Printing Industry Commentary & Analysis

I’m Sorry, Dave: The Rise of AI in Print and Packaging

There is a wave of innovation in print and packaging equipment and workflow systems that are beginning to implement artificial intelligence, not just within an individual system but across complete supply chains between different systems, processes, and even extending to semi-autonomous labor. David Zwang rounds up the current state of the art.

The Great Unboxing: The Packaging Boom and What It Means for PSPs

Contributor Joanne Gore looks at the evolution of packaging, and focuses on some of the new technologies—from more sustainable materials to interactive elements—that are dramatically enhancing the “unboxing” experience.

Smart Surveys Expand Sales Options

Surveys can be a great tool to keeping up with customer needs. Contributor Pat McGrew offers some do’s and don’ts for constructing effective surveys that will give you the data you need to better serve your customers.

Ceramic Tiles and the Recirculation Revolution: How the History of Inkjet Technology Changed Interior Design

Guest contributor Dr. Mark Bale looks at how developments in industrial inkjet printheads paved the way for digital printing on ceramics.

UK’s Lil Packaging Commits to Going Green and Carbon-Neutral

European section editor Ralf Schlözer takes a close look at the comprehensive environmental sustainability initiatives being pursued by the UK’s Lil Packaging—which has committed to making the entire company carbon-neutral in 2022.

Around the Web: Wet Wattage. Quit Questions. Pricey Picture. Revising Roboto. Liquid Lenses. Bottle Battle. People Portal. Robot Restaurants Redux. Hellish Hotel. Car Carnage. Cardiac Cod.

The emerging field of “liquid electronics”—and graphene is there! Redesigning corporate logos with a Medieval theme. The Great ReShuffling: meet the new buzzword, same as the old buzzword. An actual, physical object will be the most expensive photograph, bizarrely. Google introduces Roboto Serif. Self-adjusting water-based eyeglasses—in low- and high-tech versions. Coca-Cola’s tepid approach to its refillable bottle program. Beam a 3D hologram of yourself with PORTL. An update on robot restaurant servers. Also: the first robot hotel. A boat full of luxury cars bursts into flames. A robot fish powered by heart cells. All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany.

Outdoor Advertising Establishments—2010–2019

According to County Business Patterns, in 2010, there were 2,378 establishments in NAICS 541850 (Outdoor Advertising). This NAICS actually grew post-Great Recession, with a slight decline mid-decade before climbing back up to 2,765 establishments in 2018. 2019 saw a massive drop in establishments. In macro news: Q4 2021 GDP revised up to 7.0%.

Image360 Fairfax Takes Pride in Its Work

Image360 Fairfax (Va.) designed, printed, and installed Pride-themed graphics for Fairfax’s Mosaic District, a high-end mixed-use community—images that were deemed highly “Instagrammable,” an increasingly important consideration when designing display graphics.

Designing in a Digital World—How CorelDRAW Simplifies the Creative Designer’s Workflow

If you are not immersed in the world of graphic design, and perhaps even if you are, you may not realize the suite of Corel solutions is still quite popular. Founded in 1985 by Michael Cowpland, with its first product, CorelDRAW, a vector-based illustration program designed to bundle with desktop publishing systems, being released in 1989. Today, CorelDRAW is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Corel Corporation. It is also the name of the Corel graphics suite, which includes the bitmap image editor Corel Photo-Paint as well as other graphics-related programs. And now the company points to suite as a solution for textile and apparel design, according to this article provided compliments of textiles expert and WhatTheyThink contributor Debbie McKeegan.

Adobe and Pantone to Part Ways; What You Gonna Do?

You’ve probably already heard that Adobe and Pantone have agreed to disagree. There’s a question of why, but the bigger question is, What are you going to do when the Pantone libraries aren’t included in Adobe Creative Cloud apps anymore? Alder Color Solutions’ Dan Gillespie looks at some options.

Put on Your Smart Glasses

Remote monitoring of all types of equipment used in printing operations has been around for some time. However, its value became even more evident during the pandemic, when it was not possible—or at least difficult—to send technicians on site when a customer had a problem. Senior Editor Cary Sherburne looks at the current state of “smart glasses” and other remote monitoring options.

What’s It Like to Own a Landa? The View from Early Adopter Virtual Packaging

Jordan Patterson, vice president of Virtual Packaging (Grapevine, TX), shares his experience working with a Landa S10P Digital (Perfecting) Press—how they’ve used it, what their experiences have been, and what new markets the press has opened to them.

