Wide Format Imaging

Campus Copy Center, located on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia, PA, has served the needs of the professors and students of the University since 1959. Traditionally in the high-volume black-and-white market using both Xerox DocuTechs and offset presses, the firm only recently entered the wide-format market by purchasing a new Xerox 8160 wide-format inkjet printer.

Moving into the wide-format market was not an easy decision; it was more than simply installing a printer. For Campus Copy Center, it also involved learning about RIP software, media choices, and finishing solutions?which for any company just starting out can be daunting.

But for the business to grow and expand, a wide-format printer was needed, according to Michael Drake, Campus Copy Center?s general manager. ?We were getting requests for wide-format prints, but had to turn the work away or outsource it. And once we decided to purchase the printer, we needed to figure out what our start-up investment in media was going to be. We weren?t sure what people would request, so we ended up going with a tiered system of products.?

The Xerox wasn?t the only printer they looked at when they were shopping for a new wide-format color printer. According to Drake, they looked at printers from Canon, HP, and Encad, but because of their close relationship with Xerox decided to go with the 8160. ?As a Xerox shop, we have come to know the kind of service and support we?ve gotten with our other equipment,? says Drake. ?Additionally, the other competitive products only offer a maximum width of 42 inches and we wanted something wider. We wanted the biggest, baddest, fastest, and strongest printer we could find and the 8160, at 60 inches wide, was it.?

Baby Steps
A few hours after the printer was installed in January 2005, Campus Copy Center was up and running. They decided, however, to take their time to get to know the device before marketing their new services. With their learning curve they knew that initially they would not be prepared to support more than a few jobs a week. Slowly, they built up the market through word of mouth as their printer operators grew to know the printer. From doing two or three jobs a week, they now are printing five to six a day.

Now they are finding that their customers are in need of nearly as much education as they were. According to Drake, many don?t provide the correct files or a file that has a high enough resolution. ?We had to educate our customers about what kind of files to provide,? says Drake. ?But we are continuing to educate our customers about the files well as the features and benefits of this new technology.?

With the addition of this printer, Campus Copy Center has become the ?one stop shop? for both students and faculty, providing design services all the way through small- and wide-format output to finishing and mailing services. ?Wide-format color completed our one-stop-shop. There?s no need for them to go anywhere else,? says Drake.