Crouser & Associates Performance Group program helps printers prosper through on-site assistance as well as twice yearly group meetings. Reply to this message for more information by Email or call (304) 342-5100. Crouser Report OnLine is the Copyright Thomas P. Crouser. Material may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent.

Letters: RIPS and Imagesetter; PrinterNET, Leasing, and LAUNCH

Copyright Thomas P. Crouser, January, 1996

Visit PrintUSA at http:/www/printusa.com. PrintUSA is an industry specific world wide marketing domain for graphic arts, the printing industry and related suppliers. And while you are there - check out the past issues of The Crouser Report! And, don t forget our SEMINAR THIS SATURDAY IN DALLAS: Details (304) 342-5100

Transmitted from Charleston, West Virginia

Before we start on this week s letters, I had to let you know about JeroldS1 and his request for information on locations in Philadelphia which produce short run (100-250) color from copiers. Well, he says:

Thank you for your help. I got e-mail from all over the country and finally got somebody close to me. With his help I did a quote and am waiting for the o.k.

Well, good job, people! And, while I m at it, let me share with you a message from Terry Montgomery at PrinterNET.

Tom, Thought you might like to know that since we first put the Crouser Reports on PrinterNet (one week, now), the Crouser library has had 61 newsletters downloaded. The 2 of greatest interest: Family Businesses: Family Pay, and Five reasons why printers stay poor. There s a message there, some place. Later. Terry Montgomery, PrinterNet.

Huuuummm. Now, if we could just figure out what the message is. Oh, well. If you are into downloads, you can reach PrinterNET over your modem at (910) 767-2622. ALSO, BACK ISSUES may also be found at the National Association of Quick Printer s America On Line Site.

Now, on with this week s mail. Steve Scott of Owensboro, Kentucky was in an expansive mood and shared with us his extensive experience when he wrote. . .
Regarding RIPS and Imagesetters

If you want to RIP complex files, I recommend putting together a complex file and sending it to different manufacturers and letting them run the file to compare the speed in which the different Imagesetters image the job. When we first installed our Imagesetter and Agfa 9000sr RIP on a IIvx computer we were assured that it was plenty fast. What a joke, it took 4 hours to image a 40 meg file, 8.5 x 11 separation. We went to a power Mac 7100/66 with a Vipor RIP upgrade and the same file will run in 30 minutes. If it is a low resolution file it will do 4 negs. in 7 minutes. They now have a upgrade for the new processors. So if you buy a power PC 9500/132 with at least 48 meg a ram with the latest Vipor upgrade that same file that took 4 hours will run in approximately 10 minutes. They came a long way with the Vipor RIP. Be careful and don t let the company undersell you on what you need.

Also putting in an Imagesetter is not a cake walk. It takes a while for your operator to lean all the tricks to make a file run efficiently. Been there, done that kind of thing, you know. It took us about a year to really get efficient with it. But it is paying off now. It has improved our position in terms of gaining new business. We have an Agfa Proset 9550 which can output up to 150 line screen. With a good color calibration software our output and printing of 150 line screen 4 color process has satisfied some pretty picky ad agencies. We were also able to get business from other printers in other market areas needing quick turnaround. Adding the image setter has allowed us to meet the fast demands needed in today s market for fast quality printing, without being held hostage to film separators.

Steve Scott, CPandG@aol.com, Commercial Printing & Graphics, Owensboro, Kentucky
Thanks, Steve. Sometime over the weekend, my good buddy, Sandy Clark (ex-Marine type) up in Flemington, New Jersey, messaged for one more read on the copyright issue. And, if Sandy is not clear, then there s lots of people who aren t clear. He writes:

From: Bpcf
To: TomCrouser

I think I ve seen all the email on this subject, but I m still not clear on who owns the black and white artwork if:

I m not talking about metal plates or film. And I m looking for either a proven legal opinion or court decision. I have my own opinion and I know that every other printer has one also. On what basis, under the circumstances described above, can we stand firm with a customer and say,no with the law on our side? Love to hear a decisive answer.

Sandy Clark
Okay, Sandy. Watch my lips (just kidding). Under the terms above, you will never have a decisive answer for apparently no terms and conditions of sale are being agreed to with the customer. Even if you give the customer printed trade customs, that s not good enough. The only way you can stand firm with a customer is to have a written agreement or contract. And that is terms and conditions spelling out, for instance, who owns what. Many firms replace the title Trade Customs with Terms and Conditions of Sale and print them on the back side of the invoice. This replaces the generic and not very enforceable trade customs with specific conditions of this sale.

