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 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, 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?