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By Kevin Keane, IAPHC CEO Special Hot and Cool Drupa News issue Then and Now "Although Westerners usually give the credit to Johannes Gutenberg, it was actually the Koreans who first cast and printed from moveable metal type. Under the patronage of King Set-Jong, the Royal Type Foundry cast lead type characters of the Hangul script in 1403, and a book was printed from it a few years later, when Gutenberg was still a toddler." Spectrum Newsletter, Volume 23, Number 1-2000. "Does it make sense to build a library designed to hold eight million books at a moment when so much information is moving from printed to digital form? In the age of the Internet, does it even make sense to conceive of a universal library in terms of glass, aluminum and concrete?" The New Yorker, May 8, 2000 issue in an article about the Revival of the Ancient Library of Alexandria. If one can shrug off the revisionist history, after all it happened long ago and far away, still one feels the sands of Egypt shifting beneath our unsettled feet. The Internet is changing the rules of the game we know and love. And we are changed, changed utterly. Heidelberg Chairman Bernhard Schreier declared at a kickoff new Convention at Drupa 2000 this morning that: "The Internet is a real stroke of luck for the printing industry." Nonetheless, the wise Moroccan poet counsels us to keep perspective: "Cease, atom of a moment's span, to hold thyself an all in all. The world is old, and thou art young." Proof that Internet driven change agents are both warp speed fast and incrementally slow can be found in the hand wringing from a few pundits on the 30th anniversary of Earth Day in late April -- these folks ask what happened to the promise of a paperless office, and question the environmental impacts of the undeniable flood of hard copies pouring from every networked printer in home or office. The digital edition of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle on April 22 reported: "...printing giant Hewlett-Packard Co says that far from seeing a slowdown resulting from the rise of electronic ink, demand for printing the old-fashioned way -- on paper -- is exploding. This week the company unveiled a sweeping new initiative to develop new technologies that will enable consumers to print even more --from cell phones, pagers and other devices ---It may seem ironic, but this new printing strategy is central to Hewlett-Packard's Internet strategy. As the company sees it, the increased use of the Internet will correlate directly with increased demand for printers. It says it expects the $40 billion worldwide market for printing and imaging will be a $100 billion market in just three years." Several days later, NowDocs.com announced its flagship 2 hour digital printing and delivery service in Canada. Companies located anywhere in the world can send business documents to Toronto and have them delivered in as little as 2 hours. Next day service is available across the rest of Canada too. In addition to Toronto, NowDocs has the 2 hour program available in 13 major US markets, and hopes to soon go live in Hong Kong and the UK. According to the firm: "Same day delivery starts at $19.95 US for a ten page document delivered in Toronto from anywhere in the world. Next morning delivery begins at $9.95." It should be noted that the game plan seems to be -- let us handle the transmission of your documents (distribute) and your printing orders are sure to follow (print). And isn't that one key promise of an Internet driven printing industry? Distribute, then Print. An A-B-C-D Industry One week ago, The Wall Street Transcript published a 428 special report just in time for the CHASE H&Q Technology Convention. It's an amazing document and we culled a tidbit for your reading pleasure. A. Dr. John Warnock, CEO of Adobe Systems was quoted: "I think Adobe is the only company in our space that really offers a broad solution across all of the media types. And because of that and the convergence of media, we really are the only company that can bring imaging, illustration, print publishing, Web publishing and video publishing together in a unified set of solutions." B. Bowne & Co, Inc announced on May 10 that it had a banner first quarter, net sales increased 30 per cent to $285 million and of that, almost 80 percent was financial printing. Financial printing may seem a little less sexy than some pursuits, but sales of $225 million are pretty glamorous. The firm also said that it plans to manage Bowne Internet Solutions for revenue growth resulting in planned operating losses. More evidence that in the dot.com world, one is often forced to plan for losses, while praying that increased volume will eventually turn a profit. C. Consolidation news. On May 3, Cunningham Graphics International shocked a goodly portion of the New York/New Jersey printing family with the news that it was being acquired by Automatic Data Processing (ADP). ADP was begun by a gentleman who now sits in the US Senate from New Jersey. Cunningham, which has been often written about in these virtual pages of TMN, operates 18 production facilities worldwide, employing some 1,300 people. Cunningham has also become this week, a first time entrant in the International Gallery of Superb Printing with 12 gorgeous pieces. Another frequent International Gallery entrant from New Jersey, asked us last week about finding a national provider of commercial printing. We sent an e-mail to Rosemary Spafford at Consolidated Graphics headquarters in Houston, Texas and a new business opportunity was born for Consolidated Graphics. Also last week, Consolidated Graphics said it had formed a strategic alliance with Standard Register of Dayton, OH, which is planned to couple integrated print management services from Standard Register with high quality commercial printing via Consolidated Graphics's network of 63 plants. These kind of value added partnerships will become more and more common in our opinion. Speaking of powerful alliances, the May 1 Wall Street Journal carried a full page ad for the newly merged QuebecorWorld. Impressive first quarter numbers were set out in the ad: Revenues: up 79 % Operating income up 145% EPS up 33% In case you want to watch the company, it also has a new symbol -- IQW. And you might reflect upon the firm's ad copy: "Today, we're expanding far beyond traditional print, evolving into a world led by New Media and the Internet. Our digital text and image management services assist customers in communicating more effectively in a dynamic e-driven world." Well, if the world's largest printer feels the need to provide more than just print in an e-world, what should all the many tens of thousands of small print shops do? Expand, change, or perish? Convergence and consolidation, Distribute then Print, it's a brave new e-world indeed. And we repeat Dr. Warnock's words about