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 401-500 of 881 articles
Published May 20, 2016
Frank shows a unique book of beautiful photos by Eddy Hagen of VIGC in Belgium. The future of photography is print because that is the way we will preserve them.
Published May 13, 2016
Retail prices for magazines are going up as sales are going down. Frank paid over $10 for a magazine and still has not gotten over it.
Published May 6, 2016
Benny Landa drives fast. I think he is in a hurry to reach the future. We had been on a whirlwind visit to the several Landa facilities in Tel Aviv, Israel and we were heading to a secret lab buried in the bowels of a non-descript industrial building.
Published April 29, 2016
Frank loves coupons. They save money and they are in print. Or they are online and you print them out with your paper and ink. Or they are on your mobile device and you do a pixel pass at checkout.
Published April 15, 2016
Frank talks about another Frank who just published a book on his family history. Print is still the best way to share memories and Frank Cost does it very well.
Published April 8, 2016
Kids. What’s that matter with kids today? Kids. Who can understand what they say? Kids. Get them to say one word to me. Kids. That’s ‘cause they text and talk electronically.
Published April 4, 2016
Landa has announced that its lineup of Nanographic Printing presses at Drupa will include sheetfed presses running at 13,000 B1 sheets per hour as well as one meter-wide (41 in.) web presses printing on plastic packaging films. The company will also unveil Landa Nano-Metallography, a zero-waste metallization technology that will halve the cost of metallized printing compared to foil transfer processes.
Published April 1, 2016
In a break from his typical format, Frank Romano gives us a peek into his mind as he dives deep into hard-hitting, sometimes taboo topics and issues such as politics, religion, and even nutrition. He even somehow manages to relate all these things back to the printing industry in a way that only Frank Romano can. So sit back, enjoy, and watch the master at his craft.
Published March 25, 2016
Frank bemoans the loss of the venerable library card catalog but celebrates the new world of search. The analog cards and the Dewey Decimal System were fine in their day but the world has changed.
Published March 18, 2016
Canada 150 is a national font for our friends up north. Basketball players now have their own typefaces. America must close this “font gap.”
Published March 11, 2016
The number of independent bookstores is up as the total number of bookstores is down. Frank talks about new and used books. He sees no future in used e-books.
Published March 4, 2016
Converting printed books to digital form is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Information is more accessible than at any time in the history of the world. Fat good it does.
Published February 26, 2016
E-books are up and print books are down. Print books are up and e-books are down. What’s going on? Just a reflection of the contradictory nature of the book consumer.
Published February 19, 2016
Frank found another example of beautiful printing. It is from Model Offset in Puerto Rico and was sent by Suzette Jimenez, a former RIT student.
Published February 12, 2016
Frank found two unrelated items that piqued his interest. One was pre-marked election ballots and the other was not. Find out how Martha Stewart and letterpress printing are related.
Published February 4, 2016
Frank opines on what happens if amazon.com dies? Think of all the data that it has stored and its long tentacles that extend into every nook and cranny of cyberspace—and our lives.
Published January 29, 2016
Free standing inserts may be annoying but they are an important part of commerce. Ad inserts are a call to action. They give you a reason to visit a store and maybe buy something.
Published January 22, 2016
Frank opines about the elimination of QR codes and how ad blocking may lower advertising industry revenue.
Published January 15, 2016
WhatTheyThink's Eric Vessels asks a video question of Frank Romano about a new service he discovered called Chatbooks. The app let's you take your digital photos from Instagram, Facebook, or your phone and make a photobook. The killer app, though, is the subscription model. Frank is impressed!
Published January 12, 2016
Frank is heading off to his 11th drupa -- 44 years of drupa since 1972! He characterizes the show as inkjet on steroids -- from teaser inkjet drupa to real inkjet drupa to inkjet on steroids. He also expects to see many more innovations, including workflow. More Americans should go to get a glimpse of the future -- so says Frank Romano!
Published January 8, 2016
There are 3.04 Trillion trees on the planet. Someone counted them. They should now start counting the grains of sand on the planet. That will draw their attention away from tress for a while.
Published December 18, 2015
Why do many libraries hate books? Libraries are spending more money on electronic access and meeting pods and cutting back on access to the printed book. The root of library comes from the word book. What do we call them now: Interneteries?
Published December 14, 2015
My friend and partner, Jack Klasnic, is gone. We met in the 1970s and partnered to perform audits of inplant printing facilities.
Published December 11, 2015
Google changed their logo. Six letters got a lot of attention. Only three of the letters are unique enough to allow some level of creativity. The three letters that are overly simplistic spell the word “loo.”
