Printing Industry Commentary & Analysis

Managing Employee Stress During the COVID-19 Crisis

This is an unprecedented and chaotic time, the nature of business is changing rapidly, and everyone in the organization, from the top down, feels the stress. Wayne Lynn offers some guidance for business leaders to help alleviate employee stress.

Around the Web: Social Salutations. Demanding Distance. Lavatorial Leaves. Restaurant Relics. Menschy Macmillan. Mammoth Manse. Plane Panes. Terrific Tablet. Mine Music.

More alternatives to handshaking. A Chicago restaurant offers free...dinner rolls. “Social distancing enforcement object.” A field guide to local foliage should the TP shortage become acute. Brooklyn restaurateurs uncover a trove of historical materials from a 19th century restaurant. A woman mistakes cheese for soap. Macmillan cancels its plans to deny libraries access to ebooks. An Ice Age house made of mammoth bones. Faux stained glass window clings for airplanes. E Ink’s new tablet could be a hit. The Shaft Bottom Boys play world’s deepest concert. All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly self-quarantined miscellany.

Printing Establishments—2010–2017

According to the latest edition of County Business Patterns, in 2017 there were 25,256 establishments in NAICS 323 (Printing and Related Support Activities). This represents a decline of 13% since the decade began.

Designer Spotlight with Jie Ren: A New Generation of Sustainable Textile and Fashion Design

Designers are quickly becoming aware of the new opportunities offered by digital technologies for the fashion and home décor industries. In this article, we focus in on Jie Ren and his Fashion Collections, reflecting a new era of fashion manufacturing.

Improving Employee Retention with Effective Training

Employee retention is a top-of-mind issue for nearly every organization. Proper training can improve employee retention and increase company growth. This document explores how today’s print service providers (PSPs) are allocating their training dollars.

Marketers Aren’t Always Using the Most Effective Channels, Even When They Know What They Are

According to new research from Printing for Less (PFL) and Demand Metric, marketers are not always using the most effective channels, even when they know what they are. Instead, they use the channels they know and are most familiar with. A look at some intriguing data on channel use and channel effectiveness, including types of direct mail.

Cannabis Packaging Market to Triple in Three Years According to Smithers

The second in a series of articles about the current cannabis landscape, and the potential opportunities in cannabis product packaging. Market research from Smithers—The Future of Cannabis Packaging to 2024—forecasts that as this market evolves, the value of the packaging for legal cannabis products will rise from $493 million to exceed $1.63 billion in 2024.

Strategic Software Projects

We find ourselves in difficult times, the conditions of which are delivering a window of opportunity to do strategic projects that will accelerate your business when the economic engine starts running at full speed again.

The Cannabis Gold Rush: New Business Opportunities in Packaging and Apparel Are Here for the Taking

The first in a series of articles about the current cannabis landscape. While this is a high-growth market opportunity for packaging converters, it is also still a Wild West environment, and there are many misunderstandings about what it is comprised of, what’s legal and what’s not, and what the actual benefits of cannabis-derived products are from a health and well-being perspective. In this introductory feature, Cary Sherburne provides an overview of the current state of the market, including definitions, and applications, as well as developments in packaging and even apparel.

Selling CYMK+: A Starter Guide (Part 1)

One of the popular additions to print shops around the world is the ability to create products that add white ink, embossing, debossing, foil, iridescent and neon colors, metallics, varnishes, texture, and unique folds to create high value. We call it CYMK+ because much of this work is created on digital presses and the ability to add enhancements is the plus. The breadth of options for enhancement provide myriad possibilities, but that might make it hard to find a talk track for the sales team. In this two-part feature, Pat McGrew walks through the steps to sell CMYK+ capabilities.

High-Energy Discussions at RadTech UV + EB Conference

Last week we attended RadTech’s 2020 UV+EB Technology Conference in Orlando. Richard Romano reports on some of the new trends in energy-cured inks for packaging, 3D printing, and how UV technology is helping combat the coronavirus.

Denim Reimagined: A New, More Eco-Friendly Way to Think About Denim

We all love our blue jeans. They are comfortable, often stylish, but what about their impact on the environment? What if you could have a pair of jeans with an almost indistinguishable look on the outside, but silky soft on the inside, with a 97% water footprint reduction? Sound impossible? With new fabric printing technologies, it’s totally achievable. Read what Dalton Cheng of Intech has to say on this subject and more.

