Will technology change the way print is being produced?

Anand Malhara, managing director, CMYK Press
"The next big thing in print would be that all the mechanical processes will be dominated by digital. I think, digital technology would become available at a very affordable price. There will be digital technology for volume production. The production time would lessen with minimum downtime and there will be consistency in quality. There will be applications available for every surface, every size and direct printing on material. Online production like printing, coating, punching, foiling, folding, and pasting will become the norm and everything would be personalised."


Vivek Agarwal, director, MicroMint
"The next big thing in printing technology shall be the economically affordable and workable combination of the digital press and the conventional press. The press, which does not have proprietary spares and consumables and is also more simpler to service and maintain, would take over. Production shall be at the click of a button, reducing dependance on unskilled operators. The press would be a solution for, to start from the photography industry to the short-run print business and the long-run print jobs, all on the same platform, in a one room, network-ready, one-operator scenario."


Vijay Chandna, owner, VVT Communications
"In the wide-format segment, UV inkjet has provided an opportunity to create improved properties while increasing production speeds. What UV has done is: it has brought in printing reliability on all types of surfaces. The other attribute is that UV inkjet inks do not dry up in the nozzle. I also see the more availability of prevailing UV machines with low ink cost at a lower price. I also see emergence of good machines for printing street banners at high-speed which will replace screen printing."


Rupesh Sawant, director, Superlekha
"I don’t see any big change as far as technology is concerned except for one technology that is digital label printing. There are some inkjet solutions for label printing, which are still under beta testing. But when these solutions will pass the testing, they will change the entire scenario of digital label printing. Another big thing which I see and which will happen is UV technology in packaging segment. This technology for packaging will slowly become the norm."