Despite the razzle dazzle surrounding inkjet at Ipex the answer is a resounding no says Tribute, with a clear analysis of speed, quality and flexibility showing that offset will remain king of print for years to come

Tribute ponders if the most talked about technology this year – Apple’s iPad - is serious competition for the printing and publishing industry, or whether it is to be a complementary technology, and comes down on the side of the latter

Much of the novelty at Ipex will focus on inkjet presses, both sheetfed and webfed. Andy Tribute says what he thinks printers should be looking out for beyond the razzle dazzle of the show

Tribute asks whether this will be the year publishers look seriously at the benefits of high speed inkjet printing

Australian Printer was launched in a different world sixty years ago; Andy Tribute looks back of the monumental changes that have occurred in print over that period

Did you know that there is a company whose business is printing, that calls itself a printing company, but which is categorised as a high-growth business by many organisations like Deloitte and Inc Magazine? The company is Mimeo.com and Deloitte identified it as the 25th fastest growing technology company in the New York region in 2007

Occasionally there are developments within this industry, often referred to as disruptive technology, that have the potential for fundamentally changing the market. The arrival of thermally imaged non-ablative CTP plates that came to market in 1995 is an example of such a disruptive technology, and most notably the launch of the Indigo and Xeikon digital presses at Ipex 93 is another. I have just come across another such disruptive technology that could have a similar impact to that of thermal CTP in changing the industry

Workflow is becoming a very big word for the printing industry in that it is now covering such a wide area of services

The giant bookseller is forcing the pace with e-reading devices, which may well impact on print

Developments in flexo platemaking will mean the process expanding its share of the packaging market, and may be challenging for new markets altogether, including magazine printing