Then, if the terms and conditions of sale say the printer owns the material, then the printer owns the material absent other agreements or state law. If you have no previously expressed agreement, then it is a jump ball with trade customs having only a slight impact on a specific judge s ruling.

In other words, include the verbage in your terms and conditions of sale and you will be able to stand reasonably firm with a customer and say no with the law on your side. Now, obviously, going to great extremes in this regard will lose sales for you. You could have the customer sign an extensive contract and put up a deposit and still have a conflict.

Happy trails. Tom
Another reader writes about File Transfers. They said

I was so impressed with your technical knowledge of file transfer (blushing) , I thought I d ask another technical type question to which I may not understand the answer. Here it goes, anyway. We are Mac based in our art room and would like to receive files through a file transfer program like Launch or ASAP. If customers don t send us files in postscript format, will we need all the available IBM programs to be able to handle the IBM files coming through the network? We have been handling Microsoft office files and of course, Pagemaker, and Quark for the IBM fairly successfully.

Duh. Yea, I reckon. But, to be safe, I forwarded the message on to Larry Nebel who had this reply to our reader:

From: LarryHN

To: TomCrouser



Although we do accept non postscript files in selected (not all) Mac and IBM native mode files, I agree that the smartest and most successful method is to accept only postscript files. If you have to buy John Giles Book - The digital original for your customer (avaiable from many sources including AlcoPrint, 39176 Fremont Boulevard, Fremont, CA 94538-1316 for $42.95 plus $6.50 shipping and handling (plus 8.25% sales tax for California residents). It takes the guess work and the fear out of making Postscript files.

Larry Nebel

Lease we forget, a question came up about leases last week and although no email was received on it, thought I would include my response in order to fill up the page. Anyway, here s some information on how to treat leases on your financial statements.

Leases fall into two categories: financing leases and operating leases.

A financing lease is just that: an alternative way to finance a piece of equipment. Accounting-wise, this lease would be capitalized on the balance sheet and depreciation taken just as if this were an ordinary bank financing of a piece of equipment. One of the prime determinants of whether it is a financing lease is what happens at the end of the lease period. A $1 buyout would always make this a financing lease (other standards apply). Lease payments under financing leases are considered as payments on a note: they are not deductible directly as expenses, however interest and depreciation is deductible. Sometimes the interest and depreciation deduction is not as much as the actual payment and sometimes it is more. When entering into financing leases, it is best to consider what will happen to your cash flow.

An operating lease is rent paid for the use of the equipment without an equity position being developed. At the end of the lease, the equipment could be purchased, however would be done at a rate which would approximate fair market value at that time (usually at least 10% or more of the original pubchase price). A payment for this type of lease is deductible similar to equipment rental or the expense of renting a car during a business trip. So, have your CPA review leases before you enter into them and determine what cash impact this will have on your business.

Tom Crouser
LAUNCH!!! Earlier, we discussed Launch remote job transfer software and heard from folks in the field. As a balance, I thought I would publish these following endorsement letters which are distributed by PagePath Technologies, developers of Launch.

Dave Addison, Sir Speedy/Northern Graphics, Boston, Massachusetts, says, This is a great product not an okay product -- a great one! Simplicity of use, almost entirely automated and easily customized; I have no hesitations in handing this out to customers.

Lee Browner, CompuImaging, Santa Clara, California, says, LAUNCH! is simple and direct. My customers love it!

Mal Brown, Kelshawn Group, Ltd., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, says, We have BBS on line, but a number of our clients had trouble using it. That s one of the reasons we added LAUNCH!

Anthony Genovese, Speedy Print, Wilmington, Delaware, says, One of our unexpected benefits of using LAUNCH! is the freedom we now have to go after business in new areas. . .as far away as Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

New capabilities were also announced by PagePath: NetLink capabilities allow LAUNCH! users to send jobs via Modem, Internet, E-mail, FTP, and LAN/WAN. Now LAUNCH! can receive jobs by virtually any network or telecommunications link. PagePath can be reached via e-mail at launch@pagepath.com or call 1-800-856-2978, or visit their World Wide Web server at http://www.pagepath.com
Well, that s the end of today s message. Til next time, happy trails to you and yours.... Tom Crouser
Crouser & Associates Performance Group program includes two on-site evaluations by Tom Crouser each year along with two group meetings. Management training is held during the group meetings along with participation in a meeting with non-competing printers. Join others who have decided to run their business instead of the business running them. Reply to by Email to Tom Crouser for more detailed information or call Clark Workman at (304) 342-5100. Or fax (304) 342-5187 or contact crouser@ibm.net.
Return to Crouser Index
Return to PrintUSA home page
Friday, February 02, 1996 11:40:14 AM