For Marketing Perspective --- Digital Imaging Service

For Marketing Perspective --- Digital Imaging Service

Digital Printing: From Households to Industries

B. Gunawan
Contributor, Jakarta

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

The use of digital printing, which is now beginning to show
its predominance in the market, has been spurred by the
development of computers and the technology of printing. A
digital technology has brought convergence to computers, the
technology of printing and the technology of materials.

Have you ever seen a multi-floored building whose outer glass
walls are entirely covered with the logogram of a particular
company? Or, perhaps you have seen, while on the road, an
automobile whose entire body is covered by the image of the
Spiderman. Or, while riding the Pakuan electric train, you may
have seen one railway coach fully covered with the promotional
image of Coca-Cola. Or, you may have seen, in a supermarket or a
mall, attractive posters, signs or backlight banners? These are
all made possible thanks to advances in the digital printing
technology.

Indeed, digital printing is making it increasingly easier for
the industrial circles and household users to realize their
wishes. The advertising industry is very much helped with the
presence of large-wide format printers, which can be used to
print, at a high speed, banners, giant banners, hanging mobiles,
posters and even billboards, all of an excellent quality.

Digital printing also guarantees consistency in the quality of
the printing even in the case of a large-scale printing process.
Those managing shops, supermarkets and department stores will 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 much additional
production cost. "We don't charge an additional cost 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. The service
provider will do the printing on the basis of the digital file
given for printing.

Indeed, digital printing is based on a digital file. As far
as we can make available our materials in the form of a digital
file, all types of printers can execute the printing. At present,
printers of various brands and sizes are available in the market.
Several brands, like Hp, Canon, Epson, Roland and Agfa have even
introduced to the market their large/medium format printers,
which we could not find just 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 telephone provided 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, among others, 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 Rp2 million up to Rp4 million to own a mini photo lab
at home.

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

Another business that is gaining increasing popularity 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 of up to the 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 Ambasador, Jakarta.

On the other hand, professional users can use a wide-format
printer and benefit considerably from the superiority of digital
printing. While before banners had to be made manually by the
technology of silk-screening, today, digital printing will enable
graphic designers to see the product they design as they desire.
If you need a giant banner, for example, your graphic
communications agency will no longer need to go to Singapore,
Malaysia or Australia. Right here in Jakarta, there is a digital
printer that can print a product of 2.5 m wide and unlimited
length. The jobs of billboard makers are very much expedited now
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 that carries
your photograph, you ID card and even your visiting card are just
several examples that show how digital printing has been used in
many aspects of life. If you need an ATM card that carries your
photograph, for example, you only have to come to your bank. A
bank officer will ask you to pose in the right way, and five
minutes later your ATM card is ready, carrying your photograph.
If you wish to cover the rear window of your car with a picture
of a flower or a picture of your favorite, you only have to bring
the file of this picture to a digital printing agency. In just a
very short time, the picture of your favorite will cover the rear
window of your car. Don't worry, although 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 outside through
the film glass sheet.

It is unpredictable whether in future digital printing will
show a greater dominance in industrial or retail printing or
whether it will be used for business, household or government
purposes. Given the fact that printing products of digital
printers are still relatively costly now, the question is whether
all segments of the public can enjoy the technology of digital
printing, which is superior in that it is easy to use and
independent of quantity aside from being able to be customized,
producing a consistent quality and allowing high-speed printing.