Alex Hamilton About

At the recent book fair in Frankfurt, Germany, it was announced that there would be a $100,000 prize for the best new e-book. