In the past four years, the world of print has evolved, at times it has been revolutionised.One of the mantras, I kept hearing during the four years is: develop new revenue streams because it is important, and vital.

The evolution of digital print opened up new markets in India. The first time, I detected this was at a Photo Fair trade show. The number of vendors plus photo album print firms - big and small - and the sheer number of visitors at the stalls was astounding.It was clear, processing photos which was the domain of the photo lab had shifted to digital print.

The digital camera was a catalyst to the change; as well as internet connectivity and broadband availability which radicalised front-end operations in print-land.

Over the years, companies like Canvera, Mazda, Glo, Karizma, Patel Digitals have had the talent to spot an opportunity. They realised that there is good money to be made from engaging with the spending public as well as traditional wedding photographers.

It is clear photobooks is a big growth market. Firms around the world do it, too. But what transpires in our print cities is quintessentially Indian. As one of the big players in the market shared with me in 2008, “There are 10 million weddings in the country and the wedding industry is growing by 25% annually.” He added, “At the top-end the country marriage spend is 12% of India’s GDP of Rs 46.7 lakh crore (2008).” 

Naturally many more print firms have entered this space and been adding customers along with double digit annual revenue growth.

Two firms where I learnt a bit about the photo album and wedding album were: Kadam in Pune and Pods in Mumbai. The common themes were: clever imposition software, which gangs up jobs onto sheets that are then cut, packed and handed out in a smart retail outlet environment.

At Kadam which is perhaps Pune’s largest pre-press trade bureau, the business model edged out the traditional photolab. Kadam saw the changes and invested in digital printing, finishing and a very affordable design tool that could be used by photographers in up country Maharashtra. The software has easy to follow instructions, the user can select a page size, choose the pictures and template, retouch them if needed, add text and design the pages. Then it’s simply a case of printing it and a few hours later you get a photobook.

That’s what we celebrate in this special photo album presented by Kodak.

We celebrate the journey of Indian print in the past four years.

The 52 pages include firms which have kept looking for new markets. One thing is clear. They don’t look in the same old places because as the saying goes, “you won’t find solutions there”.

Today print offers that potential with the technology opening up new sectors previously not seen as “pure print”. The gloves are off and the successful print firms have realised that. 

We salute them.
Print zindabad.
Ramu Ramanathan
Group Editor,
Haymarket India

Click here to view the Drupa to Drupa Photoalbum - Powered by Kodak