WhatTheyThink.com’s Cary Sherburne talks with Gilles Biscos of Interquest about the firms North American Transactional Printing: Market Analysis & Forecast

Early digital presses suffered from low print quality output and many were not engineered for high volume output. One of the biggest marketing hurdles for digital printing has been image quality and getting over the perceived myths that still exist from the early days.

In the last week there have been a few articles that provide some insight into quality issues with digital print.

A recent article by Pete Basiliere at OutputLinks examines the build quality of a digital press:

There on the wall was a poster from GRAPH EXPO 1988 with a close-up view of a Miehle-Roland 36 oil bath gear train, with the heavy oil dripping through the gears and over their sides. The message is obvious: high quality offset printing at high speeds requires a rugged and robust design. Twenty years later Miehle-Roland is gone and the last thing you will find in a digital press is an oil bath gear train.

Yet from a capital investment perspective, the design and construction of a digital press is arguably more important in the long run than print quality. As a buyer, you will select the device that provides the level of quality you and your clients demand. You will also reasonably expect that the quality in the near term will be consistent with the press manufacturer’s claims. But for the long term a well-built digital press is required to provide consistent print quality throughout its life.

The last two articles in the Printing Industry Center at RIT Article Series at WhatTheyThink.com look at image quality issues. Last weeks Permanence of Toner on Paper looks at permanence issues, quality, and archivability of digitally printed material. This weeks article Digital and Offset Print Quality Issues.

As we get close to Graph Expo. What quality issues will you be asking the vendors?

A new report from the Netherlands based market research firm Strategy Partners explores the advance in automated document process management:

The report describes the research done by Strategy Partners within Europe among a large number of organizations to identify the needs in automation of the current (office and high volume) document production and distribution processes. It will look at the influence of multi-channel, Going Green and other business trends. The results of the research are translated to practical solutions which can be implemented by organizations and managed service providers.

The traditional Print and Mail activities are changing rapidly. Due to the economic environment, business goals, technical developments and the market developments the requirements in communicating with internal and external customers is changing. The need to be able to communicate via the electronic media channels is increasingly becoming popular. The processes in the print and mail department are not dedicated any longer to paper printing and distribution. The market research shows that 25 percent of the respondents want to add multi-channel distribution to the current paper driven processes within the next two year. To optimize the production processes there is an upcoming requirement for Lean Six Sigma techniques. The implementation of an Automated Document Factory is also selected by 25 percent of the respondents as a implementation project for within the next two years. The Automated Document Factory is still valid solution, although the modern ADF requires electronic distribution capability, optimization based on Lean Six Sigma and integrated with ERP, CRM and other business applications.

The report (190 pages) is unique within the Enterprise Content Management, Output Management market research and analysis space. The first part of the report describes the history, market trends en developments in Output Management. Based on the discussions and on-line survey results a set of innovative solutions are discussed. The nature of these solutions is the practical usage and the quantifiable business benefits. The first part is ended with a template project plan and planning as support for the implementation of the discussed innovative solutions. The second part of the report describes the vendors who can deliver the technical and/or software components needed for the implementation.

You can download results from a user survey conducted as part of the study here.

The full report can be purchased from Strategy Partners.

Everybody wants to “go green” these days, and the printing industry has a compelling story to tell. But I have to say, we’re doing a pretty crummy job at it. Do a search on “green printing” and see what comes up. You’d think that printing on recycled paper was all there was to it.

I’ve been writing for a blog called “Greening Print Marketing” on The Inspired Economist (http://inspiredeconomist.com/), which focuses on “green” issues in the corporate world. Just for fun, here’s a list of the posts I’ve written to date. Thought it might spark some ideas:

• Greening Print Marketing: Getting Serious About Greenhouse Gases
• Forest Stewardship Council Files Suit Against U.S. Government
• Greening Print Marketing: Does Sustainability Matter to Print Buyers?

