High-Speed Digital Printing and Plotting

There has been a revolution in plotting and printing.
The digital (computer-based) plotting and printing services offered by LDI greatly increase speed and cost-effectiveness for architects, engineers, contractors and others who create documents digitally but still need hard-copy output for bidding, construction, fabrication, etc. There is no longer even a need to plot prior to printing single or multiple sets of paper prints. Plotting may be necessary for preliminary proofing under some conditions, but the extra time required for a "final plot" is eliminated by digital printing. Also, we don't need expensive vellums or mylars for use as originals. This can save a tremendous amount of money during the printing and print distribution process. It is all made possible by the digital plotting and printing revolution.

Are speed and quality really important?
With digital printing, each and every print is actually an "original plot." There is no hard-copy original. LDI's digital prints are 400 x 400 dpi (dots per inch), a quality level unmatched by blueprint machines and analog copiers. With LDI, there is also a substantial increase in throughput speed, which means faster turnaround time on both individual plots and multiple-set print production. For example, we can produce "D"-size (24" x 36") bond prints at the continuous rate of 1000 prints per hour, collated and ready to bind. Because of faster production speed, same-day delivery is now routinely available on jobs that previously would be plotted or printed overnight and not delivered or shipped until the following day. If time is money in your business, LDI digital printing will be of great value in meeting tight deadlines.

What kind of input is needed for digital printing and plotting?
LDI can print or plot from virtually all of the standard digital file formats, including Autocad .DWG and .PLT files, HPGL and HPGL2, Calcomp 906/907, Cals (1 & 2), DXF, TIFF Group 4 (typically from scanned files), and postscript and PDF formats (used more commonly for specification manuals). We support many other file formats not listed here. Call us.

How do you get your digital files to LDI?
We offer many options. The best way is by our Web Page Order Center, which allows easy order from anywhere in the world. Go to our Web Page at www.ldireproprinting.com and follow the prompts. You can also bring us files on "floppy" disks. We accept 3.5-inch floppies, although due to the size and number of drawing files in a typical job, something with greater capacity is recommended. Currently, the most cost-effective disk format is the 100mb (megabyte) so-called "Zip" drive. LDI accepts both 3.5 and "Zip" disks for your file input.

And what if you cannot supply digital files? No problem. We can scan plots, drawings or blueprints into digital format (or accept your scanned files if you have an in-house scanner) and then print or plot normally. Scanning at LDI is fast and inexpensive but you need to supply us with hard-copy for the initial scan.          more.....

Across-Town "Digital Courier" Service

Is Traffic Really That Bad?
Every major city that is growing faces the same problem these days; too much traffic, too many delays, too much lost time due to slowdowns in the distribution of goods and services. Delivering prints is no exception. For example, even though LDI has its own delivery trucks, we often find that jobs printed today cannot be delivered until tomorrow due to traffic conditions. But we are trying to do something about it, and that's what our revolutionary Digital Courier Service is all about. If time is money in your business, LDI Across-Town Digital Courier Service will be of great value in meeting tight deadlines and reducing document distribution expense.

What is digital courier service?
LDI has many Reproprinting Centers throughout the Southeast. Every one is equipped with state-of-the-art digital plotting and printing equipment.

We can easily transfer digital files from branch-to-branch using dedicated lines and high-speed modems, thus saving the drive time needed to get from one branch to another. Digital document files can be "couriered" through traffic jams and around other handling delays that otherwise can slow information delivery to a crawl. Once the digital files arrive at the LDI location, they are printed at speeds up to 1000 prints per hour and at image resolution of 400 x 400 dpi (dots per inch). Same day delivery becomes common because the documents only have to travel a small distance in hard-copy form.

How can you use digital courier service?
There are several options. The best way is through our Web Page. You can select the location closest to where you want the prints delivered, complete an on-screen electronic order form and then "courier" the digital files to LDI with a click of the mouse. When your job arrives at LDI, we print it and either deliver it locally via our delivery truck or have it ready for customer pickup, depending on your specific needs. If you prefer, you can bring us your digital files on disc and we can send the order digitally for you. Either way, you pay only the normal printing costs; there is no extra charge for the local "digital courier service."

What if you don't have a network and can't use our Web Page? No problem. Any LDI location can quickly scan your documents into digital format and then courier your files across town for you.          more.....

Digital Scanning for Archival Storage

Where do you keep all those drawings?
If you are like most architects, engineers or contractors, you have hundreds or even thousands of drawings and blueprints at your office.

Many companies have so much of this stuff that they rent extra space just to store it all. A lot of money also is spent on flat files, hanging files, tubular files, overhead racks and other storage devices to help you organize. Meanwhile, your paper documents slowly fade, making them harder to read and use. (This is especially true of old blueprints, which are chemically unstable.)

