Tinkr offers bespoke calligraphy pendants

Source: Tinkr website.

Tinkr is offering bespoke pendants based on actual handwriting, making them a unique corporate gift. 

From S$78, the company will create a pendant made up of up to two words in handwriting that is provided. Tinkr's own calligrapher Veronica Halim can also provide the calligraphy instead for S$98 and upwards. 

Source: Tinkr newsletter.

The pendants are available in brass, 18k gold plated, rose gold plated, and rhodium (silver tone) versions. 

Want to know more? 

Read a WorkSmart Asia blog post about Tinkr.

Epson printer helps Indonesian entrepreneur expand, diversify

Source: Epson. A range of the results from the printer.

When Indonesian entrepreneur and digital textile expert Budi Santoso opened his own business in 2008, it had nothing to do with printing. Moshaict is a clothing store that specialises in fashions for Muslim women. The first store opened in Jakarta about six years ago. In 2011, he had a brainwave: why rely on external printers, when he could print his own products and sell them in his store? 

Having discovered the Epson SureColor SC-F7070 online, Santoso made some comparisons with other similar machines and found that the SC-F7070 was the most suitable for his needs. “Everything I read talked about the quality of the prints and the cost was within my reach. I also found out that many of the other brands use Epson’s parts so I thought why not get an entire machine that was made by Epson, rather than one that only has parts," said Santoso. 

“Working with my designer, I used the printer to create our own unique fashion designs and print them in-house. It was a hit and we managed to reduce our costs,” 

The in-house capability that Santoso had spread by word of mouth, with one designer telling another and coming to Santoso for printing. This led to the creation of another company, iPrintex.

Since purchasing the SureColor SC-F7070, Santoso has seen his business double. When he started with iPrintex, he went through a roll (approximately 100m) of material per day, but after a year, the business is going through two rolls per day, its maximum capacity.

Source: Epson. The Epson SureColor SC-F7070.

Santoso currently has ten Moshaict outlets in and around Jakarta and is looking to open at least another five more. This means more textile printing, an area that Santoso has already decided to focus on.

"I chose Epson and it paid off; my customers are all very satisfied,” states Santoso. “This investment has already allowed me to grow my fashion business and branch out into a brand new area of business – professional printing. I definitely want to expand my printing capabilities, invest more in it and see it grow.”

Beijing Tiertime Technology launches UP BOX desktop 3D printer for under US$2K

Beijing Tiertime Technology (Tiertime) has launched the UP BOX desktop 3D printer, its third in the UP Series.

Source: Tiertime.

The UP BOX builds on the performance of the UP Plus 2 and the value of the UP mini, by adding larger build volume (255 W x 205 H x 205mm D) while increasing the print resolution to 0.1 mm. Printing speeds are also up to 30% faster than the UP Plus 2.

Features unique to the new printer include:

• Fully automated platform levelling with automatic calibration with no human intervention required
• Enclosure with an air filtration system that minimises operational noise and contains fumes that may result from the printing process 
• Light-pulse functional LED lighting that displays the print status 

The printer also comes with standard UP features like UP Software with Smart Support, a fully-heated build platform for consistent, warp-free ABS* printing, and UP's one-year limited warranty and service. Smart Support is Tiertime's proprietary, auto-support-structure generation algorithm that automatically produces an easily-removable support structure during the printing process. This ensures droop-free output by allowing difficult and complex designs to be printed with ease. 

"Our goal is to be the most reliable provider of 3D technologies and solutions to our customers around the world," said Tiertime's General Manager, Guo Ge.

UP BOX has a reference price of US$1,899 and will be available for purchase worldwide in November 2014 through Tiertime's global distribution partners and major retailers such as Amazon.com.

*ABS stands for acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and is a type of plastic.

The digital printing revolution could make businesses even more agile: HP

Source: HP. High-impact retail graphics, floor covering and corrugated display applications printed using HP Latex and Scitex Digital printing technologies at the new HP Graphics Solutions Centre of Excellence in Singapore.

Commercial digital printing presses are revolutionising what we can do for business printing. Whereas printers with traditional offset printing presses require a minimum number of the same item to be printed before it becomes economical, digital printers can personalise any number of items on many types of materials affordably, whether it is a print run of one or a thousand.

Gido van Praag, VP, Graphics Solutions Business, HP Asia Pacific and Japan, shared that digital printing is driving customer interest in different countries. In Japan, Sony customised Walkman boxes with well known cartoon characters with HP Indigo and saw 300% revenue growth, while in Singapore, local business Prestige Label has used HP Indigo to offer a broader palette of applications and deal with shorter print runs. "The work starts for us when the printer is sold. We work together with the customer to maximise the asset base and the profitability of their investment," said van Praag.
  

Custom labels on
water bottles.

In a world where brand owners need to stand out or get lost in the crowd and ever-shorter promotion cycles, being able to individualise an item quickly is a big advantage, added Nick Lazaridis, Senior Vice President, Printing and Personal Systems and Managing Director, HP Asia Pacific and Japan. 

He disclosed that HP printed the 800 million custom labels that were used in place of the Coca Cola logo for the company's Share a Coke' campaign over three months. While Share a Coke has not been held in Asia Pacific, the campaign made it to global headlines for its creativity and the enthusiastic response from customers. 

"Digital printing enables companies to be more responsive and agile," agreed Thien Kwee Eng, Assistant MD, Singapore Economic Development Board, who noted that research firm IDC had forecast a digital printing CAGR of 20% from 2013 to 2018. 

"Book publishers utilise digital printing primarily for new titles, reprints and custom titles to reduce inventory holding costs and market niche books. In the world of fast moving consumer goods, digital printing enables companies to vary packaging with seasonally-focused marketing campaigns or localised messages to improve their reach to customers."

HP's newly opened 21,000 sq m Graphics Solutions Centre of Excellence in Tuas, Singapore, gives an idea of the extent of HP’s digital printing portfolio and solutions, including from partners. 

“Brand owners are facing increased competition as consumer choice and expectations have exploded. As a result, they’ve moved into the digital world to connect more powerfully with their customers,” said van Praag.

“The new HP Centre of Excellence aims to give them the tools to compete, helping brands identify new ways to combine their unique skills with the industry’s broadest portfolio of innovative digital printing solutions, and its unparalleled application capabilities.”

Printing companies will be able to benchmark and conduct end-to-end application testing of their HP digital printing equipment, while brands and agencies will be able to browse inspirational ideas and work on pilot projects in a real-world production environment.

"The limitation today is not the technology. The limitation is in the mind," said Alon Bar-Shany, General Manager, HP Indigo Division, HP Graphics Solutions Business.

Selected HP commercial printers can handle fabrics.

Packaging can be printed for consumer goods of all shapes and sizes. 

It is a matter of "print what you want, when you want, how much you want" in order to stay relevant to the market, said James Yew, who was at the HP Digital Supermarket section of the Centre of Excellence to demonstrate what HP Indigo can do.

HP commercial printers can print heat transfers that can be applied onto a range of surfaces. 

Textured pages, apps that recognise the images to deliver augmented reality experiences and NFC where a related file is transferred to a mobile device placed close to the picture are some ideas for businesses.