Printing industry survivors are those who look beyond today and slightly over the horizon. The traditional practice of just following the leaders will not work any more, because the leaders do not know where they are going either. Here are some trends you can take to the bank.

1. Digital printing is the present and future of the printing industry, but it may be different over time than it appears today.

2. Digital printing will both complement and compete with offset litho, as well as gravure, screen and flexo printing.

3. Digital printing will use toner, inkjet, and other substances to image on paper and other substrates without the need for plates. Look for plastics to grow as a major substrate.

4. Digital printing eliminates makeready as we know it, which is an attribute of its on-demand advantage.

5. All printing processes will soon share the same digital infrastructure. Workflow is and will be everything.

6. Content originators now control workflows, absorbing entire industries such as typesetting, engraving, color separation, proofing, and other pre-press processes. Printers are the last to know what a job entails.

7. The competitive climate in the printing industry is undergoing drastic and turbulent change as marketers expend their ad/promotion dollars across multiple media, reducing investments in print.

8. Print buyers are now buying digital output for many of the applications where offset litho once dominated.

9. Networked laser printers are challenging copiers; copiers are challenging digital presses; digital presses are challenging offset; and inkjet may challenge everything.

10. Digital printers that are now positioned between digital presses and full-color copiers offer compelling quality and pricing.

11. Color management software and system controllers used in digital color printers are raising the levels of color consistency.

12. Offset lithographic printing is evolving to provide more economical and competitive approaches, but its volume will continue to erode.

13. Variable data printing is an opportunity for printers because it expands the range of ancillary services that may be offered, such as database, mailing, fulfillment, and personal websites. The real money is in the ancillary services.

14. Variable Data Printing will continue to grow slowly until suppliers get their heads out of the sand and support real standards and realistic workflows. VDP is still too complex and too proprietary.

15. Any growth in the printing industry in the last few years has been from digital printing and ancillary services.

16. Another aspect of industry revenue growth has been increased revenue because of increased prices based on increased costs of paper, ink, and other supplies. Revenue may appear to be growing but it is essentially flat.

17. Digital printing quality is no longer an issue; however, productivity, reliability, and sheet size are issues. Look for activity in all these areas shortly.

18. Digital printing will be applied to signage, artwork, packaging, label printing, point-of-purchase, converting, corrugated, industrial printing, and other printed products.

19. Digital printing will affect every facet of the printing, packaging, and specialty industries.

20. The number or printing firms will continue to decline, primarily as a result of consolidation. This will retard price erosion as the number of competitors are reduced.

21. However, at the same time, the volume of print is being reduced by electronic substitution and non-print competition for advertising.

22. The printing industry is still a vibrant business. After 2010, it will stabilize in terms of firms and employees but technology will not slow down.

And our musical interlude this week is sung to the tune of Gilbert & Sullivan's "I am the very model of a modern Major General."