Print Trends
NAPL\'s Howie Fenton tackles digital printing, scanning, color management, process control and emerging digital technologies.
Lessons Learned the Hard Way
There has been a lot of traffic on the NAQP listserv recently about a story entitled “The Rise and Fall of Mallard Press.” The story appeared on WTT in October of last year and is resonating within the quick printer community. I feel that the attention on the listserv is important and thought I should summarize the key points of the article. Mallard Press was an independently owned a ...... Read More
Comments (4)I’m Offering More Services, What’s Next
Twice in the last week I had this conversation, so I thought I should scribble it down before I forgot. We have talked about the importance of offering more value-added services such as marketing services. Some companies go the next step further and position themselves as offering marketing services. In other words, instead of saying I am a printer who can print long runs, short runs, variable dat ...... Read More
Comments (1)Hi! My Name is Word 2008 and I Crash a Lot.
I was getting trained to use a blog tool a few months ago and I asked if I could work within MS Word and then paste it into the blog tool. The trainer asked why I wanted to use Word as opposed to typing directly into the blog tool. Apparently typing a blog in a word processing program is not as cool as typing it directly into Word Press. I guess that makes me uncool. But in my defense I write a lo ...... Read More
Comments (1)A Natural Transition From Print Service Provider to Marketing Service Provider
A hot topic these days is how can I migrate from a Print Service Provider (PSP) to a Marketing Service Provider (MSP). Here is an interesting case history. A printing company purchased a digital press and started selling short run, fast turnaround work and they cannibalized some of their short run offset work into short run digital printing. After reading market research that said that a web-to-pr ...... Read More
Comments (0)Apple's iPad
Like many other people I watch with envy and desire Apple’s announcements of new products on my computer on the Apple site. This year the picture quality of the presentation was better than usual and when Steve Jobs sat down to demo the new iPad I felt like he was sitting in my living room. I suspect that I am not much different in the process of evaluating new products and placing them on ...... Read More
Comments (3)Surveying During a Recession
Last blog we talked about a snowstorm in Denver that resulted in no one coming to a presentation I was giving. I was scheduled to talk about shifting from surveying to thriving during a recession and Mike Casey was going to talk about surveys and growing your business. The irony is the fact that surveys are the best held secret used by leading companies to get actionable data about customer satisf ...... Read More
Comments (0)Growing a Business During a Snowstorm
As I write this, I am updating up a presentation for the PIAMS called “Creating & Growing a Sustainable Business During a Recession.” Ironically this is not the first time I have tried to make this presentation. In late October I was scheduled to make this presentation for the Printing Industries of Colorado with my friend Mike Casey. Mike was heading through Denver to the NAPL ...... Read More
Comments (0)Emerging From the Recession is Painfully Slow - If at All
Although people say the recession is over, the truth is that it has stopped getting worse and for a few companies and small ways has started getting better. According to Andy Paparozzi, NAPL’s VP and Chief Economist, “The end of the recession does not mean all’s well. It simply means the contraction has stopped. Recovery can be vigorous, feeble, or anything in-between. For our ...... Read More
Comments (0)Software Upgrade Fatigue and PDF/Flash Cyberhacking
Last time we talked about the cessation of Adobe’s Print Service Provider Program. Other factors that may have contributed to this decision are that Adobe struggled at the end of last year and it has become a target of hacker attacks. Most software companies invest great amounts of time, resources and money to software upgrades. Typically this pays for itself when the upgrade comes out and ...... Read More
Comments (0)Adobe Discontinues Partner Connection Print Service Provider Program
After the first of the year Adobe announced, “We are no longer accepting applications for the Print Service Provider program.” If you’re not aware of the program it had two levels: Authorized membership ($595) and Premium membership ($995). Both programs offered various technical, product and promotional benefits. I was sad to hear that Adobe had discontinued this program. I ...... Read More
Comments (0)DTP History: Quark and Font Wars
Last blog I mentioned owning a 20 MB serial hard disk from Quark. In case you did not notice, that hard disk was made by the same company that eventually sold the page layout software Quark Xpress. Yes it’s true - before Quark sold XPress they made hard disks. During my tenure as an editor of a prepress magazine, I interviewed many of the leading CEOs in the industry. I had an interesting i ...... Read More
Comments (1)Early Adoption of Electronic Books
In a recent blog we talked about the Kindle and the impact of electronic readers on printing and publishing. Why the sudden interest in the Kindle? The reason - I bought my girlfriend Sherri a Kindle for Christmas. Flying on airplanes I have seen my fair share of electronic readers. But if you look at the numbers of people who are buying the electronic readers, they are still in the early adopter ...... Read More
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