Innovation never ceases, which is good.
Often, less-noticed news stories have more impact than the big ones. Recent news stories, for example, have stated bio-fuels are a leading fuel alternative, and this may be true. However, such headlines have inspired commodity speculators (professional traders who try to buy futures low and sell them high) to buy crop advances, which, combined with the fuel-use demand, has caused the price of corn, soy and other fuel-conversion goods to rise.
Most of our food contains corn, in one fashion or another. Aspirin contains a corn byproduct, as does your lunchtime milkshake. Livestock producers also feed corn by-products to their cows, pigs and chickens, so expect all food prices to ascend. The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates basic food prices will increase 20 to 33% by 2010.
Add this percent to the price you’ll pay for bio-fuel.
Two separate, but recent announcements from SA Intl. (SAi), Philadelphia, and Hewlett-Packard (HP), San Jose, CA, will have a positive, down-the-road impact on signmaking. SAi has introduced its SIGN.com website (online design aids) and HP its latex-based inks for digital printing (a further push into the reduced-VOC, “green” ink field). SAi’s software engineers have given Sign.com extensive thought – it’s an excellent, online tool for signmakers and, also, a forward-thinking business model. HP says it will introduce its waterbased, latex ink, and an accompanying printer, at the DRUPA print tradeshow in Düsseldorf, Germany. The show, which runs from May 29 to June 11, is billed as “the world’s number-one trade fair for the print and media industry.” It’s expected to attract more than 400,000 visitors.
We asked Vince Cahill, an internationally renowned digital-ink and printhead authority, to report on HP’s waterbased, latex ink. Read his comments in this column’s sidebar (below and next page).
SAi’s Sign.com site features quality, downloadable clipart – bumblebee cartoons just don’t do it anymore – plus vehicle templates, a vehicle-wrap system, graphic fills, textures and fonts.
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