Dscoop 6 preview: On-demand production for publishing and photo products in multi-press environments

I've blogged here in the past about the value of Dscoop (Digital Solutions Cooperative, a community of HP Graphic Arts press owners and those associated with them) and I'm pleased to say that for 2011 I have the opportunity to be part of the program.  I'll be moderating what is sure to be a fascinating panel on the subject of "On-demand production for publishing and photo products in multi-press environments". We'll be diving into how some of the biggest Indigo users in the world are using lean manufacturing, process automation and other scalable technologies to create press farms--sometimes with multiple locations--to efficiently produce POD products for the book publishing and the photo marketplace. 

I've recruited a stellar planel to share their expertise on the subject.  Rick Bellamy, CEO of RPI, whose partners represent more than 40% of the total photo products market.  Bob Friend, EVP and GM of District Photo, the largest direct-to-consumer photo fulfillment operation in the world.  Steve Brown, EVP International Operations at Consolidated Graphics, who with five digital supercenters in the US and Europe are the world's largest owners of Indigo presses. And Jan-Paul Vandenhurk, CEO of Paro in The Netherlands, a digital printing powerhouse supporting all of Europe, with forward-thinking process automation engineering a core competence.

This is just one session that is part of an impressive two days of presentations that will touch on issues vital to anyone that makes a buck on putting ink on paper with Indigo presses.  Take a look at the full agenda here and I hope to see you in Orlando!

Rich-content self-published books are still too expensive

At Blurb we've made a pretty good living printing primarily 4-color books over the past four years.  In fact we shipped more than 1.3 million books in 2009 to a tune of over $45M.  At one point we were taking a new title every 1.1 seconds.  Pretty cool stuff.  But our vision since the beginning was the "democratization" of publishing.  Have we succeeded or are we still just scratching the surface?

Blurb's success revolves around several building blocks.  First, we revolutionized how full-color, digital offset books are priced, moving away from the pay-per-page model that was embraced by the digital photo album folks that were attracting the early consumer adopters.  Then, as a software company, we listened closely to our customers during our beta period and created products and services that met their needs along with a full ecosystem to manage their Blurb experience.  Finally, we captured a cool factor that creatives understood and embraced.

But an ever growing group of our customers are authoring books to make money.  These are the true self-publishers that are avoiding the traditional means of publishing, a stale model that leaves the author with a minute percentage of the book's selling price as a profit.  Or they are creating titles so specifically targeted that they could never publish traditionally and in the past had to live in the world of newsletters, zines, and, more recently, electronic means.  Browse around the Blurb Bookstore and you'll see stunning examples of what these authors are creating.  We are obviously thrilled but we're still not happy.  Why?  Because the promise of self-publishing rich-content titles has still not been fulfilled.  Even though we are the price leader in the color book printing category, I think that getting a bookstore quality color book at a price allowing for re-sale is still a bit illusive.

So we continue to push the envelope for our customers.  Our close relationship with HP, manufacturers of the Indigo presses that are used exclusively by our global print network, allows us to continue to drive efficiencies in the print process as well as create economies of scale that can be passed on to our customers. Growing from zero to $45M in just a few short years also helps us gain credibility in a publishing marketplace that often looks at newcomers with a suspicious eye, allowing us to parlay our success into valuable relationships with suppliers.  But those relationships, while vital, have still not moved the needle in a way to create the sea change needed to really democratize the industry.

I am excited about some prospects over the coming months.  The new high-speed ink jet presses, like the T-300 from HP and the Prosper from Kodak, hold the potential of very good quality color output at a price that could change the industry.  Various inventors and entrepreneurs are looking at ways to remove some of the labor out of book binding, which remains one of the biggest cost of goods. Plus, Blurb is looking to keep innovating on how our authors can promote their books easily and inexpensively.

We've just released a new beta of a product we call Blurb BookShow.  BookShow is a widget that authors can embed in their website, blog, or Facebook page allowing potential customers to automatically preview and buy their book.  It's the first of the ongoing innovations that we are releasing this year to support our author/customers. Rest assured that we are not resting on our laurels. We won't be happy until we revolutionize the publishing business.

