.S.

FESPA has acquired all rights to the imageWorld event (Centro Banamex, Mexico City, 21-23 August 2008) from ST Media Group International, with the aim of expanding the event under a new brand – FESPA Mexico World Expo.

Of course it has but not perhaps in the long term. This news may astound you. A new technology has been born in the laboratory of Inkski, a Cambridge (UK) research organisation, it's called LiLo, which is an acronym for Light Initiated Liquid Offset.  It has the potential to make existing technologies, including wide format inkjet, redundant.

The arrival of a new Sei laser cutting machine from Italy at Mulford Plastics Dandenong opens a whole range of new possibilities for Mulfords customers.  Sheet cut to size has been a staple offering in plastic sheet distribution for many years.  But this new equipment, with its capabilities to import CAD files and convert sheet into complicated shapes, with curves and holes, with absolute precision takes the business to another level.

Mutoh will use FESPA Digital in Geneva next month to present its new high-performance 2.6 metre wide digital transfer printer, called Viper 100. The new Viper 100 is an addition to Mutoh’s existing Viper 65 (165 cm) and Viper 90 (220 cm) dye sub printers.

HP has announced that channel partner the Currie Group, who represent HP Indigo printers in Australia and New Zealand, has added the HP Designjet range of large format printers and consumables to its portfolio.

Sakata Inx worldwide operations has announced an agreement to take a majority interest in Megaink Digital a.s. The company will offer customers a broad spectrum of digital ink products and services for wide and super-wide format printing as a member of INX Digital, the digital arm of INX International Ink Co.

Epson is making a breakthrough entry into the global sign and display market with the launch of a 64 inch eight colour photo quality printer and UltraChrome GS, an all new ground breaking solvent based ink.

Océ USA has launched the Océ CS9200 Series low-solvent inkjet printers offering production print speeds and high quality output.

Kyocera Corporation President Makoto Kawamura today announced that his company has developed the world’s fastest high-resolution inkjet printhead for commercial applications. The company will commence global sales of the new KJ4 Series printhead in April 2008.

As of 1st April 2008 the Sublimation, Flags, Banners and Display side of ColourWorks Textile Printers has been re-branded, and is now called Textiles Alive Printers NZ.

On April 1st 2008 Dainippon Inks & Chemicals, Incorporated, will change its name to DIC Corporation and along with this name change comes a new visual identity.

Gerber Scientific announced today that following the successful design validation testing of its Solara ion printer, it has shipped the first three production units to customers to begin manufacturing validation testing. This is the final stage of testing before moving to volume production, expected to start in the first quarter of fiscal year 2009, which begins May 1, 2008.

After one and half a year of intense development and the implementation of many suggestions from customers and concentrated beta-test period, the new, completely revised ErgoSoft RIP software v.2008 was launched at the beginning of March by Swiss company ErgoSoft. The new RIP  has been developed for applications such as fine art printing, sublimation, flag & banner, sign making, digital textile printing and much more.