Found this article via a Tweet from @driessen over at Océ and just had to share it. The death of print (Link to an actual study.) has always been exaggerated, but in all seriousness, outputting onto new and exciting (yes, this may be on the exotic side of glossy) materials will likely see the printing industry “growing” again one day…

New Device Prints Human Tissue

Invetech has delivered what it calls the “world’s first production model 3D bio-printer” to Organovo, developers of the proprietary NovoGen bioprinting technology. Organovo will in turn supply the devices to institutions investigating human tissue repair and organ replacement.

Keith Murphy, CEO of Organovo, based in San Diego, said the units represent a breakthrough because they provide for the first time a flexible technology platform for organizations working on many different types of tissue construction and organ replacement…. Article continues…
Source: http://www.livescience.com/technology/091229-3d-bioprinter.html

Sure hope they heard of the concept of preflighting before output… heck, got me thinking, do they use PDF/X-1a or  PDF/X-3 PLUS? They most likely in this case, print right from the native application!

Just also read today that the Five-year forecast predicts high growth in digital textile print. So it is clear, certain segments of the printing market will “grow.”

Here is an interesting piece from Dr. Joe of WhatTheyThink.com titled, “June 10 Economic Webinar Q&A.” This bit on the average number of employees at a printer and it’s potential relation to graphic designers taking on more of the role of prepress is what I wanted us to zoom in on here:

Q.  Is the average size of successful printing companies increasing or decreasing? Sales volume and or employee count as a measure.

A. Sales are down and our industry has a habit of calibrating itself by adding or shedding businesses as needed. The inflation-adjusted sales per employee is actually remarkably steady, which indicates this. The average size of a commercial printing business has been on a very slow decline for decades. It was around 26 employees in the late 1980s and was just above 19 by 2006. That says more about desktop publishing replacing prepress than it says about anything else.
Source: http://members.whattheythink.com/home/drjoe269.cfm  Read more... (460 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)