Friday, February 17, 2012

The Future of Printing? - It’s going to depend on what the item is.

Publishing: A Whole New World

By Barb Pellow

e-Readers are definitely here to stay, so the printing and publishing worlds must change with the times. There will always be a place for hardcover and paperback books, but recent developments will demand a huge transition for book printers and publishers alike. How businesses adapt will determine who is left standing five years from now. This article provides an overview of the publishing landscape and provides examples of service providers who are changing with the times.

Click on this to get to the full article:

Publishing: A Whole New World

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Blog Publisher’s Comments:

The above article brings to mind the subject of “the future of printing”.

Yesterday, I posted about (and provided a link to) an article authored by Dr. Joe Webb, an economist who follows and reports on the economics of the U.S. Commerical Printing Industry. Most would interpret Dr. Joe’s forward forecast to paint a rather bleak picture of the commercial printing industry, years from now. As I’ve admitted many times on this blog, my crystal ball does not work (and, believe me, I’ve tried to get it to work.) But, although my crystal ball does not work – I cannot predict the future of the printing world, nor the future of the reprographics world – trends point, more and more, to people and businesses printing less than they did before. The Internet, of course, has had a huge impact on that. And, PCs, MACs, Desktops, tablet computers, e-reader devices and electronic displays, collectively, are having an equally huge impact on that. Fact of life, printing to “hard-copy” - “per capita” - is in decline. But, having said that, it’s going to depend on what’s to be printed.

Your outlook, item by item, 10 years from now? 20 years from now?

Types of printed materials

Outlook - Bleak?

Outlook - Fair?

Outllook - Excellent?

Books

Training Manuals

User Manuals

Warranty Information

Proposals

Business Cards

Stationery

Envelopes

Product Packaging

Wrapping Paper

Greeting Cards

Calendars

Marketing materials

Point-of-Purchase displays

Trade-show graphics

Conference handouts

Vehicle wraps

Wallpaper

A/E/C Presentation boards

A/E/C plans

A/E/C specification books

Legal exhibit boards

Banners

Bank statements

Insurance policies

T-Shirts

Fabrics

Newspapers

Magazines

Stock-trade confirmations

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