Printed Electronics: Closer Than (But Not Where) You Think

Printed electronics have been hyped as a potential growth area for printers for years. Pete Basiliere offers a reality check on the current state of printed electronics, what some top applications are, and what printers need to know if they want to pursue them.

Around the Web: Meddling Microbes. Apple AR. Virtual Vestments. Morphing Malls. Wacky Warrants. Crustacean Causeway.

A round up of some virus-laden news items. Apple’s Quick Look adds AR to shopping. Virtual fashion makes “fit pics” sustainable. A Dutch shopping mall that doesn’t sell anything. “Geofencing warrants” trace geolocation data to crime scenes. Building a crab infrastructure on Christmas Island. All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany.

Graphic Arts Employment—February 2020

In February 2020, overall printing employment was virtually unchanged from January (-0.1%) and on a year-over-year basis was down -2.0%. Interestingly, production employment was up, albeit infinitesimally.

drupa 2020: HP Indigo Steps Up Their Game All Around

On the heels of the HP PageWide announcement last week, HP Indigo has now announced some significant technology and product advancements which seem to reaffirm industry shifts, but more importantly highlight the company’s direction going forward.

Don’t Forget to Finish It!

Virtually every printed document requires some type of finishing. The expanding array of digital printing methods has changed the nature of finishing from large-scale devices focused on offset printing to automated methods that often occur alongside a production digital printer. To reach its true potential, the role of finishing must evolve as well. Recent research from Keypoint Intelligence – InfoTrends offers important insights on how print service providers (PSPs) can leverage finishing to win business and drive profitability.

The Economic Case for Employee Engagement

Having employees that are engaged in and satisfied with their jobs can give a business a powerful competitive edge. In this article, Wayne Lynn looks at the positive impacts that engaged employees can have on a print business’ bottom line.

Which to Choose: Natural Language or PR Speak?

How we speak to our customers matters. Are you using natural language or that “PR speak” that investors love but that causes the average person to tune out?

Printers Need More Selling During Print Software Implementations

The sales process should extend into the implementation of print software because all humans need to be persuaded of the merits so that they can become enthusiastic about the new toolset.

Understanding The CCM-to-CXM Evolution

As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, the Customer Communications Management (CCM) market is undergoing radical changes on an evolutionary scale. In order to better understand the forces behind this evolution, late last year Aspire CCSsurveyed businesses across the globe, interviewed stakeholders in every facet of the market, and published an extensive report entitled “The State of CCM-to-CXM Transformation.” This four-part series, published in partnership with WhatTheyThink, will take a look at some of the key takeaways from this research by first examining the forces driving this evolution.

HP PageWide Inkjet Has Become Brilliant

HP likes to combine technology innovation with the release of a new press. In this case, the new innovation is HP Brilliant InkTMand the press is the new HP PageWide Web Press T250 HD. Targeted at commercial and publishing markets, initially Brilliant InkTMadds compatibility with offset coated and uncoated media through the selective use of a new HP Optimizer. This brings HP PageWide to the level of media handling capabilities of the competing Canon ProStream and Ricoh VC70000.

Upcoming Sign Expo Offers Hands-On Educational Opportunities

As of this morning, the ISA Sign Expo 2020 is still a go. This year, the show heads to Orlando April 1–4, with four days of educational sessions and its continuously expanding exhibition floor. We spoke with Brandon Hensley, ISA’s Chief Operating Officer, and Iain Mackenzie, ISA’s VP of Meetings & Events, for a preview of this year’s show.

Urbanization, Population Growth Drives Rising Worldwide Packaging Market

In 2019, packaging will reach a total global value of $917 billion with demand growing steadily at 2.8% yearly to reach $1.05 trillion in 2024.Rising incomes, growing populations, and rising urbanization are some of the key growth drivers for the global packaging market, according to The Future of Global Packaging to 2024, a new study from Smithers.

