PluggedIn
Plugged In is a blog by industry veteran, Stephen Beals, ofering his take on the latest developments in print production technologies shedding some perspective on the future of print.
Apple and Adobe Will "Get Over It"
The recent minor storm over the lack of Flash capability on the iPhone and iPad may generate something more useful than rants over Apple putting out a weak product and Adobe being lazy.There is some truth to the fact that the iPad is not yet a finished product, but looking at the phenomenal sales and the huge number of applications available for the iPhone (all of which work on the iPad), it seems ...... Read More
Comments (0)Flash: The iPhone will Fail
Don’t I mean to say the iPad will fail, not the iPhone? No. What I mean is that the naysayers are as wrong about the iPad as they were about the iPhone. Apple’s stock took a tumble after the release of the iPad. It is not surprising. It’s the most overhyped release since…well, the iPhone. Pundits had cautioned that Apple fanatics should “prepare to be disappointe ...... Read More
Comments (0)Enfocus Ousts Van Driessche…Again
David van Driessche has once more been ousted from his senior position with Artwork Systems, which owns both Enfocus and Gradual. van Driessche made this post on Facebook Wednesday Morning: “I’ve just been fired by Enfocus – which is becoming a tradition. If someone knows about a nice new challenge, I’m totally free! Though I think I need some vacation first.“ v ...... Read More
Comments (0)Do Sales of Free Books Count?
Soon after Christmas, Amazon announced they had sold more Kindle versions of books on their web site that print-on-paper editions. This is a rather remarkable figure, and one that does not bode well for the printing industry even though we are only specifically talking about one small segment of that industry. The fear is that digital forms of communication will largely replace print-on-paper (or ...... Read More
Comments (1)Poll Yields Interesting Results
A couple of weeks ago I posted a poll on several LinkedIN groups. It’s not exactly scientific, but the results may be of interest.The question was to what degree will the electronic delivery of information replace print-on-paper information delivery over the next decade. It is not a huge surprise that 89% of the respondents thought print-on-paper would lose at least 10% of market share, wit ...... Read More
Comments (0)Packaging not Immune
I’m all for the survival of print and understand the argument that paper is a renewable resource unlike the the fossil fuels that power the Google sites. I know that Google’s servers use more power than many small cities and they can’t get any of it back once they’ve used it. I get all that. But when I hear that the packaging sector is one that will be exempt from losin ...... Read More
Comments (1)The Decade of Mobile Publishing
Whether it will be the Apple Kindle killer or someone else’s tablet computer, mobile publishing will have a huge impact in the next decade with serious consequences for the print industry. Printers who choose to disregard this phenomenon will do so at their own peril. Print production will rapidly become a subset of multimedia production. Folks with knowledge of print production will retain ...... Read More
Comments (0)Free Training Offered for Adobe CS4
Printoolz is offering a free “mini-course” In Adobe Creative Suite 4. The class will include two modules from each of the four courses developed by the training staff at the IPA covering InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat 9 Pro. This mini course will provide even the seasoned veteran designer or pre-press technician with new insights on the programs. The modules included ar ...... Read More
Comments (1)A Great Question
One of the LinkedIn Sites ran a great question that’s receiving lots of responses, and I’m wondering how GAO readers would answer it. The question is: how do you train someone in print sales who knows all about selling but nothing about printing? What are your sources for training? What’s the best way to give the salesperson and his or her customers and potential new customers ...... Read More
Comments (0)Free Alternative Papers Webinar
The folks over at Paper Specs are holding a free webinar Tuesday afternoon sponsored by Xerox which will explore the world of alternative papers. It’s for designers, printers and marketers who have questions about the use of synthetic paper stocks. The session will concentrate on printing substrates that don’t fir into the conventional definition of “paper” since they c ...... Read More
Comments (1)Does Print Need a Boost from Technology?
What’s the best method of marketing in terms of getting a response from consumers?At the heart of the question is whether or not new technologies are really improving response rates. Is print still the best way to reach consumers, or does it need a boost from technology? Does placing a URL in a magazine ad help? What about variable data printing? Do you think QR or RFID or scannable barcode ...... Read More
Comments (0)Is This the Future of Print?
At least one company is taking a pragmatic multimedia approach to keeping print viable. One of the things that has been commonly observed is that there is a disconnect between print and the Internet. It seems as though putting a URL in a print advertisement is basically a waste of ink. People don’t work that way. Print ads don’t get people to respond via the Internet.One possible ans ...... Read More
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