WhatTheyThink

Road to Drupa: Kyocera Belharra Photo Printing

Kyocera, very much like Fujifilm, Epson, and others, have been developing and supplying system components to print solution providers for years. Those developments have been at the cornerstone of many products in the market today. Kyocera (NIXKA) has been working on an inkjet photo printer for a while and this full color 1200 dpi grayscale system press is ready for its introduction during drupa 2024.

Transforming Textiles: The Path to Sustainability

Monday, April 22 was the 54th occurrence of Earth Day. Now is a great time to reflect on the impact of one of the world’s most resource-intensive industries: Textiles. The textile industry is notorious for significant water consumption, waste, and CO2emissions. This article explores the need for a shift toward sustainability and a circular economy in the printed textile and decorated apparel industries.

Road to drupa: Standard Finishing's Katelyn Pinch

Nick Gawreluk talks with Standard Finishing's Katelyn Pinch about her expectations for drupa 24—both personally and in terms of what Standard will be demonstrating at the show.

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In a World of Alternative Facts and Deep Fakes, Insane Honesty Rocks

In a world of “alternative facts” and AI-generated deep fakes, consumers often long for raw honesty. What might this look like? As Heidi Tolliver-Walker explains, it might look like owning your screw-ups and turning them into assets.

Behavioral Competence Equals Leadership Effectiveness

Wayne Lynn wraps up his Smart Leader series by looking at the impact of behavior on leadership and how it’s key to effective implementation and achievement of your organization’s strategy and goals.

2024 Inkjet Integrator Profiles: NEOS

This series of inkjet integrator profiles, courtesy of Inkjet Insight, aims the spotlight on companies focused on offering custom-developed inkjet printing solutions to their customers. In the first in the series, Ralf Schlözer looks at Italian integrator NEOS.

Deluxe Corp.’s Kurt Cron on the Migration to On-Demand Check Printing

In this video, sponsored by HP, Kevin Abergel talks to Kurt Cron, Director of Digital Technology at Deluxe Corp., one of the largest check printing and payment operations in the country. The company is currently migrating its check printing capabilities to a print-on-demand model.

Highlights from FESPA 2024—Textile and Direct-to-Object News

In part 2 of his coverage of the FESPA Global Print Expo, held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, March 19–22, European section editor Ralf Schlözer rounds up some textile and direct-to-object product launches and announcements.

Industry Data

Printing Outlook 2024 - The WhatTheyThink Overview of the Current State of the Printing Industry

The Printing Outlook 2024 report provides detailed analysis of the latest WhatTheyThink Printing Industry Survey, the latest industry economic data and macroeconomic trends, as well as industry and cultural technological trends to look out for in 2024 and beyond.

Purchase Report

February Shipments: Well, At Least It’s Seasonal

February 2024 shipments came in at $6.01 billion, down from January’s $7.04 billion—and right between February 2021 and 2022. Full Analysis

Assorted Publishing Establishments—2010–2021

According to County Business Patterns, in 2021 there were 726 establishments in NAICS 511199 (All Other Publishing). This category saw a net decrease of 39% since 2010, although establishments spiked from 2020 to 2021. In macro news, estimates of Q1 GDP are running around +2%. Full Analysis

Tales from the Database: These Are Not the Applications You’re Looking For

Drawing on six years’ worth of Print Business Outlook surveys, our “Tales from the Database” series looks at historical data to see if we can spot any particular hardware, software, or business trends. This issue, we turn our attention to specialty printing—or any printing beyond traditional offset or digital commercial work. Full Analysis

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WhatTheyThink Magazine is the resource for the Commercial Printing, Visual and Graphic Arts Industries. Industry experts share their ideas and technical knowledge on ways to improve operations.

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WhatTheyThink's weekly miscellany

Around the Web: Met Medics. Type Tenets. Bend’s Blockbuster. Insurance Inflation. Follicle Fashion. Humdrum Handset. Bee Bandits. Clever Cutlery. Collaborative Condiment.

Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s book conservation lab. A new book lays out the Universal Principles of Typography. 11 signs from around the country that evoke “pure Americana.” Mattel releases a team-based version of Scrabble. Physical media’s last stand. Car insurance premiums have sure kicked into overdrive. Textiles made from human hair may not be as creepy as they sound. HMD and Heineken introduce the Boring Phone. Battling the West’s “bee rustlers” would make for an interesting John Wayne film. Horatio Nelson’s “Knork.” Heinz and Mattel team up to launch “Barbiecue sauce.” All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany. Read More

Around the Web: Publishing Posters. Pyrotechnic Packaging. Mock Media. AI Aide. Agile ANYmal. Tail Tech. New Nova. Silent Solo. Dairy-esque Dye.

A new book celebrates the short-lived “literary poster” craze. A new zine looks at the art of fireworks packaging design. One of the most game-changing technologies in the history of civilization was affordable artificial light. A social media platform that doesn’t actually exist. A new wearable AI device. A four-legged dog-like robot can do parkour moves, freakishly enough. Jet suit racing is now a thing. A prehensile stabilizing tail for floating astronauts. Another upcoming celestial event. The decline of the guitar solo. Apparently it’s a real thing: Velveeta Hair Dye. All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany. Read More

Around the Web: Eclipse Eats. Wood Work. Modifier Methodology. Checkout Change. Wi-Fi Weirdness. Electronic Eyewear. Kangaroo Collisions. Bus Battle. Stick Status.

Eclipse-themed food and beverage items for Monday’s event. Cardiff, Wales’, Printed Festival 2024, this June. A new 3D printing ink based on wood waste. Did you know that there is a “royal order of adjectives”? Amazon is ending its “Just Walk Out” checkout—which wasn’t actually an automated system. What does the term “Wi-Fi” stand for? LCD lenses that can turn sunglasses into reading glasses. Volkswagen is working on an electronic device to avoid car-kangaroo collisions. New York City’s acrimonious “tour bus battle.” The James Webb Space Telescope takes a close look at galaxy I Zwicky 18. Instagram’s “Official Stick Reviews” rates actual sticks—and is more popular than you would think. All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany. Read More

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Recent Discussion

Pat McGrew on You Should Join a Printing Industry Association

Melissa! You folks do important work! Thanks for cementing the value proposition! Reply

Melissa Jones on You Should Join a Printing Industry Association

Thank you very much Pat for bringing the importance of Associations to the forefront. We here at PGCA (Print & Graphic Communications Association) really are those Association people who care deeply about the Print industry in NY, NJ, DE and PA and b… Full comment Reply

Graham Judd on It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like drupa

I'm not sure how PI fits into running our Heidelberg platens and cylinder presses, our C&Ps, and our Meihle Verticals Frank. The intelligence is still the operator. Does PI contain common sense? I wonder. Reply

Gordon Pritchard on It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like drupa

Frank! You forgot to mention that beer is served at many of the drupa booths. Reply

Patrick Whelan on Marketing Content: When a Survey Isn’t Really a Survey

My opinion only...I'm tired of being surveyed. Reply