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AnonymousInactivehttp://www.proprint.com.au/InDepth/152890,the-theory-of-digital-relativity.aspx
The theory of digital relativity
The printing industry can take a lead from Albert Einstein, says Frank Romano.
Albert
Einstein conceptualised a unified field theory to unify the general
theory of relativity with electromagnetism. Until the day he died he
sought a Theory of Everything that could explain all the physical
constants of nature.I think there is a Theory of Digital Relativity
that can explain the future of digital printing. There are five forces
at work:1. Digital origination
2. Digital integration
3. Digital communication
4. Digital storage and retrieval
5. Digital metamorphosis
Digital origination
It
begins with the fact that almost all content is created and stored in
digital form. For text, there are very few typewriter manuscripts to
re-keyboard or photo prints or slides to scan. Hard copy is hard to
find. This article is being typed in Microsoft Word on a Mac. It will
be sent to the publisher as an email attachment. It will be edited
on-screen, formatted into a publication, and placed on a website.Word
processing and electronic editing changed the authoring and editorial
processes. Digital cameras reduced reality to pixels. Most new digital
cameras are over 8 megapixels, more information than many reproduction
devices can reproduce.
Digital integration
For
a while (40 years) there was a typesetting industry. It is gone because
we all set type no matter what computer programme we use today.
Typesetting is integrated into every programme that deals with words or
images. As processes were integrated, industries were reinvented,
creatives were empowered, and skill sets shifted from craft to
science.A colour make-up system once sold for $1 million; now you get
more power from Photoshop (no, Adobe, you cannot price it at $1
million). Almost all artwork and illustration is electronically
created. Art supply markets changed as the need for transfer type,
rubber cement, X-actos, and paste-up tables more or less disappeared.
The digital camera integrates photography and processing to provide
instant feedback. The cell phone frees us from the limits of the wired
telephone. The PDA integrates the phone, camera, and computer.
Digital communication
Once
information became electronic, the world changed. The file could be
sent over phone modems and then over the internet. Files could be sent
to multiple plants for print produced closer to the postal entry
facility or distribution location. At the same time, ads and content
could be pinpointed to readers in that geography. Cities were once
clogged with messenger services that moved documents and camera-ready
art from place to place. Most of them have driven their bicycles and
scooters into the sunset.No longer did print buyer and print producer
have to be proximate to one another. As buyer and seller moved apart,
new tools allowed on-screen proofing and collaboration. New approaches
let us buy print over the internet. Bits know no borders and file
transfers could be to another state or another country. Most of us no
longer needed to work in offices as such. I contend that our work space
is no longer the office or the cubicle — it is the computer screen and
PDA screen. And those screens can be anywhere. Teleconferencing and
telecommuting are becoming routine. We learn from webinars and online
courses. Most of our day is spent basking in the glow of an LCD or LED
display.In a pure digital economy, some products and the commerce that
supports them, never become corporeality. Music, software and
publications are found, ordered, downloaded, and paid for
electronically.
Digital storage and retrieval
For
a while we continued to output film as an intermediate medium, but the
ability to store and retrieve files was so compact and convenient that
we eschewed the hard copy. Think of all the files, images, documents
and more stored on your hard drives, removable drives, thumb drives,
CDs or DVDs — to say nothing about those floppies, Syquests, and Zips
you have packed away (as though you will ever be able to read them). In
a few decades we have evolved from kilo-, to mega-, to giga- bytes,
with terabyte drives now in the pipeline. The effect of such digital
filing affected the makers of file cabinets and physical storage
systems.The downside to all this is that media change and over time
become vestigial, like 8-track tapes, Beta cassettes, and 8mm and 35mm
film. Punch cards lasted for 50 years but no digital medium has
prevailed for even a decade.
Digital metamorphosis
Digital
metamorphosis is mostly printout — we convert the digital information
into spots of litho ink, flexo ink, gravure ink, toner, or inkjet ink
in all its forms. It used to be that the input to copy centres
(commercial or inhouse) was a stack of pages. Those pages began life on
the computer and underwent one level of digital metamorphosis, only to
undergo another level to produce the final document. As time went by,
we got smarter and the input to the copy centre became the digital file
— the input to the printing company also became the digital file.All
print is already digital in whole or in part. Digital platemakers bring
us closer to paper than ever before. Eventually, we will be plateless
for offset litho, as pure digital processes like toner and inkjet get
us right to the substrate. Flatbed inkjet printers print directly to
foamcore so printing to sheets and mounting are eliminated, and inline
digital diecutting eliminates manual processes.The future of print is
the ability to define the digital metamorphoses. Those suppliers who
make it easy to change bits into spots will be the winners. Those users
who find and apply new technology to develop new opportunities will be
the winners. Those marketers and print and media buyers who procure the
right blend of print and electronic media will be the winners.
Digital disruption
What
can be digitally originated, integrated, communicated, stored,
retrieved and metamorphosed, will be. The Theory of Digital Relativity
is not based on evolution; it is based on revolution. -
AuthorAugust 14, 2009 at 3:57 PM
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