Advances in Smart Textiles Add Functionality to Apparel, Home Décor, Health

Expect to see accelerating developments in smart textiles through 2020 and beyond. A few of the more recent developments are explained in this article by Senior Editor Cary Sherburne, who is keeping tabs on this market segment and the exciting news coming out almost daily. Be sure to check out WhatTheyThink’s Around the Web every Friday for additional smart textile news.

Executive Q&A: Kevin Shimamoto, Chief Marketing Officer, Memjet

Kevin Shimamoto is the CMO of Memjet, a company that is positioned to provide the tools for the next generation of printing applications. His background, and the Memjet mission, is a great story that brings energy and innovation to print.

Catching the Wave in Corrugated Cartons—February 2020 M&A Activity

Welch Packaging Group Stays Strategically Focused with PAX, Thomas Printworks Acquires Dynamic, GSP Adds Custom Color, and more…

Around the Web: All About CBD. The Death of the Apostrophe? History of the Sticker Museum. Paramedical Tattoos. Hive Heists. The Big Data of Big Hair.

A close look at what CBD does in the body. Have we killed the apostrophe? Terry Jones’ final project. Beehive theft is now a thing. Which decade had the biggest hair? A history of sneaker design. All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany.

Prepress and Postpress Establishments—2017

According to the latest edition of County Business Patterns, in 2017 there were 1,373 establishments in NAICS 32312 (Support Activities for Printing). The majority of these establishments (66%) had fewer than 10 employees.

Five Digital Textile Ink Sets and Print Processes Explained

There have been many advances in ink sets for digital textile printing over the last several years. Are you up to date with the latest information? This article will give you insight into five ink types available, how they work, and which fabric types they are suited for.

Creating a Better Sales Process: Tips for Success

Thanks to an abundance of online information, many buyers conduct a good amount of research on their own before they even engage with a sales rep. This places additional pressure on sales organizations and their reps. This article provides tips on creating a sales process that will engage more customers and close more business.

New Owner Greg Ellison Gets Up to Speed at SpeedPro Denver

Last November, Greg Ellison took over as the new owner of the well-established SpeedPro Denver. Coming from outside the printing industry, he found the learning curve has been steep but enjoyable.

The Impersonal Personalized Letter

Today I received a marketing letter that was an interesting twist on the use of faux handwriting to make a communication feel more personal. But instead of the handwriting being on the front, it peeked through a window on the back.

Elevating Foundational Print Software Decisions

There are a lot of decisions to be made around print software; it might surprise you which ones I think are the most important.

Designing With Technology In Mind

A designer can create a fantastic-looking printed piece, but great design doesn’t mean much if it can’t physically be printed. ColorKarma’s Shoshana Burgett discusses how the technological limitations imposed on designers—whether it be web or print—can actually be empowering.

drupa Preview: Re-Automating Automation—The Next Wave

On the 20th anniversary of Enfocus PitStop Server, one of the earliest of the automated workflow tools, there is a broader movement to bring automation tools to the next level in order to support the new business and production requirements of today and tomorrow.

Printing Outlook 2020—Happy Days Are Here Again?

WhatTheyThink’s annual printing industry outlook report, including the results of our Fall 2019 Business Outlook survey, is now available in our Report Store. This article offers some of the top-level results from that survey.

Use Win Themes to Increase Prospect Receptivity

There is a secret sales strategy known as the “Win Theme”: a sales approach that aligns a prospect’s priorities and goals with your company’s strengths. Lisa Magnuson explains how you can use Win Themes to turn your prospects into customers.

RIP Technology—Colorimetry and Color Management in Digital Textile Printing

With the growing share of digital print for textiles, software and workflow can often be more critical than the printing engine itself. In this article, we provide information about software RIPs and their role in the digital fabric printing process.

Around the Web: Hygienic Handshakes. Public Pix. Mobile Museum. Continuing Catalogs. Stop Signage. Face Filter Failure. Funny Fashion. Cuttable Condiment.

A possible alternative to the handshake. Both the Smithsonian and the Biodiversity Heritage Library have released thousands of images into the public domain. Libraries are ditching overdue fines. Take the Swedish Design Museum home with you. Believe it or not, printed catalogs and the mail order business may be in the process of restoration—if not Restoration. Inside the NY DOT inplant and Stop sign manufacturing. Rough weather for a meteorologist who left an AR filter on his broadcast. Stop-motion animation using pancakes. The best thing since sliced...mayonnaise? All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany.

