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On the site now: 8392 articles from 825 suppliers!

...from 5 articles and news releases just added to the site:

EXCLUSIVE: Heidelberg Sales 3% Down - Results Not Confirmed

Heidelberg is now forecasting that group sales will be three per cent lower than the previous year in an announcement released last night.

Exclusive article from Heidelberg

Indirect Film For Screens Needs No Hardening

Autotype Novaplus, a photo-polymer based indirect film that is claimed not to need chemical hardening or warm water washout has been launched by MacDermid Autotype.

Product/Service News from MacDermid Autotype ( 9 May 2008)

Paper Firm's Employees Win Student Awards

Ten members of staff from the Howard Smith Paper Group won awards at the National Association of Paper Merchant's (NAPM) Introductory Certificate programme awards.

Company news from The Howard Smith Paper Group ( 9 May 2008)

Latest Special Report from Printingtalk:

Capturing Gift Card Market Opportunity

Technology Guide for Capturing Gift Card Market Opportunity - White Paper by Tom Kleeman, CEO, Spartanics

» See all recent Special Reports...

Standard Paper Tests Identify Creasing Properties

Standard test procedures for coated fine papers to identify their clinching and creasing properties have resulted from work by paper firm Sappi with Zwick Roell's Competence Centre of paper and board.

Background article from Zwick Roell

Secure Printers Play Part In Angolan Elections

P640i printers from Zebra helped to register eight million Angolan voters using biometric data.

User application article from Zebra ( 9 May 2008)

All 5 technical articles, news releases, and user applications today...

From the Printingtalk Editorial Newsletter this week

Ian Mayor Ian Mayor, Editor writes:
 
It all began with books. Or, more to the point, one book. The Bible.

I refer to the industry in which we work when Johann Gutenberg set to work and created the original mass communications revolution with his press.

Things marched on, of course, to today's position where we have a multiplicity of ways of applying ink - or now toner - to paper and a whole array of other substrates as a way of conveying the word, the message.

Whilst long ago Gutenberg's startling use of metal type provided one of the bedrocks of modern civilisation, we now have digital printing, which does not involve any contact at all with the substrate, which increasingly keeps people and companies in touch with each other.

One thing has not changed though and that is the importance of reading, in whatever form. That is why books remain so popular and the variety of printed books is now wider than ever, although the methods of access to them and their distribution has undergone its own revolution since the internet took a hold of modern living.

Which brings me on to the main point of this week's column. What does it really mean when a book seller, in this case, Amazon, decides that any books sold through its operation must be printed by Amazon itself?

We are, of course, talking about printing books on demand. I can see one piece of definite business logic. If it costs less to produce books in small volumes geared to customer orders, rather than the expense of maintaining adequate stocks, it seems hard to argue against it. Similarly, in terms of the environment (and the great conundrum that is carbon footprint) it surely makes sense to at least eradicate a lorry trip to deliver to Amazon another small load of the A-Z Book of Drawing Pins.

Of course, Amazon is now much more than a book seller. Like many businesses chanting the 'diversify or die' mantra, it has evolved, so its printing needs are now very diverse. But given Amazon's reported cash in hand of USD3,000,000,000, even if it fails at printing, given that its liquidity is considerable, the price of that failure in context will be as a minor irritation.

I really do not see a great deal of point in complaining about Amazon's plans. It is all part of life. Things move on.

But, there are organisations in the printing industry that know how to distribute products and logistics could become a logical lead in to securing some very useful added value opportunities.

Amazon are thinking laterally about how best to serve the markets they serve. Perhaps more printers could do so as well. After all, if on demand printing is about small volumes and even personalisation and making printed products more individualistic, there is no reason why a whole variety of printing firms cannot find a niche by also distributing products as well.

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