Quick Printing

NOV 2014

Quick Printing is the only business resource serving the quick and small commercial printing niche in North America. Quick Printing is the authoritative source for business information, emerging technologies, shop profiles and management insight.

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16 Q U I C K P R I N T I N G / N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 4 w w w. M y P R I N T R e s o u r c e . c o m 16 Q U I C K P R I N T I N G / N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 4 w w w. M y P R I N T R e s o u r c e . c o m "Through the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, offset benefited from tech- nological advances that allowed printers to improve productivity," he reported. Improvements were most notably evident in shorter makeready. Shorter makereadies and higher overall produc- tivity enabled offset printers to effectively accept jobs of lower run lengths, captur- ing more of the market. But the robust economy of that period came to an end with the recession toward the end of the decade, and the shrinking business cli- mate adversely effected lithographers as well as the vendor community, especially traditional printing press manufacturers. With the recession's sharp reduction in business, many companies went out of business or merged with other entities. The result was a glut of used equipment on the market, and press manufactur- ers were dramatically impacted. Some markets are shells of their former selves, at both the sophisticated end of the market as well as the less complicated end. For instance, annual report printing once represented tremendous opportu- nities for the best lithographers, not to mention professional photographers and graphic designers. "Today, many public companies eschew the expensive paper and high-quality imagery in favor of annual reports that are less flashy, almost purely functional in nature," Myers noted. "Printing of automotive brochures is another example of a largely diminished market at the top end of the commercial scale. "At the other end of the market, offset forms printers and the smaller, fast-turnaround duplicator markets also have suffered, due to advantages in digi- By Jeffrey Steele Of course it does! Taking a quick look back—and a long look forward—at the graphic arts technology that laid the foundation for an industry. T oday, some print service professionals may be asking if offset printing still has a future in the industry. When addressing that issue, it is essential to examine offset's recent history, said Bruce Leigh Myers, assistant professor, School of Media Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY. Does Offset Printing Have a Future? tal printing and copying functionality, even before the most recent recession," he explained. In recent years, there have not been revolutionary technological advances imparting new paradigms, affecting widespread segments of the market. But the offset printing market can largely be considered stable and "right- sized," he said. The most successful printing firms, he added, incorporate offset printing into broader communications solutions. Here, offset offers a diversity of products and a level of quality largely unparalleled among other technologies. "Not every job needs the extremely fast turnaround, nor does every job require personaliza- tion features offered by digital printing technologies," Myers said. "Offset technology can be described as mature. Commercial lithographic print- ers can benefit from the inherent stability that enables more precise business mod- els and planning, and enjoy more incre- mental technological changes as they are introduced," he continued. In the commercial sector, offset offers quality and a wide variety of substrates that appeal to many segments of the cre- ative community. These benefits, com- bined with mature workflows, mean off- set will be viable in coming years. "While lithographic printing does not represent the primacy it once did, it is unlikely that electrophotographic digital print- ing technologies will take away greater portions of the present offset market," he observed. "High-volume continuous inkjet tech- nologies are in their relative infancy, as are nano-ink technologies. These prom- ise to enjoy success in certain market

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