Data Collection Obsession: Measuring Results vs. Activities

Don’t delude yourself into thinking measuring more metrics in your company will magically fix broken processes. Measuring more doesn’t fix things, it simply identifies that there are more problems to fix.

Observability 101: If It Moves, Measure It—And Use Tools to Act on That Data

From digital storefronts, to workflow, to hardware, modern print production systems now support the ability to monitor the state of system. We now have a tremendous amount of data at our fingertips. Using modern observability techniques, we can use data from software and hardware to make business and operation decisions that create better buying experiences for our customers and make production efficient and more profitable.

Hundsdörfer Steers Heidelberg Back on Track—A Farewell Interview, Part 2

As Rainer Hundsdörfer prepares to close out his successful tenure as Chairman of Heidelberg, he discusses the inherent company strengths and expertise along with a plan that will ensure Heidelberg will continue to grow in addition to and beyond print.

Printing Outlook 2022: Back to the Future or Groundhog Day?

Digging into the results of our Fall 2021 Business Outlook Survey for the our annual Printing Outlook 2022report, they showed an industry that has largely recovered from 2020, but faces some new challenges and some older challenges now writ large. We’re not exactly back to normal, but we’re closer than we thought possible in a long time. This article previews the just-released Printing Outlook 2022 report.

Are We Really Doing the Right Things to Address Supply Chain Issues?

There’s a lot of talk about a broken supply chain for the textiles and apparel industry. But what’s actually being done to fix it? And what happens if we don’t? Last fall, the Sourcing Journal hosted a Sourcing Summit that addressed these issues. Some excerpts are included in this article, along with a link to the full report, well worth reviewing if you have any supply chain concerns at all!

Labor Doesn’t Have To Be Laborious: How To Use Observational Platforms To Keep Your Business Running Smoothly

Two significant challenges are facing the print industry: labor shortages and inefficiency. They are related, and there is a path to manage them, but it takes more than trying to find people to hire and tightening business and production workflows.

Around the Web: Giving Gear. Clever Containers. LEGO Letterpress. Mitigating Microplastics. Gamut Game. Controlled Consumables. Carvana Craziness. Haute Hardware. Potato Perfume.

What happens to all the T-shirts printed for the team that lost the Super Bowl? A more recyclable approach to beverage containers. Using LEGO for letterpress printing. Samsung is partnering with Patagonia to address the problem of microplastics produced by washing clothes. Test your skills at color matching. Certain types of solvent inks are now regulated as controlled substances by the UK. Graphene-based inks can help with low-power hot water heaters. Carvana’s auto-buying robot buys a seven-year-old car for more than the owner had paid for it. Hardware-as-luxury-jewelry is apparently a thing. A new perfume smells like french fries. All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany.

December Shipments: No Christmas Miracle

As 2021 drew to a close, December printing shipments came in at $7.00 billion, down from $7.10 billion in November, keeping with the usual seasonality of a slow December. For 2021 overall, we came in at $82.87 billion for the year, just below 2020’s $83.73 billion.

Identifying Your Best Prospects: The Importance of a Customer Persona

Creating a customer persona involves developing a deep understanding of your customers’ needs and establishing a plan to address them. Evaluating your current customers in terms of demographics, company size, and industry type is a good place to start, but the findings are often shallow and offer little insight. This article explores the role that data plays in developing a customer persona, and why this practice is so important to business development.

Can We Support Our Future Growth?

Our industry has been transformed by digital technology. On a larger scale, so has our society and the economy that underpins it. It is ironic that changes of such magnitude have us standing on the doorstep of a talent shortage that has no easy answers. In the midst of so much positive change, our leaders have not, to date, created the skills and talent needed to handle the shifting needs of an emerging new economic order. In this article, Wayne Lynn explains our dilemma and kicks off an appeal to industry leaders to adopt a growth mindset, think outside the box, and look to the long term.

“Motivation to Be Sustainable”: Understanding Key Trends and Behaviors

As we move towards a sustainable future, each and every product we consume has an environmental impact. Every choice that we make as designers and printers matters and collectively, we can make a significant contribution to the environmental impact of the products we create across all commercial sectors. Together we can drive effective change for a sustainable future. So says Wilbert van der Lans, Strategy Director at Make Sense, in a presentation he delivered as part of HP’s Sustainable Impact Series. Learn more.

