After her powerful performance on ABC's The Set on Wednesday, Fanny Lumsden's 'Dig, dig, dig...' keeps going round in my head.

Could have won Eurovision, should have won Eurovision, especially in the days when it was a song contest. Catch the multi-award-winning Fanny's set on The Set still, on ABC iView.

Good to see Apple bringing colours to its new iMac range, harking back to the days of the old CRT-based iMac in its range of translucent coloured cases.

We had a couple, the last of which went into the skip after being zapped by lightning, though I regret not having the imagination of one local computer geek who turned an obsolete model into a colourful fish tank.

Its contemporary, the eMac wasn’t half as cute, but has curiously survived at the GXpress office thanks to its ability to run both OSX and its predecessor operating system… if it will start up at all these days. Clearly we need a clear-out!

That said, there’s a lot going for the ability to run owned software, rather than the fashionable subscription alternative. The 24” iMac on which I’m writing this is still running Sierra (version 10.12.6) because Adobe’s CS5.5 is happy there, while an older, white laptop saves me buying a newer version of the MYOB accounting app.

It’s only remotely to do with newspaper printing, but with mills continuing to close around the world, you’ve got to admire the staying power of the Flensburg mill in Germany, currently celebrating its 325th anniversary.

Now owned by Mitsubishi, the paper mill outside the city gates at Mühlenstrom was founded in 1696 by Hinrich Gultzau, who had come from Mecklenburg. The site was chosen for its access to water, and “suitable” gradient.

Despite struggles, most of them to do with one war or another, the mill grew with industrial production in the first half of the 19th century replacing hand processes and a first paper machine installed in 1848.

Recently its secret of survival has been a specialisation in coated thermal and inkjet paper – some of it under licence from Mitsubishi, which took over outright control from Stora in 1999 – plus barrier grades for flexible packaging. Nothing to do with newsprint, perhaps happily for them!

By comparison, the Dutch partnership of QI Press Controls is an absolute babe at 25! Celebrating with a note this week, the company which launched in a “garage box” says growing into a global player is like the fulfilment of a boyhood dream.

“Our continuous motivation to innovate and listen to our customers' needs has driven us to an absolute number one position in the newspaper industry,” says super-salesman Menno Jansen, who launched the business with Erik van Holten.

Always marketing innovators with multicolour soft toys and distinctive white suits, QIPC discovered with GXpress the benefits of trade press advertising, thanks to James Haisman who later left the company to be a lawyer.

Highlights for the Dutch duo have been a 1997 patent for automated colour register control, the ‘3D’ combo of controlling colour register, density and damp with a single camera, and the acquisition of EAE in 2014.

No mention in their anniversary press release of a memorable legal battle with their highest-profile competitor.

When Zoom participants seem to find it hard to control their on-screen persona, the prospect of a virtual conference to teach colour management doesn’t bear thinking about.

However, that’s the plan of America’s Printing United Alliance, which offers “easily accessible 20-minute tutorial-style sessions” next month on the fundamentals of colour management.

Registration is free, with recordings available to participants until the end of August.

Sounds like there’s some good content, but evaluating the components in colour workflows and “resolving problems to achieve colour success” may be hard, even without ‘u’ actually being there. The dates are June 9-10.

Peter Coleman

Pictured: The Flensburg mill in 1830 and currently; (above) QI’s Jansen and van Holten, with first customer Janssen/Pers Rotatiedruk