Would I do it again? Absolutely! Digital printing is going to save my company," says Richard Small, president and CEO of IdentiGraphics Inc., Portland, OR. With the benefit of hindsight, this cheerful proprietor of a successful digital label house looks back on his 2000 purchase of an Indigo Omniust Webstream press as the best decision he ever made. At the time, though, it seemed like a big leap of faith, and the learning curve stretches all the way until today.

Back in 1999, Small saw that the crest his 14-year-old company had ridden—as a leading supplier of pager decals—had dissipated almost overnight with the rise of the cell-phone boom. "Just like in the book Who Moved My Cheese?, we came to work one day and the room with our cheese (pager label sales) in it was almost empty," says Small. "In 1999, we lost $2.5 million in pager-label business, laid off 34 employees, and found ourselves in a daily battle to stay alive."

Enter digital printing. Small had looked around for a way to differentiate his company in the printing market, and digital seemed to be the way to go. After seeing the Indigo at the Labelexpo USA show in Chicago in September 2000, Small took delivery of the press shortly thereafter. He was essentially betting his company on the success of the new method of label printing.

Although his digital-label business is wide-ranging, Small has found particular success printing wine labels for numerous small vintners bottling small lots and desiring top-quality labels. He does list a number of "lessons learned" in digital printing:

In-house substrate coating: topcoating is required for digital-print substrates, and each printer must decide if he will coat in-house or buy from outside suppliers. Identigraphics chooses to coat in-house.

Prepress: Small's company decided early on not to bring artwork in-house, so instead has faced the challenge of "training" outside artists so that the artwork for a job is correct and usable the first time. A sheet of art guidelines is sent to each new client containing instructions on file types, graphic elements, etc.

Press operations: Operator training is key to digital printing, and Small recommends Indigo's two week internal school—but cautions that the learning curve still takes 6-12 months.

Finishing: Finishing, not the actual label printing, is the trickiest part of digital, according to Small. "Converting the printed roll into labels is so instrumental to the overall delivery system that unless you can solve this particular issue, you should not try to convert to digital," he cautions. Varnish, laminating and diecutting, efficiently and cost-effectively, has been a challenge. Foiling and embossing, which are desirable for winemakers, have also represented a learning curve.

True costs: Cost estimating for digital-print jobs, according to Small, taught his staff that it pays to fit as many labels as possible on each frame, and to purchase a finishing press that handles the full image footprint for varnish, laminating, diecutting, slitting and rewind.

With his first two "digital" years behind him, Small is confident about the future. "This process is going to allow us to differentiate ourselves from most of our competitors and is going to provide us with the opportunity to get ahead of the wave. If a client needs labels in our 'sweet spot,' we are the best game in town. We have the highest quality, fastest delivery, best price and a high level of customer service," says Small. "We now have one of four similar presses on the entire West Coast, and I feel we have a 20- to 24-month window of opportunity to position ourselves for the future."

Editor's Note: At presstime, IdentiGraphics had just been acquired by WS Packaging Group. The move will allow IdentiGraphics to broaden its reach to the entire U.S. market, further expanding WS Packaging's capabilities. See related feature on page 66.