Read the rest of this entry »

WhatTheyThink.com published commentary from Andrew Tribute on the consolidation of newspaper printing in the UK and here in the US. In Is This the New Newspaper Production Model? (WhatTheyThink Membership Required) Tribute points to new mega printing plants like News Corporation’s massive Newsprinters operation in Broxbourne to the North of London:

To indicate the scale of these investments the greatest is from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation with their new $1 billion printing plants including the massive Newsprinters operation in Broxbourne to the North of London. This facility is reputed to be the largest printing operation in the world.

This operation plus the two smaller plants in Manchester and Glasgow has the capability to print more than 20 million newspapers per day. This is just about the total newspaper requirements for every UK newspaper. While Newsprinters is the largest newspaper printing operation in the UK, and perhaps the world, there are a few others that also have capabilities of printing a huge number of newspapers. These are in particular the updated plants of Trinity Mirror and Associated Newspapers.

The consolidation of printing operations is one option struggling newspapers will turn to for print production. And probably the most likely situation we will see in the next couple of years.

Andy Gordon’s recent blog post on The case for the Individuated Newspaper here at the Digital Nirvana provides another option that creates new opportunity for newspapers to engage new audiences through targeted individualize news.

Last week Beyond-Print published an article on the results of a poll at Swiss print portal Mediaforum on adoption rates the deployment of Web-enabled print services for customers.

200 respondents answered the question “Should printers offer their customers web-to-print solutions?” with:

• 29%: Yes, as soon as possible
• 45%: Only if the customers express a need for it
• 2%: Wait to see how the market shapes up
• 11%: It is only appropriate for niche markets
• 1%: No, there’s no market for it
• 12%: What’s web-to-print?

71% are playing wait and see or have not considered implementing a Web-enabled workflow.

So what do you think? Take the poll below, and share your experiences with Web-enabled Print in the comments.

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If you answered yes, what was your deciding factor? And did choose an off the shelf product or service, or did build your system?

Whenever new technology is introduced, adoption typically takes place in predictable phases—first in value-added high-margin niches. Once it gains a foothold, it eventually goes mainstream. Such is the case with digital printing technology. In every segment where digital printing technology has enjoyed success, there is a recurring theme: print producers want technology vendors to show them that
the new product can produce print quality that is equal to or surpasses the incumbent
technology.

The 8X loupe test

This practice, which can be called the “8x loupe” test, maintains that you must be able to replace the dominant, existing technology with something that delivers comparable performance and quality. In most cases, digital print technology vendors have done exactly that and have successfully met print quality criteria.

However, when you look at the offset-to-digital-migration, there are exceptions where digital has successfully ousted offset. Most notably, this has been when digital does not threaten core high volume market segments, where the focus is more on lowering production costs and improving productivity and less on quality or where there is a requirement for higher value personalization.

In these cases, the tradeoff clearly favors digital. Consequently, digital print has tended to thrive in environments and applications that require short runs, versioning, distribute-and-print, and printing of variable data intensive documents like direct mail, personalized collateral and invoices and statements.

However, digital printing technology vendors have thrown down the gauntlet, introducing digital technology that is more mature, delivers better quality and is advancing to the point where it can compete in the higher-volume territories of commercial offset printing.

Digital technology becomes a viable option for the newspaper industry

Given recent advances in digital technology, and changing requirements in the newspaper industry, it’s not surprising that the case is building for printing newspapers digitally. Océ, and other vendors have developed systems that are suitable for this very application. And, while digital printing platforms may not yet meet the productivity and cost requirements for producing large-circulation newspaper runs, there are significant opportunities in printing niche products and local and smaller circulation papers.

Certainly the newspaper industry faces significant challenges—dwindling readership and circulation, high costs, competition from alternate media like cable TV and the Internet. One way to address these issues is considering how digital printing technology can help newspapers generate new business and revenue streams. Digital technology offers unmatched flexibility for printing color on demand, without incurring the costs of additional plates, while enabling all content and advertising to be dynamic. What’s more, with digital technology, run length is less of an issue—print runs of one are as cost-effective as run lengths of 1,000.

Leveraging core strengths to create a new business model

Clearly, a perfect storm is gathering in the newspaper industry. The Internet has wrought havoc on publishers, weakening the underpinnings of the industry. Taking an “if-you-can’t beat-’em, join-em approach” many newspapers have successfully adopted Internet strategies and have been able to capture an increasing share of the Internet advertising spend. However, simply adding a web version of the paper isn’t enough to staunch the bleeding or halt the erosion in circulation and advertising.

