Copy General president Ken Chaletzky told PrintWeek that he looked at a number of presses, but figured the iGen 150 would be the best compliment the HP Indigo 7500 Copy General purchased last year.

"The Indigo has seven colors plus white—on the other hand the iGen has much larger sheet size so we can do a lot more," he explained.

Copy General began operations more than three decades ago as a traditional copy shop but long ago shifted into digital commercial work.

"We only do digital and we use it for everything—direct mail is just one of the things we do," Chaletzky explained.

"We’ve been doing a lot of work with higher education, some of it brochures and some direct mail. We also host a number of association web sites and enable people to go to these sites and order manuals and other publications from their bookstore and that’s almost all print on demand."

With more than 4,000 associations headquartered in the Washington, DC-area, Chaletzky suggested there are plenty of opportunities for POD work, for Copy General and other printers in the region. That combined with his regular clients has Chaletzky very optimistic about the coming year.

"Our business held steady during the economic decline and now it’s starting to pick up again--we’re definitely seeing an increased interest in direct mail," he said, adding some of that is due to successful programs like the US Post Office’s "Every Door Direct Mail", which brings local retailers into the print direct mail mix.