What is the difference between a Print Service Provider and a Communications Consultant? One, generally speaking, only prints ink on paper and the other provides a full range of Internet services to offer other avenues of output for ones print content; marketing pieces, publications and art-work of all sorts. The term consultant means, “a person who gives professional or expert advice [source]” thus time perhaps for more and more printers to get into marketing and especially Internet marketing, which is just another form of output, with all the workflow snags and thus opportunities.

There was an interesting piece over on Print CEO which touched on a new campaign trying to pump up print the America. The author was quite upset that they missed the mark with their adverts, waving the old, traditional print flag. When they could have, should have, put their arm around the WWW. Here was part of my comment there:

“Print needs to embrace the Internet and all the communication possibilities it can offer.”  Read more... (292 words, estimated 1:10 mins reading time)

Printers – another how-to online social networking presentation, this time from NAQP or the National Association of Quick Printers. You saw our last video from Print 09 from T.J. Tedesco here (Social Media Strategies for Printers and the Future of Printing + free Kodak booklet) and now we have this interesting piece, “Using Social Media to Build Business for printers:”

This presentation was done my John Foley, Jr., CEO of interlinkONE and he can be followed on Twitter via @johnfoleyjr. He gave a very good overview on where and how a print-shop can get started with Twitter (oh, yes, check out the Markzware list of Printers on Twitter!), Linkedin, YouTube, FaceBook and more – all of which Markzware is also busy with:

Markzware on FaceBook: FaceBook Group…
Markzware on Twitter: @Markzware
Markzware on YouTube: MarkzwareTV
Markzware RSS feed: RSS Feed…
Markzware on Linkedin: Linkedin Group…

We also did a video series on how a printer can get started with Twitter as well…

Here is an nice initiative from a print-shop in the U.K.- online school for print buyers:

Manchester-based printer Frederik Law has launched an online ‘Print School’ aimed at helping customers get the most out of the medium.
The print school section of the company’s website offers a resource for those new to design and small business owners to help them get to grips with print terminology. It also includes best practice guides that are open for users to comment on and ask questions.

Frederick Law managing director Nicky Acton said: “Quite frequently our customers are unsure what certain printing terms mean, we are more than happy to explain but felt an online resource would be helpful.

“We also find it common for graphic designers new to print to send us what they consider to be print ready documents, yet they are missing vital things such as crop marks and bleed. By providing an online print school we are offering our knowledge and experience with an opportunity for people to comment or ask questions.”
Source: PrintWeek UK

You can check out the informative, educational site on how to prepare files for print and output to Adobe PDF here:  Read more... (236 words, 1 image, estimated 57 secs reading time)

With a title like, “Print Isn’t Dead” makes it hard not to click on, especially for people from the printing trade. Here we read in Forbes about how the ancient craft of letterpress printing is making a comeback:

“Letterpress is a method of printing text and images by laying paper onto a raised surface that has been inked and applying considerable pressure. Its roots go back to 2nd-century Chinese woodblock printing, through 15th-century movable type and on into the rotary presses of the mid-19th century.

A decade ago you could pick up a discarded press for a few hundred bucks. David Jury, a 60-year-old typography expert and author in Colchester, England, bought one in 1996 and began printing his own books and stationery, helping to kick off a minirevival of letterpress artifacts that now include embossed wedding invitations, calendars, limited-edition prints and one-of-a-kind objets. Take that, paperless society.”
Source: http://www.forbes.com/global/2009/0608/hatch-show-print-letterpress-revisted.html

The article highlights how having a small press and print-shop operation is making a come-back in NYC and across the States really. The quality and feel is better than commercial printing.  And they continue with this little bit;  Read more... (353 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Here at the Markzware Blog, we like to keep a eye on anything conversion or preflight in the graphic arts marketplace. Heck, we even get into aviation from time-to-time, when blogging on a Friday! Today’s post is not quite about flying, but none-the-less an interesting preflight tool:

PODi Releases CheckPPML_Pro Variable Data Preflight Solution

PODi, the Digital Printing Initiative, today announced the release of CheckPPML_Pro. This production “preflight” tool enables proofing, viewing, preflight and validation of properly formed PPML/GA files. PPML (the Personalized Print Markup Language) facilitates creating personalized high volume print campaigns by service providers, enabling meaningful one-to-one “conversations” for their customers.

Early users report that CheckPPML_Pro is up to 20 times faster than the free version of CheckPPML, while retaining its easy-to-use interface. “CheckPPML_Pro ran our (large) files in about 3 minutes, instead of two hours (with a prior solution); and the output looks good.” said Ray Niblett of Shutterfly.
Source: http://www.printingnews.com/

Variable data printing is of course still one of the growth areas in printing, thus great to see some good, new-fashioned preflighting being built-in!

Here is an interesting one to ponder, from someone in our industry who has been asking questions about this recent economic down-turn. The blogger over at AdTex Advertising wrote a long post about his frustrations in the manufacturing sector in America and in particular printing, as they are of course very familiar with print coming from the trade. He noted:

“The frustration with this situation recently hit the fan with my print partner, Mike. I believe the final straw was flipping to the backside of an American Automobile Manufacturer’s car brochure where he discovered “Printed in South Korea” in the small print. Mike works for a great, family-owned, 121-year old Visual Communications (read “printing”) company based in the same state as the “Big Three” auto manufacturers.”
SOURCE: http://adtexadvertising.com/blog/

It is kind of ironic, one has to admit. What will we outsource next, a printing job to print our United States dollar?
Outsourcing would have its limit, you would think…

This is one of those serendipitous moments. Was watching this neat little video explaining the value and job duties of a prepress operator and was glad to hear them mention preflight as one of their tasks. Was even happier, when at 41 seconds, I spotted a FlightCheck Professional report in action!

Check out the full video below:

This was an interesting one, that had a print catalog workflow stopped dead in it’s tracks. These Adobe InDesign files were not opening. They contacted Markzware to see if we could assist, as they heard we are working on a system to repair InDesign files that are broken… Check out this video to see what the REAL problem was and why it is so very important to preflight every job with FlightCheck that comes in first, before jumping to conclusions:

For more info on how we can try and fix your corrupt InDesign files, see here:
http://www.markzware.com/blogs/bad_corrupted_adobe_indesign_docs/2008/09/15/

A few days ago I posted this little blog piece titled, “Printers on Twitter” about how there was a lack of printers and prepress folks on this popular micro-blogging site, in comparison to the number of graphic designers. We got a reply from a 25-year print-shop owner (newspapers, books & magazines) whom asked:

“Boy am I out of touch on Twitter! I do have a profile but I was unaware that you could create a page like Yagottaprint.com. How do I do this? Can I impose on you for advice in utilizing Twitter?”
Printer of Books and Magazines

The answer can be seen in this, the first of a several part video tutorial by Markzware on how printers and people working in print-media can get involved with Twitter.com, actively get into the community and benefit from this exercise in the form of real-hard-business. This is an excellent resource for showing how print industry members can participate in social networking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnJUQDE1csI

Please feel free to follow Markzware on Twitter here:
http://twitter.com/Markzware

You can ask us any questions there on Twitter, or of course via the “Leave a reply” option just below. Getting involved with online social networks is a key in this day and age and Twitter is a hot, actively used communication medium to get involved with.