Frank Romano has spent over 60 years in the printing and publishing industries. Many know him best as the editor of the International Paper Pocket Pal or from the hundreds of articles he has written for publications from North America and Europe to the Middle East to Asia and Australia. Romano lectures extensively, having addressed virtually every club, association, group, and professional organization at one time or another. He is one of the industry's foremost keynote speakers. He continues to teach courses at RIT and other universities and works with students on unique research projects.
Displaying 301-400 of 896 articles
Published October 19, 2018
Frank reviews “Who’s Making Money at Digital/Inkjet Printing...and How” by noted sales consultants Bill Farquharson and Kelly Mallozzi. They do a great job presenting useful information on markets and methods for selling digital/inkjet printing, and how selling digital differs from traditional print sales.
Published October 12, 2018
Frank is beside himself over Augmented Reality (AR)-enabled print at this week's PRINT 18 event, which he demonstrates on an iPad.
Published September 28, 2018
Frank recently ordered a mini voice recorder to secretly record meetings at the White House, but was more interested in the packaging and package contents. Between the various boxes used to ship and hold the recorder and the plethora of instruction booklets, he liked all the printing that was involved.
Published September 21, 2018
Frank attended the New England Author’s Expo, featuring more than 100 self-published authors. Frank opines that it was on-demand digital printing that made it all possible. He interviews Robert Uttaro, author of “To the Survivors.”
Published September 14, 2018
Frank plays with his newest toy: a model of an English common press, a design that improved upon Gutenberg’s original. He then takes a field trip to Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace, location of Edes & Gill, an 18th-century print shop that has a life-size English common press as well as other period printing equipment. There, he talks with Gary Gregory, executive director and master printer, and his assistant Tyler Kerr.
Published August 31, 2018
The Museum of Printing in Haverhill, Mass., has published a book of 175 covers from The Inland Printer which began publication in 1883. The covers constantly pushed the envelope to show what printing could do in terms of imagery and color as the industry and technology evolved.
Published August 24, 2018
What do the Voynich mystery document and End User Licensing Agreements have to do with each other? Watch on!
Published August 17, 2018
Frank interviews Jay Smith at Superior Packaging and Finishing in Braintree, Mass. Superior recently acquired Acme Binding and now is one of the largest finishing companies in America.
Published August 3, 2018
Frank celebrates 25 years of Adobe Acrobat for printing workflows. Thanks to the Ghent Work Group and innovative suppliers like Agfa, PDF was adapted for the transmission of files for print in the 1990s and workflow has never been the same.
Published July 27, 2018
Frank opines about the recent HOW DESIGN LIVE conference in Boston. It has passed, but the memory lingers on about the changing nature of design and of designers and its move to the web and social media.
Published July 20, 2018
Arial is Helvetica in sheep’s clothing. The subject came up because Frank was doing a crossword puzzle and the clue was “Popular sans serif font” and Helvetica would not fit.
Published July 13, 2018
Frank interviews Howard Hoke, COO and Owner of Echo Communications, a 14-employee print shop based in New London, N.H. Howard is an RIT grad who wound up owning his own printing company. Even though he has digital printing, he still uses offset presses, including a recently acquired used Heidelberg. Where did he find a press operator? Wal-Mart!
Published July 6, 2018
One word space after a period, or two? Frank wades into the great debate. Word spacing conventions were often dictated by specific typing and typesetting technologies, and what was appropriate during the era of handset type, or even the typewriter, may not be appropriate today.
Published June 29, 2018
Noted type and print historian Paul Shaw was recently at the Museum of Printing doing research on type and book designer William Addison Dwiggins (who coined the phrase "graphic designer"). Paul has identified many pieces designed by Dwiggins during his 1900–1950 productive life.
Published June 22, 2018
Duplo, the digital finishing company, usually runs customer events at hotels. This time they set up various pieces of equipment at the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, Mass. Their theme was “Old Print New Print” as modern finishing equipment was mixed in with older printing machines.
