Printing, the future, your thoughts?

[Al Ferrari]

Woe, please calm down Erik. Before an idea can be accepted, it needs to be proposed, and I don't recall your mentioning that the basis for the ITB had already been proposed that long ago, and that your efforts were just a resurrection of an old idea that had not received proper attention.

I can accept that you are tired of just talking about it, and that you don't want it brought up again until there is a concrete commercially viable instance of it. I only mentioned it in the context of the point you were making that good ideas that have not been implemented in time can be made unnecessary by new developments.

Al

[Erik Nikkanen]

Al, no need for me to calm down. I am not as agitated as the text might seem. I am resolved that discussing these issues is a waste of time for me and is also no help to others.

No, I did not mean to suggest that my particular concept WAS available that long ago but the logic could have been. I came up with my concept based on a theoretical view of why the process has such density variation. I might have done this because we were printing with EB inks and the ductor was a continuous ductor, which I suspect made the control of variation more difficult than if it was conventional ink and a conventional ductor.

That same train of thought could have been done 100 years ago. If one can get the theory right, it leads to practical solutions. That was the only point I was trying to make.

Yes, good ideas have a time limit. There is an opportunity window and if the window is missed, something else will take an advantage.

Fortunately I still think the window of opportunity for offset is still open for having presses with extremely short makereadies and with consistent and predictable production. This is in the Landa sweet spot. It could be taken away from him if the press manufacturers would take some action.

I really think we are in a new era where marketing groups at press manufacturers are stating performance which is well past the capabilities of their technologies. It is like saying to a customer that if you buy this thing, you can fly. When you don't fly, it is your fault because you did not flap your arms hard enough.

[GazKL440]

To be honest Erik I don't think press technology is going to kill the printing industry, and whilst digital is taking production away from offset I don't believe THAT is the major problem either.

What will slowly but surely kill the printing industry (in my opinion) is staring at you right NOW.

The Internet.

Why buy newspapers when it's all accessible from your phone/tablet/PC? Same for books.... and personal and company info that used to be exchanged via business cards, letterheads, pamphlets and the like are now easily carried and transferred via your smartphone or tablet or whatever.

This is especially relevant to today's younger generations, with most having iPods etc before they can read... My kids fortunately prefer real books, but most kids prefer their touch screen toys and this percentage will only grow with cheaper and easily accessible products.

And it's this trend that will slowly but surely render ANY type of printing obsolete eventually.

Troubling times ahead methinks.

[Erik Nikkanen]

To be honest Erik I don't think press technology is going to kill the printing industry, and whilst digital is taking production away from offset I don't believe THAT is the major problem either.

What will slowly but surely kill the printing industry (in my opinion) is staring at you right NOW.

The Internet.

Why buy newspapers when it's all accessible from your phone/tablet/PC? Same for books.... and personal and company info that used to be exchanged via business cards, letterheads, pamphlets and the like are now easily carried and transferred via your smartphone or tablet or whatever.

This is especially relevant to today's younger generations, with most having iPods etc before they can read... My kids fortunately prefer real books, but most kids prefer their touch screen toys and this percentage will only grow with cheaper and easily accessible products.

And it's this trend that will slowly but surely render ANY type of printing obsolete eventually.

Troubling times ahead methinks.

I agree with what you have said. My views were really related to the struggle with offset against other print technologies. Yes, in general the size of the print industry will get smaller but there will be winners and losers. One can still be very successful in a shrinking market but you have to out innovate and out compete others. A lot of competitors need to die off.

But printing is not only commercial printing. It is used in packaging of course and other manufacturing processes. There can be growth in those areas.

[Cornishpastythighs]

Packaging is the one area of offset printing that needs stable colour control much more than commercial printing in my opinion. When I was running commercial presses we paid close attention to getting the job up to colour and holding there, if it varied a bit no problem the customer was only buying one magazine and they were not displayed in a row. Packaging on the other hand displays the products side by side and a huge amount of brand colours that have to be reproduced batch to batch and run to run. Many times the offset packages are displayed next to packages printed gravure or Flexo and must look the same. We all know that washed out packages/colour are viewed as old in the eyes of the customer. I find package printing much more challenging and this is the one area of printing that I believe will persist. My 0.02pence worth

[ondemandbindery]

To be honest Erik I don't think press technology is going to kill the printing industry, and whilst digital is taking production away from offset I don't believe THAT is the major problem either.

