Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y., will increase prices on a select range of consumable products across its businesses on a worldwide basis by as much as 20 percent, depending on the product line and geography. The increases are a result of rising prices of key raw materials, especially silver and aluminum, as well as the rising cost of petroleum, says the company.

  Kodak previously noted the impact of these raw material costs during a conference call with investors following announcement of its first-quarter results on May 1. The price increases will help alleviate some of the impact of rising raw materials costs.

  The increases will be rolled out by product group and geography in the coming weeks, and the company expects them to be implemented by July 1.

PixFusion LLC, New York, N.Y., creators of photo and audio-personalized video products and services, launched Kideo Australia through a distribution agreement with K.I.D. Productions Pty. Ltd. Using licensed content from several children's brands, including Dora the Explorer, Spider-Man, Barney, Arthur and Care Bears, Kideo creates and sells photo-personalized DVDs targeted to children ages 1-7 years old.

  Under the new 3-year agreement, which covers Australia and New Zealand, K.I.D. Productions will retain exclusive distribution rights for select DVDs within the Kideo library. They have also secured the rights to PixFusion's patented technologies and services, and will establish a manufacturing facility using Rimage 7100, the DVD burner used by PixFusion. Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
  Kideo DVDs are sold direct to consumers through www.kideo.com. Kideo Australia plans to launch its site within the next 2 months through www.kideo.com.au and www.kideo.co.nz. Kideo titles are also available through U.S. retail accounts including specialty camera retailers, mass market retailers, specialty drugstores, photo sharing sites, portrait studios, photo kiosk operators, catalogs, and other venues. Kideo Australia will follow a similar distribution model.

In a bid to boost its Web search traffic, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. announced a deal to make its Live Search the default on HP Co. personal computers shipped in the United States and Canada, starting in January, reports The Associated Press.

  The deal also calls for Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP to install copies of Internet Explorer with an extra Live Search toolbar on those computers. Microsoft said the toolbar also links to HP services such as its Snapfish digital photo printing site.

  Since Microsoft called off its $47.5 billion offer to buy search competitor Yahoo Inc., the company has been under pressure to prove it has a new plan for attracting more people to Live Search, says the AP. Microsoft has already made a similar arrangement with the much smaller, China-based Lenovo Group, while Google has a distribution deal in place with Dell Inc. and Mozilla's Firefox Web browser.

  Microsoft would not reveal financial details of the deal or say how much additional search traffic it expects to gain, reports the AP. Angus Norton, a senior director in Microsoft's Live Search group, said about 40 percent of Web surfers use whatever search engine is set as the default on their PC.

X-Rite Inc., Grand Rapids, Mich., unveiled the next generation of the Color Exchange Format (CxF), a file format designed to communicate all aspects of color across devices, applications, and geographies. The new CxF is applicable to any industry where communication of color and total appearance data is mission critical, including imaging, design, print production, architecture, manufacturing, fashion, and film and video.

  CxF acts as a container for transporting complete color information from concept to final production. CxF can include spectral color values, named colors, spaces and appearance effects, as well as commercial aspects, mathematical, optical conditions, and more. CxF brings a new set of dimensions to the colors that can be transmitted across workflows. X-Rite will deploy CxF as a connector that permits interoperability across industries, across media and across locations, says the company.

HP Co., Palo Alto, Calif., announced its latest digital printing products and technologies, which the company says are designed to enable graphic arts customers to build their competitive advantage and successfully pursue profitable growth opportunities. With the new solutions and the company's recent acquisitions of NUR Macroprinters Ltd. and MacDermid ColorSpan Inc., HP now offers print service providers the industry's largest all-digital color graphic arts portfolio. These moves also support HP's Print 2.0 strategy to drive growth of digital pages and lower costs of printing for high-volume commercial markets.

  Three new HP Indigo digital presses were introduced that offer significantly higher break-even points than analog printing, says the company. The three new HP Indigo press models represent the most significant HP Indigo product launch since Indigo first sparked the digital color revolution 15 years ago, says the company.

  The HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press, which is already running production at several print companies around the world, prints 120 high-quality, four-color, A4-size pages per minute. Lifetouch, a leading provider of professional portraits for schools, houses of worship and the retail market, is participating in the beta program for the new HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press. The press was installed in February.

  Building off the Indigo 7000 Digital Press are the HP Indigo WS6000 and W7200 presses, which just launching, are highly productive Web-fed digital presses. The WS6000 model, expected to be available worldwide in early 2009, offers twice the productivity of the successful HP Indigo press WS4500 and is targeted at labels and packaging converters with significant volumes of medium- and short-run jobs. The W7200 press is ideal for high-quality dedicated publishing, direct mail and transactional/transpromotional offerings. It is expected to be available in the second half of 2009, says the company.