Published December 4, 2015
Someone asked why the Declaration of Independence was not printed. Frank answers the question with a “Yes, it was printed. That’s how most people learned about it.”
Published November 20, 2015
Frank spends some time on the show floor at this years' Graph Expo with the Xerox iGen 5. One of three Must See 'Em winners for Xerox, the iGen 5 adds a fifth printing station extending the color gamut giving more brand color flexibility to printers.
Published November 13, 2015
The folks at Shake Shack have selected a sans serif font that goes beyond the umpteen sans serif fonts that already exist. Neutra is a geometric sans serif designed by an architect.
Published November 6, 2015
Frank took a walk down one aisle at the Atlanta SGIA show and saw every kind of inkjet printer. Just walking from one end of the show to the other could take 30 minutes. The array of equipment was overwhelming.
Published November 6, 2015
Frank saw a whole tray of golf balls being printed at SGIA and this got his attention. He discovered LogoJet which prints on a wide range of 3-dimensional materials and objects.
Published October 30, 2015
The paper industry is about to launch a campaign to promote print. Frank goes off on a mini rant about previous attempts to promote print. It's Frank. It's a rant. You'll want to see this.
Published October 23, 2015
Those chicken people at KFC have placed a Bluetooth Polaroid printer at the bottom of a bucket of legs, thighs, and breasts. Frank shows his 30-year old antique Polaroid and tries to plug a Firewire cable into a….You don’t want to know.
Published October 16, 2015
Frank talks about Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters of E. Aurora, NY. Hubbard began the American arts and crafts movement and sold printed material via mail order at the turn of the last century.
Published October 9, 2015
Frank collects printed material from and about the day he was born. He has never gotten over it. Frank likes the printed record that follows all of us through life.
Published October 2, 2015
Frank comments on printing out the gazillion pages of Wikipedia, which you can buy for $500,000. You would need an equal amount for the building to house it. He also comments on “printing errors” and amateur forgery.
Published September 25, 2015
Frank Romano and Cary Sherburne give their wrap up on Graph Expo 2015.
Published September 18, 2015
Frank kisses a printing press. Words are inadequate. Watch the video.
Published September 11, 2015
Frank Romano attends the first ever thINK user conference sponsored by Canon Solutions America and talks about the importance of such an event to the industry.
Published September 4, 2015
Frank talks about his favorite subject: type—double spaces after a sentence period, the weird combined comma-exclamation point, and the very famous Interobang from 1967.
Published August 28, 2015
Frank talks about the new Facebook logo, the new font for Kindle readers, and a font of Einstein’s handwriting that allows you to write like a genius. Thinking like a genius is something different.
Published August 21, 2015
Frank finds a Bible that fits on the head of a pin. And still has room for angels. He also found recent commentary on the 1632 Wicked Bible that left the word “not” out of one of the commandments.
Published August 14, 2015
Graph Expo is right around the corner and Frank encourages everyone to consider the seminar program when you plan your visit. As you see him wandering the show, say hello.
Published August 7, 2015
Frank is visited by another Frank whose class has made a set of 3-D images with a camera mounted on a drone. Just like your old Viewmaster or even older Steropticon.
Published July 31, 2015
Frank opines on ads in print magazines compared to ads in digital magazines. He likes the impact of the print advertisement compared to the screen-sized version on the computer.
Published July 24, 2015
Frank visits three major drug store chains and buys greeting cards. He discovers the split between US and Chinese production. Frank ends with his own pop-up card that was made in America.
Published July 17, 2015
New York Times print circulation is down while revenue is up and Frank uses this fact as a springboard to talk about mobile trends.
Published July 10, 2015
Frank is running for president—just like everyone else. He examines the typography of some of the candidate logos, which are mostly sans serif. Only two are serif fonts. Lots of Avenir and almost no Helvetica.
Published June 26, 2015
Frank has a potpourri of commentary, from a TV typo to equipment graveyard to a print video to pre-1919 full-color baseball cards. Only Frank would find these to be relevant.
Published June 19, 2015
What the Helvetica?! Frank goes on a mini-rant when some typographic experts say that Times New Roman is a bad choice for resumes.
Published June 12, 2015
Frank remembers Hermann Zapf (1918-2015) as one of the world’s great type designers. He shares some personal stories and shows some of Zapf’s works. Includes commentary from Richard Romano.
Published May 29, 2015
Frank has three items that cover saving photos, reading retention, and catalogs. He starts with a Google executive saying that we should print more.
