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May we take this opportunity to wish all our readers and sponsors the Compliments of the Season and a Happy and Properous New Year - 2020! If your sign business has been affected by the bushfires, like these ones of the NSW South Coast, we have set up a WFOL help service. Let us know how we can help and we'll put the word out to suppliers and other signees and 'go into bat' for you. It could be a loan machine, trade work to keep you going, urgent supplies, service, cheap used/demo equipment, a loan vehicle, lobbying insurance companies - anything. We can't promise results but promise you we will do our level best.

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Xerox and major investor Carl Icahn are preparing to nominate a full board of HP directors as they try to force HP management to reconsider the $33.5 billion Xerox acquisition bid, according to new speculation on Wall Street.

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New Zealand’s premier printing industry awards event has revamped its entry categories for Pride In Print 2020, with a total of 11 awards now included in an expanded Sign and Display section and a boost in the Structural Design Packaging and Labels categories.

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EasyCut has released Easy Cut Studio version 5, the latest update to the company’s sign-making, vinyl cutting software that features more cutter support and 64-bit compatibility. EasyCut works with a range of vinyl cutters including Roland, Mutoh and Summa devices. Existing users of Easy Cut Studio 4 can be upgraded to Easy Cut Studio 5 for free.

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“The unrest of not knowing what’s going to happen from one day to the next is unnerving and there’s uncertainty around because people are in shock,” Geoff Richards, owner of Bay Signs in Batemans Bay on the NSW South Coast, told Wide Format Online. “Local people are doing their best to prop up the morale of the villages and towns but some people have had their livelihoods taken from under their feet with this devastation.” 
 - 23 Dec, 2019

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Aaron Baker, managing director of Perth print and signage business Bomb Visual, says he knew he needed help when a recent colour problem began wasting an increasing amount of ink and vinyl.

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Total Image Supplies, based in Melbourne but supplying nationwide, has proved to be the ideal supply partner for Darwin digital print shop Eprint – recently sending an Ideal 6655 guillotine up to the Territory’s capital.

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WA printer Scott Print has achieved an Australian/NZ-industry first by attaining Mellow Colour Proficient Printer certified for ISO 12647-2:2013 (including ISO 12647-8:2012) for all of its colour production, offset and digital.

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The global large format printer market decreased slightly in the third quarter of 2019 with shipments down by about 0.5% compared to the previous quarter, according to the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Large Format Printer Tracker. HP continues to dominate the wide format market, while Epson is "a leader in the low-end of the aqueous inkjet market, in the dye-sublimation segment, and increasingly in the eco-solvent market."

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Screen has extended its reach into flexible pouch production with its Truepress Jet L350UV+LM (low-migration ink) used for food safe short-run stand-up pouches. The first installation is to UK label printer Hine Labels, which was already using the Screen press for labels.  

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A major Xerox shareholder has sued billionaire Xerox investor Carl Icahn alleging he bought $1.2 billion worth of HP shares with prior knowledge that Xerox was considering acquiring its larger rival company.

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“The wide-format market is growing and changing at an incredible rate, and print providers are looking to deliver eye-catching, outside-the-box applications to take advantage of the momentum,” says Ricoh’s Heather Poulin. The inaugural Wide-format Summit – produced by Wide-format Impressions Magazine, NAPCO Media and SGIA - will take place April 20-22, 2020 in Austin, Texas, co-located with the eighth annual Inkjet Summit.

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The world’s largest outdoor media advertiser says that after a 6.7% rise in global revenue for third quarter 2019, its Australian operation is being ‘negatively impacted’ by a major slump in the Australian economy. But the company adds that the integration of its $1.2 billion 2018 acquisition APN Outdoor has provided a major boost to its global digital billboard business. Meanwhile, competitor oOh!media has upgraded its earnings guidance. 

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The Australian Sign & Graphics Association (ASGA) has released the session program for its 2020 national conference to be held on the Gold Coast in collaboration with the Visual Impact Gold Coast 2020 trade show (30 April-2 May).

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“Do not power off the machine from the switch or wall socket.” It’s that time of the year again and Mimaki has issued instructions to customers on the best way to shut down Mimaki printers during the holiday period.

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Epson has developed a compact, lightweight spectroscopic camera that can be integrated in manufacturing lines to automate colour inspections. It says the new camera, which captures light across the visible spectrum, will be launched in the 2020 fiscal year ending March 2021.

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In this fifth installment of drupa's 'Essentials' series, inkjet specialist Régis Thienard explores the present anf future trends with inkjet technologies - and it's all good news.

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Roland DG will be present latest innovations from its portfolio of digital printing solutions, including the new IU-1000F large-format UV flatbed printer, at next month’s viscom trade fair for advertising technology and large format printing in Düsseldorf, Germany (January 7-9). Viscom 2020 will also feature a live signmaking workshop.

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The Australian Society of Old Friends, founded over 100 years ago, joined with the Press Gang, the LIA and Penrith Museum of Printing this week, to stage a Christmas function at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron. Forty industry notables and their partners enjoyed a fun night starting with drinks on the balcony overlooking a rather smoky Sydney Harbour.

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Following the first Australian installation (undisclosed) of an Aeoon Compact Kyo 3/8 inkjet T-shirt textile printer, Territory Sales Manager Ioannis Apostolidis recently visited to accompany his dealer Sew Simple’s Greg and Luke Carmody on calls to prospective new customers.

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In a direct appeal to HP shareholders, Xerox says its offer to buy its larger rival would create a $US66.8 billion printing industry giant and deliver $31 a share to HP shareholders. HP’s board rejected an earlier $US33.5 billion takeover bid from Xerox that had offered shareholders $22 a share. Xerox has also revealed it has its eye on 50,000 worldwide HP Wide Format customers and an estimated 10,000 global installations of HP’s flagship printer, the HP Indigo Press.