providing a "unified set of solutions." Or one stop shopping. D. Duh, it's Drupa Daze! Yesterday, Heidelberger Drucksmachinen AG said its sales surged 10 per cent in the recently ended fiscal year. "We are coming to drupa 2000 with full order books," said Chairman Bernhard Schreier. "We have increased our orders received, by more than 20%. Our new strategical orientation as a solution provider is a complete success." There's that one stop shopping, unified set of solutions approach again. And so as Drupa kicks off today, May 18, for a two week run, Heidelberg will be premiering nine 'Solutions Centers.' "We aren't just presenting machines that are technology leaders and are among the best in the world. We're also showing how we can create cost-effective solutions from these innovative components. For Heidelberg, this means taking over responsibility for the entire technical process involved in generating print products." One of the more highly awaited products to be shown is the NexPress digital color press which was developed through a joint venture with Eastman Kodak. Schreier said: "With a growth rate of 20% in the black/white sector and 30% in the color sector, digital printing is the fastest growing market." Interestingly, the working version of the NexPress is not in the main Heidelberg pavilions. Folks who see it, will be there by invitation only. The NexPress 2100 can print 2100 A3 pages an hour, but is still undergoing rigorous testing, so even the output samples are being closely guarded. Digital Print Primer
Mr. Schreier's comments about the growth of digital printing compels us to relate a Y'KNOW dialog that we coordinated earlier this month between Kim Hall of Omaha, NE and Mike Chiricuzio of Phoenix, AZ. Kim was looking for a succinct definition of digital printing. We knew because of past International Gallery entries from Mike that he is expert in the field. His company, One Source Digital just submitted 5 digital entries for this years event, and then he sped off to Drupa!He provided this users view of a definition for digital printing: "I speak for myself only, Application of ink or toner to any substrate without benefit of a static plate (i.e., a static plate is a plate that is created with an image and the image remains the same until a new plate is made.) This can include everything from your desktop inkjet or laser printer to Indigo presses, Xeikon presses, Docutech and all the different copiers, etc in between, whether they be black and white or color. Typically, Digital Printing would not be used as a term for the desktop devices. And office style copiers with Fiery or other RIPS would also generally drop out of the equation. So what we are left with is: Black and white toner devices like Docutech, Oce Black and white liquid ink devices such as Indigo Ebony Color toner devices including Xeikon, Chromapress, Docucolor and all other Xeikon OEM configurations. Color Liquid Ink devices." Mike then went on to tell Kim that Drupa would inevitably alter some parts of the definition. Indeed! Onward, gentle reader. Digital Drupa Today may be the biggest day for Drupa news, as the hot new products and/or concepts are revealed. For example, Electronics for Imaging is everywhere in the exhibition halls. EFI is participating in a demonstration of the Karat Digital Press powered by a Fiery front end as the two firms work towards their vision of an "Internet Enabled Print Shop." EFI has a new controller for the Heidelberg Digimaster 9110 being shown in the Danka booth. EFI is partnering with Xerox to demo the newest Xerox DocuColor units -- the Xerox DocuColor 2060 Digital Color Press provides 60 pages per minute output at 600 dpi, while the DocuColor 2045 cranks at 45 ppm. And EFI is working with Canon to showcase an advanced variable data solution based on the new open-standard Personal Print Mark-up Language (PPML). The Print on Demand Initiative (PODi) announced the completion of the PPML standard in February. PODi is also one of several new sponsors of the International Gallery this year. Show attendees will also have a chance to experience a fun example of the power of digital printing when married to personalisation. MediaFlex.com and Indigo NV have cooked up the following exhibition: The attendees will enter personal and profile data that will be composed on the fly into an on-screen proof for approval. Once approved, orders will be fed into Indigo's optimized JLYT format directly to an Indigo TurboStream digital color press. Within minutes of ordering, attendees will receive customized, four color brochures comprised of unique content tailored to their unique profiles. Clearly two of the bigger gorillas at Drupa this year are Heidelberg and Xerox. Today, Heidelberg unveiled 13 new products and also announced that despite the break-up of its joint venture with CreoScitex, the two firms remain committed to sell, service and support the Prinergy workflow management system, and the Trendsetter Thermal platesetter product. Xerox meanwhile is enticing fairgoers with a star wars technology is has dubbed the "Futurecolor" press. Xerox says the machine will work like an entire print shop, in a series of modular components. At the click of a mouse, it will automatically mix multiple paper stocks, tabs, inserts and bindings, and produce fully assembled full-process color books, catalogs, magazines, manuals and newsletters. While the machine won't be launched for another 2 to 3 years, it underscores again why we have so often written in the pages of TMN that Hewlett Packard and Xerox and IBM are fast becoming equal competitors to Heidelberg, Komori, Mitsubishi et al. As the news from Drupa reaches a crescendo in the next week or so, we will be back in another issue of TMN to share some additional tidbits. In the meantime, it is sobering to reflect on the current market valuation ideas being stamped on both new and old economy players in the conventional as well as the virtual printing world. As of yesterday's market close, iPrint stood at $4.50; Lason at $3.00; MasterGraphics at $.29; and Moore Corporation at $3.00. The transition from analog to digital is not without pain. This morning iPrint.com released its 10-Q quarterly SEC filing calling for a reduction in the firm's operating expenses. While it might be an example of adept seizing of the high ground of spin control, iPrint's CEO Royal Farros is quoted in the filing: "It's clear that the public markets will not continue to blindly fund huge dotcom losses...dotcoms are now held 'responsible' for the businesses they are creating. We cheer this change in the marketplace. This will separate those companies with deep technology and solid business models from fledgling efforts that have done nothing but confuse the marketplace. We've voiced our stance on this in our 10-Q; Cut operating expenses while continuing growth."
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