We have been contacted a number of times recently about the general thesis that print as we know it is declining – and will continue to decline. One persistent e-mailer has suggested that there are technological methods that would make traditional presses even more user friendly, and able to handle very short runs. Certainly, these couldn’t be as short as on a true digital press, but getting traditional presses to be cost effective down to 500 imprints or less would certainly make short run jobs more press friendly.

The writers suggest, as we have done in prior articles, that some manufacturers keep good ideas from coming to fruition because they weren’t invented internally. Some of the reason that they aren’t invented internally has to do with the significant reduction in engineering R&D personnel that many companies have gone through in order to cut costs. He adds further, that many manufacturers also don’t want to make improvements that would radically change their products’ pricing and/or would obsolete their prior investments to a large degree. In prior work we have certainly seen such results.

The writer goes on to suggest that even the customer base doesn’t want to innovate. “When I get a response from a Malcolm Baldridge award winning printer, who says they like a technical concept but are only interested in the new knowledge and technology when it is proven, that really confirms there is a problem in the industry.”