NEWS AND ARTICLES

1 May 2015  |  Frank Romano  |  ProPrint

Print is facing overcapacity but will eventually right-size itself with the help of new technology.

Printing companies are becoming more and more communications companies, with revenues growing in new services beyond print. But marketing is multi-media. Print is now a part of promotion programs that include social media, websites, and email blasts. Printing firms handle electronic media well, but electronic media firms do not handle print well. Print services are best equipped to provide complete multi-media communications services. Print volume may be down, but it is still an important part of marketing programmes. Promotional brochures, direct mail, and other materials will still be a part of many marketing programmes.

Today the overall volume of print has almost halved compared to a decade ago. Much of the volume handled by small printers has shifted to large online web-to-print services that can gang up multiple business cards, invitations, and other print products. Small shops still exist for those who cannot wait one day or have more complex jobs. Small shops serve very local markets.

Digital printing at every level has changed the printing industry, from small printers to wide format inkjet. It allows printing to be installed everywhere. Thus almost every home and every business have a digital printing machine. But for bigger, more complex jobs, users will seek out professional services. These services will apply dry toner, thermal, solvent, and UV inkjet. This year, we will see the first users of Landa nanographic printing which uses less ink and plain (untreated) paper to achieve high quality. It is a variant of liquid toner, which other suppliers are applying (Xeikon, Canon-Océ, and even HP Latex).

There is great activity in ink technologies and formulations. LandaNanoinks, HP Latex, Kodak Stream, Memjet dye inks, Epson Thin, Micro Piezo, and Ultrachrome GS2 and so on, are all together changing the printing industry. Inkjet will dominate over time. Offset lithography and toner will still have good markets but inkjet has many advantages. Landa nanographic printing is actually liquid toner delivered by inkjet nozzles. We will see many new hybrid approaches to placing a substance on a substrate using nozzles that jet new kinds of inks. Printing firms will have many alternatives – perhaps more alternatives than they can deal with.

Then there is the change that new mobile technologies are triggering. How will we remember the important things without the use of paper? We are transferring our memories from our brains to our machines. Everywhere I travel, I see people holding their mobile devices up to show the pictures that are stored on them. But only printouts of those photos will allow those photos to be seen in the future. Photo books are still a growth market.

Is production overcapacity affecting the value of the print? Every industry suffers from overcapacity. Railroads and steamships saw boom and bust but then their industries found their optimum level and prospered – until air travel disrupted their business. The printing industry is in the process of right-sizing – it is finding its optimum level. And we have already had the disruption. Within the next year or so, we will reach the number of printers and print volumes that will sustain the print industry to the end of this century. In 1915, one of the major concerns of printers around the world were competitors who did not know how to price printing. Many books were written about it. This situation still exists.

Frank Romano is professor emeritus at the Rochester Institute of Technology

This feature appeared in the April 2015 issue of ProPrint Magazine