Did you know that digital book production is expected to grow 15% to 20% per year for the next 3 years? Or, that 30% of all books printed worldwide are touched by Kodak technology? Kodak has been a leader in the book market for years with solutions that include offset plates, CTP, proofing devices and Prinergy Production Workflow and services.

Here are some interesting statistics about book printing:

• More that 60% of books are printed in run lengths of 10,000 or less
• Trade books total over 70% of books produced in the US
• Less than 5 % pages are digitally printed today

With the rising cost of returns and waste, publishers are starting to examine alternate business models. Printing books digitally provides the following benefits:

• Lower break-even
• Lower capital lock up
• Minimal wastage of unsold/obsolete books
• Reduced warehousing/shipping costs
• Ever current titles
• More current marketing activities

Kodak provides solutions that deliver greater revenue opportunities and improved profit margins for printers and publishers worldwide, whether producing 1 or 100,000 copies.

Independent industry consultant John Zarwan recently wrote a report about the offset plate-making process, focusing on the environmental aspects and plate chemical usage and waste - a worthy and often neglected perspective.   You can download his report for free.

Chemical usage is very difficult to nail down - partly because every vendor measures it in a different way and partly because it can vary dramatically from one customer's setup and needs to another's.  Given those large variables, a "one size fits all" comparison isn't possible.  There are a few areas that you should go deeper into when making a plate system decision for your own business:

Should you base decisions on volume of chemistry consumed and disposed of?

• From a business perspective, the analysis should be cost-based, not volume-based.
  
  
• Include the cost of the processing equipment itself.  More complicated processors like the Fuji ZAC aren't necessarily economically feasible for low-to-mid volume customers
  
  
• Cost-based analysis closes the gap between processed plates and "Chemistry Free" plates, because the price of the "Chemistry Free" chemistry is significantly higher by volume than normal plate developer.  
  
  
• Don't get fooled by chemical concentrate systems like Fuji's ZAC!  While the advertised replenisher volume may be lower, concentrates cost more and generate just as much waste after dilution.  The only clear winners are true non-process plates like Kodak's Thermal Direct and Fuji's Pro-T. 
  
  
• From an environmental perspective, chemical volume means very little because a large percentage of the volume is water.  The concentration and impact of the actual chemicals that affect the environment vary dramatically from product to product.  Specifically, I take issue with claims of low chemical usage where the volume may be lower, but the concentration is much higher.  The net result may be little if any environmental benefit.  Ideally for the environment, you would compare chemical usage and waste excluding the water content - which is not available for obvious competitive reasons.  (Kodak will gladly participate in such a study if an independent Notary can get objective and comprehensive data from every major vendor's primary products)
  
  
• Don't get me started on the whole "Chemistry Free" thing... I'm with Derek Awalt on that one.
  
  
• Pre-press chemical usage is only a tiny part of the total economic and environmental impact of your plate choice.  For example, saving 50% of the chemistry per plate means nothing if you have to do multiple sets of plates to complete your press run, or if you generate more make-ready waste.  First, you should determine which products will perform adequately to your prepress and pressroom performance needs, second, analyze all prepress or pressroom benefits and costs, and third factor in other environmental impacts to decide between the feasible choices.
  
  
• Kodak takes the environment seriously - this is not an area to take marketing liberties.  Before making any environmental claims, we have a rigorous internal approval process that demands proof points and supporting documentation - something that I fully support, and would encourage every  vendor to rigorously implement. 
  
  

John's report is a start to making the right choices for the environment - give us a call and Kodak will help you ensure it's also the right choice for your business.

If you're a veteran marketer, I'm sure you'll recognize this: the discussion about the value of tradeshows in your marketing mix. Are they truly worth all the effort and your valuable marketing dollars or euros?

This very fundamental question is in today's recession even more gripping than ever. But if you decide not to do tradeshows, how will you engage your customers effectively and how will you compensate for the lost sales opportunities, because let's not forget in the graphic arts industry a lot of sales are still generated by tradeshows...

The answer seems to come from Switzerland, from a company you would not associate with marketing, but rather with finishing machines. That company is named Hunkeler. What started out several years ago as a small open house event of a supplier of finishing machines, has grown of the past few year to a 4 day event in the Lucerne Messe, with over 4000 visitors of all corners of the earth with all the major vendors of digital printing equipment participating.

Now you might be inclined to say: 'so what?' But Hunkeler has found this unique balance between having an industrial look and feel, combined with an operational excellence that you could only expect from the Swiss and still a scale of operation with the warmth of a family type organization. That's the true secret of the Hunkeler Innovation Days and why they attract experts of all over the world to come and visit. All visitors are experts in their fields. No tire kickers nor brochure hunters, but production people, owners, managers, all here to get updates on the latest technological solutions in digital printing and finishing. As such the Hunkeler Innovation Days has become what people call in German language: Experten Messen, tradeshows for the experts.

This Hunkeler Innovation Days from 16-19th of February, will be my 3rd event and I cannot wait to talk to people there.

Grüezi mittenand aus Luzern (hi to everyone from Lucerne)