Many aisles are shoulder to shoulder, with bigger than anticipated crowds gathering for demonstrations of the plentiful new technology on show, providing a very weclome filip for an industry unsure of its future.

Sheetfed B2 inkjet wins the award for most new entrants, with at least 16 players now in the market, while webfed inkjet is also prominent. The Cloud is big news, with a host of vendors launching cloud based solutions, aimed at taking the IT pain out of print.

The big offset players have tipped a wink to inkjet, with most of them launching inline inkjet options on the back of their presses. However they are all keen to point out that the vast majority of print is still in the offset domain. Heidellberg launched its much anticipated and long awaited Anicolor B2 press.

The Benny Landa show rolls on, he claims to have already received ‘dozens’ of letters of intents, with deposits, for his nanotechnology digital presses, although quite why anyone would be prepared to hand over cash for a press which is unproven and two years away from commercial release is unclear.

Testimony to the upbeat natrure of drupa came from EFI CEO Guy Gecht, who claimed his company has received more sales leads in the first three days of this year’s show than for the whole of the 2008 event.

Best entertainment is on the Xerox stand where Cirque Du Soliel is thrilling printers thrice daily, while Canon has unbelievably skilled soccer players performing remarkable tricks with a ball.

Check i-grafix.com daily for news reports on releases at the show.

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