A Visual Explanation of 3D Printing

Lately, there has been a lot of talk going around about 3D printing. Some say that it’s the future of the print industry; others say that it’s just like other fads that will come and go. Whatever you believe in, 3D printing seems to be a promising technology. Whether its shoes, dress, or house (you read that right) you want to create, 3D printing will let you create them in just a few minutes. That’s right! You can print them right at home. You can even create 3D business cards or postcards which you can hand out to prospective customers. They’ll let you be more captivating and memorable to people.

If 3D printing is a new concept to you, HighTable.com came up with an infographic to explain the whole process:

The Trends to Watch Out for in Printing

Like all human technologies, the process of printing still keeps moving forward. Sure, you might say that the whole concept of printing things in “paper” is obsolete, but in fact there are many ideas and technologies out there that help move printing forward. Let me feature for you some of the things that may already be around you in the near future. From 3D printing to QR codes, the future of printing has never been so interesting as it is now.

3D printing

To tell you the truth, the 3D technology is actually been around for quite some time. However, it is only recently that smaller and easier to deploy commercial 3D printers have been deployed. In the past, only big industrial 3d modelers can do it. But now, they are inventing smaller and more portable commercial machines. The plan is for people to buy cartridges for the material in the 3D printer, and from there the printer can create 3D replicas of the 3D model that one needs.

What use will this technology be for people? Well, for example, in business, you can easily send product prototypes to different branches easily by just sending the 3D model file via the Internet. They can replicate the approximate size and shape of the product in their location, and test them in their environment. On a consumer perspective, people can “print” a product that they like and see if it will fit their equipment correctly without having to buy the real thing.

There are a lot of probable uses for 3D printing. While today it would be in the form of some plastic or clay, but who knows. In the future with more advancements in 3D printing technology combinations of materials can be used to almost fully duplicate different types of objects.

Printing without Ink

Now, one of the big issues with printing is the use of ink. No doubt, you have encountered the annoying situation of trying to print something important, only to discover that your office printer *just ran out of ink. It would be fortunate of you guys had a stock of inks, but if that secretary forgot to resupply, then you are probably going to delay printing that important document.

Well, that is all about to change. Several firms have already started to develop printers that do not use ink. So no more trouble with nasty print cartridge refills or even print ribbons, all you have to buy is the paper.  One company named ZINK imaging ( see article here from technologyreview ) has already developed smaller and better full color printers with the inkless technology concept.

The basic premise is that the paper will be the one to be changed. Special thermal reactions in the paper is caused by the printer, which will make the different colors appear in it. So you could say that the ink is already in the paper so to speak. The interesting thing is that this is actually already deployed on less advanced scale with some cash registers that us thermal paper for printing. The only difference is that today, we can now print in color thermal paper (the past ones just had black).

More interestingly enough, scientists in Singapore have taken it further by using nano-materials to get high resolution color printing without the ink. The amazing thing here, is that you can get resolutions up to 100,000 dots per inch! (the traditional print industry limit is 10,000). So this technology seems really promising, giving printers an important new advancement for the future.

QR Codes

Now, we all know that the digital medium has already overtaken the print medium in many respects.  Some newspapers and magazines have started to focus on their digital portals more than the printed kind.

However, while we have some big newspapers leaning digital, some magazines, catalogs and even other advertising prints are “connecting” to the digital world through QR codes. QR stands for “Quick Response” code and they are the odd square symbols with black blocks that you see in many different types of print and packaging. They are the ones that you scan using your smartphone or tablet camera, which in turn causes your device to browse to a specific mobile web page.

The premise here is that by scanning something from print, you can quickly be sent to a more interactive medium online. This has been increasing in popularity of late, with some estimates here, saying that its use has risen 400% just last year alone. Many marketers are using those QR codes to connect readers to specific videos, landing pages, shopping cars and electronic coupons for their convenience.

It is a great additional add on that helps print become online portals. This becomes a great compliment for marketing campaigns, since you can lead “offline” markets online through the use of these specialized codes. Most printers like printplace.com can easily attach these codes to your flyers, posters and custom magazines easily without the need to retool.

Green Printing

For those who think that printing has been one of the big contributors to solid waste the past 100 or so years, you are actually not wrong. Think about all the newspapers and other materials printed since the invention of machine enhanced printing. It would probably amount to millions, and perhaps billions of tons of solid waste. While one can argue that paper is biodegradable, you should also note the trees that have to be cut down to produce that amount of paper. Moreover, some paper materials these days are actually tougher and have a more difficulty time decomposing.

So to answer to the call of an endangered environment, a lot of print innovators are investing in green printing.  There's an online presentation from slideshare.net that can give you an interesting overview of environmentally friendly techniques. But as an overview though, this is about using recycled paper, paper from managed forests, easier to decompose paper and organic inks.  These innovations help printing become more environmentally responsible, lessening its impact for future generations.

So as you can see, there are many exciting and wonderful advancements in printing to date. In fact, these innovations are continually in development, pushing printing to the future in many interesting ways. Printing is not really obsolete. It advanced like any other human technology, and is always worth investing in.

The Environmental Impact of Print Media

For the longest time, print media has been the marketing strategy of choice of many businesses. However, as technology improves and the business industry progresses, a lot of changes and worries on the use of print and paper have popped up. Foremost among them is the question on environmental impact.

