Friday, May 20, 2011
Update on Indigo ink permanence
I have a guest post at the Blurberati Blog that is an update of my post last year on the permanence of pages printed on HP Indigo presses. Might want to take a look!
Monday, May 16, 2011
How I learned to love ink on paper (and the people who print)
From my earliest memories I really loved photography. My mother worked in the local photo lab after WWII so we always had lots of photos and I clearly remember those first color snaps that revolutionized consumer photography at the time. After high school I first majored in Fine Art with a photography emphasis, but I quickly realized that my mentor, the late Wayne Brannock, had already taught me more about photography then I would ever learn from the artsy folks at Missouri State. So I changed my major and packed my camera bags for the University of Missouri. My relationship and love for silver halide lasted through the 80's and 90's, through the advent of digital photography and the fall of Kodak.
My photography always had a commercial bent, be it my time shooting for Columbia Records or working my way though school shooting weddings and portraits on weekends. But during my time at Corbis, I realized the real action was not in the commercial or professional realm at all, but on the consumer side.
It's still amazing to me the transformation that happened in the late 90's. Digital color printing had already made it's mark, primarily with "good enough" color on devices like the Canon CLC500. But digital photography was getting ready to further blur the lines between photographs and offset-style printing.
In 2000 it became clear to me that this transition was the future of how consumers will purchase physical media. I joined a company that was using wide format ink jet to print maps and historical documents from the Library of Congress but soon became a consultant to the originator of the consumer hard-bound photo book.
Now, thinking about what I really love about what Blurb is doing, I'm really happy that I've been able to maintain relationships with the folks that actually get things done in our business--the print service providers, or PSPs. Much like my days working in professional photo laboratories, most of these are closely held, often family-owned businesses. And like photography in the 90's, they are dealing with changes at often lightning speeds, not knowing where the next threat to their existence might come from. These are the people that write the checks to buy the heavy iron that makes the product you see everyday in an economy that is often less than friendly.
Blurb has indeed helped to democratize publishing. But without the people on the front lines what we built would have been but another business presentation for a start-up that couldn't get going. I'm personally grateful for all of the friends I've made along the way as I transitioned from photo to print, and I see a very bright future for all of us.
My photography always had a commercial bent, be it my time shooting for Columbia Records or working my way though school shooting weddings and portraits on weekends. But during my time at Corbis, I realized the real action was not in the commercial or professional realm at all, but on the consumer side.
It's still amazing to me the transformation that happened in the late 90's. Digital color printing had already made it's mark, primarily with "good enough" color on devices like the Canon CLC500. But digital photography was getting ready to further blur the lines between photographs and offset-style printing.
In 2000 it became clear to me that this transition was the future of how consumers will purchase physical media. I joined a company that was using wide format ink jet to print maps and historical documents from the Library of Congress but soon became a consultant to the originator of the consumer hard-bound photo book.
Now, thinking about what I really love about what Blurb is doing, I'm really happy that I've been able to maintain relationships with the folks that actually get things done in our business--the print service providers, or PSPs. Much like my days working in professional photo laboratories, most of these are closely held, often family-owned businesses. And like photography in the 90's, they are dealing with changes at often lightning speeds, not knowing where the next threat to their existence might come from. These are the people that write the checks to buy the heavy iron that makes the product you see everyday in an economy that is often less than friendly.
Blurb has indeed helped to democratize publishing. But without the people on the front lines what we built would have been but another business presentation for a start-up that couldn't get going. I'm personally grateful for all of the friends I've made along the way as I transitioned from photo to print, and I see a very bright future for all of us.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Of space and film...memories of a trip to NASA
I was watching a NASA documentary this week and it reminded me of a very fun time 15 years ago when Corbis had the opportunity to access to the original film from the space program up to that time. The collection, which included film that was taken on the moon, had ever been digitized. Much of it is very fragile, and to that point any publication was done via color dupes. In fact, due to weight restrictions on the Apollo flights, film was manufactured without any base coating. This can give you an idea of how conscious NASA was about every single ounce of payload and it left them with film rolls that are more like cellophane than cellulose.