Published June 15, 2018
Frank has always wanted an Apple Lisa. He finally got one, but now it's in a museum. The 1983 Lisa was the forerunner of the Macintosh with its Graphical User Interface, but it had a high price at about $10,000.
Published May 25, 2018
Frank is distraught because the last US Blockbuster Video Store is closing. He does a quick review of recorded media, from tape cassettes, to video tape, to CD, to video disc, and even USB sticks.
Published May 11, 2018
The EFI ribbon-cutting ceremony for its quarter million square foot facility in Manchester, N.H., was a grand affair. More than 100 media, dignitaries, and other guests filled the main demonstration room. They were surrounded by gigantic inkjet printers and toured one of the most advanced facilities for the development, manufacture, and operation of advanced inkjet systems. These systems are installed in plants in every hemisphere.
Published May 4, 2018
One state is making your driver’s license digital. It will now become an app on your phone. Law enforcement can now ping you. Kansas is also incorporating electronic data into your license plate. Forget speed cameras. Now they can track us electronically.
Published April 27, 2018
The Prime Minister of Pakistan was brought down by a font, and it was not Comic Sans. They discovered that a contract that was dated 2006 used Calibri, a font that was not released until 2007.
Published April 20, 2018
Those wonderful old buildings that housed printing and typesetting companies in the downtown areas of many cities are now being converted into condos and apartments. From Boston to New York to Chicago, those iconic buildings are becoming someone’s home.
Published April 13, 2018
Frank receives a challenge from Professor Frank Cost at RIT. Frank Cost discovered the McMaster-Carr catalog at 4,040 pages and wants to know if there are any bound books with more pages. Frank is up to the challenge.
Published April 6, 2018
Frank loves post cards and waxes nostalgic about them. He shows some historic cards, as well as some procured on a recent trip.
Published March 30, 2018
Frank Romano reports from the 70th TAGA Annual Technical Conference, held March 18–21 in Baltimore, Md.
Published March 30, 2018
At the 70th Annual TAGA Conference, held earlier this month, Frank Romano talks to seven students from the Rochester Institute of Technology who participated in the student chapter journal competition. The journals demonstrate the students’ printing prowess, and use creative design as well as Augmented Reality and QR codes to highlight their academic research.
Published March 23, 2018
As the current industry trade show landscape changes, Frank Romano looks back at how the trade show landscape has always been changing.
Published March 23, 2018
Frank goes on a mini rant about pop-ups. Print ads are not annoying and do not interfere with the reading experience.
Published March 16, 2018
Frank recommends two books, one on sales training and one on applying online print. They are “25 Best Sales Tips Ever” and “Keep Calm and Print On.” This one would be funny if you had pop-ups throughout it.
Published March 9, 2018
Frank discovers that a major airline saves fuel by using lighter weight paper in their inflight magazine
Published March 2, 2018
Frank talks about fake money and how one forger used a desktop printer to counterfeit 10 and 20 dollar bills.
Published February 23, 2018
Frank opines about offset vs. digital printing for books and variable art for packaging. Book publishers are changing their warehousing and distribution strategies as a result.
Published February 16, 2018
It was an atheist who created a beautiful Bible: John Baskerville was an artist who came to printing late in life. His 1700’s Bible is truly a work of art and Frank fingers it lovingly.
Published February 9, 2018
It is said that the font you use can affect your inkjet ink cost. They have tried putting holes in the type and very light weights to reduce ink consumption. Next they will tell us to print in 4 point type.
Published February 2, 2018
Frank shows the exhibit at the Museum of Printing that produced some of the props for the movie “The Post.” You will learn new terms like turtle, flong, lockup, and more
Published January 26, 2018
Frank looks at some high-quality advertising publications and opines that fine printing still exists. He uses some ad pubs inserted in the NY Times and Wall Street Journal.
Published January 19, 2018
Frank goes on a mini rant against those folks who shame us for using paper. He calls them “paper shamers” as he takes them to task for creating guilt trips for those who use paper.
