Big Picture - August 2016 - (Page 20)
Touching the
FUTURE of PRINT
PHOTO: ME S SE DÜS SELDOR F/C T ILLM A N
Tantalizing glimpses at drupa 2016.
BY STEVE DUCCILLI
Every four years, the global printing industry gathers in Düsseldorf, Germany, for
August 2016
drupa, the world's largest exhibition of
printing technology. And, within a day of the
massive fair's opening, the journalists in
attendance (nearly 2000 of us) begin jockey-
BIG PICTURE
ing to coin a moniker that best captures the
20
essence of the technology we see.
At prior shows, we settled on the "digital drupa," the "JDF
drupa," the "transactional drupa," the "inkjet drupa," and so
on, themes that seldom aligned with those used to market the
events, but looked snappier in headlines (and, later, hashtags).
So, it's odd that "Touch the Future" - among the more
ambiguous themes chosen for a drupa promotional campaign
- may end up being the catchphrase that sticks for the 2016 show.
It was characterized by a great number of technology demonstrations and previews of far-ranging R&D plans, not unheard of at
drupa, but this year they painted an unusually consistent and
promising picture of where printing technology is headed. At a
time when print itself is in the midst of an unprecedented identity
crisis as traditional markets evaporate and core technologies
await what appears to be inevitable displacement, drupa 2016
underscored why, and how, print will continue to thrive.
Attempting to curate drupa is a bit like describing Las
Vegas to someone who has never been there. The scale of the
show alone is incomprehensible to those who haven't
experienced it, with a quarter of a million visitors spread
across 19 packed halls over 11 days. But for those of you who
couldn't be there, we'll summarize a few of the technology
trends we witnessed that have the most relevance to Big
Picture readers - with no pretensions that our review of such a
massive event could possibly be comprehensive.
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Big Picture - August 2016
Big Picture - August 2016
Contents
Insight
Wide Angle
Upfront
Business + Management
Dynamic Signage
Touching the Future of Print
How I Got the Job: Sino Tour
RIP It, RIP It Good
R+D
Job Log
Big Picture - August 2016
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