Client Loyalty By Design: A Clear Strategy Rather than Happenstance Is a Powerful Approach

Market conditions and prospects have changed dramatically over the past year or so and it’s become harder, but more important than ever, to have a long-term and deliberate approach to retain your best clients. Lisa Magnuson offers a few considerations you help you build your client loyalty strategy.

AR in the Field: Using Holotwins to Promote the Utah Black Business Expo

Augmented reality (AR) has been growing in packaging, nonprofit, and retail, but it’s been used primarily for branding and engagement and much less for direct sales and fundraising. But that is changing. This article looks at one revenue-generating AR application: the use of holotwins to promote the Utah Black Business Expo.

Remote Workers in Your Print Business

We’ll never go back to a preset “normal.” No matter what change happens, there is always this collective delusion that things will return back to a previous state. When COVID started, I admittedly thought we would be sheltering in the place for a few weeks. We are now so far past a few weeks and so far away from a pre-COVID normal, it's hard to even remember what that felt like.

Johnson’s World—The Lizard and the Window Washer: How to Hit the Jackpot when Things Go Wrong

It is when things go wrong clients stand up and take notice. Blow it, and you’ve not only lost a customer, but in today’s world you’ll be publicly tarred and feathered on social media. Handle it well and you’ve made a friend for life.

Three Strategies for Keeping Up with Customers

Just as your own business changes, so, too, have your customers’ businesses changed to meet their own market needs. They may have stopped selling some products or services and added others. They may have had staff turnover, bought additional companies, or sold pieces of their business. Pat McGrew offers some strategies for staying updated on where your customers are and how you can best serve their changing needs.

Hundsdörfer Steers Heidelberg Back on Track—A Farewell Interview, Part 1

Rainer Hundsdörfer took the helm of Heidelberg in 2016 when things were not looking great. In his five-year tenure, they have been able to turn the company around financially and develop a roadmap for the future. Printing plays a big role in that future, but their strengths and opportunities extend beyond.

InfoFlo Print Is Your All-In-One MIS and Web-to-Print Order Management System

In this article, written and sponsored by InfoFlo Print, learn about the fully integrated MIS and web-to-print order management system specifically built for print shops, offering unique features and integrations not found in any other Print Management system.

Are We Approaching Industry 5.0 Already?

With many of us barely beginning to understand what is meant by Industry 4.0, we’re now moving on to Industry 5.0! Acceleration is certainly a factor in today’s business and industrial environment. In this article, we define both Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0, and provide examples of how the textiles and apparel industry in North America can accelerate along with the market trends.

Arms of Love: New Automation Options for Wide Format

It took some time, but automation is gradually creeping into wide-format printing, especially on the flatbed side. A templated approach to projects, software, and even robotics are bringing new efficiencies to wide-format workflows.

Sign Manufacturing Establishments—2010–2019

According to County Business Patterns, in 2010, there were 5,824 establishments in NAICS 33995 (Sign Manufacturing). This NAICS category tumbled in the wake of the Great Recession, ultimately climbing back up to 5,865 establishments in 2019. In macro news: Inflation continues to climb.

Around the Web: Meme Manufacturing. Wordle Weary. Decoding Dickens. Privatizing Palettes. Recycled Rubber. Terrific Toaster. Tomato Tale. Snowy Sobriquet. Feather Fracas.

A “paper engineer” creates printed, pop-up versions of classic memes. More Wordle variants. Better than the DaVinci: the Dickens Code. Privatizing specific hexadecimal colors for NFTs (or something dubious like that). Graphene-based rubber. An award-winning non-electric toaster. Why are tomatoes red? The suspense is over: Minnesota has eight new snowplow names. Spit-take warning: “Pillow fighting could be the next great combat sport.” All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany.

Designer Q&A: Meet Kristen Dettoni of Design Pool Patterns, A New Format for Interior Decoration

As part of an ongoing series featuring designers in the world of textiles and apparel, textiles expert and WhatTheyThink contributor Debbie McKeegan interviewed Design Pool founder Kristen Dettoni. Founded in 2019, Design Pool is an online business that combines licensing of Kristen's fabric designs with a program linking designers with printers that can do a quality job of producing according to design intent. Learn more about Design Pool and Kristen's award-winning Cryptology designs, the latest addition to her portfolio of designs.

