Printing industry analyses usually focus on technology advancements or raw economics - growth, stagnation or decline - as measures of the state of affairs.  Below-the-surface realities or mundane day-to-day processes are usually left unexamined and treated as irrelevant to the big picture.  Yet they may reveal more about an industry's status than shipment data or digital output speeds. 

It is not that numbers lie, but rather that they are often inadequate or too narrow as indicators of an industry's true vitality or direction.  The technical approach that ignores fundamental day-to-day realities might be analogous to a physician that studies the charts and lab work but never glances up to see that the patient is choking.

For example, how printers pay for their equipment and supplies may reveal more than how much they purchased or even what they purchased.  Recent shifts in billing and payment methods between manufacturers, dealers and printers show fundamental changes in the structure of the industry, perhaps more clearly than a consultant's carefully drawn chart or the latest Commerce Department data.