Three Bold New Technologies for Print

By Ruth Hagopian

Armed with paper samples and fact sheets, my search for exciting products to inspire designers and printers brought me to the recent Visual Media Alliance conference in San Francisco. What innovations would I find this year?

Like Goldilocks, I considered my choices and said, “Too big,” as one speaker promoted social marketing, blogs and Web traffic. “Too small,” I thought when another speaker revealed his clients’ requests for marketing materials in animation and video rather than print.

Finally, it was “just right,” when Ian Flynn of Direct Response Imaging and Mike D’Eredita from ColorGraphics presented three new technologies in digital and offset print. Dimensional printing, remote proofing and QR codes are fascinating tools with tremendous potential.

1. Feel that texture with dimensional printing
Dimensional printing is a new print technology that can be used to simulate a texture or add dimension to digital printing. Created with Kodak’s NexPress Digital Production Color Press and Kodak NexPress Dimensional Clear Dry Ink, “There’s no other machine that I’ve heard of that does anything like this,” Flynn said.

The effect can be used to imitate a texture in an image, on the paper or to simply raise a part of the piece to enhance the design. Think of the texture of snakeskin, an orange or a fingerprint on an invitation, a book cover or a direct mail piece.

“The part that really has impact is where you put your hands when you pick it up,” Flynn said. “It’s best if you put the dimensional coating on the edges of an invitation or postcard. If you put it in the middle, you don’t notice it as much, but on the edge, you really feel it.”

New techniques for classic effects
Dimensional printing is similar to thermography, but now you can take advantage of digital methods, such as print on demand. “You don’t need to print large quantities with digital printing and the turnaround is much quicker because there is no longer the makeready of the older process,” Flynn said.

You can use Illustrator and Photoshop and finish it in InDesign to produce the technique. It’s all imbedded in the PDF and acts as a spot color for the NexPress press. “To get the maximum effect, you can put the dimensional toner over CMYK for the most dramatic relief,” he said.

A little coating goes a long way. “We did a book cover recently where there was double helix on the cover and no printing underneath,” Flynn said. “It was really subtle and looked really cool. A minimal coating, but it was probably one of the most interesting applications I’ve seen so far.”

Unlimited design applications
Create your own patterns by putting a screen underneath the dimensional ink or screen the coating itself. Flynn recommended running a test sheet before you run your project to check both the paper and light colors, but they’ve printed successfully on coated and uncoated stock.

“You can have all the creative control here,” Flynn said. “In many cases a customer will come in and say, “Here’s my InDesign file, and I want you to raise this, this and this.”

According to Flynn, it’s very reasonably priced because it’s an inline process and requires a minimal amount of additional prepress time. The ink is also completely recyclable and is approved for publishing and packaging.

The impact is all in the feel. When Flynn showcased this effect in Southern California, one print buyer for an airplane manufacturer was very interested but said, “I don’t know how I’d leverage it.” Flynn looked at the photos of the jet’s cockpits and replied, “Imagine if we could pop all those cockpit gauges or texturize the leather seats so you could almost feel it.”

2. Control your project with Remote Proofing
Here’s a process you can work with wherever and whenever you want. How many times have you given a file to your printer and watched it travel the chain of command: It goes to the sales rep, goes to the planner, goes to prep and gets approved two to three days before you see your proofs?

“What do you do when you’ve got six people who have to approve the media,” Mike D’Eredita said. “You can’t send lasers out to six different places across the country and get it approved in one day.”

If you send out six e-mails, six different people have to get that media, open it, annotate it in Acrobat, download it through the desktop, save it and resend it. Now, you’ve got a pile of six different annotated PDFs to extract corrections from and everything’s due now or yesterday.”

Collaboration with speed and ease
Virtual proofing to the rescue. D’Eredita presented a fast, safe and mobile way of reviewing proofs that speeds up the workflow and eases communication between designers, printers and clients.

The software is provided by your printer via the Web and allows a collaboration space for everyone using an uploaded PDF file to review and correct throughout the entire process.

Currently, if you’re doing adaptations on Acrobat or using asset management tools, it costs you money. With InSite Remote Proofing, the print provider is investing in the technology to make it easier to communicate in one environment.

InSite: Projects, Jobs and Libraries
There are three parts of InSite Remote Proofing. The ‘Projects’ section allows you to review changes, corrections and annotate your images and linked elements online. The ‘Jobs’ section lets you do the same with your composed pages in high resolution, and ‘Libraries’ gives you access to retrieve approved online images anytime.

“You can always see hard copy proofs,” D’Eredita said, “but you’ll eventually say you don’t need to anymore because you trust your printer. It’s really a process that needs to be established between you and your printer.”

3. Trigger a response with a QR code
Access is also key to Quick Response codes that have unlimited potential. These little black and white digital squares are cousins of the bar code and carry data that could contain a URL to a website with video, animation or graphics.

The QR code triggers a response in a mobile device, such as a camera phone or a Web cam with reader application software you can download for free. It can scan the image of the QR Code causing the phone’s browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL.

Adidas is one of many companies that have used QR codes to enhance the buyer experience with video. Wallpaper magazine used QR codes that allowed readers to manipulate graphics and create their own magazine covers. The codes could be attached to stuffed animals that invite children into a larger cartoon world. This effect is also known as Augmented Reality.

You might see a trailer for a movie or get a coupon to use in a local store. Once it’s in your cell phone, it could give you details about that business, allow you to compare prices, find locations or access any product data. As mobile devices improve, the QR codes will get smaller and be able to do more and more transactions with more information.

All three of these technologies are in the early stages of service to consumers, and all have unlimited potential. They also all have one thing in common: we have no idea today what direction users will take them tomorrow.

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Ruth Hagopian is a regular contributor to PaperSpecs.com and Communication Arts and has written about art and design for Print and Online Design magazines.