In my humble view you ain't seen nothing yet.
Dear Bob
I was not ignoring your reply....just had a lot on today! I don't doubt you are right but we have seen this coming for some time. Still time to avoid throwing in the towel though IMHO.
Wait until digital medium run printing gets into its stride. We are going to see an explosion in low use colour printing by people who can achieve designs and presentation as good as the "big" boys.
Not sure what you mean by that Bob. Do you mean that there will be so many design templates that it will be just a matter of choosing one that appeals, bang in the RF and there you are...cheap and cheerful.
They are going to want to illustrate their 250 - 500 run brochures, price lists, calendars, menus, stationary etc. with colour pictures. The advent of digital capture and distribution will make finding those images even cheaper. The manufacturers are even talking about providing RF disks free with the printers.
As I have often heard, you will always find a cheaper and nastier product if you want. However I am sure that just as this sector will continue to grow, there will be companies who realize that they can benefit from a custom product superbly produced. This does rather assume that the printed material will continue to be used!
The answer, as I see it, is for photographers to take the initiative. Form partnerships or working relationships with digital printers.
Yes this is already working for some.
Perhaps even buy their own digital press.
I seem to remember that John Hinde started that way many years ago.
The photographer should then work on selling the package to the client instead of just the photography.
Yes, poor printing drove me down that road some thirty years ago!
How many of us have supplied photography for a few pieces of material like brochures and price lists for a pittance and then seen the designer charge �1,000s for a very modest amount of work and make 10% of the print bill on top?
True, but with the territory goes responsibility <BG>
There will be a digital printing trade show at Olympia at the end of November. Just how many of you will go and learn about the future?
Perhaps, but there are other ways of keeping a good grasp of what's happening...Pira for one, being on a number of the Print Planet lists for another.....try their Digital Printing forum if this subject interests.
Cheers
Richard -- Scanning?.....Forget it! For Quality Drum Scans for Professionals that are really right see Labs section at www.prodig.org (and email Richard for pdf)
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