Kodak's Eric Owen

Inkjet Without the Trade-Offs:Putting Print Back in the Limelight

  

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A century ago, Henry Ford would sell you a car any color you liked, as long as it was black.

Fifty years ago, several hundred million Chinese could choose any color Mao suit, as long as it was blue, gray, or khaki.  

Now color is everywhere and choice is everywhere, too. In America and around the world, consumers want choice and individuality in every aspect of their lives.

In the end, that’s why digital printing is so important. It’s not just a technology. It’s an approach, an ethos, almost a philosophy. It moves printing from being the most inflexible and dictatorial of manufacturing activities towards a world of color, choice, individuality, and relevance.

Think of a printed piece that could not be improved and made more valuable with imaginative use of variable data. There will be some content – government regulations and so on – that will need to be unalterably fixed and set in stone. But think of the level of personalization and choice we all now take for granted in an online setting, and think how different our printed materials would be if they reflected our individuality the same way.

The printed newspaper on my breakfast table could be pieced together to include the subjects that interest me and omit the astrology, cartoons, and celebrity gossip that don’t float my boat at that time of day.

The catalogs I’m sent could show me more of what I wanted to see and less of the stuff I always skip over.

We’ve seen preferences driving offerings on the web. Now we’ll be seeing it happen more and more in print.

This is a sea change that couldn’t start until the costs of digital printing came right down. And it wouldn’t be welcome if consumers and B2B customers felt they were being fed tacky, low-grade material, so quality is important, too. That’s why the launch of Kodak’s Prosper 5000XL has significance far beyond its immediate commercial value.

Now that we can have digital without compromise, inkjet without the trade-offs, the potential is there for print to steal the limelight – and the budgets – back from the online marketers. It’s nothing personal. It’s just business. But by making what we print more personal, we’re going to be doing a lot more business.          

Thank you for following my blog.

In the next few weeks I will be publishing a feature article with more of my thoughts and opinions on the Prosper 5000XL’s digital without compromise and its effect on the business of print. Let me know if you would like me to send it to you.