Pulse — 2026-10-12.

The lead

The European Commission has raised serious antitrust concerns about the proposed UPM and Sappi joint venture in graphic papers. This is an objection, not a ruling. The joint venture does not exist yet, the review continues, and nobody knows what shape it will end in.

Why does this matter on the floor and not only to lawyers? Because it is about paper, and no shift starts without paper. When two producers want to combine in one segment, a buyer can lose one option at the negotiating table. The Commission judged that risk serious enough to name in public.

If UPM or Sappi is on your supplier list, do a simple review this week. How many lines in your paper spec depend on these two companies? At the next contract renewal, do you have a third source that has been tested on your machines? Better to know the answer before Brussels decides than after.

Print Monthly: Commission raises concerns about the UPM-Sappi joint venture

Signals

Konica Minolta is launching the AccurioPress C8100 series, toner production presses for high-volume digital work. Another series in this class means more choice when a press comes up for replacement. Before the brochure figures, ask about the ones that count on the floor: real output per shift, the substrate range, the click cost and how fast service turns up. If a toner press lease ends within the year, put the C8100 on the list. And ask for a test print on your hardest substrate, not on paper the dealer picked.

Digital Printer: Konica Minolta AccurioPress C8100

Fujifilm has installed the first REVORIA PRESS PC2120 in the Americas. It is built for specialty toners and photo printing on demand. A first install on a continent is the point where experience starts to come from real production instead of trade show demos. Photo printers and POD shops that sell photo products should watch it over the next few quarters. Good questions for the supplier: who services it in your region, how quickly parts arrive, and can you see this install running.

The Dead Pixels Society: first REVORIA PRESS PC2120 in the Americas

The Automate & Elevate 2026 summit sets out to teach decorated apparel producers to work with AI and automation. The announcement leans on education. The value of an event like this to a shop is easy to measure: does someone come back with one process that can be automated from Monday. Send the person who knows the bottleneck on your line, not only the one who signs purchase orders. Check the programme and date in the announcement before you take someone off the rota.

Screen Printing: Automate & Elevate 2026

Elite Sign Solutions has installed a Soyang VeloBlade Nexus 3032 digital cutting table. The stated aim is plain: automated finishing. This is an investment not in another printer but in the step after it. If cutting and finishing, not printing, set the pace of your line, this case is for you. Before you talk to a table supplier, count the hours a week people spend trimming by hand. That number will say more than any presentation.

Large Format Review: Elite Sign Solutions and the VeloBlade Nexus 3032

Sade Ofset has rolled out HEIDELBERG Prinect software to automate its workflow from order intake to the end of production. This is a software story, not a machine story. Workflow automation touches the time a job spends between intake and press, which is where no new machine helps. Shops running Heidelberg kit have a case worth asking about here: how long the rollout took, which steps stopped needing manual handling, and who on the floor had to be trained.

ME Printer: Sade Ofset and HEIDELBERG Prinect

Epson is pairing ColorWorks on-demand label printing with robotic automation and showing the set at PACK EXPO. A label printed at the moment it is needed, with a robot on the same line, shortens the path from order data to a packed parcel. POD shops that pack and ship themselves will recognise the problem. A wrong label means a parcel at the wrong address and a complaint. Before a robot reaches the shopping list, check how it integrates with your order system.

Epson: ColorWorks and robotics at PACK EXPO

Former Fujifilm engineers have set up an independent service company for wide-format equipment. For a shop owner this is practical news. Manufacturer service and independent service are two different contracts and two different conversations about price. Experience brought over from the manufacturer counts for something. Before signing, though, check parts access, the list of supported models, and what happens to the warranty when someone outside the manufacturer’s network works on the machine.

Signlink: former Fujifilm experts launch a wide-format support business

Three outlets covered drupa Insights this week, each with a different emphasis. ME Printer writes about growth trends in digital print and how production is changing. Large Format Review points to new openings in industrial digital printing. The Cannata Report talks about markets in transition. The common thread: where print still has growth. Anyone planning investment should read all three, pencil in hand, before next year’s budget is set.

