Start with finishing is a clever play on words used by a finishing equipment supplier to promote its wares.

This topic came up yesterday evening when chatting to Tony Lock from Duplo International. During the first three days of Ipex Tony has had no less than 13 people come onto his stand who've just signed up for a digital press of one type or another. They've all said something along the lines of "I've just bought a digital press, how do I finish this stuff?"

Shriek! It's almost funny, but in reality it's actually pretty terrifying when one thinks about it. I really did think that finishing was casting off its Cinderella image because getting the right finishing setup in place is of course absolutely critical in producing the right job at the right price - and getting the thing out of the door so it can be paid for.

And get this, it seems there are people out there finishing digital work on, say, their existing Muller line, so the start-up waste could be equivalent to the entire print run. Crazy or what?

The wealth of sophisticated finishing kit available today (and on show at Ipex), particularly in the digital space, is pretty dazzling to my mind. What's more, the booths of the digital press manufacturers are also crammed with the stuff! It's blindingly obvious that without the right finishing kit, all the fancy digital print kit in the world is going nowhere.

There's a debate to be had here, surely it makes more sense to ask the question: "what will be my end product(s) and how am I going to produce them most effectively" and work back from there?