Surviving the digital impact– magazine feature article

We begin 2007 with our Digital issue of Print 21, although so pervasive is the digital environment in which we operate today that we might as well call it the Air issue or the Light issue.



For that very reason of ubiquity though, it is sometimes worth standing back to try and get a view of exactly what it is that we are working in. What defines the digital world, what are its dominant characteristics, the ones that will serve as pointers to the future?



One of my earliest recollections of the digital world was sitting in an auditorium filled with designers and desktop people watching a video of a man smashing his computer to pieces. The place went wild and we were washed in a wave of cathartic relief. Yeah! And why not? Show me a person in this industry who hasn’t, in moments of incandescent frustration, wished they could insert a large axe into their monitor.



This points to the paradoxical nature of our response to living in a digital age. The fact that something which gives us access to so many wonderful and magical forms of technology, many of which were unheard 10-15 years ago, can also drive us to limits of a pathological rage.



Are we getting any better at learning to live with the digital monster we have created? Are we learning to love it or simply getting used to the compromises and contradictions it can sometimes impose upon us? Where is it taking us and, based on past experience, what can we expect in the future?



Speed–it’s getting faster all the time


Instant access, quicker downloads, faster processing – the need to do everything much faster is practically the raison d’être of digital development. If there is one universally acknowledged truth of the digital world it is that it will get faster (apart from when it grinds completely to a halt). We have got used to seeing this, year after year, in terms of throughput and output speeds and now the introduction of Adobe’s new PDF Print Engine (see story this page) promises yet another jump in our expectations. How fast can we go?



Price–going down and down


The other seemingly inevitable consequence of ‘going digital’ is that its implementation will drive down costs. OK, so it can cost an arm and leg to introduce initially but whether it’s as a result of greater throughput and higher productivity, or greater automation and less human intervention, or just greater accuracy and less waste, the end result always seems to be a lower unit cost and cheaper overall production. Inevitably these savings are passed onto the customer, but is that always the right thing to do? Martin Booth argues eloquently for another approach, namely one that adds value rather than squeezing margins. Not only is this better for business but in a world of finite resources, he suggests, it is also the responsible thing to do.



Obsolescence – if it ain’t working, can’t fix it


Being a male of the species, my habitual response to learning of some mechanical breakdown is to announce that ‘I’ll have a look at it’. This usually involves taking the offending item apart bit by bit, scrutinizing each part and then reassembling it, as near as damn it, in the hope that this will miraculously fix the problem.



Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. But what has worked successfully in the past for a variety of cars, lawn mowers and video machines doesn’t always apply in the digital world. Sure you can take a computer apart (with an axe if you prefer) but what’s in there can’t always be fixed with a bit of blowing and a squirt of WD40.



Digital technology, even expensive hardware, is now virtually a consumables market; if it wears out or doesn’t work, whip it out and put a new one in. The implication of this approach for business, especially capital-intensive ones such as printers, is profound and, as Andy McCourt argues in his column, one that our industry must take on board.



Omnipresence–they seek him everywhere


A character in a novel I was reading recently was asked which God-like attribute they would like to possess: omnipotence, omniscience or omnipresence. Although you could perhaps make a case for power and knowledge, the characteristic that best defines the digital world is that it is EVERYWHERE. Think there are still pockets of the industry that are digital-proof? Think again. As Derek Fretwell suggests in this issue, even digital printing of newspapers is closer than you might think and the future of offset is not assured by any means. In a similar vein, Patrick Turner asks whether digital print is finally ready to take the place of screen printing. The lesson is that everybody should be thinking digital because if it hasn’t caught up with you yet, it sure as hell will do.



Convergence–where the rubber hits the road


This has been spoken about for so long, like personalisation and repurposing, but the inevitable consequence of everything being digital is that everything becomes transferable across markets, delivery mechanisms and media. Online developers can become printers, direct marketers can become printers, multi-media specialists can become printers – and printers can be all these things and more. We are on the cusp of a major shift in terms of how the industry operates and what it actually produces, and it’s a challenge that everybody faces, from the very top where major media companies are positioning themselves to take advantage of whatever the future holds, right down to the smallest operator who must decide where to invest and what technologies will best suit their purpose. This issue highlights examples of businesses that are increasingly meeting this challenge and forging a new-look graphic arts industry.



Enjoy your 2007 and may all your business plans bear fruit