Retail Sales—January 2020

Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for January 2020, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $529.8 billion, an increase of +0.3% (±0.4%) from the previous month, and +4.4% (±0.7%) above January 2019. Retail drives a lot of printing and packaging volume, so it’s important to keep an eye on that sector.

Choice is Key to a Positive Customer Experience

Providers of transactional communications must continually reinvent themselves to keep up with consumers’ changing preferences and work to effectively deliver their messages. Above all, today’s consumers are demanding a say in the way that their providers communicate with them. This document provides data points from Keypoint Intelligence – InfoTrends’ most recent transactional communications survey to underscore the importance of choice in delivering a positive customer experience.

Winning the Marketing Automation War

Fueled by mindset, society, and technology, a new generation of business buyers is forcing companies to re-think how they approach every aspect of their business. As a result, marketers across all industries are investing in solutions that help capture, distill, and present customer data—and automating how leads are generated, scored, nurtured, and converted from suspect to prospect to customer. Joanne Gore examines the current marketing automation landscape.

Solving All Your Print Software Challenges at Once

It's easy to get into a panic when you wake up to the reality that your approach to software in your print business requires a major overall. It probably took you years to get into this state; don’t freak out because it could take years to crawl out of it. The best thing to do is to calmly prioritize and then start making incremental progress.

Neiman Marcus Shines a Spotlight on OptiChannel Marketing (Yes, Opti, not Omni)

A short case study from Neiman Marcus that includes direct mail shines a spotlight on the importance of a term we don’t hear much anymore, but maybe we should revive—optichannel marketing.

Cracking the QR Code: Xanté Goes Beyond Print with InfoMark

Xanté has launched an alternative to the QR code called InfoMark that lets writers and other content creators “attach” multimedia elements to print via a unique four-digit code. We gave InfoMark a spin to see how it worked.

The Sales Process Review Crawl

No one likes reviews, but they can be a necessary evil. In this article, Pat McGrew explains how acquiring comprehensive data about jobs sold—and keeping that job database updated—can make the review process quick and painless.

What’s the Dresscode? Smart and Savvy CashCuff® Wearables!

As the market for wearable technology continues to evolve, UK-based Dresscode has taken a unique approach with CashCuff, the world’s first smart payment shirt. See what founder and CEO Andy Boothman has to say about the origin of the company and its strategy for the future.

King of a Changing Bookmaking Paradigm

There is a surge in demand for printed books, driven by two trends: self-publishing and on-demand printing, both enabled by digital printing technology. Of the 700 million books produced in the U.S. last year, about half were printed on demand using digital technology. Frank Romano profiles Lowell, Mass.’s King Printing Company, which takes on-demand book printing to the next level.

Book Printers—2017

The latest edition of County Business Patterns is out, which updates number of establishments and other data to 2017. In that year, there were 500 establishments in NAICS 323117 (Book Printing). The majority of these establishments (63%) had fewer than 10 employees.

Around the Web: Glowing Garments. Election Ensemble. Lasting Lore. Waning Watches. Blocking Bracelet. Pivot-Table Percussion. Victorian Vehemence. Fowl Footwear.

An LED light system to add high visibility to safety apparel. Forevernote will preserve your family memories—professional biographer included. The Apple Watch outsold the entire Swiss watch industry. “Bracelet of silence” keeps Alexa from eavesdropping. Weird punctuation in film titles. Turn Microsoft Excel into a drum machine. A Victorian shop manager quits in protest over bar codes. KFC and Crocs team up for...huh? All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany.

Frank Romano and the Desktop Publishing Revolution

Late last year, Frank Romano completed History of Desktop Publishing, the third book in a trilogy that includes History of the Linotype Companyand History of the Phototypesetting Era. This book, described by Jonathan Seybold as a “Tour de Force,” is enriched with Frank’s deep knowledge of the history of the printing industry. This article offers an overview of some of the book’s highlights.

Creatives Push Digital Textile Print to The Max

The push and pull between creatives and production professionals occurs in just about every industry, including textiles. Creatives want bold designs that enhance their portfolios and bring beauty to the world. Production folks just want something that they can produce! Helping bridge that gap is the topic of today’s article by WhatTheyThink contributor and textiles expert Debbie McKeegan.

