About FLAAR.

FLAAR Digital Imaging Technology Center concentrates its experience on the evaluation and testing of high quality scanners (35mm slide scanners, flatbed scanners, drum scanners); 1200 dpi laser printers for graphics design and printing photographs; and large format printers of all kinds for limited editions of fine art and photo prints. We also do evaluations of printers for signs, posters, banners and are gradually moving into evaluations of printers for textiles.

FLAAR Photo Archive tests and evaluates cameras (such as Leica, Hasselblad, Rollei, Sinar, Cambo, Linhof, etc.), studio lighting equipment, tripods and other professional photography equipment. FLAAR Photo Archive is devoted to professional photography of sculpture in jade, stone, ceramic, bone, and seashell of pre-Columbian art of Mesoamerica as well as wildlife photography of Central America. FLAAR is nonprofit and has been busily doing public education and research for over three decades.

Once the FLAAR Photo Archive and the FLAAR Digital Imaging Technology Center have established which equipment, hardware and software is the best for each specific purchase and need, then FLAAR Marketing & Consulting offers people assistance to find the particular product which is what will produce the kind of prints that they need. We do this based on actual practice, experience, by visiting other companies that also produce fine art giclée prints, by attending the leading international computer graphic and digital imaging trade shows such as Photokina in Cologne, CeBIT computer trade show in Hannover, DRUPA printer trade show in Duesseldorf, Seybold, Comdex in Las Vegas, PMA etc.

At the trade shows it is possible to study and compare the hardware and software and meet pertinent people in the companies that make the best equipment. When your needs and questions can better be answered by an experienced person who actually makes the product you are looking for, then we forward your questions to that person because they usually know more about how to use and set up the hardware or software. From our experience we also estimate many of your "unasked questions" which will occur to you later. Right now you are mainly interested in getting the right printer and RIP. But once you are happily using your new system, you will eventually wish more information about color management, you may wish to take a training course, you may want to know more about paper, inks, and other accessories. We test the various inks, media, laminators and/or study these at each trade show, so we already have worked out which are the best of the companies in each field. These are the companies we judge are the most appropriate to assist you in learning more about large format printing. Thus we will follow up later in the year with additional information on the other items you will wish to learn about as you yourself get further along in using large format printers.

Since FLAAR also has a section devoted to consulting, this portion of our staff and efforts will work on:

• Penetrating the in-house corporate work group printing market
• Assisting screen printers to learn options available to them with inkjet printing
• Assisting vinyl cutting and other non-digital sign shops enter inkjet printing

Between 2006 and 2008 our main focus was preparing evaluations on equipment and software, especially scanners, digital cameras, wide format inkjet printers, and associated accessories. With 187 reports on inkjet printers and over 30 reports on digital photography we have all the name brands covered thoroughly. For 2009 onward we will continue our core competency in tests, evaluations, and opinion polls on equipment, but we will expand into applications and markets.

We reached this decision because providing help with applications is an appropriate task for a university. Teaching is what a university is all about.

Plus applications are often neutral: many different printers can do an accomplished job with printing signs, posters, banners. But what inks, which media, and what kind of lamination? This is where discussions of applications can help end users. So you will notice our Home Page now has a section of links for applications. It will take a while to flesh all these out, but that is what we are now working on in this new year.

Market Research and Consultancy

Our continued movement into market research is because we learned over the last two years that our reports were being much sought after by Fortune 500 companies, and by most agencies and bureaus of the federal government. It soon became clear that the largest single untapped market for wide format printers were in-house corporate needs. Work groups need wide format printers. All you have to do is calculate how many in-house print shops already exist, then add up how many Ricoh, Canon, Sharp, or other copiers exist in corporate America alone (counting the rest of the world would exhaust my calculation ability). Then realize that most of the people who are using in-house resources really ought to have their own in-house wide format printer too.

Except for the fact that secretaries, office workers, and business managers don't really want to become grease monkeys or print shop repair technicians. They want a wide format printer that does not occupy their entire office space, and what is easy to use, and as idiot proof as, well, as a laser printer or basic copier. Busy people in corporations don't want to fiddle with a RIP and certainly don't have the patience to wait 20 minutes for a file to process.

So FLAAR suddenly became much sought after by corporations to assist them in learning about wide format printers. And printer manufacturers began to ask FLAAR to help them design more practical printers.

As a consultant, we learned that our experience was valued by screen printers who sought professional consultation in how to understand and handle the technology of wide format inkjet printing.

Our headquarters recently moved from a community college in Florida where we were for six years to Francisco Marroquin University in Latin America. We opened an additional and larger evaluation center at a technical university in the USA. This center will test, evaluate, and publicize large format printers, media, RIPs, and associated digital imaging hardware and software. Wide format scanners and digital storage are also included in this program.

Gradually we intend to cover more solvent inkjet printers and UV curable ink flatbed printers. For this we are looking for another university to partner with.

Currently FLAAR is seeking to expand its presence in Europe, especially relative to evaluating and reporting on digital photography equipment. We are looking in German speaking countries, or else universities in Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic arc of Eastern Europe. Australia would be another option, albeit a bit distant.

The web site network began as the reports on the equipment that we found useful in our own search for the national museum and in our own facilities. FLAAR has its own archive of 50,000 photographs that we need to scan and some of which we need to print. We figured as long as we did all this background research (a quarter of a million dollars worth) we might as well share the results with others.

The popularity of these FLAAR evaluations is based on multiple factors:

First, we use end-user reports from other photographers as well as from architects, repro shops, sign shops, and fine art studios.

Second, we analyze hardware, software and media at the leading trade shows all over the world.

Third, in addition to all those sources of information we also undertake our own tests in our own facilities.

Fourth, we listen to what you, the reader, has to say about printers, scanners, software, accessories when you send in your Inquiry-Survey form to ask for free FLAAR Reports. Your comments are considered when we rewrite and update our web pages and reports.

All these careful studies reassure the readers because rather obviously FLAAR will use and have in its own facility only the optimal equipment for each given job. Our global reach means that we get feedback from every imaginable kind of end-user. We have received over 17,000 e-mails from end users just in the last few months. Some of these end-user reports discuss every detail of what their printers do well, and where the few glitches are. Not many trade magazines; no other web site has such a wealth of fresh information pouring in every day. Readers recognize the richness of our reviews, and rave about the benefits of reading the FLAAR reports.

Last updated: 15 Oct. 2008.
Previous updates: Jan. 20, 2003, Sept. 4, 2002, Oct. 20, 2001.