Digital Printing Business Outlook

With the development of the printing industry, digital printing has become a general trend. For companies that still use the traditional printing model, transformation seems to be the only way to go. However, it is easier and simpler to imagine crossing the digital domain.

Transformation due to business decline

For the past years, Baohua Electronic Color Separation Co., Ltd., which has been engaged in traditional color separation and plate making, began to transform digital printing. Managing Director Deng De explained that the transformation of the company is facilitated by the environment. "At that time, the transition was mainly due to the decline in business. The golden age of film output was in 1995 and 1996. After the 1997 financial turmoil, this trip was no longer a good thing, as if our business was down by 20% at the time. Plus, when employees went on their own, we did Inkjet, and they did Inkjet; we did Films, and they followed the film again, which would naturally affect our business and business loss, then we must find a way to compensate for the loss, so I It will be transformed into digital printing."

Mr. Deng’s transformation process is not easy. The lessons learned from the mistaken purchase of machines are still vivid. "In 1996, we mistakenly purchased a digital press that was expensive, had a large amount of paper, but was low in production quality. This machine was tens of times more expensive than some kind of high-quality copiers in the market. We couldn't do it alone. This machine competes with peers, but because of this, I have a deeper understanding of digital printing, and I know more about the tricks of digital printing. I believe that the machines used in digital printing must not be sloppy, and the machine's paper consumption must be depleted. It can't be too big. Take the machine I purchased by mistake as an example. It is a roller. It has not yet been officially printed. It has already consumed more than twenty and thirty sheets of paper. When it is truly printable, the quality of printed products will be uneven. I have to choose from them and when it is printed in large quantities, it cannot be loaded, which will greatly affect our normal operations and make us unable to compete in the market."

"Recall that at the time, if I didn't spend money on this machine, I would probably invest my money in other areas and things would be better. So, running digital printing and buying machines is an important part, and you can't take it lightly. ”

Offset Digital Multiplication

Summarizing past experience, Mr. Deng believes that the development of digital presses is still a problem because the technology is not yet mature. "To wait for a perfect digital press to emerge, it will take at least five or six years. What we can do now is to be flexible and see how offset printing can work with digital printing to solve the problems we face. ”

"Offset printing has grown to a mature stage and the cable can be very young, such as 200, 300, and even Crystal. Digital and offset printing cannot be compared, because the former is a new one. Although we are very successful in the silver salt version, we can do it on the 175th network, but I still want to make 200 networks, or even the crystal network. If the crystal network is unsuccessful, I may return to do CTP. If you simply buy a digital press and come back, it may be worthless two years later, and I feel that you cannot always think that you can do anything to change the quality of the press. I don't want to sit in the light, I don't even do anything."

Looking around the current market, digital printing does not seem to be fully popular. Mr. Deng believes that digital printing is a trend and market demand is the driving force behind the development of digital printing. "We must let our customers know that printing can be more effective in opening up space for digital printing without exporting film. I believe that some organizations such as the "Digital Graphic Arts Network" can start to implement it. ”

Transformation is a force

Established in 1966, the first standard for large-scale four-color lighting posters is the Chen Group Co., Ltd., which is one of the few screen printing companies in Hong Kong that has successfully integrated digital printing with traditional screen printing. At the end of 1999, the scope of standard services extended to subway mast advertisements, wall posters, and escalator banners. Chen Yu, general manager of the Group Co., Ltd., said that the company's transformation of digital printing is actually forced by the situation. "In the past few years, our peers have only engaged in vicious competition in prices. If we do not change our strategy and open up new markets, our competitive advantage will be weakened. At the end of 1978, some customers proposed to my dad to use silkscreen to make large posters of a certain size. , and said that this method has become very popular in foreign countries.Because we are doing spot color silk screen printing, and the other side is talking about four-color posters, so my dad consults a friend who does separation, and tries to do it. It was only after we succeeded that we discovered that at that time, the size of the customers said that no one could do it with four-color screen printing, we were originally cheated, but it was because of this that we managed to find a new road. It is also our responsibility to print large-scale advertisements."

The success of the standard Chen’s today is based on constant learning from past failures. At the end of 1995, Ms. Chen still has a vivid memory of her purchase of a printing press. "At the time, the quality of most printing machines in the market was not very good. The printed outlets were very large. Materials, ink control, software and other technologies were not working together and were not suitable for our market use. It was just a The supplier sold us a press that they claimed was fast, could spray different materials, was low cost and had a high pixel count, so I immediately purchased it, but when I bought it, I knew what the supplier said was inconsistent with the facts. When I used that machine for banner advertisements, because I did not have any related equipment to connect to it, I switched to the method of using the burs, but my needle was broken. So I consulted an expert to help me connect with infrared light, but the ink was connected to the position. But because of the heat and discoloration, I couldn’t do anything about it. In the end, I only had to spend money to find someone to take over the job before it could be successfully completed.”