NASA photos are by definition public domain--we as a people own them. So the deal we made with NASA was that we would use our expertise in scanning, color correction, and archiving as a service and Corbis would be allowed to include the images in our digital collection. In return we would provide NASA with full-resolution imagery of everything we captured. Those images are available today at the NASA GRIN site, including the high-res versions.
NASA photos are by definition public domain--we as a people own them. So the deal we made with NASA was that we would use our expertise in scanning, color correction, and archiving as a service and Corbis would be allowed to include the images in our digital collection. In return we would provide NASA with full-resolution imagery of everything we captured. Those images are available today at the NASA GRIN site, including the high-res versions.
 |
| One of the first steps taken on the Moon, this is an image of Buzz Aldrin's bootprint from the Apollo 11 mission. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon on July 20, 1969. AS11-40-5877 |
At that time, most all film scanning was done on a drum or flatbed scanner. In this case neither would work as the 70mm film from the Hasselblad backs was in long rolls and couldn't be cut, and maintaining the integrity of the archive was of utmost importance.
 |
| A reel of 70mm original flight film from the first five Apollo missions, Apollo 8 through 13, is prepared for scanning at the Corbis scanning laboratory at the NASA Space Center in Houston, Texas. © Roger Resssmeyer/Corbis |
Working with world-renowned space and science photographer, Corbis colleague Roger Ressmeyer, Charlie Sliwoski, Corbis Imaging Lab manager at our Seattle headquarters, and the NASA photo team, a roll-to-roll process using the Leica DSW200 was developed to handle the job. Astronaut Jay Apt worked with Roger and Charlie to tweak the color from these frames that had already begun to shift in some cases. The result was public access to images that had not seen the light of day for nearly 30 years, first viewed in the book Orbit.
Non-NASA employees were not authorized to handle the film directly, and given the sensitive nature of these priceless assets, we built a close bond with the Johnson Space Center team. The project was considered secret, and in one of the funniest stories from the trip there was a rumor that "Bill Gates' company was funding a project to look for extraterrestrials in the NASA film archives". And this was from NASA employees.
During the time I was in Houston, The Columbia Space Shuttle mission STS-75 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was really a privilege to be at Mission Control during the launch and for a few days during the mission. Surely the days of capturing imagery on film is past and worrying about the weight of anything photographic besides the capture device is a memory but we all do owe a debt of gratitude to the folks that manned the photo lab in Houston and protected a great piece of our history for generations to come.
Want to see more NASA shots? Take a look at this book in the Blurb Bookstore.
Want to see more NASA shots? Take a look at this book in the Blurb Bookstore.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Steidl and POD in the same post? Outrageous!?!
If you work at a company like Blurb you really need to love books. Not just reading them but knowing about them, about the authors, and, if you are like many of us, understanding how they are built. Because of that last point I really enjoyed the NY Times piece in this Sunday's Style Magazine on Gerhard Steidl. The world of fine art bookmaking is fabulous and Steidl is at the pinnacle of his art.
But is there any real comparison to the painstaking hand work that represents what comes out of Göttingen and what can be expected from a print on demand publisher like Blurb? A lot more than you think.
First off, when we started Blurb our goal was to find a sweet spot with high-end, "bookstore quality" books and a price point that allowed our customers to sell their books for a profit. Early on that meant getting our first printing partners to buy into a whole new model of how 4-color books should be priced. Since then the technology has advanced a bit, allowing us to build more and more process automation into our workflow which allows us to continually improve quality while keeping our prices among the most economical in the marketplace.
Some of the improvements since we first went to market in 2007 are an ever-expanding line of products that include hardcover with dust jacket or custom-printed "ImageWrap" as well as soft cover books; an all-HP Indigo global network tuned to GRACol standards, assuring consistant quality worldwide wherever books are printed; a broadening line of standard and premium papers; and, very soon, new pro-directed options. Add to that our new standard end sheet that will be moving from white to a thicker medium-grey paper and, in our world, POD does not mean low-grade.