While public opinion surveys show the rise and fall of people’s concern for the environment, a sustained increase on the concern for the negative impact of paper and printing on the environment is surprisingly prevalent. Print has somehow invoked several presumptions on users particularly in the use of paper in advertising. This has placed great pressure on business owners to ensure that their printed materials follow the environmental and sustainability rules and regulations to somehow reduce their impact on the environment.

According to Print Power, print media creation basically goes through three stages. In all these stages the issue of sustainability is immense. A company that desires to produce print media has to ensure that everything is done as efficiently and environment-friendly as possible.

The first stage, which involves production, is perhaps the most controversial stage since a lot of people assume that making paper destroys forests. However, websites such as Paper Because believe that paper does not destroy forests. They have generated reports that reveal the real environmental impact of paper. An article from Greenbiz.com entitled “Going Paperless: Not as Green and Tree Friendly as you may Think” revealed that digital media contributes more to global warming than print media due to its use of coal-fired power as coal mining contributes a lot to deforestation and biodiversity loss. Paper production these days makes use of biomass energy instead of fossil fuels which makes the entire production process much efficient and environment-friendly.

The second stage involves printing. More and more printers these days are using soy-based and vegetable-based inks, recycled paper, and recycling cleaning solvents to reduce their carbon footprint. They are committed to reducing their carbon emissions, and that’s why they make sure to use eco-friendly printers and print materials.

The final stage involves consumption. With more and more consumers concerned on paper waste these days, using recycled paper will help reduce the environmental impact of the printing industry.

The introduction of paper and printing has indeed changed the world for the better, but not without consequences. Even so, while these advancements have somehow negatively affected the environment the adoption of sustainable print strategies can help restore our environment. In time, we’ll have a thriving print industry that doesn’t negatively affect the environment.           

Good Old Print Remains Effective in Creating Successful Cross-Media Campaigns

According to an article by PrintWeek, despite the interactive and personalized touch that online and mobile marketing provide, entrepreneurs still find print marketing as the most reliable way of getting in touch with prospects. Though the Internet is the name of the marketing game nowadays, print remains the best way to break the ice; it’s still the cleverest approach to engage customers and generate sales, especially in cross-media campaigns.

However, creating the right marketing mix is a bit difficult to achieve. Companies have to find the best medium that will engage their prospects and encourage them to act at once. PrintWeek spoke to three business giants—BP, Lakeland, and Rank Group—about their experiences in cross-media and print marketing.

BP is a British oil and gas company that is the official partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and London’s 2012 Sustainability Partner and Official Carbon Offset Partner. Its Target Neutral scheme helped “ticked spectators offset their carbon footprint as they travel to the Games.”

For the London 2012 campaign, BP worked with Ogilvy for their ‘Here’s to the home team’ ads, both in print and on TV. Sheila Richardson, spokeswoman of BP said that the company is not trying to sell anything on their campaign, but rather trying to “raise awareness of the Games and to celebrate the athletes and those who support them and others.”

Lakeland is a creative kitchenware store which started from selling plastic bags to home freezing to more than 4,000 kitchen and home solutions today. According to Tony Preedy, marketing director of Lakeland, they use a variety of marketing techniques. They experiment with different printed publications; they have their own catalogue, website, and email marketing programs; and they recently created their own digital magazine for tablets.

Rank Group is a European gaming and betting company whose established brands include Grosvenor Casinos and Mecca Bingo. David Bealing, Head of customer communications, said that "Across both Mecca and Grosvenor Casinos brands we have created customized, trigger-based CRM campaigns, utilizing all forms of cross-media through our best-in-class Web2Media platform." He added that direct mail continues to be effective for their marketing campaign, and so are email and SMS for some customer segments.   

It’s clear that good old-fashioned print marketing remains effective amid the blizzard of modern techniques these days. It will strongly hold its place as an effective driver of customers.  

3D Printing to Produce Customized Medicines

      

BBC reports that scientists from the University of Glasgow are pioneering a £1,250 research that will use 3D printing to create drugs and chemicals, some of which can be used to create treatments for cancer. If successful, the process can be used to create customized drugs and be made available to pharmaceutical companies in 5 years and the public in 20 years.

The process will make use of syringes that are controlled by robots to create objects from gel-based ink where the chemicals and catalysts are mixed. Prof. Lee Cronin said that they are “mixing the concept of the glassware and the chemicals together in the 3D printer to create what we call 'reactionware’ … you print the last reactionary agent first and then build other chemical layers above, finally adding a liquid at the top. The liquid goes to layer one making a new molecule which goes to the next layer creating another and so on until at the bottom you get your prescription drug out."  

Researchers have used bathroom sealant for their reactor, but until now the substances they have created are not yet suitable for human consumption. They also intend to replicate the drugs already available in the market so pre-set recipes will be available for download to doctors and individuals.     

Why Printer Sales is Declining

Printers were once an essential peripheral. Recently, though, they have become nothing more just a ‘peripheral’. As a result, sales have considerably declined. What’s to blame? Mobile devices and cloud storage—that’s according to a recent article on ReadWriteWeb. 

Meg Whitman, HP CEO, said that the company experienced sales loss in printers and ink. What previously accounted for 20% of their revenue has now declined—commercial printer sales is down by 5% and consumer printer by 15%. Similarly, Lexmark, which takes 93% of their revenue from laser and inkjet printers, said that they expect a 12% decrease in revenue this quarter.