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Printing-Past, Present, and Future

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

The paperless office is a myth, and to a lesser extent, so is the less paper

office. The advent of paperless methods of communication like email has not

reduced the world's appetite for printing. Industry numbers suggest that 45

trillion pages were printed in 2005 and the number is expected to grow to 53

trillion by 2010. Interestingly, the percentage of digital printing within this

(compared to analog printing like offset) will go up only marginally from 9 to

10%. The digital printing market worldwide is growing steadily at a CAGR of

around 9% and is currently hovering around $200 billion. Home and office

printing needs, marketing requirements, photos, packaging, book publishing and

signage are the major contributors which will make digital printing a $221

billion business by 2010. Clearly, the history of digital printers now just over

half a century old, is still in its infancy.

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Key developments this year



Many key developments occurred this year in the print industry, which would

have a tremendous impact in shaping its future.

Outsource your printer management



The concept of print services gained ground this year, which allows an

enterprise to outsource its printer management, just like any other part of the

IT infrastructure. This helps take the headache of printer maintenance,

cartridge replacement, repairs, etc away from the CIO.

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All that's required is to define the overall printing volume requirements

that an enteprise requires, and the service provider does the rest, such as

deciding the most suitable printer model, determining how many printers are

needed, maintainance and repairs, etc.

If a printer is phased out, then the print service provider replaces it with

the latest printer.

New developments in color lasers



Color lasers also became a reality in the corporate office this year, with

costs coming down and speeds going up. Today, an organization can opt for a

color laser instead of an inkjet for its routine color printing needs. Some

other developments like improving the color and monochrome laser print quality

output and technologies to make printers quieter were also developed this year.

For instance, most color lasers today support inline or single pass printing,

wherein all four color toners are applied at one go on the paper. In the past,

each toner was applied separately, due to which color laser printer speeds were

three to four times slower than their monochrome counterparts.

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The story so far:
  • Outsourced printer management has become

    popular
  • Color lasers have become better, faster,

    and more affordable for the office
  • Trendy inkjets and even lasers were

    launched
  • Universal printer drivers have become

    common, saving a lot of admin hassles
  • Compact, color laser-based MFPs have hit

    the market

Printers become trendy



Another key trend we observed this year was that the world of printers is

also learning lifestyle. Quite a few lifestyle printer models were introduced

this year for the digital lifestyle segment. We could even say that inkjet

printer, which were being considered as a technology giving way to MFDs, made a

come back thanks to this new trend. Many trendy looking inkjet printers were

introduced this year, which were perfect  companions for digital camera

owners. Even laser printers couldn't resist this trend. We observed several new

models being released for the lifestyle segment.



If you think that's all, then we have more excitement coming your way from the
printing world.

Individual Memjet printhead: It

uses a technology that will take inkjet print speeds to 60 ppm
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Universal printer drivers



This year, we've seen a trend toward developing combined printer drivers,

something that would be a big sigh of relief for just about everyone. With a

universal printer driver installed for a particular brand of printers, a user

would be able to print to any printer model of that brand. We expect further

developments in this area in the future.

MFPs-Printer as a Swiss army knife



This field needs no introduction. Instead of buying a separate printer,

scanner, and fax machine, you could go for an all-in-one that does it all. You

save both space and cost. New developments in this include color laser-based

MFDs.

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Printers and document mgmt



There has even been a lot of development toward using printers for document

management. Many printer manufacturers are concentrating on developing software

that would help organizations manage their print documents.

Plus, at the enterprise end of digital printing, the products on offer go

beyond mere reproduction at high speed. They now include such features as

collating (preparing a document for binding by introducing 'inserts' in the

right place), variable data printing (the ability to insert a small amount of

variable information into a fixed template), etc.

These features require the printer engine to work hand-in-hand with smart

software which often works in conjunction with a database of addresses, or other

variable information. Managing such software options as well as controlling the

interfaces between printer and binder, or stapler, has created a new niche

called document management, and printer players, who offer products for the

corporate printing or enterprise printing market, often partner with product

companies specializing in document management to ensure that they can offer

their customers a turnkey solution which combines hardware and software

features.