Another Year, Same Pandemic: COVID-19’s Ongoing Impact on Mental Health

Our pandemic-weary society has been dealing with COVID-19 for about two years. This article explores the effects that this global health crisis has had on mental health, and considers some of the solutions that are possible with today’s technologies.

Do the New Features of USPS Informed Delivery Really Make It Better?

The USPS continues to add expanded features to its Informed Delivery service, but based on the USPS’s own year-over-year customer satisfaction data, are these new features actually creating a better user experience?

Who is Your Print MIS/ERP Administrator?

The Print MIS/ERP administrator role in your print business is a strategic differentiator. You want as much independence and ability to move at your own pace as possible from the software vendor.

An Imaging Company at Heart: Part 2—SCREEN Is Building an Impressive Digital Packaging Portfolio

There is no doubt that digital packaging is a huge growth area for production inkjet, and SCREEN seems to be targeting the high growth areas. They have been developing a range of digital packaging presses including their currently available prime label presses, and the new flexible packaging press and a folding carton press.

The Target Report: CCL Industries Breaks the Rules—January 2022 M&A Activity

Canadian Giant CCL Acquires Small, Label Segment Still Red Hot; and more…

Canon’s Francis McMahon Discusses Recent Developments at Canon and the Print World at Large

Francis A. McMahon, executive vice president at Canon Solutions America, Production Print Solutions discusses the most recent additions to Canon’s equipment portfolio, the company’s approach to R&D, the 2021 edition of the thINK Forum, as well as his views on focusing on the customer during economic turbulence like COVID.

Packaging Design In The Age Of Instacart

Colorkarma’s Shoshana Burgett takes an in-depth look at how “grab-and-go” shopping in the age of InstaCart is forcing brands to rethink their approaches to packaging design.

Post-Pandemic Profits on the Upturn

Shipments have been slowly climbing back from the pandemic recession of 2020, but profits have been on a sharp upturn. However there still remains a bit of a profitability gap between the two major asset class distinctions.

Around the Web: Groundhog Galore. Replacement Rodent. Extra Eyesight. Translation Trouble. Superfluous Sockets. Super Supercapacitors. Timeless Tomes. Pointless Product. Tesla Trouble. Coin Couture.

All about Groundhog Day. Tetrachromats have an extra photoreceptor that lets them see 100 times as many colors as the rest of us. 7-Eleven is testing touchless “floating holographic displays” for self-checkout. A mistranslated sign inadvertently advertises free alcohol. A gigantic, 60-socket power bank could fully charge 5,000 smartphones with 3,000-mAh batteries. A gallery of “automated furniture.” Enhancing the energy storage capacity of graphene supercapacitors used in solar heating. A search engine that finds full-text public-domain books. Why would anyone program a self-driving car to ignore stop signs? A chainmail cocktail dress made from pennies. All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly wintry miscellany.

Expanding Into New Horizons: Why British Interior Brand Art of the Loom Invested in Digital Tech

As digital technologies have evolved, their ease of use and affordability continue to drive the digital disruption of the home furnishings marketplace. In this article, compliments of textiles expert and WhatTheyThink contributor Debbie McKeegan, we learn how British firm Art of the Loom has leveraged digital technologies to evolve its offerings over time. The family has been involved in textiles since 1815!

Apocalypse Soon? Sign Code Case Now Before the Supreme Court Could Forever Alter Sign Regulations—and the Sign Industry’s Business Model

In December, the International Sign Association (ISA) held a webinar that rounded up some of the recent sign code-related court cases. The one currently pending before the Supreme Court—City of Austin v. Reagan National Advertising of Texas—could have cataclysmic implications for the sign industry. The webinar offered some potential outcome scenarios and what the decision would mean for sign producers.

It’s Time for the Metaverse (Yes, in the Print Industry)

What is the metaverse? Why does it matter to our industry now? With real-life applications and accessibility to even small print shops and agencies, the metaverse something that we should all be paying attention to.

Data Integrity in Your Print Business

I feel a little like a broken record regarding the importance of data integrity in your Print MIS/ERP. It seems like I write an article about it a couple times a year. It isn’t getting any better out there and it’s only getting more important to your print business’s ability to profitably scale and innovate.

Printing in Motion: European Print Imports and Exports

Print is being traded across borders and the European Union is making trade a lot easier. However, printing on demand, shorter runs, and streamlining supply chains gave rise to more local print. This trend is illustrated in the print import and export data.

