Keith Cox
Editor’s Note: Keith Cox has been involved with the reprographics industry since the early 1990s. This first-person article, based on an interview with IRgA Managing Director Ed Avis, discusses his work and the many people he has met along the way. Today’s article is the first of four parts.
The first time I visited a reprographics shop was back in 1991. I walked in the A&E Products Company in Houston, owned by the Gremillion family, and the ammonia smell was overwhelming. I was there to meet Mike White, and when he came down the stairs, I said, "Mike, what's that smell?" He replied, "I don't know partner, but it smells like money to me."
Mike was working for A&E as the spearhead for digital printing. Previously, he and his brother Terry owned Jiffy Reprographics in Houston. They were friendly competitors to A&E and the Gremillions. At some point, Mike and Terry’s business had some issues and closed. Terry went on to work for Ridgeways for a number of years, and became one of the infamous trio of regional managers between him, Gary Gill and John Zuli Sr. And Mike went to work for A&E. So when I met him, Mike was the idea guy. Mike was the guy that first implemented black and white wide format printing inside of A&E, which began to replace the blue line machines.
I was working for a technical distributor called tekgraf at that time. We were selling Ideal (Contex) and Houston Instrument (Vidar) wide format scanners. And we were supporting the whole concept of drawing management, where you scan engineering-sized drawings and then build a database around them so that you could find the drawings.
In mid-1992 I left tekgraf and went to work for Océ Graphics, covering 12 states through the South and Central United States. Océ Graphics was a separate division and not to be confused with Océ Bruning or Océ USA. Océ Graphics sold a line of pen plotters and thermal printers, and, believe it or not, a Mitsubishi Color printer with an Océ Graphics label printing 11x17 color PDFs. Color 11X17, let alone PDFs, were almost unheard of at the time (1992).
I stayed with Océ Graphics until early 1993, when they were acquired by Océ Bruning. I had to go through training for the precision diazo machines, which was funny because it almost seemed like a step backwards at the time. We were doing everything digital by then!
In mid-1993 Michael Addison, who had founded Precision Laser Plotting (PLP) with Chris Morrison, came calling, and I went to work for them as a salesperson. PLP was pioneering high-speed controllers, print management software and early scan-to-print technology for Xerox. Xerox had a model 7336 scanner that could be paired with an 8845, enabling 36-inch scan-to-print digital copies. This really revolutionized usage within the reprographics shop at the time, because you could build an archive of drawings as you go.
About this time, we were expecting our second child, my wife said, “I don’t really want you traveling.” I said OK. We already had a three-year-old son, and were looking at two kids, and what do you do? I ended up talking to Mike White at A&E again. They didn’t have an organized plotter sales component, so I brought them an HP dealership, an Océ dealership, and believe it or not, a Xerox dealership.
The reason that was able to happen is because, quite frankly, I had good relationships with people. If my career is an illustration of anything, it's if you are honest and you tell people what you're going to do and you do it, you can do almost anything. I mean, it's hard to be a Xerox and Océ dealer, let alone be an HP dealer at the same time for most guys. And we had all three, so that really put us in a strong position.
I was there for two years. By that time, Chuck Rieger, who had left Vidar and started a company called Image Machines, came calling. Chuck was pioneering software technology that enabled almost any wide-format scanner to be paired with almost any wide-format printer to create a digital copy archival system. CopyCenter, the software package, had the ability to send prints, make copies and manage prints via queues. Very similar to what PLP was doing, but for a lot less money. Chuck wasn't looking to create a production system, but to speed up and streamline the process. So you weren't going to get 21 Ds a minute, that type of thing. But if the machine was rated at 10 Ds minute, you get your 10 Ds a minute, and you could manage your prints and sets.
Next edition: The rise of the Océ 9800 and PageMasters