I like to keep an eye out for interesting technologies that can have a beneficial effect on a consolidating printing industry. I am especially interested in things that make print interactive. Why? Because the ability to link print into the rest of the media mix is critical to its long-term future as a viable communications medium. No, I am not saying print is dead, or it is only valuable when used this way, but there is no question that the ability to more closely tie print into other media will make it a more attractive option for many marketers, who, left to their own devices, just might decide that print has a declining role in their marketing efforts.

I recently spoke with Sascha Voight, CEO of German firm Printechnologics. The company was founded in 2006 as a systems integrator in the field of print and electronics. According to Voight, they quickly discovered that the model they had outlined was not going to work. He said, “You hear about a lot of cool stuff, but when you dig deeper and want to use these technologies to produce something, they don’t always stack up. We had the choice of closing the company because the model we had chosen was going to fail, or create our own technology. We chose the latter path.”

The Printechnologics team came up with the concept of Touchcodes, a type of electronic barcode that can be read by a touchscreen, such as a smartphone or iPad. 3M is an investment partner in the venture, lending the idea good market credibility. Development of the technology was completed last year, and following a testing period, has been in the market about a month.