Waiting and Maintaining: APTech Looks Forward to Gradual Return to In-Person Events in 2022

APTech President Thayer Long looks ahead to some of the events the association has planned for 2022.

An Imaging Company at Heart, SCREEN Is Building Quite a Production Inkjet Portfolio

The roots of SCREEN are in imaging, dating back to its founding in 1868. The company has leveraged that expertise to create a significant imaging powerhouse which includes industry leading equipment for the production of displays, printed circuit boards, and semiconductors. They also continue to maintain a significant role in the production of printing equipment including high performance inkjet presses for commercial and packaging.

Cotton: The Myths vs. Reality

In today’s world, we are inundated with misinformation and disinformation, and it is a constant daily battle to separate the wheat from the chaff, the truth from fake news. This is not limited to politics and healthcare. It’s also a factor in how the fashion industry—in cotton in particular—is portrayed. This article is a summary of a recent report by Transformers Foundation highlighting common myths about cotton. We recommend reading the full report and/or listening to a recent Supima webinar for the entire story.

Good Help Is Getting Harder to Find—and Keep: Print Industries Affiliates’ Latest Wage & Benefits Survey

Last month, Print Industries Affiliates hosted a webinar that presented the results of their annual printing industry Wages & Benefits Survey. This article provides some of the top-level findings, some of the short- and long-term implications of today’s employment situation, and strategies for coping with these new challenges.

All Other Converted Paper Product Manufacturing Employment—2010–2019

According to County Business Patterns, in 2010, there were 16,147 employees in 322299 (All Other Converted Paper Product Manufacturing establishments). This NAICS category bounced up and down over the course of the 2010s, ending with 15,177 employees in 2019. In macro news: Yesterday was Q4 GDP Day!

Around the Web: Graphene Galore! Blood Book. Sayonara, SATs. Salacious Solving. Bad Bedding. Suspense Sting. Top Tales. Dairy Devices. Compromised Cars. Robot Restaurant. Retro Runners.

Graphene-Info updates all its graphene market reports. Saddam Hussein’s “Blood Qur’an.” The SATs to go all-digital in 2024. Sweary and lewd versions of Wordle. Due your research before naming bedroom furniture products. Where did the “three notes of suspense” originate? A new book looks at Haruki Murakami’s T-shirt collection. Here we go: “wearables for cows.” A teen hacker gained remote access to Teslas around the world. Inside the Beijing Olympic Village cafeteria. Sneakers designed like old VHS tapes. All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany.

Digital Production Printing: Selling Value in a Changing Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic created numerous challenges for the digital production printing market, including a decline in demand for print services and reduced investments in new production technology. This article cites recent forecast data from Keypoint Intelligence to explore key dynamics, challenges, and opportunities within this market.

Meet Textile Designer Lucy Swann and Discover Her Unique Creative Journey and Fashion Designs

As part of our continuing “meet the designer” series, compliments of textiles expert and WhatTheyThink contributor Debbie McKeegan, we introduce you to Lucy Swann, who has been designing beautiful surface patterns for the fashion industry for many years. She talks about her journey, how the industry has changed over the years, and her diversification efforts.

EcoPrint’s Content Marketing Is a Model of Authenticity

Clients are increasingly looking for vendors who “walk the walk” when it comes to sustainability. A look at EcoPrint, a printer committed to environmentally responsible services, as an example of how one shop does this well.

Self-Service Resistance in the Print Industry

Self-service is a strategic move. It takes leadership. The status quo is a powerful resistance machine which should not be underestimated.

European Print Industry Snapshot: Turkey

In this bimonthly series, WhatTheyThink is presenting the state of the printing industry in different European countries based on the latest monthly production numbers. This week, we take an updated look at the printing industry in Turkey.

Top Three Sales Mistakes to Avoid for 2022

The coming year will be one of rebuilding for everyone in your supply chain, including your most regular customers. They may be taking time to look carefully at all their relationships and their budgets, so you need to be visible to remain in consideration as they update their plans. Pat McGrew offers some tips for ensuring that your most loyal customers stay that way.

Interruptions vs. Opportunities: Know the Difference in Order to Make the Most of Your Day

There’s a maxim in the military which states that “no plan survives first contact with the enemy.” The practical application of that is simply that you plan based on what you know now, and then change your plan based on what you learn later. Dave Fellman explains how, If your priorities change, your plan must change.

