Overview

Over the course of the next few months I will be publishing a series on up-and-coming technologies that will impact printing, and in a broader sense, imaging. Here I use “imaging” to refer to everything from posters to trade-show displays to power-points — anything created to communicate a message.

Current research and development is transforming the tools and media used to print and display imagery. This includes

• new print hardware such as super-fast inkjets
• new print methods such as ink-less printing
• and digital print replacements such as electronic paper

These new developments will have a direct impact on how we design, produce, and interact with the imagery that surrounds us.

I offer this series to educate you, our customer, on the future, in hopes that we are all poised to take advantage of the changes ushered in by these new technologies.

New Technologies

A New Family of Inkjets

Did you know that inkjet technology can print skin? How about electronic circuitry? Did you know that billboards are printed in a single piece on 16′ wide inkjets? Since its invention in the 70’s the inkjet has been pushed to do things never thought possible.

The newest wave of inkjets have no moving print heads. Instead they have one long print head spanning the media. In 2005 Brother Industries and Kyocera demonstrated a prototype printer capable of 170 full-color photo-quality 8.5″ x 11″ prints per minute. Memjet, another company spearheading this new inkjet technology, demonstrated a large-format printer capable of 1 linear foot per second! At 52″ wide that’s 15,600 square feet per hour! For comparison BIG Images’ current printers output 2 linear feet per minute, or 120 square feet per hour.

Inkless Printing

Another line of research being conducted by Zink (Zero Ink) and Xerox involves inkless printing. Their methods require no ink cartridges, but instead use new methods whereby heat or light are used to create an image on paper.

Zink is making their technology embeddable in small devices like cell phones, cameras and hand held printers, such as those recently released by Polaroid and Dell. They’re the SX-70 of the digital age.

Xerox’s inkless technology, pictured, uses light to write and erase paper. Currently they can reuse a piece of paper 50 times.

Electronic Paper

Lastly, the most ground-breaking advancement is electronic paper (e-paper.) It is perhaps best known through Amazon’s Kindle (pictured). E-paper requires electricity to change the image, essentially turning the ink on or off at each pixel. Once set, however, no electricity is required to continue displaying the information. This means these devices are very low power, unlike today’s cell phone and computer displays.

Today you can find e-paper displays in cell phones, digital school books, e-readers such as Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader, and even in newspapers that have begun to distribute electronically.

For you San Luis Obispo locals, if you have not seen an e-paper reader yet, check out The Parable downtown — they have a demo of Sony’s reader on display.

What it all Means

The processes and products we use to create imagery are changing. The way we interact with imagery is changing. Over the next few posts I will elaborate in detail on the new advancements in inkjets, new methods such as inkless printing, and new digital technologies such as e-paper.

Each of these has a direct impact on the experience of the end-user — the viewer of our prints and marketing materials. Future design and marketing must take this experience into consideration in order do differentiate itself from the din.

This post was written by Jon Beebe. You can see his other projects at addinteractivity.com and delicioussuite.com. Read his blog about being productive with Ubuntu Linux, read Jon Beebe’s profile on Linked In, follow Jon Beebe on Twitter, or view his photography portfolio.