Digital choice moments

It took nine years to calculate the digital color printing technology from IPEX 93 to the production level to IPEX 2002. 9 years is not a short time for today's printing industry, and the basic imaging technology of the first generation of digital printing machines has stood the test of time and strong opponents during this period of time.

Today's presses are faster, they support larger format sizes, and front-end devices are more powerful and richer, but they handle text and images in much the same way.

But if the products of famous companies like Indigo and Xeikon get popular, the situation will be very different. When Indigo was busy introducing their digital printing technology on IPEX 93, the whirlwind of the Internet quietly scraped into the printing industry.

When the printing industry realized the great benefits of digital printing in on-demand printing, the Internet brought us the concept of printing by information and quickly opened its own market, which expanded on-demand printing to the smallest personalized unit. A page or even an image can be printed on demand. This ability is very important for today's database-oriented marketing strategy.

At the beginning, Indigo and Xeikon were synonymous with digital printing. Now companies such as Heidelberg and Xerox are also joining the ranks of digital printing. They will soon launch NexPress and FutureColor digital presses respectively. These industry giants will bring many suspense to IPEX 2002, and at the same time reveal from another aspect the importance of digital printing in the future printing industry.

However, in the recent past, many critics have turned their attention to another battle in the industry.

Take the digital printing of killer steel—personalized printing—for example, many printers are not fully aware that buying a digital press is the first step to ensuring future success. In the age of the Internet, digital personalized printing should integrate with the Internet, personalized e-mail, and a complete CRM (customer relationship management) system.

This in turn requires investments in sales training, the development of solutions, customer-assisted teams, and new technologies that incorporate database knowledge. Investment in this area must be implemented as soon as possible, or some customers will make their own absurd decisions. They may only use the digital press as a simple digital output device.

The reaction and attitude of the printing industry, including printer manufacturers and printing business service providers, in this regard will be one of the focuses of the IPEX 2002 exhibition. The position of the printing industry in the core business of digital communications in the 21st century will also depend on this.