  The HP Indigo press 5500, the company's best-selling digital press, has been enhanced with options allowing greater productivity, including an additional feeder, an in-line connection to the HP Indigo UV Coater and a kit for enabling printing on thicker media.

  The new HP Designjet L65500 Printer is the first in a new category of large-format signage printers with HP Latex Inks that reduce the impact of printing on the environment and offer broad outdoor and indoor application versatility, while delivering quality and durability at high print speeds, says the company.

  Also new are 14 large-format media, including five recyclable substrates that are compatible with HP Latex Printing Technologies. Specially treated HP media, such as HP Tyvek Banner and HP High Density Polyethylene Reinforced Banner, provide image quality and durability when printing with both HP Latex Inks and HP low-solvent inks.

  Additionally, there's the HP SmartStream Workflow Portfolio of print servers and software tools for comprehensive print job management, from creation to fulfillment, including the new HP SmartStream Director. HP also announced its intent to incorporate Scalable Printing Technology in future light-production-class products.

Xeikon, Itasca, IL, a division of Punch Graphix, announced the Xeikon 3300, a new digital color label press. The Xeikon 3300 offers true 1200 dots per inch (dpi) at four bits per spot. With a top speed of 63 feet per minute, it is the fastest digital five color label press on the market, suited for short to medium print runs, says the company.
  The Xeikon 3300 includes five color stations: four for the standard process colors, with the fifth color station used for spot colors as well as opaque white and special security toner. The Xeikon 3300 can print on scalable widths and various self adhesive films including co- extruded film, unsupported film, paper, transparent and opaque foils, and paperboard.

  Xeikon also recently launched the Xeikon 8000. Featuring true 1200 dpi at 4 bits per spot, the new Xeikon 8000 has been developed to optimize print productivity and provide fast, cost-effective, and eco-friendly printing, says the company. The new Xeikon 8000 is currently available for shipment to customers worldwide.

  The Xeikon 8000 is Web-fed and prints full color multi-page documents at a top speed of 230 pages per minute, or 13,800 letter-size pages per hour. The Xeikon 8000's LED-based imaging head features true 1200 dpi resolution and 1200-by-3600 dpi addressability with variable dot density. Two in-line densitometers and process algorithms provide uniform colors and color registration, focusing on color consistency from job to job, says Xeikon.

  In related news, Xeikon announces the availability of a new option for its Xeikon 6000 and Xeikon 5000plus digital color printing presses. Until now, these two engines were standard-equipped with a 600 dpi variable dot density resolution. The new 1200 dpi imaging head, initially developed for the Xeikon 8000, is now made available for the Xeikon 6000 and the Xeikon 5000plus, as well.

  Xeikon's LED-based imaging head combines 1200 dpi resolution and 1200-by-3600 dpi addressability with variable dot density, says the company. The combination of high resolution, high addressability, and multi-bit depth results in the high commercial print quality with sharp and crisp details, high definition, and smooth tone transitions. As of  the first quarter in 2009, the field upgrade will be available for previously delivered Xeikon 6000 and Xeikon 5000plus engines.

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art presents "Made in Hollywood: Photographs from the John Kobal Foundation." The new exhibition, running from July 12 - Oct. 12, showcases more than 90 original vintage prints by photographers working in Hollywood from 1920 - 1960. The collection of works in the exhibition are chosen from The John Kobal Foundation, a fine art archive of more than 4,500 original vintage photographs featuring the major studios and stars from the late teens until about 1960. 

  The Foundation is the legacy of John Kobal, who was among the pioneering generation of Hollywood historians and among the first to examine seriously the photographs taken to promote the stars, the films, and Hollywood as place.   

Digital cameras purchased by U.S. consumers through various outlets' websites increased in 2007 for a couple of channels, according to the 2008 PMA U.S. Digital Imaging Survey. In 2007, a larger percentage of DSLR camera purchases were made over the Internet compared to standard point-and-shoot models.

  A reported 19 percent of digital cameras purchased from camera stores were purchased through the camera stores' websites in 2007, according to PMA Marketing Research, climbing from 15 percent in the previous year. The portion of digital cameras purchased through the website was lower for the discount and warehouse club channel, only 7 percent. This is up from 2006, however, when only 6 percent of digital cameras were purchased through the discount and warehouse club channel's websites. In 2007, the percentage of cameras purchased through electronics/video stores' websites remained at about 10 percent.

  For comments or questions please visit the PMA Marketing Research blog PMA Foresight.

-- By Kristy Clairmont

PMA Marketing Research Analyst

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