What, then, is the future for today’s dominant printing process?
For more than a decade the question has been: What is the future for digital printing? Now such are the strides made by both electrophotographic technology and especially by inkjet that this is no longer a valid question. Ask instead: What is the future for litho printing? On the one hand there is the £650 million commitment shown by News International to printing newspapers with state of the art triple-width newspaper presses at three new plants, the one at Broxbourne becoming the largest ever built. On the other hand there is mounting anecdotal evidence of printers saying that the press they have just bought, or have decided to order at Drupa, will be their last – next time they will be buying a digital machine. And in 20 years’ time, when the News International presses need replacing, it is unlikely to be a like for like swap. Litho printing cannot assume the place in the industry it has had for the last 40 years. Fifteen years ago Indigo founder Benny Landa declared in a phrase tha
