By Jonathan McGrew, EDP
When we get to this time of year (my birthday month), it always feels like it is the time to regroup on what has happened over the past 10-12 months. Call it birthday reflection… What I noticed this year watching the Print market and all of the print being produced is that it seems to be the gateway to technology.
Human kind has been recording information for centuries. There are cave walls, tablets, scrolls and that invention we still can’t seem to kick -paper. Looking back to when I helped a print company develop a timeline for their innovation center in Shanghai, the invention of paper and the printing press were key stops on the journey to today’s print. But is printed paper really the gateway to doing more than we ever thought possible?
Did you know that many of the tiles, wall papers and furniture finishes you find around the world are printed? I know someone over at InfoTrends that could tell you all about it. In fact, his world has been changed forever; now when he walks through malls and restaurants he see a land full of print. Then there is the quickly up-and-coming world of 3D printing. For some it is slightly alarming given the prospect of creating almost anything on-demand in the future. The innovation of print doesn’t stop. Today there are printers using inkjet to print on substrates that then get folded inline and automatically become product boxes.
Of course there is your traditional printing too. Can you imagine a wedding, a birthday or a special event without the printed invitations? I guess I can imagine it, but even in 2014 I sent custom designed and printed invitations to my guests. It is like going to an event without a ticket… sure there are ways of managing the crowds, but what do you put in your scrapbook or photo album. That said, print has opened the door to creating these albums right from your mobile phone, having them printed anywhere in the world, and delivered right to the doorsteps of your family and friends.
If you are reading between the lines, I have covered emerging markets that print has inspired; commercial printing, traditional printing and textiles that some people don’t even know are being printed with inkjet and other types of printing technology. So what about the world I live in everyday—customer communications printing (a.k.a. transactional or HVTO)?
The world of customer communications is really a behind the scenes kind of place and not many people on the street really know how much it powers in their daily lives. Printed communications have opened the door to electronic delivery of those printed communications as far back as the ‘90s. What is interesting is that much of the electronic and mobile delivery we enjoy today still starts with the composed printed piece that is ready to go and be printed on the printer.
In 2014, through innovation and software, we have managed to use the print-stream or print file as the gateway to doing more. Now you can take that print file and make it accessible for those with low or no vision. You can archive it in much smaller sizes with all of the original properties of the file for compliance, security and recall. And, if you have been watching the news about some big box retailers, you can even automatically and with rule definition redact or remove personal and private information to protect it from getting into the wrong hands.
Really, it doesn’t stop there. There are ways now to use what was originally intended for just printing to provide analytics for a variety of benefits to companies and us, the end-customer. Not bad for something that for years now we have been trying to say needs to be suppressed. In my humble opinion print continues to drive innovation and it will always stick around—it just won’t go back to being the only method of communicating anymore.
Until next time, I challenge you to ponder the innovations your industry has brought to the world with print as a starting point. Leave them as comments below or share in the Print Production Professional LinkedIn Group.
Jonathan McGrew
spent his formative years being exposed to Xplor and the Enterprise Output Management & Customer Communications Management (CCM) industries (read high-volume transactional printing). Today, Jonathan is Marketing Communications Manager at Crawford Technologies and responsible for Worldwide marketing. His experience spans data management, branding, print (hardware, software & design), graphic design and marketing communications with specialization in Business to Business (B2B). Jonathan completed his MS in Marketing from the University of Colorado at Denver in December 2013 and was awarded his EDP certification at the Xplor Conference 2013.
Connect with Jonathan on Twitter: @JEMcGrew