Published January 12, 2018
Frank is an unabashed paper lover and is into trees. He describes some of his favorite books about paper that are on paper. He also manages to mention Zip disks.
Published December 15, 2017
Frank tours the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, MA - in an unusual manner. You have to see it to believe it.
Published December 8, 2017
Frank found a copy of a report from a decade ago on selling digital print to specific markets. It was called Marketing4Digital and distributed via the Digital Printing Council.
Published December 1, 2017
Monotype Imaging recently polled the industry about fonts. There are over one million fonts available today and this study provided some insights into purchasing habits.
Published November 17, 2017
Frank found an article in the Wall Street Journal about print books and ebooks. One graph showed a slowdown in ebooks and an upsurge in printed books. This warranted commentary, of course.
Published November 10, 2017
Gamse Lithographing has been around since 1894. Production Manager Mark LeDonne took me on a whirlwind tour of a super label plant that uses almost every printing process. But Frank found Mark’s personal history more interesting.
Published November 3, 2017
Frank meets Jordan Darragh of PrintReleaf which helps printing organizations nullify the effect of print on forests. Printers use online tools to calculate print job effects and trees are planted in five forests around the world to compensate for the tress used for printing. Over 500,000 trees have been planted.
Published October 27, 2017
Dave Henkel is president of Johnson & Quin, a pioneer in variable data printing. J&Q has long been a major force in direct mail and integrated marketing. Dave was into digital printing since it has been in its infancy.
Published October 20, 2017
Dwight Blackwell of Shaw Carpeting in Georgia just installed a Konica KM-1 to print labels that are glued to the back of carpeting. The Konica KM-1 prints 6 pages on one sheet and Shaw will replace a number of smaller printers with this new unit.
Published October 13, 2017
Keith Miller took a small print shop and grew it into an $18 Million super shop called Strategic Factory. He changed the concept of what a printer is. Call the company what you wish but they still put imagery on all kinds of substrates for marketing applications.
Published October 6, 2017
Kathy Holmes at K&W Finishing offers the traditional die cutting, coating, and other bindery services. But this 2nd-generation binder has taken the company into the 21st Century with laser diecutting.
Published September 29, 2017
Frank caught up with Greg Blue is President & CEO of manroland web systems in the US to get an update on the venerable offset press manufacturer. Offset presses are still being sold as printers replace a few older presses with one new press to achieve more productivity.
Published September 15, 2017
Eric Frank of KBA brought us up to date on KBA. The company celebrates its 200th anniversary this year. Frederick Koenig invented the first steam-driven cylinder press for the London Times and his company continues to innovate after two centuries.
Published September 15, 2017
On day 3 of Print 17 Frank Romano pitched the most random idea for a show floor tour video. Frank said, "I want to do something that has never been done before." We said sure. Next time, we'll ask more questions.
Published September 14, 2017
Sander Hendrix of Canon talks to Frank about the newest member of the Canon Océ digital printing family. Canon has a new sheetfed inkjet press that is finding acceptance in the commercial printing market.
Published September 8, 2017
Frank meets up with Si Nguyen, VP of Sales for Duplo, a company famous for its finishing equipment. Duplo’s new coating system makes imagery jump off the page. It embellishes print and adds value to it.
Published September 1, 2017
Frank has known Greg Wallace for over 30 years. At HPG Print Greg has harnessed digital printing, wide format printing and every kind of finishing you can imagine. Recently, he discovered a new printing market that goes way beyond paper.
Published August 25, 2017
Frank has QWERTY on his mind and shows us a number of typewriters. He mentions Maltron and Dvorak and their attempts to supplant QWERTY. It did not work.
Published August 18, 2017
Frank bemoans the British attempt to eliminate the apostrophe in place names. So far, only Frank has spoken out against this perversion of orthography as misguided souls take a hammer to our grammar.
Published August 4, 2017
Frank caught up with John Werner, past editor and publisher of the Green Sheet, an industry newsletter. For 12 years, John attended every show, conference, and seminar and reported it in Graphic Communications World, which is still published.
