The Print Loop - Week of September 22nd

September 23, 2025

📌 Top Highlights

  • 3-D printing offers a glimpse into the future

  • Printing is growing increasingly efficient

  • Before newspapers, there were carrier pigeons

🔍 Deep Dive: HP is Giving the Printing Industry Some Much-Needed TLC

HP was the belle of the ball at Labelexpo Europe 2025, with its introduction of the HP Indigo 6K+ Digital Press, the HP Indigo V12 with LEPx technology, and the HP Indigo 200K (designed for flexible packaging as well as labels). 

This tech signals a revolution in printing, one designed to meet demands through non-stop models. HP’s innovation, powered by AI and automation, empowers single digital presses to handle greater workloads while cutting waste, labor, and setup needs. The timing is storybook: The industry is facing rising costs, worker shortage, sustainability regulations, and an increasingly impatient customer base. In other words, this modernization is simply a sign of things to come. 

🖨️ Technology Trailblazers

  • Marking the end of an era, the Post-Journal replaced its south-end press units at its central production facility in Jamestown. The journal has now begun replacing the north-end units as well. Once complete, the Post will enjoy increased capacity, improved efficiency, and higher print quality. Still, it’s hard not to be a little nostalgic; the Post-Journal’s previous press dates back to the 1950s. 

  • Enfocus, known for its smart workflow automation, has upgraded its Griffin wide-format nesting software with the introduction of Griffin+. Griffin+ is designed to be a high-performance platform for signage and wide-format printers, with the capacity to support up to 500 unique products per job.   

  • Dr. Mansoor Khan, a researcher at Texas A&M University, is making the concept of pills easier to swallow. Using 3-D printing technology, he has created dose-flexible tablets, helping ensure children receive the proper amount of medication for their age and weight. These tablets can be customized by flavor, too, increasing the odds they’ll end up in a child’s stomach and not a trash can. 

  • A new non-contact ultrasound method is upping the manufacturing game! This concept refines grains and improves mechanical performance without the pesky quirks of traditional ultrasound techniques. 

🍁 The Colors of Autumn

Spandex, a signage solutions company and not the 1980s workout shorts, is using the colors of fall to help businesses attract the attention of customers. Color has long been heralded in marketing for its unique ability to make people feel. When it comes to autumn hues, red tends to elicit feelings of passion and energy, yellow generates feelings of warmth and optimism, and orange is full of creativity and urgency, which is why it's so often used to market children’s brands. 

🏢 Movers and Shakers

  • FASTSIGNS has announced that two of its employees were recently recognized for their outstanding sales skills. Tony Lovato received the Gold Sales Award, while Marnye Roberts received the Bronze Sales Award.

  • The pen really is mightier than the sword….at least when it comes to the A’ Design Award, a highly renowned award in the field of 3-D printing. Pulse, by Lelia Ensaniat, was the gold winner for her pen design, showing that practicality and beauty can go hand in hand. 

  • From Shanghai to Madrid, 3-D bridge projects are laying new ground. This up-and-coming technology has evolved into a staple of the printing industry, used in everything from homes to schools. Check out some of the boldest bridge projects here, and explore an exciting link to the future.

  • A Minuteman Press in Oregon has had a busy 2025. Craig Davidson, who owns the press with his wife, won the Tigard Chamber of Commerce Volunteer of the Year Award in April. Then, over the summer, the press hit a home run by becoming a printing partner of the Marion Berries, a new baseball team in the West Coast League.  

🥸 Printing Ponderings

Before the invention of Gutenberg’s press, news was spread by word of mouth, messages, letters, and the occasional carrier pigeon. Say what you want about modern news, but at least journalists will never poop in your hair.