Print Trends
NAPL\'s Howie Fenton tackles digital printing, scanning, color management, process control and emerging digital technologies.
A Natural Transition From Print Service Provider to Marketing Service Provider
A hot topic these days is how can I migrate from a Print Service Provider (PSP) to a Marketing Service Provider (MSP). Here is an interesting case history. A printing company purchased a digital press and started selling short run, fast turnaround work and they cannibalized some of their short run offset work into short run digital printing. After reading market research that said that a web-to-pr ...... Read More
Comments (0)Apple's iPad
Like many other people I watch with envy and desire Apple’s announcements of new products on my computer on the Apple site. This year the picture quality of the presentation was better than usual and when Steve Jobs sat down to demo the new iPad I felt like he was sitting in my living room. I suspect that I am not much different in the process of evaluating new products and placing them on ...... Read More
Comments (3)Surveying During a Recession
Last blog we talked about a snowstorm in Denver that resulted in no one coming to a presentation I was giving. I was scheduled to talk about shifting from surveying to thriving during a recession and Mike Casey was going to talk about surveys and growing your business. The irony is the fact that surveys are the best held secret used by leading companies to get actionable data about customer satisf ...... Read More
Comments (0)Growing a Business During a Snowstorm
As I write this, I am updating up a presentation for the PIAMS called “Creating & Growing a Sustainable Business During a Recession.” Ironically this is not the first time I have tried to make this presentation. In late October I was scheduled to make this presentation for the Printing Industries of Colorado with my friend Mike Casey. Mike was heading through Denver to the NAPL ...... Read More
Comments (0)Emerging From the Recession is Painfully Slow - If at All
Although people say the recession is over, the truth is that it has stopped getting worse and for a few companies and small ways has started getting better. According to Andy Paparozzi, NAPL’s VP and Chief Economist, “The end of the recession does not mean all’s well. It simply means the contraction has stopped. Recovery can be vigorous, feeble, or anything in-between. For our ...... Read More
Comments (0)Software Upgrade Fatigue and PDF/Flash Cyberhacking
Last time we talked about the cessation of Adobe’s Print Service Provider Program. Other factors that may have contributed to this decision are that Adobe struggled at the end of last year and it has become a target of hacker attacks. Most software companies invest great amounts of time, resources and money to software upgrades. Typically this pays for itself when the upgrade comes out and ...... Read More
Comments (0)Adobe Discontinues Partner Connection Print Service Provider Program
After the first of the year Adobe announced, “We are no longer accepting applications for the Print Service Provider program.” If you’re not aware of the program it had two levels: Authorized membership ($595) and Premium membership ($995). Both programs offered various technical, product and promotional benefits. I was sad to hear that Adobe had discontinued this program. I ...... Read More
Comments (0)DTP History: Quark and Font Wars
Last blog I mentioned owning a 20 MB serial hard disk from Quark. In case you did not notice, that hard disk was made by the same company that eventually sold the page layout software Quark Xpress. Yes it’s true - before Quark sold XPress they made hard disks. During my tenure as an editor of a prepress magazine, I interviewed many of the leading CEOs in the industry. I had an interesting i ...... Read More
Comments (1)Early Adoption of Electronic Books
In a recent blog we talked about the Kindle and the impact of electronic readers on printing and publishing. Why the sudden interest in the Kindle? The reason - I bought my girlfriend Sherri a Kindle for Christmas. Flying on airplanes I have seen my fair share of electronic readers. But if you look at the numbers of people who are buying the electronic readers, they are still in the early adopter ...... Read More
Comments (0)Is your Computer A Monster or a Mouse?
I remember when I bought my first computer. It was a 128KB Mac with two 400 KB floppy disk drives. Believe it or not, I can remember distinctly suffering my first computer envy feeling. It did not take long after the envy that I updated the memory to 512KB, upgraded to an 800 KB internal drive and bought a serial 20 MB hard disk from Quark. And after each upgrade you think to yourself, “Now ...... Read More
Comments (1)Is Kindle Changing the Publishing Industry?
After some hysterical responses from some previous blogs, I really have to wonder what is politically correct and not correct. For example, I was shocked after one blog in which I said honestly that I was not a good football fan. There were balls of flames coming from the name-calling that ensued. I was glad I was actually not sitting at a game. I would have been pelted by soda, slushies, hot dogs ...... Read More
Comments (2)Travel Like a Pro
A few years ago I took a course on professional speaking. If you’ve heard me make a presentation lately, you know it did not do me much good. But it was a fun course and it made me think. At the end of the course we were asked to make a presentation and it could not be related to our work. So I made a presentation about the only subject I really know which was flying. If you’re wonde ...... Read More
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