“Content is free. Formats are not” is the article’s title from cnet. Now, this strays away from purely printing, although content in the digital printing world and certainly the publishing sector faces a similar fate:

“Content may be free, but the format in which we buy it certainly is not. As Apple, Google, Red Hat, and others increasingly demonstrate, consumers and enterprises are happy to pay for “free” when packaged in convenient formats that add value to digital goods.
….
All of these (re)purchases strike me that the media world may have problems, but they are mostly of discovering convenient formats in which to deliver content. Formats that suggest, and sometimes demand, payment.”
….
Good content is a necessary precondition to getting paid, but it’s not going to be reason we pay anymore. That reason for payment is the format in which the content is delivered.
Perhaps it’s always been that way, but the physicality of the delivery mechanisms confused us: we were buying the paper but thought we were buying the news.”
Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10369471-16.html  Read more... (348 words, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

The PRINT 09 show in Chicago a couple weeks ago is proof that many printers need to become more than just appliers of ink onto rolls of paper. The latest Fuji inkjet press or Xerox digital printing machine is of course important, yet we read in this article titled, “The Digital Future for the Printing Industry” that print-shops need to change or die. What is that change generally about?

“The printing industry is currently and will continue to experience many transitions in the form of `Digital Printing and Communications`. This also impacts on all businesses globally.

The printing industry will continue to evolve into new and exciting `electronic imaging driven by digital technology`. Digital technology, economic restructuring, global competition, market changes, emerging new media and other market forces are combining to `dramatically` change the operating environment of the Printing Industry.”
Source: http://www.graphicstart.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=429

Here is a little video of T.J. Tedesco giving a 40,000 foot view of social media for printers at PRINT 09, which is for sure part of this transformation (Starting to sound like a Mayan 2012 prophecy!):
 Read more... (560 words, 1 image, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

Updated with formatted table of Twitter Listing:

Printers who Twitter (version 2)
Prepress, print-shops and industry associations or professionals in print media who are active on Twitter.com
(Want it as a formatted Excel sheet? Tweet us; or comment below..)

Based on popular demand, we have expanded this list of print-type people on Twitter with those that RT (Re-Tweet), DM  (Direct Message) on Twitter or commented on our blog. We can always do a v3, so let us know if you are a graphic layout printer or prepress professional and not on this list!

NEW ENTRIES:
(Added locations, as requested by some.)
PRINTERS, PREPRESS – shops and individuals:  Read more... (1366 words, estimated 5:28 mins reading time)

There is an excellent blog post over at The Print CEO blog which tackles the big question: what is the future of publishing and to the same degree printing- how can you survive? They said it quite well with this paragraph imho:

“The key to survival in the near and far future is for everyone in the publishing business to embrace everything digital. That doesn’t mean you should stop printing magazines, but it does mean that if you aren’t comfortable in the digital world you won’t/can’t survive. It is that simple.”
SOURCE: http://printceoblog.com/2009/01/the-key-to-publishings-survival

We have been on about our communities on Twitter.com, YouTube and other social media or networking sites and trying to stress the importance. For graphic communications and particularly us on the print side of things, this should be seen as vital. Use Online to feed your Print operations. Read the article above, check out some of our past posts and feel free to comment about this important topic- the future of our industry…

Wow — it has been over 15 years since I worked as a print production manager for a large advertising agency in California. Computer-To-Plate (CTP) was starting to garner industry buzz, and in my role, I had to best determine how to take digital creative files, produce them internally and ensure that once they were sent off to the printer or a publication, for example, they would work — meaning, they would render on press the way we expected them to and our clients, the advertisers, were pleased with the results.

Seemed like a simple enough challenge at the time, but what I soon discovered was that it was anything but.

It wasn’t as though the process was any more difficult than it was back in the “days of film.” At the agency, we had art directors who were mocking up layouts on boards that were turned over to me for recreation in QuarkXPress. After working with the art directors and others within the agency to make final tweaks to the ads, I then had to provide them with the assurance that what I was creating digitally would reproduce in the manner they expected, having the best print quality  and would result in quality image printing.  Read more... (1248 words, estimated 4:60 mins reading time)

Should we really care about emerging technologies when the economy remains in such flux that most of us are happy just to keep our heads above the rising waters, let alone invest in technologies to come?

But that doom-and-gloom mentality may be precisely what’s wrong with the allied industries today. Many printers and publishers have gone into virtual hibernation — content to statically ride out the storm — but the problem is that the industries around them continue to change.

Market demands won’t sit still, and printers and publishers are finding that remaining complacent during an otherwise revolutionary time will cause detriment to their operations in the long run. They’re clearly missing out on some new opportunities because they are not willing to make a move in one direction or another.

After thinking this current state of affair through, I came to the realization that what these industries need most of all to ensure success in the immediate and short-term future, at least — is an agile attitude.

Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines “agile” as being able to move quickly and easily. This is the new industry mantra, replacing a very tired “better, faster, cheaper,” as the buzz word du jour.  Read more... (1072 words, estimated 4:17 mins reading time)

In the digital workflow for print and multimedia, graphic artist must think beyond aesthetics and accept some of the responsibility that prepress suppliers once held.

If any of your design work in the past decade has been for print, you’ve undoubtedly borne witness to a revolution unfolding — the advent of digital content creation and computer-to-plate (CTP) print manufacturing. Film went away and was replaced by the exchange of digital files between designer and printer.

Digital files are now the means for delivering content to any number of output possibilities — from traditional offset printing to digital printing, to Web sites, DVDs and CD-ROMs. The emergence of graphic design for new media forms simultaneous to the changes unfolding in print have put some burdens on the shoulders of graphic artists. It’s not enough these days to toil in your favorite desktop publishing applications, making “pretty pictures” for your employers or customers, as the case may be. To best serve the process, you’ve got to be both designer and prepress operation — knowledgeable about best practices in creating content for any medium and eliminating bad printing quality.  Read more... (1109 words, estimated 4:26 mins reading time)

SANTA ANA, California – December 11, 2007 – Markzware, the inventor of preflight application and data-conversion software, announced today the release of FlightCheck v6.10. FlightCheck is Markzware’s flagship prepress application that manages quality control of digital files destined for print or electronic distribution.

FlightCheck v6.10 has numerous improvements and updates, including enhanced preflighting performance—up to four times faster than previous versions. The solution also recognizes QuarkXPress 7 files that were not recognized in earlier releases of FlightCheck 6, and adds improved reporting on font paths. In addition, improvements have been made to preflight PDF files. A new “Get More” button, found in the Ground Controls pop-up menu, enables users to immediately download pre-defined Ground Controls based on output intentions and file specifications.

“The release of Markzware’s FlightCheck v6.10 is a milestone in the product’s long, rich history. It reinforces our commitment to the printing, publishing and graphic arts markets, by providing superior usability and productivity, and enabling our customers to ensure quality output for a very modest investment,” affirms Mary Gay Marchese, public relations director, Markzware, Inc., Santa Ana, CA.  Read more... (294 words, estimated 1:11 mins reading time)