ME Printer: drupa Insights on how print is changing · Large Format Review: drupa insights · The Cannata Report: print markets in transition

The Print Show put digital embellishment, wide-format and production print capability on display. Print Business titled its report after what print can be. For someone from the floor, a show is worth most where you can pick up an embellished sample and ask the operator about make-ready time. If digital embellishment sits on your “maybe one day” list, collect samples and compare them with what you send out today.

Print Business: The Print Show

The Brother GTX300, a direct-to-garment printer, won the Gold Seal at the Belgrade fair. A trade fair award shows interest. It does not replace a production test. DTG shops look at other things: ink cost per piece, garment prep time, how the machine behaves over a long run. If the GTX300 is on your list, the award may open a conversation with the distributor. Make the decision after a test print on your own blanks.

ME Printer: Brother GTX300 wins the Gold Seal

Entries are open for the FESPA Awards 2027, which honour textile print. For a small studio, a win is portfolio material and an argument with a client comparing suppliers. Check deadlines and categories with the organiser. If you have a textile job you are proud of, photograph it properly now, while the product is still in the building. Once it ships, it is too late.

ME Printer: FESPA Awards 2027 entries open

Pens.com marks 60 years in promotional product decoration. It is anniversary news, with no new machine and no production data. For a reader on the floor its value is indirect. Six decades is long enough for several decoration methods to pass through a building, so an anniversary like this is a fair moment to ask what the company kept and what it dropped. Smaller promo shops can also take it as a reminder that a business in this niche can last.

Printwear & Promotion: 60 years of Pens.com

Screen Printing pulled two practical lists out of its September-October issue: 9 top takeaways for decorated apparel production and 5 more ideas for screen and garment print shops. Lists are easy to scan on a break. Fourteen points at once is too many to put into practice, though. Pick one you can test on your own line this week, and measure before and after.

Screen Printing: 9 takeaways from September-October · Screen Printing: five more ideas

Kelly Mallozzi of Girls Who Print is joining SPC, a print services company. This is a people move, not a machine launch. But people decide in the end how a floor works. Someone active in the trade’s community who moves to a service provider brings contacts and their own approach to the team. Watch whether SPC follows through, in hiring or in training, for example.

The Cannata Report: Kelly Mallozzi joins SPC

Kodak is launching the PROSPER Plus 5 imprinting system for high-speed digital print. Shops thinking about adding digital to an existing line instead of buying a new one should look at it. Before the conversation, prepare three questions: which machines it works with, how long the fit takes and how much downtime it needs, and who services it locally. The answers will say more than the launch announcement.

The Cannata Report: Kodak PROSPER Plus 5

Verdict of the week

The claim: under the US Copyright Office’s position, an upload rights warranty cannot be honoured when the artwork came from a prompt alone. Rating: False. Printful’s print file content policy asks the uploader to confirm they have the right to use, sell and distribute the content, not that they hold a registrable copyright in it, and the Copyright Office’s statement of 16 March 2023 (88 FR 16190), including its Zarya of the Dawn conclusion that the Midjourney images could not be protected, covers examination and registration, not platform warranties.

Source · Source · Register · Appearance

Dates

• 27 September 2026: EmpCo, ban on unsupported “eco-friendly” claims (date already passed)
• 11 November 2026: UK Home Office consultation on GBL controls closes
• 30 December 2026 / 30 June 2027: EUDR due diligence obligations
• 1 March 2027: GOTS 8.0 fully in force
• 31 December 2027: Materials Matter Standard replaces GRS and RCS
• around 2028–2029 (indicative): DPP obligations for textiles take real effect

Corrections

• We rated “Curing DTG prints takes 1.8 to 2.4 kWh per 100 garments and adds 11 to 19 cents a shirt at $0.12 per kWh, according to packprintmatrix.com.” Confirmed and revised it to Figure unverified on 2026-10-07. The two figures in the claim cannot both be true. Register
• We rated “Enfocus says Griffin’s true-shape nesting and gang-run printing cut material costs by up to 50%.” Partly true and revised it to Confirmed on 2026-10-08. The first check said the Griffin page gives up to 50% only for waste and lists cutting costs as a separate benefit without a percentage. Register