Image permanence for HP Indigo digital presses

As photo consumers move more and more toward alternatives to silver halide (photographic) output like digital photo albums from folks like Apple and Shutterfly and photo-intensive books like those provided by Blurb and A&I, many have questioned the longevity of these new printing options.  After all, most of us have had the box of photos or old stick-in photo books from our youth that we stumble across every few years.  Or maybe a Carousel or two (or 10 or 50) of slides, the old school prosumer and creative pro weapon of choice.  So it makes sense to ask the question that in addition to the naturally unstable nature of the new digital photo environment (so, how long since you have backed up your iPhoto library?), what will those books I'm making today look like in 20 or more years?


To that end, we received some very good news this week.  Henry Wilhelm  co-founder, president and director of research at Wilhelm Imaging Research, who I worked with in my Corbis days after we acquired the Bettmann Archive and the Sygma Collection when we needed to quickly resolve the issue of decaying historical photographic films, released a report last week that is sure to make HP happy but also let those of us who are photo enthusiasts sleep a bit easier.


According to Wilhelm, HP Indigo printing actually exceeds the image permanence of the best-rated silver halide product, Fuji's Crystal Archive.  Wilhelm rated Indigo output on Kromekote paper at 45 years, more than twice as long as the rating for Kodak photo paper.  In addition, the dark storage rating, which is more appropriate for photo book applications, is greater than 100 years.


“The permanence ratings from WIR provide an important validation for the use of HP Indigo in consumer and professional photographic markets as well as in the fine art world,” said Wilhelm. “Good display permanence combined with excellent long-term stability, as well as freedom from yellowing for images that are in albums or are stored in other dark locations, are essential to preserving the value of historical photographs, art works and photo books.”


So your photo books aren't a replacement for backing up your digital photo archive.  But it does mean that when you come across your "Burning Man 2009" book in 30 years, you'll still recognize yourself and your possibly questionable choices in wardrobe and friends.

A print industry co-op that works--Dscoop

I blogged last fall about my opinions of Print 09 and on the future of trade shows in general.  My point then was that in the Internet age the real value of these kinds of events has really become the opportunity to interact with your colleagues and suppliers rather than doing research and purchase, as was the experience of the past.  With that in mind—and with the trade show season at hand—I’ve been asked of late which events in 2010 do I think are of value and worth the time and money to attend.

This year I’m planning to head to Birmingham for IPEX, Köln for Photokina, and NYC for PhotoPlus.  But the event I’m really looking forward to, and the one I think gives the most bang for the buck, is Dscoop5 next month in Dallas.

For those of you who are not familiar with Dscoop (Digital Solutions Cooperative), it is a co-op between HP and the users of its Indigo presses.  It evolved out of the old Indigo Customer Exchange (ICE) group and I feel it is one of the best investments of time an Indigo printer can make, whether you are a large installation like the facilities that print Blurb books worldwide or a smaller, one or two press shop.  It boasts membership by over 50% of Indigo installations.

First off, this is a co-op in the best sense of the word.  HP has made a strong commitment to the group and each year sends its most senior managers to the annual event.  David Leshem, an Indigo veteran from the earliest days of the company in the 90’s, has been a board member since it’s outset (he’s retiring from the position this year) and this year attendees can expect to hear presentations and rub shoulders with folks like Alon Bar-Shany, GM of Indigo Worldwide, Chris Morgan, new VP Graphics Solutions Global Business, and Jan Riecher, VP and GM Graphics Solutions Business – Americas.  For me, the trip to Dallas will be worthwhile just to renew these acquaintances. But there is much more to the Dscoop program.

With a goal of promoting more business and efficiencies for Indigo users large and small, Dscoop provides several tracks of conference sessions that are created to inspire, educate, and help attendees better understand the current POD marketplace and how to benefit from the current economy and continued evolution of the Indigo printing platform.

I attended my first Dscoop last year and the most impressive part of the trip was talking to the multitude of PSP’s (print service providers in HP lingo) and seeing how open and cooperative they really were as everyone, while at times competitive, were looking for ways to grow the opportunities for all.  Part of the three-day event is a very targeted trade show where you can meet the major players in the paper, supplies, and finishing market along with hands-on experience with the newest technology from HP Indigo.

For a guy that travels a lot I’m careful to only book events that I feel will give great return for Blurb and for me personally.  Dscoop is one of those events.  Find out more at www.dscoop5.org.

