Blog

They say that there are only two certainties in life – death and taxes, but I would venture to suggest there’s another one – price increases! There have been noises coming out in recent months from the major ink and coating manufacturers about how their raw material costs have been going up.

Attention has been focused on Scotland in recent months. The future of Scotland as a member of the UK was being decided by a referendum and the outcome was likely to have implications across Europe. Before I go any further, I should make it clear that as an Englishman with Irish ancestry and a grandfather born in Dundee and another born in Wales, I am probably in a good position to take a dispassionate view of proceedings. Feelings certainly ran high on both sides and with Scots usually supporting the team that England are playing against at football cricket or rugby, the views of the English were not always welcome!

Landa’s NanoInk^® colorants are super absorbers of light, which in turn means richer, more vibrant colours when printing with a Landa Digital Press. Benny Landa’s team at Landa Labs in Rehovot, Israel discovered the feature when they were researching pigments in the course of their work on nanotechnology and today we can see the results in the very high quality of printed colour samples coming off the Landa S10 press.

My wife refuses to pay more than a couple of pounds for the books she buys on her Kindle. She looks to see what’s on offer and if one of her favourite authors has something new, she will put it on her wish list and wait until the price drops. I am full of admiration for her parsimony – I only wish it extended to her clothes shopping.

Visitors to London may have already noticed that London’s buses are no longer accepting cash in payment for the fare. Later this year the same will apply to travelling on the London underground as the ubiquitous Oyster Card becomes the main method of payment for both residents and visitors in London travelling on the Transport for London system.

Some years ago when I was chairman of the European Lithographic Suppliers Alliance, I sat in a room in Germany hosting a meeting of the organisation. We had members from Germany, Italy, France, Scandinavia, Spain, Holland, Ireland and the UK.

I am often surprised how little about the history of the printing industry, that some of today’s recruits seem to know. I suppose there is not time to dwell too much on old technology in today’s graphic design and media courses at our centres of learning. In fact for some I suppose old technology is a Compugraphic typesetter or an Apple IIci.

The recent spate of strikes by taxi drivers across Europe to protest at the arrival of the clever Uber taxi app from the USA, reminds me a lot of the challenges we have faced in the printing industry.