Still, there is reason to be optimistic. Core strengths, like local knowledge, rich content, market research, advertising and distribution are significant competitive differentiators that newspapers can use to compete against other forms of media. However, publishers must find new ground: they must simultaneously embrace change and work to leverage these strengths while fundamentally transforming their businesses.

Surviving this period of transition requires developing strategies that move away from the broad-reach circulations dictated by underutilized fixed assets. Instead, newspapers must move towards desirable and relevant content products that deliver significantly higher performance to advertisers (higher margin as well). Obviously, this won’t happen overnight and most publishers won’t concede their broad-reach positions. However, at some time in the future, there will be an inflection point where broad-reach, highly rich and relevant content meets high-performance advertising. This is already occurring with electronic communications and will evolve in print as well.

Innovating new business models and working collaboratively with customers is a key element of the Océ business ethos. Our strengths in high-volume automated print manufacturing, expertise in data-intensive applications, and a fiercely customer-first culture, position us to partner with the newspaper industry to facilitate this transformation. In fact, Océ has been engaged with the newspaper industry all the way back to the turn of this century with the development of the Océ Digital Newspaper Network. Today, we are actively engaged in dialogues with major newspaper publishers to help them overcome the challenges they face, to explore new business models and opportunities by leveraging technology to change the way they do business. We look forward to continuing this path of innovation and transformation as today’s newspapers evolve into tomorrow’s highly personalized information delivery media.

WhatTheyThink, the leading online media organization serving the printing and publishing industry, announces the immediate availability of Inkjet Printing Primer: An Overview of Inkjet Printing in the Commercial Printing Industry. This 56-page report provides an easy-to-read rundown of current state of inkjet printing systems for wide-format graphics, digital commercial printing, and proofing in the U.S. commercial printing industry. The report provides a clear explanation of the various inkjet technologies—piezo, thermal, continuous—a “cast of characters” or a list of the manufacturers and systems currently on the market, a look at the applications (packaging, variable-data printing, transactional printing, industrial printing) for which inkjet systems are being developed, and conclusions and recommendations. The report also looks ahead to technologies and systems currently in development, such as MEMS-based inkjet printing systems.

The list price for the report is $195. If you sign up for the Digital Nirvana newsletter before next Tuesday you can save $25. After signing up you will receive a welcome email with instructions on how to get the discount.

If you already subscribe to the newsletter, next Tuesday’s edition will have instructions included too.

Sign up for the Digital Nirvana newsletter

Headed to Graph Expo later this month? If so, Océ is offering free passes to the event. All you have to do is register for Graph Expo using this form.

Digital print applications and the postal stream are not always the best friends. The wear and tear that automated handling system used by the USPS can turn a eye catching personalized mail piece into scratched and marred piece of junk mail destined for the recycling bin.

A few years ago I attended a conference in which members of the postal service were asked to provide insight into how printers could work around the core causes of machine caused wear and tear. The major take away from the talk was that lack of handling system standardization (E.g the post office in Minneapolis might have different equipment then the post office in Atlanta) it was hard to provide a concise set of best practice for designing print applications around handling systems.

A new white paper from the Digital Printing Council at PIA/GATF aims to provide some insight into what happens when digital print applications are mailed. In Digital Printing and Survivability in the U.S. Postal System researchers at PIA/GATF came up with a basic test to analyze the issue:

The basic methodology for the study was determined: design a postcard, print it on various digital presses (with no coating) on 10pt C1S paper, then mail it from four different points of origin to PIA/GATF headquarters. Additionally, a postcard was also produced via offset lithography for control and comparison purposes. The full white paper details the results of this study.

To find out more about the study or request a copy, visit New DPC White Paper - Digital Printing and Survivability in the U.S. Postal System

Have you done your own research into digital print applications and the postal stream? What tips and ticks do you use in the design and production of mail pieces so they get to the recipient without unsightly blemishes?