Published May 22, 2015
Frank meets up with color technology legend Ed Grainger at Taga Conference in Albuquerque. Ed was the inventor of the Kodak Approval proofing system and the Colortron. Frank gave him 3 minutes to describe a new system he is developing.
Published May 15, 2015
Frank tours the shelves of the Cal Poly Graphic Communications resource room and waxes nostalgic about books, especially his own books
Published May 8, 2015
Frank visits Mackenzie & Harris on their 100th anniversary. M&H is a hot metal typecaster and letterpress printer based in San Francisco.
Published May 1, 2015
Frank goes on a mini rant about textbook pricing. Students are paying a small fortune for textbooks because of student loans, government subsidies, and, perhaps, greed.
Published April 24, 2015
Frank talks about technology developer Mitch Bogart and his multi-drop approach to high quality inkjet imagery. Attention: inkjet suppliers—you should watch this.
Published April 17, 2015
When JC Penney killed their catalog, Frank opined that was the beginning of the end of the retailer. Things did get bad and now they are bringing the catalog back.
Published April 10, 2015
Frank reviews samples from the new HP High Definition Nozzle Architecture for their popular Web Inkjet Press. Spoiler alert: he likes it.
Published April 3, 2015
Frank gets a demo of 3D printing from Will Sturgeon, 3D Systems' retail training manager. With units as small as a mini-refridgerator, you too can be into 3D printing.
Published April 1, 2015
Frank Romano highlights industry news from the past 500 years. Some boring history lesson Zzzzz. Other major announcements include a way to “save the printing industry”.
Published March 27, 2015
Frank talks to Patrick Kerr, Technical Product Manager at Eastman Kodak about prepress workflows at the EFI Connect conference in Las Vegas.
Published March 20, 2015
Frank interviews Jim Niemiec, Product Innovation Manager at Verso, which recently acquired NewPage, on papers for digital printing. As the paper industry contracts, it is still seeing growth in paper for toner and inkjet printing.
Published March 13, 2015
Remember those round red erasers with a brush on the end? Frank is at the Museum of Printing to talk about typewriters and erasers. Plus a game of “what is it?”
Published March 6, 2015
The renaissance in letterpress printing has been stymied by a shortage of the metal hashtag # and the @ sign. We are running out of typewriter symbols to usurp,
Published February 27, 2015
Larry Zusman is a pioneer in variable data printing and has a lot to say about personalized promotion. Frank caught up with him in Boston in a dark hotel corridor.
Published February 20, 2015
Frank interviews renowned graphic designer Lance Hidy at the Museum of Printing, who was one of the first creative artists to apply Photoshop.
Published February 13, 2015
Frank talks about a unique building in New York City that is part of printing history. It was the first building built for multiple printing tenants.
Published February 6, 2015
Frank visits X-Rite and talks about new color workflows with Shoshana Burgett. X-Rite/Pantone has done a great deal to help brand owners communicate brand colors.
Published January 28, 2015
Frank discusses several options for an all-American font. Helvetica is not an option. After all, it means Switzerland. ATF Americana comes to mind.
Published January 23, 2015
In a shameless plug, Frank discusses his two new books about the history of the Linotype company and the phototypesetting era. All proceeds go to education.
Published January 16, 2015
Frank Romano reviews a recent report from Margie Dana and John Zarwan on the "New Print Buyer".
Published January 12, 2015
Robert Howard, the genius behind the dot matrix printer and the direct imaging press, among many other technologies, passed over the holidays. He was 91. Chairman Bob, as he was called, was surrounded by his wife Kit and family
Published January 9, 2015
Frank shares a print application from Screen using its Truepress Jet UV digital printing platform with Color-Logic's Process Metallic Color System technology. Spoiler alert: He loves it.
Published December 19, 2014
Frank takes a look at the size change of newspapers over the course of 100 years by comparing news of the Titanic with news of current day and posits that newspapers are reaching a size that is coming close to inkjet's sweet spot.
Published December 12, 2014
This week Frank talks inkjet printer ink - the kind you use in your personal office. He discusses Epson's recent announcement to begin offering refillable ink tanks and how this differs from previous sales models.
Published December 5, 2014
Frank reviews the Highcon technology - a simple approach, yet very complex. He shows us several examples of what is possible, from packaging, to die cut cards, to stickers, and (coming soon) embossing.
Published November 21, 2014
This week, Frank joins us from just outside of Chicago for the introduction of a new roll-fed inkjet press, the Screen Truepresss Jet520 HD.
