During a recent training event I was talking to an ex cement salesman who used a picture of a brick wall to demonstrate the power of colour. The wall was an amazing mosaic of different colours and patterns. The person asked how many different coloured bricks were used in the design. Various answers came back: five, ten, twenty. The answer was actually one. Once revealed, this ‘trick of the eye’ was simple. It wasn’t the bricks that were different colours, it was the mortar.

Agfa Graphics is to grow its large format offering with the acquisition of Gandi Innovations' assets. Gandi's portfolio of mid-range large format printers is complementary to Agfa's entry-level and high-end inkjet offering and the proposed transaction will therefore allow Agfa to serve a large installed base.

A helpful new tool has been added to Avery Dennison's Graphics and Reflective Products website. The on-line colour selector shows what is available in each of the self-coloured ranges of Avery Graphics self-adhesive films.

Wide format scanner manufacturer, Colortrac, has received, Business Equipment Research and Test Laboratories (BERTL) four and a half star 'outstanding' ratings for both its CCD and CIS SmartLF graphics and technical document scanners.

Korean supplier of UV direct to media printers and cutter/router tables, Dae Young Systems, (DYSS) has appointed B&P Graphic Supplies as its distributor for UK and Ireland. B&P, which has appointed Sun Chemical as a sub-distributor, will distribute the Apollo range of UV combination and flatbed printers and the X7 range of cutter/routers.

Colourgen is offering up to 20 per cent off the recommended retail price (RRP) on all cut sheet and roll-fed media in the new Hahnemuhle Baryta FB range of fine art media. The latest addition includes quality archival photo paper, available from authorised Colourgen resellers with this exclusive discount. Prices start from £18 for a pack of 20 A4 sheets and under £70 for a 17in by 12m roll.

Canon and Océ have agreed to combine their printing activities through a self-funded cash offer by Canon for all the shares of Océ.

Printed entirely on Revive stocks ranging from 25 to 100 per cent recycled content and using an assortment of gloss, silk and coated finishes, the Robert Horne Group 2010 calendar features a Lilliputian world of printing and office life.

Yorkshire-based ImageData Group is developing its large and medium format digital print capabilities with the installation of an Agfa Graphics :M-Press Tiger. The new press is supplied by Thieme KPX.

A re-structured website is helping potential visitors get the most from their visit to Sign and Digital UK, set to run on 13, 14 and 15 April at Birmingham’s NEC.

Colour management and proofing specialist, GMG, has revealed that its contone and halftone proofing solutions now support the Epson Stylus Pro WT7900 printer, which is said to facilitate top-quality contract-level packaging proofs, even on transparent or metallic foils.

A merger of two PaperlinX UK businesses, Europoint and Robert Horne Sign & Display, is set to create one business unit to service the UK sign and display market. The business will operate under the Robert Horne Group banner and is believed to be the UK’s largest supplier to this sector.

A new showroom has been opened up by Velmex Distribution to house almost the entire Canon LFP range.

As Europe’s largest distributor of Canon large format printers, Velmex’s Surrey premises will now house a 700ft_ showroom area dedicated to the Canon family of printers including the imagePrograf range of LFPs, Canon’s Colortrac scanner range and imagePress C1+ printer, equipped with clear toner units for gloss, matt and metallic finishing effects.

Modern society surrounds us with opportunities to gamble including lotteries, casinos, scratch cards and on-line poker. One sector that remains prevalent is fruit machines and with an increase in jackpot values, their popularity continues to grow.

One of the factors you have little control over is the cost of your ink. Printer manufacturers are quick to imply that using any third party ink will render your maintenance contract invalid and possibly damage your printer. This is a powerful and convincing argument because, in most businesses, if the printer breaks down the business grinds to a costly and stressful halt. Companies selling printers make handsome ongoing profits on the sale of inks and service contracts and so will obviously suggest that changing anything leads to potential disaster. It doesn't have to be like this! By speaking to the right people and carefully choosing the correct products you can substantially cut your costs without compromising on print quality. Lets take a look at some of the main arguments put by the OEM's against changing your ink.

In total, 160 large format fine art photo prints were created as part of Belgian photographer, Stephan Vanfleteren's exposition 'Portret 1989 – 2009', taking place in Ghent, Belgium, until end of December. The photographer selected the Mutoh Zephyr UV printer to reproduce his striking portraits.

It’s always difficult when the economy hits a low, but as far as POP is concerned it’s not all bad. POP is one of the only means of advertising that drives an immediate response and therefore budgets have suffered less than in outdoor and magazine advertising.

Mimaki Engineering has introduced a new dye-sublimation and direct-to-textile inkjet printer, designed to provide ink cost savings. The TX400-1800D will be shipped in Europe from February 2010.

Designed to fit onto a desktop or wall shelf, Colortrac claims its new SmartLF Ci 24 scanner is the most affordable wide format scanning solution on the market.

Recognising that artists and professional photographers require a variety of media to produce or archive their work, Epson has introduced four new fine art papers.

Targeted squarely at the signs, advertising and art print sectors, Sihl has announced two new large format coated canvas media. The inkjet media specialist developed Miro Gallery Canvas White 340 and Fortuna Artist Canvas White 400 to meet growing demand for quality media in the artist sector.

One-stop supplier for digital printing and sign making, Spandex, is now offering Mutoh’s new Kona series multi-purpose vinyl cutting plotters.

Victory Design has launched a new roll up banner material called Soflat. Manufactured by Soyang, SoFlat is a 440gsm scrimless banner material of a polyester/PVC combination designed to offer stable stay-flat properties. The media boasts a smooth surface and an anti curl appearance at the edge which gives the material a lay flat professional look. Soflat is said to offer excellent printing characteristics with UV, solvent and screen printing techniques and does not require over laminating.

Suitable for use in factory environments, Static Solutions' new DC ionising guns address production and quality control problems. They are ideal for the paint and printing industries, where there is an additional hazard caused by flammable liquids.

Developed to help control colour quality, X-Rite's VS450 spectrophotometer can measure wet and dry samples without touching test surfaces.

In this month's Regulatory Bulletin, Prism highlights a useful document produced by the Environment Agency entitled: Management toolkit for small and medium sized businesses. This information pack contains helpful templates, specifically targeted to help small and medium size enterprises (SMEs).