Opportunities for Signs and Display Graphics in a Changing World of Retail

Much has been written about the Great Resignation and how worker shortages are affecting many businesses, a situation exacerbated by the pandemic. The retail industry is one that has clearly been heavily affected, leading to an increase in cashier-less checkout to help these businesses stay viable. This is a dramatic trend that also offers interesting opportunities for sign and display graphics businesses.

November Shipments: Reversion to the Mean

November 2021 printing shipments came in at $6.99 billion, down from $7.29 billion in October, and the first month that shipments dropped since early summer. Year to date, January-to-November shipments are $75.56 billion, only a bit off 2020’s January-to-November number of $76.36. If we have a really good December, 2021 could come in slightly above 2020.

Around the Web: Conquering Corrosion. Spent Signage. Talking Tech. Shambling Shelves. Periodic Poetry. Gone Games. Mechanical Masterpieces. Dish Delight.

Graphene-based anti-corrosion primer applied in the UK. Reverse-engineering Wordle. Las Vegas’s Neon Boneyard is a sign-based history of the city. What technology will invade our lives in 2022? Useful robots are simply self-driving shelves. A periodic table of haiku. What happened to Atari? Mechanical versions of classic paintings make art interactive. A useful feature of Starlink’s satellite dishes has an unforeseen consequence. All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s New Year’s miscellany.

Investing in HP Technology and Design to Expand into the Contract Furnishing Marketplace—We Talk with Mallion and Knowles

Digital textile printing is starting to gain steam in the contract furnishing marketplace! Find out how this development is benefiting Mallion & Knowles! Our thanks to textiles expert Debbie McKeegan for sharing this story.

Survey Says! Wide-Format in 2022

Every year round about this time, as we are going through the data from our annual Business Outlook Survey for the forthcoming Printing Outlook report, Richard Romano breaks out some wide-format-specific data to see what trends we can quantitatively gauge—and, specifically, what new application areas look the most promising.

Do the New Features of USPS Informed Delivery Really Make It Better?

The USPS continues to add expanded features to its Informed Delivery service, but based on the USPS’s own year-over-year customer satisfaction data, are these new features actually creating a better user experience?

Remove the Pain of Peak Production with HP Site Flow

Printers often experience the pain of peak—that time when capacity is at its limit, and even minor issues become significant. This article, written and sponsored by HP, looks at HP Site Flow, a software platform that automates processes from beginning to end, while providing tools to effectively manage the production floor and track the work to meet business goals.

How to Work Better with Print Software Technical Support

Using a software support desk is not anyone’s favorite activity. You have more control than you think over your ability to get what you need via your software vendors support desks.

EFI Reggiani Update: Adele Genoni of EFI Reggiani Talks About the Latest New Products to Hit the Market

Cary Sherburne recently spoke with Adele Genoni, senior vice president and general manager at EFI Reggiani, to get the latest information on what the company has been up to. Despite the pandemic, it doesn’t seem that R&D efforts have slowed down, with three new products announced in just the past few months.

Even Vacant Storefronts Sell: Redefining “Window Shopping”

Retailers across the world are transforming merchandise into artwork and creating eye-catching installations to drive traffic. Even though retailers may not occupy the specific storefront, there is still high foot traffic in the area and significant value in the brand real estate of a prime storefront regardless. SpeedPro explains how.

Will 2022 Be the Year of Consumer-Level Graphene Products?

Graphene, a much-touted miracle material, was only discovered in 2004. Since then, it has permeated many different industries with products and solutions that deliver improved performance or new and innovative capabilities. Now, just a short time after its discovery, it’s beginning to make its way into consumer-level products. Is there some graphene in your future? Let’s take a look!

Europe: Looking Back at 2021 and Forward to 2022

2021 was not quite what we expected, with paper shortages, transport issues, and cost increases disrupting the industry. European section editor Ralf Schlözer offers some lessons learned by the European printing industry and how to take advantage of them as we move into 2022.

Sanitary Paper Product Manufacturing Employment—2010–2019

According to County Business Patterns, in 2010, there were 19,221 employees in NAICS 322291 (Sanitary Paper Product Manufacturing establishments). This NAICS category bounced up and down over the course of the 2010s, ending with 19,593 employees in 2019. In macro news: CPI increased 0.5% in December.