We are constantly looking for ways to improve our products. Over the past month we have held sessions with design movers and shakers in Berlin, hobnobbed with some of the best photographers in the world at the Palm Springs Photo Festival, and ran various focus groups as we plan our next options. Our new BookSmart software just released has many upgrades that come directly from the requests of our customers. And we've got some new, native digital products on their way that will reinvent the genre. We're pretty excited.
As I get ready to head off to New York for the Publishing Business Conference, I'm reminded of how the book business has changed. But reading the story about how Steidl goes about his craft, it's nice to see some things--like quality--are constant in the minds of those who love books.
But is there any real comparison to the painstaking hand work that represents what comes out of Göttingen and what can be expected from a print on demand publisher like Blurb? A lot more than you think.
First off, when we started Blurb our goal was to find a sweet spot with high-end, "bookstore quality" books and a price point that allowed our customers to sell their books for a profit. Early on that meant getting our first printing partners to buy into a whole new model of how 4-color books should be priced. Since then the technology has advanced a bit, allowing us to build more and more process automation into our workflow which allows us to continually improve quality while keeping our prices among the most economical in the marketplace.
Some of the improvements since we first went to market in 2007 are an ever-expanding line of products that include hardcover with dust jacket or custom-printed "ImageWrap" as well as soft cover books; an all-HP Indigo global network tuned to GRACol standards, assuring consistant quality worldwide wherever books are printed; a broadening line of standard and premium papers; and, very soon, new pro-directed options. Add to that our new standard end sheet that will be moving from white to a thicker medium-grey paper and, in our world, POD does not mean low-grade.
We are constantly looking for ways to improve our products. Over the past month we have held sessions with design movers and shakers in Berlin, hobnobbed with some of the best photographers in the world at the Palm Springs Photo Festival, and ran various focus groups as we plan our next options. Our new BookSmart software just released has many upgrades that come directly from the requests of our customers. And we've got some new, native digital products on their way that will reinvent the genre. We're pretty excited.
As I get ready to head off to New York for the Publishing Business Conference, I'm reminded of how the book business has changed. But reading the story about how Steidl goes about his craft, it's nice to see some things--like quality--are constant in the minds of those who love books.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
High-speed ink jet and why it matters
This post was done for the Blurberati Blog....
I’ve spent the past few days reviewing the newly updated digital press portfolio from Hewlett-Packard (HP). Blurb has a long-standing relationship with the technology giant and all of our digital color book pages have been printed exclusively on HP Indigo presses since 2008. But we – and HP – are never ready to rest on our laurels and together we’re always pushing the envelope to help our customers get the best quality books. So we were interested when HP announced that they are expanding their high-speed ink jet line with faster and wider presses.
So why is this important to Blurb? Because I’ve seen the future and it is ink jet. We’re always looking for new, more efficient ways to print our customer’s work and bringing the efficiencies of offset printing to the flexibility of small-run digital printing is where we live.
But these technologies are also changing the printing business from the inside out. During my two days at O’Neil Data Systems in Los Angeles, a hybrid shop that merges traditional offset with the newest digital printing technologies, the biggest thing you notice are the folks who are running the ink jet web presses at ODS. They look like they would be more comfortable in a server room rather than a press room. With these new technologies, information technology (IT) is king and this represents a sea change in the commercial printing business.
Blurb believes that when you, our customer, choose to print, you’ve raised the value put on your content. So, we consider it our primary role to make sure you receive the highest level of craft and quality in the product level you choose. And when I meet with equipment manufacturers my role is to act as your surrogate to make sure you’re always getting the best product for your money. I’ll continue to do that and to update you with the latest in all things print and technology. As always, your feedback and suggestions are great so feel free to chime in with your comments.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Beware the first dropper
At the recent Dscoop6 conference there was a ton of buzz over social media. You've got to be on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube...you know the drill. I've been there and almost certainly you have too. But I'm gradually pulling away from a lot of the social interaction I've done in the past. This is due to security and privacy issues surely, but it's also that I'm one of those dreaded "first droppers".