Published November 14, 2014
This week, Frank revisits color management, first by thanking the many people involved in a recent comment thread on one of his videos, then by re-stating his opinion that color management is a mess. He also calls for a "Color Summit".
Published November 7, 2014
RIT graduate Justin Searles joins Frank Romano and talks about his career path since graduating and how he ended up at Staples as Production Manager.
Published October 31, 2014
This week, Frank shows off an exhibit he put together consisting of all different forms of media. From jacquard looms, to punch cards, to floppy disks, to DVDs. Frank has the history of storage media covered!
Published October 24, 2014
Frank visits Geri McCormick of Virgin Wood Type in Brighton, New York. They discuss how the company is reviving wood type and dig in to the process she uses.
Published October 17, 2014
Frank joins us this week with Holly Rollins from RIT as she discusses her thesis on e-books. The question she had was whether book covers were important for e-books as well as physical books. The answer: Yes!
Published October 10, 2014
This week, Frank talks color. Color management, specifically. Today, with all the innovation and years of dealing with it, color management is still an issue. The main problem? No consistent standard.
Published October 3, 2014
We end a busy Graph Expo week with a lighthearted look at some things that wind up on Frank's desk. A printer in Mexico prints breaking news on hand towels. In Sri Lanka, a special newspaper prints with ink that has mosquito repellant. A "phone book looking booster seat" and Russian security officers trying to sell a stolen Gutenburg bible rounds out the desk pile.
Published September 30, 2014
Frank Romano joins us from his 41st Graph Expo and discusses the size of the show and why that's the wrong thing to focus on. There is more new stuff at this year's show than he's seen in a long time. In the end, it's not the floor size, but the new solutions changing the industry that matters.
Published September 26, 2014
Frank's back with commentary around things that come across his desk, including an ironic New York Times article about print, the Qwerky Writer keyboard that emulates a typewriter for digital devices, nanoparticles, and printing...humans!
Published September 19, 2014
Frank joins us from the New York offices of VariDirect Solutions, a company started by two RIT graduates. We learn about the history of the new company and their expansion into wide format printing.
Published September 12, 2014
Frequent readers of WhatTheyThink are aware that Frank Romano does not fly commercially - he plans ahead and takes cruises. This week, we get a unique look into one of his cruises as he shows us the printed collateral that comes with a cruise.
Published September 5, 2014
This week, Frank interviews Troy McKenzie of Kwik Kopy Printing in Prince Edward Island, Canada. We learn about how KKP went from doing print work for a customer to hiring him and creating a publishing business.
Published August 29, 2014
Join Frank from his desk at RIT as he talks about 3 unrelated things that across the desk at the same time. From the first author to use a word processor to a pot printing printer, Frank has you covered to end your week.
Published August 22, 2014
This week, Frank talks about typefaces that save ink. A teen recently told the federal government that he could save them $400 million by switching from Times New Roman to Garamond.
Published August 13, 2014
Frank visits with Wim Koning of Screen Europe at Ipex and they look at the Motioncutter laster cut system, reviewing many samples that show off the capability.
Published August 6, 2014
This week, Frank talks about the Oxford English Dictionary. It's the largest dictionary in the world and 20 years behind schedule. It possibly won't be published in print again.
Published July 30, 2014
This week, Frank talks about the lifespan of the CD/DVD. Your burned discs are dying. What material holds up over time? You guessed it. Paper!
Published July 23, 2014
This week, Frank Romano joins us again with things people send him. This time, it's from Appleton Coated who support the Hamilton Wood Type Museum. Frank shows prints made with some of the type.
Published July 16, 2014
This week, Frank shares a book he received from the International Engraved Graphics Assocation: "Design to Touch" and talks about the traditional engraving techniques used to print the book. More information at iega.org
Published July 9, 2014
Frank Romano joins us from Ipex in the Komori booth - where he finds an actual printing press! He uses this opportunity to not only comment on Ipex, but industry trade shows in general.
Published July 2, 2014
Back at the museum, Frank gives us a rundown of the many typewriters that he's saved over the years - including the one that got him through college. Yes, they had college back then! Frank also gives a good history of the device.
Published June 25, 2014
Frank joins us from the library he's putting together in Salem, New Hampshire. He explores the different examples of historical steel engraved plates including several examples of Intaglio.
Published June 18, 2014
Frank visits the Newpage booth at Dscoop and talks to Dennis Essary, Director of Digital Papers, who shows him a new booklet that employs layer technology for interactive print as well as unique paper usage in printed applications.
Published June 11, 2014
This week, Frank talks with nekoosa about their digital substrates including coated sheets and magnetic materials.
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