We Know Martech Works—Here’s Proof

According to new research, marketing technology does more than make marketing automation easier. It results in higher response rates and higher ROI. A look at a study from Printing for Less (PFL) and Demand Metric.

Technology + Direct Mail + Consumer Behavior = A Future to Bet On…

Christine Erna explains how direct mail printers can use “enhanced print” technologies to increase engagement, generate new leads, track real-time results, and stay top of mind with customers and prospects.

Lucent Botanicals Offers Unique CBD Mints in Equally Unique Packaging

As we continue to cover the burgeoning cannabis market and the business opportunities it offers, we spent time talking with Chris Cooper, CEO of California-based Lucent Botanicals, who has taken a different approach to CBD that is taken orally—mints enhanced with a variety of herbs and essences to tune their effects to different consumer requirements. He also shared his packaging strategy for these unique products.

Ghent Workgroup Launches New Specification for Sign and Display

Wide-format printing often involves a phenomenon called “apparent resolution,” which can be quite different than a print’s actual resolution. An image designed to be viewed up close, like a photograph in a magazine or direct mail piece, will have a different apparent resolution—and thus resolution requirement—than one designed to be viewed from a long ways away. Taking apparent resolution into account was the raison d’êtreof a new specification for sign and display graphics just released by the Ghent Workgroup.

Industrial Inkjet Gets RIPPED

In an industrial inkjet environment, a lot of pieces go into creating a specialized solution, but it’s the raster image processor (RIP) that does the heavy lifting. Elizabeth Gooding takes a detailed look at all the criteria to keep in mind when selecting RIP software for an industrial printing workflow.

The Print Distributor Market Changes with the Times

Technology and a changing print product mix drive changes in the distributor–client relationship. We spoke with Matt Bruno and Nathan Goldberg of the PSDA to get a bead on how the non-asset-based print sales market has evolved.

Pang-Wangling to Fashion Success

To pang-wangle is to live or go along cheerfully in spite of minor misfortunes. That’s exactly what Jennifer John is doing with her Pang Wangle fashion business, creating sustainable fashion ideal for hot, buggy climates such as is experienced in her home state of Louisiana. We spoke to Jennifer to learn more about her background, her growing business, and the challenges she faced finding just the exact right fabric for her unique creations.

December Shipments: Ending 2019 on a High Note

The value of printing shipments for December 2019 was down from November—as we expected it would be—but not down as much as been the case in recent years. At $6.95 billion, December shipments were down from November’s $7.03 billion, but far above the depths of 2017 and 2018.

Around the Web: Cool Clipart. Book Bot. Artistic Appetizers. Calligraphic Collection. Lotsa Letters. Grotesque Garfield. Jurassic Driver.

Royalty-free illustrations from old books. A Japanese artist hand-draws every meal he eats. A new book teaches hand-lettering. An Ohio man receives 55,000 copies of the same letter from his daughter’s Student Loan Company. A reimagining (and improvement) of Garfield. Printed greeting cards are still in fashion. Making 3D printing resin from old fryer oil. Why are people getting worse at The Price Is Right? All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany.

Triage for People Performance Issues

Every business has employees who don’t perform as expected, or even as well as you as a manager know they are capable of performing. Why is that? There are a number of reasons why employees underperform, and they aren’t all the fault of the employee in question. Wayne Lynn details four primary reasons that people underperform on the job, and what employers can do about it.

Why Should I Buy From You?

Regardless of our job responsibilities, we, as employees and businesses, should be putting ourselves in our customers’ shoes and asking ourselves why should they buy from us? This article explores some of the questions that marketers can ask themselves to help improve sales success.

Lessons from Resonate’s “State of the Consumer” Report

Reports like Resonate’s “State of the Consumer Report” provide valuable insight into buyer types and how to understand and segment them in ways that help you develop great targeted copy. But before you can develop personalized or targeted content, there is a more fundamental question to ask. Once this question is answered, your targeting and personalization efforts will have maximum success.