What will slowly but surely kill the printing industry (in my opinion) is staring at you right NOW.

The Internet.

Why buy newspapers when it's all accessible from your phone/tablet/PC? Same for books.... and personal and company info that used to be exchanged via business cards, letterheads, pamphlets and the like are now easily carried and transferred via your smartphone or tablet or whatever.

This is especially relevant to today's younger generations, with most having iPods etc before they can read... My kids fortunately prefer real books, but most kids prefer their touch screen toys and this percentage will only grow with cheaper and easily accessible products.

And it's this trend that will slowly but surely render ANY type of printing obsolete eventually.

Troubling times ahead methinks.

Internet. Right here in my opinion is the Lethal Injection to the Industry. I watch my girlfriend navigate with her Galaxy Phone and Ipad. If she needs more ammo there is an Imac and blah blah blah. These devices have one thing in common. Internet. We talk about how PDA's and the Internet killed Printing. I truly believe this now. And the Visa Prints of the world have instilled business modules to take advantage of the downturn.

I certainly have a interesting story about new versus old. I closed my Bindery months ago as it was not a business model that made sense for me at this point in the Industry. That is not to say that it would not work for someone else but for my reasons it was time to move on. I am now working for a Printer that has minimal(and I mean this in a kind way) Technology. No fancy Computer to Plates, High tech folders, or even any type of efficient Packaging devices. Literally old school. In some ways they need to look into the future but they seem to bump along with low cost equipment and simplicity. A blast from the past for me.

They don't rely on low cost Labor to run the equipment so they can make payments on Jetson type equipment that can break down on a whim and bleed their pockets dry. They have long term Employees with serious seat time in the business and they know their job. I was reluctant to get the opportunity to work at this establishment because most employees are atleast 20 years on the payroll and that no longer exist in the Industry! The work is consistent and everyone tries to do a good job.

Maybe time will catch up to them or maybe they can fly under the radar while other shops continue to buy equipment that will not only do the work but make your coffee too Lol..... I guess my point is alot of things that have happened in the Industry is ultimate unavoidable such as lower page counts and junk mail flying through the USPS. But it is still about ink on paper and I now wonder if sometimes a Printer is their own worst enemy. There will always be certain things that will always have reflective copy and if an owner watches the overhead and pays attention to the market they can survive the changes we all face. Pretty simple IMHO. But as the Internet continues to build steam it will take out many more Printers in the future unfortunately.

JW

[jwilson@tracypress]

For me on a 12 unit -W/2 4-highs Goss Community the Fat Lady will sing October 26th. that's when someone will buy the newspaper I've work for from a paperboy in June 1960 to one of the first offset press on the west coast in 1961. Full time June 1965 to the bitter end October 16th. Newspaper was sold to a small group that didn't want the press (my departemnt) so the press and post press was sold to someone else and will leave the building soon after the 1st of November. It's been a fun ride for 50 years but all good thing must come to an end and after cleaning up what's left behind I'll lock the door for the last time. Today a big newspress printer closed the doors in SF after 45 years. the big dailys merged from 10 pressrooms to two in the bay area so I'm not the first to go and I'm sure as hell not the last to go in CA.

Hang in there and if I had to do it all over again I'd chose a goverment job more money and a better retirement.

later
john

[MailGuru]

Print will never go away. It will be here for years to come. Most of the American population over the age of 40, as well as many of the younger internet generation prefer to receive their news in print. Virtually 90% of both age groups prefer to receive a hard-copy of their bills, invoices, legal documents, etc., even if they prefer to actually pay them online. Printed ads and direct mail still get a higher response rate and ROI than internet or email. That having been said, what IS happening is that companies that buy print ALSO wish to buy e-mail and various internet services. For simplicity sake, they want their print services provider to also provide these services. If you are a print provider, and you are not also providing these services, your customer will find someone who does. Don't fight progress and technology -- embrace it. I believe you will find the end result much more profitable than just print alone.