Refections from Photokina

It’s really interesting to reflect on how the printing business has changed over the past 20 years. In 1988 I was running a professional photo lab and coming to grips with a new technology, the Canon CLC500, which we initially thought was “not good enough” for commercial uses but ended up as a game-changer because of it’s improved color, quick turn and lower price.

In the early 90’s I joined Continuum Productions, a spin-off of Bill Gate’s Interactive Home Systems that later became Corbis, and quickly realized that the game was getting ready to change once again. Only this time is was the sellers of heavy iron that were doing the dance. The days of high-commissioned sales persons selling mutli-hundred thousand dollar “imaging stations” were soon to end and we were preparing to be the first digital image library with over one million pre-press quality images. We were working closely with Scitex at the time and they were having trouble understanding why we would want to scan images an RGB color space. All of their systems assumed that content was being scanned specifically for print output, for a specific job, at a specific size. The idea of mulit-purposing was not really in their vocabulary yet. But we understood that the future was not simply paper based, and the idea of archiving the full spatial content of a transparency without knowing what it’s final use would be key in monetizing the Corbis Digital Library. So me and my colleagues, along with the our counterparts at Getty Images, began the process of defining the workflow of converting photographic output to digital in a pre-digital camera age. Working closely with the Scitex engineers in Herzlia, Israel and the Linocolor color scientists in Kiel, Germany, the resulting software and hardware solutions became the standard for archiving millions of legacy images.

Around the same time I remember seeing a new printing technology at Drupa 1995. It was an on-demand, ink-based output device that promised to deliver on the 1:1 marketing goal, only a pipedream a mere 13 years ago. In order to see the demo promising the personalization of product for each attendee (including unique pop cans!) you needed to secure a ticket a full day before. The hottest product at Drupa 1995? The first generation Indigo press.

Fast forward to 2002. Indigo had gone through a few generations of devices (and you no longer were required to buy two presses per installed site) and a new product was cropping up that was ready to change the game. I was consulting for the first “photobook” manufacturer at the time, and communicating to the folks at HP, who had recently purchased Indigo, what I called the “RIP many, print one” problem. You see, the Indigo, while made for personalization, was really good at unique text when the rich content of the product was unchanged. Also, it was good at short runs of fewer than 500 copies. Most Indigo installations ran one or two jobs a day where the time for rasterizing the print files as not very material to the overall production process. We had a totally different model where the average order for each file was one copy. Keeping the press running without waiting for each file to RIP was a huge problem and, just as in 1994 with Scitex, the Indigo engineers were trying to get their heads around what we were asking for and if there would be a market for it going forward. What started as a homegrown “mother of all RIPs” created by HP Labs became what is now the standard for high-volume, rich-content consumer production, the SRS, or Scaleable Rip Solution, now known as SmartStream Ultra.

We are certainly in a day where "necessity is the mother of invention” was never more true but also so critical in determining the fate of new companies that are appearing each day, pushing the edges of the digital economy. Those of us that lived to tell the tales of Web 1.0 each have personal stories of great business ideas that were just ahead of their time due to being ahead of the curve technology-wise. It’s great to see the attention that Print 2.0 is getting today because the time to market for new printed products gets smaller each month and the thirst for new rich-content consumer products is only beginning.

Blurb + HP

Update from Photokina, the massive photo products show held bi-annually in Cologne, Germany. Blurb announced a global partnership with HP and we are now printing book pages exclusively on HP Indigo printers. So what's behind it? Basically as we are growing Blurb really needs to continue to standardize all of our systems to maintain the high level of quality that our customers expect. Also, HP is dedicating significant development resources to the on-demand printing marketplace and that gives me lots of confidence that they will continue to innovate on both quality and reduction of prices for 4-color output.

Steve Nigro, SVP and General Manage of IPG, announced the new partnership at their big press conference at the show. Pretty cool to see us being discussed in the same category as other new partnerships with Nikon and Microsoft. Not bad for a little start-up in it's second full year of business to the public. Here are the full über HP release and the Blurb/HP specific releases.

This is really just a continuation of a growing relationship that has been building for the past 18 months. Another example of our partnership is the HP Creative Studio where we are supporting HP's consumer print initiative.

Maybe I'm biased, but not a lot else to get too excited about at the show. Great wurst and beer though.