Print Software Strategic Planning

Your software investments deserve big picture, strategic planning. It’s time to step back and assess your core business processes and how software helps, hinders, optimizes, or ideally automates the steps required everyday to deliver on your customer promises.

Global Market for Print and Printed Packaging Output Reaches $826.5 Billion in 2019, Smithers Finds

Printing and printed packaging remains an important industry sector in 2019, with a value of more than $826 billion in sales supporting paper and substrate suppliers, ink makers, plate and cylinder suppliers, and high-tech printing equipment manufacturers. This article, adapted from a new Smithers report, looks at the future of global print to 2024.

Do Reviews Annoy Your Salespeople?

Which print sales people are compensated for a sale, and at what rate, is often part of a contractual relationship between the company and the sales representative, but not always. Sometimes the relationships are based on “how things have always been done” or verbal agreements. And not every deal brought in is a winner. As a result, some kind of periodic review is necessary for the business to effectively allocate its production resources. In Part 1 of a new series, Pat McGrew discusses sales review processes.

The Sourcing Group Brings Technology Expertise to Corporate Clients

At the recent EFI Connect 2020 conference, Lynn Smith from The Sourcing Group spoke on the customer panel, sharing The Sourcing Group’s unique story. We followed up with her afterward to get more details on this print-related Business Process Optimization (BPO) company.

Screen Printing Establishments—2017

The latest edition of County Business Patterns is out, which updates number of establishments and other data to 2017. In that year, there were 5,186 establishments in NAICS 323113 (Commercial Screen Printing). The majority of these establishments (74%) had fewer than 10 employees.

Around the Web: Printing Parkinson’s. Shedding Sheep. Shark Suit. Bartending ’Bots. Scorigami! Publishing Palaces. Canine Cans. Hog Hearses. Daliwood. Mobile Men’s Room. Junk Jam.

A new typeface raises awareness of, and helps fund a cure for, Parkinson’s Disease. Pineapple wool aims to replace sheep. A shark-proof wetsuit. Dye-sub transfer for non-polyester fibers. Japan experiments with robot bartenders. Private equity tries to acquire .org domain registry. Scorigami tracks rare football scores. Former newspaper headquarters have become luxury apartments. A Florida brewery puts pictures of adoptable rescue dogs on beer cans—and one woman finds her lost dog. Motorcycle hearses for uneasy riders. Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney once collaborated on an animated short film. “Uber for lavatories.” Faking a traffic jam on Google Maps. All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany.

The Smartest Investor Ever Exits Newspapers—January 2020 M&A Activity

Berkshire Hathaway Gives Up on Newspapers, Transcontinental Embarks on Retail Strategy, Graphic Village Acquires Brand Consultancy, and more…

What Will AR Headsets Mean to Print Service Providers?

This article considers how the shift from mobile-based to headset-based augmented reality (AR) will impact augmented print offerings. It also explores when print service providers can expect to see the first mainstream AR headset and which company will likely introduce it.

Digital Textile Printing Unlocks the Supply Chain to Offer Speed Plus Sustainability

As the world’s second largest polluter, the textiles and apparel industry has placed a huge focus on improving supply chain management to reduce its environmental footprint. WhatTheyThink contributor and textiles expert Debbie McKeegan talks about how digital textile printing can be a key to this effort, unlocking the supply chain while offering speed and sustainability.

Marketers Are Starting to “Get” the Real Benefits of Personalization

According to data from Evergage/Research International, marketers are starting to “get” one of the most fundamental values of personalized experiences. Yes, personalization drives immediate sales, but more importantly, it creates better customer experiences and higher customer loyalty, which drive better ROI over time. The shift from a short-term to a long-term perspective is great news for everyone producing personalized campaigns, whether they are doing online personalization or not.

The Carpeted Area of Your Print Business

We have spent decades focusing and optimizing the production floor (where there is no carpet). It is time to focus our energies on the carpeted areas of the business which impact customer’s perceptions of our business.

Shifting From an Omni-Channel to an Immersive Customer Experience

Omni-channel campaigns have become old hat; marketers today are looking beyond omni-channel to fully immersive customer experiences, often using augmented reality. Colorkarma’s Shoshana Burgett looks at some cutting-edge examples.

Corrugated Re-Envisioned—Part 3: Preprint (Print and Laminate) Even More Choices!

