Print Buying Direct

Pre-press – 20 years of change – part 9 – 26th March 2009

Databases to the fore (including Variable Data printing)

Databases were increasingly important for pre-press and related areas, but experience with them was still not widespread. A few developers such as Picdar and Pindar Systems were making waves. Amongst Pindar;s projects was one to build an electronic catalogue database in co-operation with the European Commission. The idea was to provide a digital marketplace for the engineering sector, and was one of the earliest examples of an intergrated multi-channel information system. Time magazine was heading towards 100% digital production with CTP and requiring its advertisers to deliver all adverts in digital form, using the Quickcut database as a reference for preflight checking. But there were losses too as one of the earliest proponents of database technology for workflow management. Dalim, filed for bankruptcy. And, in 1998, Lord Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail & General Trust and ‘the last of the great press barons’ died. He left behind a newspaper in rude health still leading the charge into standards based multi-channel digital production.

It was at about this time that publishers, printers and print buyers started to understand the potential of network based production and commerce. The web was recognised as a complement rather than a competitor to print and we started to see the beginnings of Internet driven service models. At the same time there was a mass haemorrhaging throughout the graphic arts supplier community, as creaky business models collapsed under the weight of new technology and new expectations. The bottom fell out of the traditional scanner business with the displacement of drum scanners by lower cost flatbed technologies, and process automation. Everyone was forced to accept or reject change as the new order based on service, standard and commodity technologies started to shake down. Technologies were squaring off, with Quark’s arrogance and cavalier attitude to its customers finally forcing it to cede its position. Canon introduced the BJC-8500 printer to compete with the Stylus Pro 5000. Heidelberg started selling consumables and Global Graphics bought Harelquin. This was the year that violet lasers were used for direct to plate imaging with Agfa introducing a violet version of the Galileo platesetter. Xeikon brought Nipson and the UK’ Future Publishing became the first publisher in the world to base its entire workflow on PDF.

To be continued…

See Part one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight of this blog – Pre-press – 20 years of change

See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6 of our blogs on Direct Mail and Transactional Print

School Prospectus Made Easy and Print Buying Direct are trading names of The Printing House Ltd. The Print Buying Direct brand was originally set up to protect the quality name of The Printing House of Crewe and Nantwich, Cheshire, Uk – recognised throught the North of England as a quality printers. Now Print Buying Direct has established itself over the last two years and has become a quality brand in its own right with very competitive prices nationally. We hope that School Prospectus Made Easy will follow in the same fashion and become a popular brand in its own right.

Print Buying Direct is one of the Uk’s leading suppliers of graphic design and print, based in the Crewe and Nantwich area of Cheshire (UK) but supplying all of the UK & Ireland. See our websites for more information on graphic design, brochures, business cards, appointment cards, leaflets, flyers, pamphlets, posters etc

Please feel free to browse our print buying website and use it as a useful tool – we are adding new pages and offers every week. So keep popping back, subscribe to our printing blog, email info@printbuyingdirect.co.uk or call call 0870 950 8444.

For more information please see our websites – especially our Printing Glossary – Printing A to Z – this makes a really useful guide for designers, printers, print buyers, college students etc.

Don’t forget The Printing House also specialise in Printing for Schools, especially School Prospectus, Secondary School Prospectus, College Prospectus, Primary School Prospectus & Sixth Form Prospectus. We have a vast range of experience design and print of primary, secondary, 6th form, college and universtity prospectus. Visit our School Prospectus Made Easy website to see examples of our work and more about our products. Our customer testimonials webpage is constantly being added to – please stop by and see our reviews.

Tags: Flyers, Leaflets, Pamphlets, Posters, Pre-press, printers, school prospectus, variable data printing

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 26th, 2009 at 8:33 am and is filed under Banners, Business Stationery, Calendars, Christmas Cards, Leaflets and Brochures, News, Newsletters, Postcards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.