It's been a curate's egg of a year for pre-press and the good parts have largely been had by those that are still around to moan about the bad parts – namely the second half of the year, which affected even the most successful pre-press suppliers.

The year was not-quite-kicked-off by the demise of J Jays (which actually happened in the back end of 2007), although the effects of that were being felt by some as late as April, when F1 revealed that it had picked up seven Emap titles, courtesy of the ill-fated J Jays' demise.

The middle part of the year was dominated by strategic partnerships, product launches and software upgrades, all made in time for print's four-yearly Drupa event in Dusseldorf.

Foremost, at least in terms of publicity, were the launches of QuarkXPress 8 and Creative Suite 4 in the desktop publishing space, and numerous developments in plate technology for the commercial and newspaper sectors.

Predictably, publically traded pre-press manufacturers such as Agfa, EFI and Heidelberg, took a beating on the stock exchange as the global economic crisis deepened.

Finally, although it may not yet be the long-awaited "year of JDF", there were several interesting developments in that space, likewise in web-to-print, which many are now predicting the imminent explosion of, and colour management – which was a year-round hot topic.

January
Fresh Media Group (FMG) joint managing director and co-founder David Brin stepped down, leaving Simon Berg at the helm of the London-based repro company… FFEI officialy opened its Chinese manufacturing facility… Litho Supplies consolidated the UK offset consumables sector with the acquisition of NCS Supplies… MacDermid Printing Solutions placed an order for 15 basysPrint UV-Setters after forming a partnership with Punch Graphix Prepress… HP signed a definitive agreement to buy personalised document firm Exstream Software

February
Agfa announced the proposed closure of its platesetter manufacturing facility in Wilmington, USA, opening the door for an extension of its OEM partnership with Screen… Former Xerox UK managing director Rob Walker predicted a big future for web-to-print after joining software specialist Mtivity… DuPont Packaging Graphics revealed a 6% price rise across its entire Cyrel flexo plate range from 1 April in EMEA… Former Polestar group technical director Jack Bisset joined colour management consultancy Targetcolour

March
Agfa announced that it was scrapping its dividend following a dip in sales, although UK managing director Laurence Roberts reported that sales in the UK were holding up well… Printers were warned against buying software off Ebay after auction sites came under fire over sales of pirate software… Fuji unveiled plans for a new €96m (£75m at that time) platemaking line at its Tilburg facility… Agfa announced its line-up of new launches for Drupa, including two chemistry-free digital plates and a new thermal imaging platesetter range

April
Zebra announced two new contract wins and the launch of its "Be Outstanding" campaign… Global Graphics announced plans to launch the first RIP capable of natively processing XPS files in its Harlequin+ Server RIP… F1 Colour picked up a raft of new repro contracts including seven Emap titles formerly handled by J Jays… Ghent PDF Workgroup (GWG) struck a blow for open source software with the release of the first free 'Proof of Preflight' specification

May
X-Rite's share price took a beating as it revealed it had defaulted on loan repayments in the wake of its aggressive acquisition programme… VIM Technologies refuted a "baseless complaint" filed by Presstek, which alleged that VIM plates infringed two of its US patents… Watt Gilchrist predicted growth after rebranding and splitting into four divisions… Three ex-Turning Point Innovation (TPI) staff launched Prepress Services to pick up Lüscher work made available by the company's fall into administration

June
FFEI unveiled plan to invest £2m in a new HQ to replace its previous home, which was destroyed in the 2005 Buncefield oil depot explosion… Archant became the first UK customer for Kodak's Generation News System… EFI posted record sales of its Digital StoreFront (DSF) web-to-print software at Drupa, where it picked up more than 20 new European customers

July
Press-sense secured a $5m (£2.5m at that time) loan from Plenus Venture Lending Fund to support future growth… Communisis agreed a €1.5m (£1.2m at that time) contract with Pitney Bowes-subsidiary Emtex Software, for provision of its Production Intelligence enterprise output management software… CDMS boosted its data management credentials with the integration of Apteco's FastStats technology into its direct marketing proposition… F1 Colour kicked off its partnership with outsourcing giant Express KCS to provide a locally managed offshore pre-press service

August
Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) became an ISO standard… MacDermid accused DuPont of bullying after the Swiss-based firm forced one of its OEM partners to stop manufacturing its Lava plate processors… Datumpress was the subject of an MBO led by long-serving staff members Scott Pearce and Mark Gamble… X-Rite raised $175m by selling large stakes in the company and cashing in directors' life insurance policies, as it moved to pay down its $411m debt

September
EskoArtwork and SAP announced the integration of their ArtiosCAD and ERP products at Swiss-based Model Group… Fuji planned UK launch of XMF 2.0 for Total Print! Expo… Fresh Media Group (FMG) launched VIP 4… Fuji launched the Brillia Pro-VN chemistry free digital violet plate for the newspaper sector

October
Adobe took the wraps off its biggest release to date: Creative Suite 4 (CS4)… Hiflex claimed that it was the only MIS provider capable of providing lights out automation for printers…Former TPT boss Steve Emerson resurrected the business with the launch of Turning Point Integration… RedTie warned that printers needed to change their mindset to get the most out web-to-print… Wyndeham Pre-Press launched eMag, a digital editions module for its Emagine online production system

November
Agfa UK managing director Laurence Roberts urged calm in the face of the looming recession amid fears the industry was talking itself into a worse situation… Claritum reported a surge in demand for web-to-print software as a result of the economic crisis… StudioRIP claimed its low-cost RIP offered comparable production speeds to mainstream rivals… Printpak launched the first completely free MIS system with the release of its Community Edition

December
Lithotechnics claimed that full bindery JDF integration had arrived with the launch of version 3.5 of its Metrix layout automation tool… Adobe announced 600 job cuts following weaker than expected demand for CS4… Enfocus revealed that 40% of PDFs were not preflighted, according to its customer survey