High color corrugated packaging is growing and will continue to grow. The run sizes are getting smaller to adapt to the new market requirements, and the opportunities for print service providers to jump on this moving train abound. In Part 3 of this series, I focus on the available preprint solutions with some limited product mentions. Selecting which method is better is really based on a lot of factors, including your market opportunities, capital investment, production costs, and internal skills. Although making that determination also involves board and run size as well. Both analog and digital presses are and will continue to be in the mix and grow. It’s a pretty exciting time with some great opportunities.

How George Brown College Is Addressing Workforce Needs and More in Textiles and Apparel

You can’t attend any textiles and apparel events or speak with industry professionals without the subject of workforce challenges arising. Senior Editor Cary Sherburne spoke with Marilyn McNeil-Morin about the Fashion Exchange program at Toronto’s George Brown College that has programs in place to help address these issues.

Graphic Arts Employment—December 2019

In December 2019, overall printing employment dropped -0.2% from November, and on a year-over-year basis, it is down -2.4%. Production employment was down -0.5% from November to December (and -4.4% Y/Y) while non-production employment was down -0.1% from November to December—but actually up +1.7% Y/Y.

Around the Web: Sustainable Straws. Mobile Meetings. Floating Fashion. Classic Critique. Latest Lenses. Fractious Footwear. Cleaver Calming,

The growing market for paper straws. A slow elevator designed for fast meetings. A paperboy helps save a restaurant from fire. A balloon-based fashion collection. A new book collects old airline maps. Another new book collects photographs of famous economists. Which classic novels are the most-loved—and most-hated? Contact lens-based displays. Are new running shoes “technological doping”? Merit badges for—oy—“adulting.” Three words: “meat cleaver massage.” All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany.

Digital Color Print for Labels & Packaging: Aqueous Inkjet Is Rising

Although UV technology currently dominates the inkjet printing market, aqueous printing is gradually rising. This article provides a brief overview of the inkjet printing market and considers what the future may hold for UV and aqueous technologies.

EFI Connect 2020 Rounds Out a Year of Dramatic Change for the Company

EFI Connect 2020 marked the 21st year this user conference has been held, and the 13th year it has been hosted at the Wynn Hotel & Resort in Las Vegas. This edition marked a year of dramatic change for the company, with the departure of long-time CEO Guy Gecht, a short-lived CEO in Bill Muir, and an acquisition by Siris Group that took the company from public to private. EFI Connect 2020 was an opportunity for customers to gain first-hand insight into what these changes might mean for them.

Emerging and Transitional Economies Drive Growth for Retail-Ready Packaging, Says Smithers Market Report

Demand growth for retail-ready packaging is originating within emerging and transitional economies, with Asia-Pacific accounting for 4.5 million metric tons—nearly half the total global demand—according to Smithers’ latest report, The Future of Retail-Ready Packaging to 2024.

New Insight into Why Targeting Works

When we think about creating relevance in marketing communications, we think about personalizing based on traditional factors such as demographics and past purchases. But the principle of “liking” adds another useful dimension to the equation.

Solving Print Business Challenges with Software

Describe your business challenges: be specific, be precise. Then let go of any attachment to the “how this business challenge gets solved by print software.” You want your business challenges solved. One of the fastest ways to solve them is to describe them accurately and then to be open to all the possible solutions.

Corrugated Re-Envisioned Part 2—Direct Print (Post-Print) Lots of Choices!

In Part 2 of this series, I focus on the available digital post-print solutions with some limited product mentions. Leading up to drupa, I will cover some of the offerings in greater depth. All of the solutions discussed here are “single pass” printers, where the printheads are stationary and only the media moves. They include complete corrugating equipment with built in printing, to a tabletop printer with lots of other options in between. Equipment pricing ranges from in excess of $4MM to as low as $19K. In summary: Lots of Choices!

For Phoenix’s Custom Graphix, It’s a Banner Day

Since its founding in 2002, Phoenix, Ariz.’s Custom Graphix Signworks has cornered the market on that most commoditized of wide-format applications: banners. We spoke with Mladen Mike Mirkovic, founder and principal of Custom Graphix.