Published July 28, 2017
Frank takes us on a whirlwind tour of the history of recorded information and caps it with new discoveries that record information on bacteria DNA.
Published July 14, 2017
While visiting EastPack, Frank is unsurprisingly drawn to a booth called "The Museum of Interesting Things" and talks to Denny Daniel who shows him some of the cool things in their collection.
Published July 7, 2017
Frank provides a guided tour of EastPak 2017, complete with 3D printing, robotics, and invisible stealth companies.
Published June 29, 2017
Frank contends that he created the term “TWITTERS” and except for an S would be owed a lot of money. He shows examples from 1980 copies of TypeWorld.
Published June 23, 2017
Frank reviews a book called “Brand Luther” that tells the true story of an unknown monk who used printing to challenge the mightiest force on earth at the time.
Published June 16, 2017
From the Latin for joy to the screamer, we are using exclamation marks for much of our communication. The interrobang is not used as much.
Published June 9, 2017
Frank opines about kids and computers. He even interviews an actual kid who is using a typewriter.
Published June 2, 2017
Frank opines about irony in the modern world and also harks back to 1516 when a monk praised handwriting over printing.
Published May 26, 2017
In a frank video, Frank confesses that he still uses QuarkXPress, in a world dominated by Adobe InDesign. He is unapologetic.
Published May 19, 2017
Thinking he's got something special, WhatTheyThink Senior Video Editor Jon Emmerich does a little show-and-tell and asks for Frank's response. In true Frank fashion, Frank quickly and efficiently crushes Jon's dreams.
Published May 12, 2017
Frank catches up with Daniel Dejean of SAPPI Fine Paper at the Digital Printing event in Toronto. Daniel is a great evangelist for print.
Published May 5, 2017
Frank looks at some old books produced as part of student projects and a host of memories are evoked. This never happens with e-books or PDFs.
Published April 28, 2017
Frank bumps into David Manning, his oldest friend, at the Print Canada show. After high school, David went into the textile industry and Frank went into printing. Now their worlds have come together as printers use inkjet devices to print on fabric.
Published April 26, 2017
A lifetime is filled with many people. In 1971, I joined Compugraphic Corp. as their first marketing communications manager. Carl Dantas was then the VP of Operations. As the two founders, Bill Garth and Ellis Hansen, became less involved, Carl moved up the ranks to head the company.
Published April 21, 2017
Frank goes back in time as he visits the Cal Poly Shakespeare Museum. Surrounded by modern printing technology, this collection is a time warp of how printing was in the past.
Published April 7, 2017
Frank has a potpourri of items to rail against, especially printing with e-coli bacterium. He also rants against charging students for printing homework assignments.
Published March 30, 2017
Frank tours the Student Resource Room at Cal Poly and points out his books (because no one else will). Cal Poly has received many donations of research publications over the years.
Published March 24, 2017
Frank’s class at Cal Poly produced a 300-page book on the life and work of printing pioneer Michael Bruno. Mike was one of the major researchers who made offset lithography a viable process.
Published March 17, 2017
We need newspapers and they need us. But some of their business practices could be improved. With declines in ad revenues, newspapers are raising subscription rates to stay in business.
Published March 10, 2017
Frank visits Delphax in Missassauga, Canada to take a look at the elan 500 digital printing system. It is interesting that many of the original Delphax ion deposition printing systems are still in use. The elan is their first foray into inkjet printing.
Published February 17, 2017
Frank talks to Gavin Smith of Konica, which distributed 800 copies of “The New Print Industry” book at EFI CONNECT Conference. We discuss the cover embellishment by MGI.
Published February 10, 2017
Frank reviews WhatTheyThink's latest research and "Printing Forecast 2017". This insightful report captures the mindset of the printing industry at this time and presents both Federal data and projections.
Published February 3, 2017
Frank talks to Holly O’Rourke of EFI about the latest EFI CONNECT Conference held in Las Vegas. This was one of the most successful of the 17 CONNECT Conferences in terms of content and attendance.