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As web-enabled printing becomes more popular, allowing users to control a

printer that may be at a distant location, many of these document management

solutions are likely to evolve as one more 'software as a service', which users

can access on the Internet and pay by use.

Printers, in the near future,

would eject 3-dimensional objects

VDP-printing personalized



Just as the Internet is going through a small revolution with its latest

avatar, Web 2.0, the printing industry too, is experiencing sharp technological

change. In 2007, for the first time, the phrase Print 2.0 has been used often by

leading print players. In the narrowest sense, this means Web-enabling the print

experience. Using software tools to edit content available in Web pages, drag

and drop the items of interest so you print only what you want. But on a wider

sense, Print 2.0 involves a new flexibility in the hands of the user.

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One attractive new feature is what is called VDP or Variable Data Printing.

By driving every printer with a PC engine, it is today possible to operate

digital printers at high speed, churning out 1000s of pages an hour, with no two

pages looking the same. The trend has already allowed regional newspapers in the

US to personalize every single copy in a print run, by inserting the

advertiser's address or location that is most convenient to a particular reader.

It is possible, for example, to print 10,000 copies of a flier for direct

mailing and ensure that each one addresses each potential customer by his/her

name.

One technological change that is likely to impact consumer inkjet printers in

2008 is the ability of manufacturers to fabricate print heads as wide as the

width of the paper. This immediately improves print speed and efficiency by

cutting to half, the mechanical movement associated with printing one line of

text.

Instead of the print head zipping to and fro across the width of the paper,

it remains stationary, and only the paper is required to move, one line at a

time. This technology, which theoretically can increase the speed of inkjet

printers by almost a factor of three, is likely to be introduced by multiple

printer makers in the consumer space, and we can expect to print full colour

https://www.pcquest.com/2007/images// at almost a page a second in a year or two.

Carving new markets



At the Frankfurt book fair, a few years ago-the world's largest book

industry gathering, a few publishers ventured into the new arena of

print-on-demand. They had sample copies of a large number of specialist

publications whose print runs tended to be fairly small.

On receipt of a firm order, they undertook to print, bind, and supply the

required number of copies in the customer's own country, thus saving shipping

overheads. Print-on-demand especially in the scientific and academic world is

seen by the printer industry as a promising new industry for their products.

By combining some of the features of multi-function printers, they are able

to offer tabletop-sized machines that can scan an existing document at high

speeds and print limited copies (below 1000), insert any art plates or

illustrations, and provide output ready for binding.

The other emerging opportunity lies in extremely large format printers,

mostly inkjet, which are already offering a strong challenge to color offset

printers. The booming business of outdoor signage provides the large format

sector of printers, with the promise of steadily growing business. This is one

sector, which is directly hitched to the consumer boom, hence there is only one

way to go-up and away. Technologically speaking, this translates into hardware

improvements like larger print-heads, efficient ink flow mgmt and lesser power

consumption, all the while, striving to increase efficiency in terms of no. of

pages per minute.



Future Predictions Fast forward
What to look out for, in the

months to come:
  • Wireless printing: Eliminating even

    the Bluetooth dongle. Universal printer drivers will allow printing from

    any device-printer, PDA, laptop, mobile phone-as long as they are placed

    at a certain distance from the printer.
  • Variable data printing: Large-scale

    use of VDP to provide ultra-personalization beyond compare, arising out of

    a capacity to print 1000s of copies within minutes, each page different

    from the other.
  • 3D printing: So far, you print on a

    flat paper. In the future, you print out paper 'boxes,' and structures,

    the way you have 'seen' them-objects, buildings, and everything in

    between.

Fact meets sci-fi?



The final frontier in the saga of digital printing may take it to the realm

of science fiction. It may be possible in a few years for lay users to print

solid objects using resins and powders instead of ink. A handful of companies

are already offering 3D printers, though these remain costly options used by

engineering designers to create rapid prototypes of the parts they design.

However, the day is not very far off when one can 'print out' a replacement

spectacle frame or the casing of a mobile phone without having to buy

replacements.

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