Prima-Tex Helps Customers Understand Differences Between Digital and Analog Textile Printing

At last month’s AATCC/SGIA Digital Textile Printing Conference 4.0, I had the pleasure of meeting Jonathan Tio and his brother Patrick of California-based Prima-Tex. His active and informed participation in the conference discussions were an inspiration, and he agreed to a subsequent interview for this article.

Here Is Your 2020 Sales Template

One of the most important activities at the start of the year is a quick review of the processes that go into ensuring the smooth flow of business. Often overlooked is how sales team members gather the information needed to bring a job into production, whether it is a new job or one that has been in production for years. Pat McGrew offers a template to use to standardize the information captured during the sales process.

Commercial Printing Establishments—2017

The latest edition of County Business Patterns is out, which updates the number of establishments and other data. In 2017, there were 25,256 establishments in NAICS 323 (Printing and Related Support Activities). The majority of these establishments (71%) have fewer than 10 employees.

Around the Web: Lavatory Literature. Modulated Mummy. Ubiquitous Unicorns. Streaming Salvos. Tiny Type. Cranium Confusion. Forensic Flipping. Pigeon Parade.

“Facility” is a new print magazine all about bathrooms. Giving voice to a 3,000-year-old mummy. Op-eds from the future. The opening salvos in the streaming wars. Stores are compensating for poor packaging design choices. Dante’s Inferno for language pedants. The battle over a cryonically frozen head. A home renovation show that remodels crime scenes. A concerto for orchestra and typewriter. The Nevada Avian Milliner is back. Also: Robopigeon! Hide the statues! All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany.

The Perfect Print: Understanding Resolution and Color

Any time textile professionals gather, color management is always a topic of discussion. It becomes even more complex when introducing digital fabric printing into the mix. WhatTheyThink contributor and textiles expert Debbie McKeegan shares insights on achieving the perfect print.

The Most Important Number(s) in 2020

As we enter another new decade, several points of disruption are expected to emerge. This article provides a brief overview of the developments that print service providers should be mindful of, as well as the financial and operational information that should be used for strategic business growth.

Purchasing a Web-to-Print Solution

You purchase software to solve business problems. When evaluating software, keep your focus on the challenges you want to solve. This will keep you open-minded about all the possible ways your challenges might be solved, rather than attachment to one specific solution.

Want More Donor Revenue? Write a Better Thank You Letter

Data insights and expert testimony tell a powerful tale: a nonprofit’s “thank you” letter matters more than many people might think. Get it right and donors feel great and are motivated to keep giving. Get it wrong and they disconnect. So get it right!

Packaging Preview: Corrugated Post-Print Re-Envisioned—Part 1

There are “two primary” corrugated print manufacturing processes for high graphics: a multi-process method of printing on a top sheet (liner) which is then laminated to the corrugated material, or, alternatively, a single process method of printing directly on the corrugated material, sometimes called “post-print.” In this article, we will look at the award-winning Bobst THQ (Très Haute Qualité) FlexoCloud technology focused on corrugated post-print production, and perhaps some alternative methods.

Direct Objects: Thinking—and Printing—Outside the Box

One of the most exciting growth areas in print today is direct-to-object (DtO) printing, but challenges of ink adhesion, transport, and feeding abound. I spoke with Peter Baldwin, Director of Marketing for East Dorset, Vt.’s Engineered Printing Solutions (EPS), about some of the issues—and opportunities—involved in direct-to-object printing.

Springs Creative Leverages 133 Years of Textile History for Today’s Digital Printing

At the AATCC/SGIA Digital Textile Printing Conference 4.0 last December, one of the high points was a presentation by Kathy Phillips, Vice President of Design/Trend at Springs Creative, a show-and-tell that highlighted the company’s rich history in textiles, beginning with the founding of the Fort Mill Manufacturing Company in 1887 by Samuel Elliot White. We talked with Phillips to get more detail on this fascinating story to share with our readers.

3D Printing: Seven Technologies and a Multitude of Materials

More than 30 years since the invention of 3D printing, a host of materials in addition to plastics—metals, alloys, composites, and biomaterials—are all used by companies worldwide to make everything from prototypes to finished goods. In this article, Pete Basiliere looks at the various 3D printing technologies and materials.

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