Mis-estimate the market

"The tuition I paid this time was also really expensive. I lost about two hundred million. Now I think I thought I shouldn't have only to look at digital presses to do very well. I should look at whether these functions are suitable for silk screen printing. The needs of the market.The technical development of the printing press is changing with each passing day. You should not only listen to the supplier saying that a certain machine is eager to buy at a fast price. What do you really want to buy? You really have customers in this area. Or is my father right to say: "I don't buy anything, I just sell it." I can't sell my finished product. What's the use of a machine to buy it? Many people's thoughts are the same as mine and they think that they have bought it. An advanced machine can dominate the market, no business, and when you tell customers to buy a digital press, most of them will support you, but after you buy it, hesitation and unacceptance often support you Customer!"

Looking at the digital market in Hong Kong, Ms. Chen believes that there are still many problems at present, which has hindered the development of digital printing. "People think that digital printing can do very well, but there are still many problems in the digital market. For example, materials are expensive and there are insufficient supplies. For example, the time for advertising printing is tight, and customers often put their products on the day before delivery. When things are handed to you, how can you have enough time to communicate with the creative department and make good use of it? Is the customer willing to pay extra for you to play, and you have no time to do it, right? Not to mention every time you All of these finished products are given to customers. How can they have the confidence to pay extra to you? This is a vicious cycle! I believe that if one day people see that digital printing can be done so well, the market There will be demand."

"I feel that peers should not only compete with each other in terms of price, but should also pay attention to printing new information, pay attention to the development of foreign digital markets, and even think about how the press can be used. Innovation, so that our industry will not enter the dead end of vicious price competition, the digital market will have room for development, and it will not be stagnant as it is today."

Digital photography has many advantages

In order to improve the quality of digital printing, excellent digital photography technology is also indispensable in addition to sophisticated digital printing machines. Leung Yiu-tung, the head of AlphaChannel's advertising production company who has been engaged in digital photography for three years, explained how digital photography can directly improve digital print quality. “In the past, photography was generally based on positive films, no matter how good the color correction filters used by photographers were. It is always necessary to convert the three primary color scans into a four-color printing program, which will not control the color of the photos after printing. However, with digital photography, the colors of the photos can be monitored in real-time in the print four-color preview mode, which will help improve the The print quality of the photos. More importantly, digital photography does not use a lot of film and film to test lighting effects and is more environmentally friendly than traditional photography. In the current economic environment, customers simply do not have enough budget for us to do this. The process, but it does not mean that we must reduce the quality. With digital photography, we can solve this problem. As long as the color adjustment of the computer screen is accurate, we can naturally complete digital images that are close to the color of prints."

Purchase equipment points do not pay

Mr. Leung pointed out that digital photographic equipment is not expensive. From another point of view, users do not pay for this, so they can own the equipment. "The price of a set of digital photography equipment is about two to three hundred thousand, but the cost of this film is three years worth of film, printing, instant film, scanning, etc. The cost has already just been offset. That is to say, the traditional photography The daily expenses are enough for a digital camera, but people can't always think about it in this direction."

"Some people may think that the 200,000 yuan is not a small amount. But taking myself as an example, I have been able to balance my income in the two months after I purchased the equipment. It can be seen that digital photography actually has a market and it is worth investing. ”

However, Mr. Liang added that digital photography is not without its drawbacks. "The images taken by a digital camera must not be too large. Generally, photographers will control the image to the A3 size of the print, which is the ideal size. As for some relatively large images, such as 200 to 300 MB. It is necessary to shoot with sub-mirrors, but the method of sub-camera shooting is not suitable for shooting people, and the maintenance cost of digital photography equipment is also higher than that of traditional cameras. These are disadvantages of digital photography, but if we enjoy digital The benefits of photography are naturally subject to its shortcomings. Digital photography is the current trend. We must face it in the future. The earlier we learn, the sooner we will understand how to deal with it. Therefore, I suggest that peers should transform digital photography as soon as possible. ."

In summary, digitalization may be the development trend in the current printing market, but printers in the gaps and unknown advances and withdrawals should also be able to see clearly.