I’ve just completed a year-long research and writing project, revising my book Printing Estimating for the 5th edition. The full title of the new text is Printing Estimating: Costing and Pricing Print and Digital Media. It is being published by PIA/GATF in the next few months in paper, accompanied with an ancillary CD covering important support topics. The book spans estimating and pricing both traditional and digital print and digital media. Joe Polanco, President of PIA MidAmerica, collaborated as contributor on estimating digital print.

As with previous revisions of the book, the project has been eye-opening and also energizing for me. It has re-affirmed my lifelong passion for print while also allowing me to reflect on areas and aspects of our industry from an “old vs. new” perspective.

When I retired in 2004 after 34 years of teaching printing management courses at Cal Poly State University and more than 40 years of industry involvement in various capacities, there were a number of salient issues that seemed to be emerging. Retirement moved me into a safe haven of not having to deal with them to any huge extent – traveling, learning new things and improving my golf game moved higher up on my list of priorities. I pushed print to the back burner and followed industry events with a casual interest except for the occasional telephone conversation with a colleague or industry friend or inquiry into my expert witness services.