There was a great article on details.com last fall on this phenomena that you might want to consider reading. But the bottom line to me is that once I feel that my identity has been compromised in any way, or if I just reach that tipping point that participation just isn't fun anymore and feels more like work, I bail. And I don't think I'm alone.
To me the biggest culprit in the social media sphere is Facebook. I really don't have a spot for these guys in my day or personal brand any longer. Sure, I have a FB page but it's really a bit of a placeholder and I use it to repost stuff that my company is putting out there. I have a very small circle of friends that I allow full access to my account and the rest just see the generic front page.
I like Twitter and use it daily, but it's really just about business. And if I don't keep up with it on a very regular basis the tweets from the folks I follow get so backed up that I miss a lot. So if you really want to share something with me that you'll know I'll see it's dangerous to just post it--you've got to DM me.
I've really rediscovered LinkedIn as my primary social media conduit. It was the first place I started to network on line and I've discovered that for me it is the best. If you connect your Twitter feed to your LinkedIn page and we are connected then I'll very likely see your tweets there. Plus I get a feeling of security there and it's a good place to try and contact me if we don't know each other.
Also, I'm no spring chicken and this may not sit well with a lot of my contemporaries, but I don't really take advice on social media from anyone over 35. I'm sure the amount of first droppers increases quickly as age increases so if you are putting a lot of effort into updates and links then you need to concentrate on younger folks and be sure you understand what it is that motivates them to buy your product. And it changes all of the time. By the time you realize it you are likely already too late and your audience has abandoned you.
Big disclaimer here...I'm no social media expert. I'm not even a marketing person. But I am often an early adopter of technology and as a first dropper I know what works for me. And being in a company whose average age is around 30, I think I have some pretty good insights on what's going on in that world too. Bottom line is that you do need to consider what social media can do for your business but it's got to be vital, it's got to be valuable, it's got to be cool. If not it can be a very consuming waste of time.
There was a great article on details.com last fall on this phenomena that you might want to consider reading. But the bottom line to me is that once I feel that my identity has been compromised in any way, or if I just reach that tipping point that participation just isn't fun anymore and feels more like work, I bail. And I don't think I'm alone.
To me the biggest culprit in the social media sphere is Facebook. I really don't have a spot for these guys in my day or personal brand any longer. Sure, I have a FB page but it's really a bit of a placeholder and I use it to repost stuff that my company is putting out there. I have a very small circle of friends that I allow full access to my account and the rest just see the generic front page.
I like Twitter and use it daily, but it's really just about business. And if I don't keep up with it on a very regular basis the tweets from the folks I follow get so backed up that I miss a lot. So if you really want to share something with me that you'll know I'll see it's dangerous to just post it--you've got to DM me.
I've really rediscovered LinkedIn as my primary social media conduit. It was the first place I started to network on line and I've discovered that for me it is the best. If you connect your Twitter feed to your LinkedIn page and we are connected then I'll very likely see your tweets there. Plus I get a feeling of security there and it's a good place to try and contact me if we don't know each other.
Also, I'm no spring chicken and this may not sit well with a lot of my contemporaries, but I don't really take advice on social media from anyone over 35. I'm sure the amount of first droppers increases quickly as age increases so if you are putting a lot of effort into updates and links then you need to concentrate on younger folks and be sure you understand what it is that motivates them to buy your product. And it changes all of the time. By the time you realize it you are likely already too late and your audience has abandoned you.
Big disclaimer here...I'm no social media expert. I'm not even a marketing person. But I am often an early adopter of technology and as a first dropper I know what works for me. And being in a company whose average age is around 30, I think I have some pretty good insights on what's going on in that world too. Bottom line is that you do need to consider what social media can do for your business but it's got to be vital, it's got to be valuable, it's got to be cool. If not it can be a very consuming waste of time.
Monday, January 10, 2011
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)