Around the Web: Toaster Tech. Car Color. Tongue Texting. Dynamic Dumbbells. Pointless Purloining. Malicious Meters. Face Fitbit. Snow Solution. Troubling Tie-In.

A graphene-based toaster. A BMW covered with E Ink panels can change color at the push of a button. A “smart retainer” for tongue-based text messaging. Alexa-based smart dumbbells can adjust weights via voice command. “The Spine Collector” scams book editors for manuscript copies of forthcoming books, for seemingly no reason whatsoever. QR code-based parking meter scams. An electronic mask can detect leaks. A liquid based bubble clock. How did people clear roads before the snowplow? Walmart’s special “Pain Box” DVD edition of “Dune.” All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s Wordle-winning miscellany.

Talent and Culture as a Competitive Advantage

In this article Wayne Lynn presents the case for gaining competitive advantage through leadership development, helping employees meet their needs, and helping employees develop into better behavioral matches to high performers in their chosen jobs. Adopting this approach will, over time, strengthen the talent base of the business and foster a performance oriented culture.

Artificial Intelligence: Defining an Often-Misused Term

Artificial intelligence (AI) is much more than just a buzzword—it is currently available technology that is poised to transform much of our world, including the printing industry. This article defines this often-misused term and explains how AI differs from more traditional software programs.

The African Print Company Invests in Digital Textile Print for Absolute Supply Chain Control

Choosing to purchase their own machinery and not to outsource the manufacture of their products will give the husband-and-wife team at The African Print Company absolute control of their supply chain as they gear up the business, removing the requirement for keeping inventory on hand. And importantly, giving them the freedom to listen to their consumers and create the designs and products that their loyal customers love. They intend to implement customized manufacture and on-demand production from day one.

Why Invest in a Landa Digital Press? The View from Hudson Printing

Paul Hudson, CEO of Hudson Printing (Salt Lake City), shares his rationale for investing in a Landa S10P—why now, why the Landa, and how he expects it to impact his business.

Software’s Role in Helping Your Business Through Labor Challenges

Business processes controlled via trusted software systems are the best defense against the ever-tightening labor market.

The Industry Has Been Humming Along: The Label and Packaging Year in Review

There may not have been many live events this year to showcase the latest trends in label and packaging, but hardware manufacturers and software developers have been busy, and the industry has been humming along. All of this under the backdrop of shifting consumer preferences and supply chain challenges. David Zwang takes a look.

European Print Industry Snapshot: Bulgaria

In this bimonthly series, WhatTheyThink is presenting the state of the printing industry in different European countries based on the latest monthly production numbers. This week, we take an updated look at the printing industry in Bulgaria.

Top Three Software Sales Strategies for 2022

We were hoping that 2021 would bring stability and the end of lockdowns and quarantines. While we had some respite mid-year, we’re beginning 2022 with similar challenges. The good news for software sellers is that there is a continuing market for solutions to automate, optimize, and streamline at every step of the workflow. Contributor Pat McGrew offers three software sales strategies to kick off 2022.

Automation Will Power Your New Year

For your business to grow in 2022, you will need an intelligent infrastructure that allows work to move from sale to delivery with the least amount of friction. This article, written and sponsored by Kodak, tells you how to build a strategic plan for automation.

A Fresh Look at the Dye-Sublimation Opportunity

Back in 2019, we pointed out the opportunity presented by adding dye-sublimation printing to the mix as a diversification strategy. A great deal has happened since then, not the least of which is the continuing impact of the pandemic. But one thing that has not changed is the opportunity this technology offers. Read on!

The Target Report: GPA Global Emerges as Packaging Consolidator—December 2021 M&A Activity

Southern California Graphics Sells to GPA, CJK Acquires Again; and more…

Preliminary 2021 Business Conditions: Help Ruin This Chart!

We are sifting through the preliminary data from our 2021 Print Outlook Survey, and so far we have found that 17% of print businesses reported that revenues in 2021 increased more than 25% over 2020, and a further one-third (32%) saw revenues up 10–25%. But our survey is still open, so here is your chance to wreck this chart.

Around the Web: Public Property. Compelling Covers. Required Reading. Pre-PARC. Lego Lettering. Graphene Galore. Clever Clicker. Tongue TV. Fast Fitness. Visual Visage. Piscine Pilots.