Digital Scanning May Be the Answer
Within the past couple of years, a revolution has occurred in scanning. Using charged-couple devices (CCDs), which is the same advanced technology found in the newer video and personal digital cameras, the quality and speed of scanning is now equal to the computer technology you use in your CAD system. And the hardware has helped launch a software revolution; new software allows rapid batch scanning, automatic document "clean-up", instant on-line viewing and printing and more. Advances in digital storage devices have kept pace; "Zip" disks, for example, store 100mb (megabytes) of data equal to 200 or even more average drawings, and scanning software compresses digital files to get more storage on a single disk. And,of course, digital files are of archival quality; they never fade or change in any way. LDI has the latest scanning hardware and software at all of our digital locations. Digital scanning at LDI is accurate, fast, and inexpensive. All of the drawings you have can be scanned to disk in a week or so and returned to you on a few Zip disks. Think of it...every project you have ever designed or bid can be stored in a shoe box. Like we said...its a revolution!

Can documents be used after they are scanned?
Yes. First of all, LDI (or any competent digital printer) can print stored files in hard-copy format for your use. But more important, software is now available that allows you to view, print and even alter digitally-stored documents with your CAD system just in case some of those "dead" projects come to life again. Why do you need software in addition to the CAD software you now have? This is because while CAD software creates and allows you to manipulate vector images (lines and curves defined by mathematical equations), scanning creates raster images (dot patterns on an X:Y axis). There are several different levels of intermediary software, depending upon your specific needs. Some allow only viewing and printing of raster files; some allow you to edit (change, clean-up or add to) raster files; more advanced software enables you to edit raster images and then overlay them on existing vector files (using your CAD software); and at the highest level there is software that fully converts raster data into vector format, thus enabling you to do whatever needs to be done with just your CAD software. The cost of these intermediary software packages ranges from under $200.00 (for view/print only) to a few thousand dollars (for a high-speed vectoring package). LDI will be glad to consult with you to select the best package. Call us.          more.....

Global Document Distribution on the Internet

Next-Day Delivery Used To Be Fast.
Consider this; it has been 20 years since Federal Express Corporation introduced next-day parcel delivery. FedEX service was a real innovation, but keep in mind what business was like in the Age of Disco. Secretaries used electric typewriters, long-distance phone calls were expensive and the fax machine hadn't been invented. FedEx's only competition was the US Mail and UPS ground service.

Now consider this; today, nearly 100% of all documents, everything from legal contracts to design drawings, are created on a computer. Word processing has replaced the typing pool and designers use AutoCad instead of 2H pencils and drafting vellum. But FedEx still expects hard-copy to be printed prior to shipment, just like it has been done for twenty years. Printers do this routinely for their clients, often shipping huge stacks or rolls of documents in heavy, protective packages (no wonder these shippers charge by the pound!) This is called print-then-distribute, with prints delivered next-day. This has been a bonanza for companies like FedEx, UPS and Airborne, who persuade their document delivery customers to spend as much on shipping as they do on printing. Total expenditures for next-day delivery in the design/construction industry alone are estimated to be $500 million annually, just to get it there tomorrow!

A New Idea: Distribute-then-Print.
Lets consider an alternative. All documents start out as "virtual" (electronic) documents, pulses of electrical energy instead of real ink and paper. They are created, stored, even modified as electronic documents. So why can't they be SHIPPED as electronic documents? The answer is that they can! You already do this; faxing is a form of electronic distribution, although you need printed copies first before you fax. Distribution by digital network using only the electronic document is easier, faster, better quality, less expensive and just as reliable as faxing. Digital distribution opens up a whole new possibility - distribute-then-print. The digital data can be sent to wherever it is needed before being printed. All that is required on the receiving end is a digital print device. High-speed digital printers can produce hundreds, even thousands of copies per hour, so that electronic documents can not only be distributed same-day, they can also be printed and used same-day. Tomorrow becomes today, and at significantly lower cost!

Using the Internet to Transfer Digital Files.
The Internet is a great way to transfer documents as digital files, using the global telephone network and the Internet "backbone." Internet transfer speeds are almost instantaneous (uploading and downloading to the backbone may take a little extra time due to your modem speed) and the accuracy and completeness of file transfer is excellent. (An exception is so-called E-Mail, which is not reliable enough for the transfer of important documents. But E-Mail is only one type of Internet file transfer protocol. There are others that are better). Best of all, file transfer by Internet is inexpensive; most Internet Service Providers have low cost, flat-rate, unlimited usage billing programs, so the more you use the Internet, the less expensive (per document transferred) it becomes! Internet document transfer costs are cheaper than Airborne of Fed Ex, cheaper even than UPS ground service. And it gets there today, not tomorrow.           more.....