Published January 26, 2017
Once again, RIT professor Frank Cost has preserved his family’s memories. It all started with a contact sheet of six Black & White prints of Frank’s mother from the 1950s.
Published January 23, 2017
A Rememberance by Frank Romano
Published January 20, 2017
Frank Romano keeps EVERYTHING. This week he shares his collection of pre-VDP personalized direct mail when everyone was a winner. Direct marketers tried every trick to get you to open the envelope.
Published January 13, 2017
Frank talks about some of the earliest Variable Data Printing from when digital color first came into play in 1994. He shows the now classic Alphabits piece and many others.
Published January 6, 2017
Frank and his students have been predicting the future of print for over 20 years. He shows us five books that students have produced as class projects, with one done in two weekends.
Published December 20, 2016
Frank shows his collection of Gutenbergian souvenirs. He may be keeping the Gutenberg Museum souvenir shop in business single handed. If you're looking for a holiday gift to give Frank, may we suggest two tickets to "Gutenberg: The Musical."
Published December 16, 2016
Frank goes on a rant about desktop inkjet printer ink packaging. He is so upset he does not notice the light, although it could be the heat emanating from his head.
Published December 9, 2016
An Australian company has developed an inkjet printing system that prints on walls — right, walls. Zeescape has created a new category of inkjet printer: wide format, flatbed, 3D, and now vertical.
Published December 2, 2016
Frank is entranced by pop-up cards from opencardnow.com. Former typographer Julie Brumlik has a new career with pop-up origami. Frank even shares his pop-up Gutenberg book.
Published November 23, 2016
Frank is intrigued by three unrelated technology items: food made from wood, energy made from urine, and and paper made from waste paper in the office.
Published November 18, 2016
Frank meets up with David Hunter who has developed a system that tracks all color activity in a plant for all devices with feedback and data that aids in the management of production.
Published November 11, 2016
Frank meets with Professor Elena Fedorovskaya at RIT School of Media Sciences to get a demonstration of a unique augmented reality smart phone app created by students. Any image, print or art or more, can activate a link to a website for video or audio presentation.
Published November 4, 2016
We know that Frank is a hoarder but we did not know that it extended to hats. You got that right. Frank has saved hats. He wears most of them in this video.
Published October 28, 2016
Frank found a copy of one of his old books that covered the dotcom boom of the late 1990s. It is interesting to see who was who then and who is still around now. (Watch this one in full screen)
Published October 21, 2016
Frank found a list of the largest printers from 1992. It documents the significant changes in the industry through merger, acquisition, and bankruptcy.
Published October 7, 2016
TIME magazine moved its entire archive from its New York City headquarters. This archive represents the history of most of the 20th Century.
Published September 29, 2016
Frank Romano is sweet on Graph Expo, but it's not all sunshine and roses. Follow along as he explores his favorite and not-so-favorite highlights on the trade show floor in Orlando, Florida.
Published September 22, 2016
Frank Romano talks to Brad Flagge President and CEO of New Berlin, WI based Push Solutions. Push Solutions recently installed a new offset press from RMGT with LED UV. The press allows the to print on both paper and, a new market for them, plastic substrates.
Published September 16, 2016
Frank visited Patrick Goosens who owns the oldest bakery in Antwerp. What does this have to do with printing? Patrick has filled a large warehouse with 100s of antique presses and typesetting machines and saved a large part of printing history.
Published September 9, 2016
This will be Frank's 44th GraphExpo/Print event and attendees at his two seminars will receive a free book on The New Print Industry. Graphco in Solon, Ohio produced the books at a recent open house.
Published September 2, 2016
Frank always takes the long way to Drupa on a ship that goes around the world. From Israel to China and Antwerp to London, he files reports that we will run over the next few weeks. In this week's episode Frank is having a pint with Jonathan Tame from Two Sides UK to talk about Two Sides and its mission to promote sustainability of print communications.
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