Digital Printing: From Households to Industries

B. Gunawan, Contributor, Jakarta

Digitalization is an electronic revolution that has brought about fantastic changes, not only to information technology, telecommunications, audio-visual products and home appliances, but also to printing technology.

The use of digital printing -- which is beginning to show its predominance on the market -- has been spurred by the development of computers and printing technology.

Have you ever seen a multi-story building, the glass walls of which are covered with a huge company logo? Or, perhaps a car displaying a life-size image of Spiderman has caught your eye. Or, while on the Pakuan electric train, you may have seen one car decorated with a Coca-Cola advertisement. Or, you may have seen, in a supermarket or a mall, attractive posters, signs or backlight banners? These are all possible thanks to advances in digital printing technology.

The advertising industry has been greatly assisted by wide format printers, which can be used to print -- at a high speed -- giant banners, posters and even billboards, all of an excellent quality.

Digital printing guarantees consistency in quality, no matter the size. Those managing shops, supermarkets and department stores no longer have much trouble in making available in-store materials and points of purchases (POP) such as stands, hanging mobiles and posters.

Another advantage of using a digital printer is that your printing can be customized without incurring steep production costs. "We don't charge an additional fee for the production of posters using different colors for their backgrounds," said a customer service officer in Subur, a leading provider of digital printing services in Jakarta.

At present, printers of various brands and sizes are available. Several brands, like Hp, Canon, Epson, Roland and Agfa have even introduced to the market their large/medium format printers, which could not be found five years back. In response to private and household needs, printer manufacturers like Fuji, Xerox, Canon, Epson and even Sony have inundated the market with their photoprinters.

A photoprinter will allow users of a personal computer or a digital camera, or a cellular phone equipped with a camera, to easily print the pictures they have taken. In general, the quality of printing is as good as that obtained from a conventional photo printer. The market offers private users of photoprinters dozens of brands, including Fuji (PrintPix Printer CX-400), Canon (CP-100/300), Kodak (Printer Dock), Olympus (P- 200), Sony (DPP-FP30/50), Hp (HP Photosmart Series) and Epson. Now you only have to fork out Rp 2 million to Rp 4 million to own a mini-photo lab at home.

A new business is booming following the rapid progression in digital printing technology and the increasing integration between digital printing, on the one hand, and computers, digital cameras and cellular phones, on the other. While before Fuji Image Plaza would only print pictures from film, nowadays, this photography service provider -- which belongs to the Modern Group -- also takes orders for digital printing.

Another business that is becoming increasingly popular among teenagers is the photobox business. Besides photoboxes, you can also find a lot of digital photo printing outlets in malls. They can print your photos up to A0 size and also sell photo frames. "In short, you only have to bring your photo file or let us take your picture and then you can have your photograph in a beautiful frame," said a saleswoman at Mal Ambassador, Jakarta.

While before banners were made manually, today, graphic designers can see how a finished product will look before its completion. Graphic designers no longer need to go to Singapore, Malaysia or Australia as, right here in Jakarta, there is a digital printer that can print a two-and-a-half meter wide banner in an "unlimited" length. Billboard makers' jobs have been made much easier with the presence of all sorts of printing materials, ranging from weather-proof and water-resistant materials to those that are transparent and semi-transparent.

Your driver's license, your credit or debit card, your ID card and even your visitor's card are all examples of digital printing. If you need an ATM card with your photo on it, for example, you only have to go to your bank. A bank officer will ask you to pose, and five minutes later your ATM card will be ready. If you want to cover the rear window of your car with a picture of a flower or a picture of your favorite gamecock, you only have to bring the file of this picture to a digital printing agency. Don't worry though, if from outside the car this rear window looks as if it were covered entirely with a picture, from inside the car you can see clearly through the image.

The big question is, how soon will the cost of digital printing drop, so that all can enjoy its high quality, speed, versatility and efficiency?