Winnie the Pooh is ours now! The best book covers of 2021. What was the best book of the past 125 years? A history of the graphical user interface. All the latest textile-based graphene developments. Samsung’s new TV remote can harvest energy from your router’s radio waves. Sony’s new Bravia Cam allows you to control your TV via gestures. A lickable TV screen to sample televised tastes. McDonald’s in China is installing exercise bikes. A display, app, and platform for displaying digital facial expressions on masks. Fish can now drive cars. All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s New Year’s miscellany.

Let’s Try This Again: Wide Format 2022—Seven Things to Pay Attention to

Almost against all odds, here we are in 2022, and it’s hard not to get the sense that this is our third attempt at starting 2020, building on the successes of 2019 before things went south. As we head into the new year, here are some of the topics Wide Format section editor Richard Romano has been following as they relate to wide-format printing—and, specifically, the market for wide-format printing.

A Guide to Eco-Friendly, Sustainable Fabric and Textile Printing—Print Customers Are Increasingly Requesting Greener Materials

There has been significant focus on improving sustainability in the textiles and apparel industry, and that concern for the planet is also affecting what customers are demanding in signs & display graphics, especially looking for more sustainable soft signage. What type of textile printing is greenest, and what can be done to reduce waste? These are just two of the topics addressed in this article provided by Ella Faulkner of Soyang Europe, compliments of Texinel.

HBR Study Finds 28% Lift in Sales and 600% ROI by Adding Print Catalogs

In a large-scale field study conducted by Harvard Business Review, a luxury e-commerce retailer found that by adding print catalogs, it increased sales by 28% and inquiries by 77%. It also yielded a direct ROI of 600%.

Accessible Publishing: A Valued Skill for Graphic Communicators

The last century has been a time of sweeping change for mass communication methods, and the capabilities of graphic communication firms have expanded to include non-print services such as website design and email campaign development in addition to the conversion of printed documents to the Portable Document Format (PDF), web forms, or interactive media. Hal Hinderliter explains how this list of capabilities is poised to change again, as awareness increases regarding the need for all graphic communication to be made accessible to audiences with physical or cognitive limitations.

Automation Starts with Your Print MIS/ERP

Automation is about finding recurring patterns and then taking them out of the hands of humans and into the realm of software so that repetitive tasks can be done programmatically—and “programmatically” automating anything in your business will inevitably involve your Print MIS.

Reanimating the Customer Experience: Take Radical Ownership of Outcomes

The ultimate goal of customer experience management (CXM) is to establish greater customer stability and loyalty resulting in predictable, sustainable company growth. In every customer relationship there is a time when promises made must become promises kept. Preston Herrin explains how your entire team should be acutely focused on correctly establishing, measuring, and delivering on the customers’ expectations.

Color, Your Brand, and Display Graphics: How Your Clients Perceive You Through Color

In today’s world of digital and mixed analog technologies, it can be difficult to get consistent color from different platforms. Marty Davis, President of Alder Color Solutions, explains the importance of ensuring color consistency across small- and wide-format graphics.

Heidelberg: Solidly Positioned for Growth

As the print market has evolved, Heidelberg, like all other analog and digital press manufacturers, has had to pivot to address the new market demands. For a while, their transition had been a bit rocky, but they seem to have stabilized and are now growing with an impressive line of products with more to come.

Labor Pains: The Challenge of Attracting Young Talent to the Printing Industry

Although it’s not a new problem, the labor shortage in the graphic arts industry is becoming more pressing with many industries rallying for talent—and the print industry not necessarily being seen as very attractive. A lack of new staff to fill required roles is already affecting the competitiveness of many printing companies across Europe. European section editor Ralf Schlözer look at one Millennial and Gen Z employee recruitment project underway in Europe and the lessons it can teach globally.

drupa 2021 Essentials of Print: The Digitization of Packaging

Digital packaging printing allows brands to make content decisions closer to the consumer, helping them to provide more than just the traditional containment and protection functions of the pack, with information and promotion. Digital print and finishing of packaging can provide a wider range of functions beyond analogue capabilities, which is why it is growing so quickly. Smithers’ Sean Smyth looks at the current state of digital packaging and where it’s heading.

What’s the Deal with Denim?

We all love our jeans, but consumers are increasingly becoming aware of the massive environmental impact of the denim dyeing process—chemistry, water usage, potential pollution of water sources, and so on. But there are encouraging developments underway in the world of more sustainable denim. We explore a few of them here.

Commentary & Analysis

Insight You Need. Analysis You Trust.