Last time I shared the news from Dusseldorf, where the huge Drupa trade show took place last month, but perhaps after you read through the laundry list of announcements I presented, you asked yourself, "So what?"
Excellent question. I’m glad you asked.
Short-Term View
The computer-to-plate (CTP) news at the show, most pundits agree, was evolutionary rather than revolutionary. CTP devices were generally faster and more automated, with many more choices than five years ago. Now there are thermal processless plates, violet-light plates and platesetters, UV plates and platesetters, and a handful of new CTP devices that defy known classifications, such as BasysPrint’s "micro mirror" platesetters and Luscher’s flatbed platesetter with a turntable design.
Also noticeable in the CTP arena was a trend toward partnerships and open systems. CreoScitex and Komori, Creo and Agfa, Heidelberg and Screen, Heidelberg and Kodak — some of these alliances are old, some are new, but what we see is that vendors are trying to offer a range of options to customers instead of advocating one particular path or technology. Indeed, most platesetters support a variety of plate types, and most prepress systems work with a variety of platesetters (even when they’re from different manufacturers). This is a far cry from five years ago, when vendors all touted thermal platesetting as the wave of the future and each pushed its individual system.
Similarly, the Drupa news pertaining to short-run and direct-imaging printing was also evolutionary, with speed and flexibility being the focus of a bevy of announced products: the 70-ppm Heidelberg/Kodak NexPress 2100; the 60-ppm Xerox DocuColor; Indigo’s new generation of fast, configurable digital presses; and Komori’s prototype large-format, eight-page digital offset press. But hold onto your hats, because most of these devices won’t be commercially available for months, if not years.
Long Time Gone
The Web may have been a buzzword at the show, but in reality there wasn’t any news on this front — other than the fact that two Web-based print service providers, Noosh and Impresse, coincidentally announced during the show that they were withdrawing their planned IPOs due to unfavorable market conditions. Part of the reason for this market’s low-key presence at Drupa is that Europeans are behind Americans in using the Internet to increase production efficiencies and for professional communications.
Given the nature of the news at the show, the fact that most so-called news had already been announced by vendors this winter, and the brutality of flying so far only to get sore feet from trekking about the exhibition halls, it is perhaps little wonder that a number of industry executives, including Adobe president Bruce Chizen, stayed home (according to a well-placed insider that I know, who also didn’t make it to the show). But this doesn’t mean that you, sitting humbly there at your computer, procrastinating by reading this instead of making your client’s requested changes (because his ideas totally destroy the artist integrity of your work), shouldn’t care.
Long Time Coming
Even though some of the technologies demo’d at Drupa won’t become mainstream for five or ten years (and others will completely fall by the wayside), all of the news is good news for designers, particularly the developments that pertain to short-run and DI presses. The fact is, digital printing is coming of age. Soon there is going to be so much variety in the types (sheet-fed and web-fed, toner- and ink-based), sizes (as large as 8-up printing), price points, and front ends that drive variable-data printing, that it will become a question of which press each printer should buy rather than whether or not to buy one.
And you’re going to be glad when that time comes, because the nature of your work is increasingly going to benefit from short-run and digital printing technologies. And yes, you can thank the Internet for that. As the Web becomes the primary aspect of clients’ communications campaigns, the nature of print projects is going to change, too. Print isn’t dead, nor will it ever die, but in order for printed pieces to compete against the Web they’re going to have to become more focused, more customized. Hey, if I can get online and have the news that relates to my personal interests presented to me, why should I go out and pay for a printed newspaper or magazine, with articles I’ll never read and ads for products I’ll never buy? Imagine producing a magazine (or brochure or newsletter) with articles and images tailored to each individual subscriber, perhaps complementing what the subscriber already read on your client’s Web site.
"Aha," you say. "I see." Before you know it, you’ll need and want digital printing. So although you may not care right now who’s first out of the gate with a 100-ppm toner-based production printer, or whether or not the NexPress will really be commercially available in 2001, or which company will be the first to install a MAN Roland DICOWeb digital press, you should be glad of the innovation in the field, because soon enough, you’ll be depending on the new products and technologies they bring.
Read more by Anita Dennis.
This article was last modified on June 8, 2000
This article was first published on June 8, 2000
Commenting is easier and faster when you're logged in!
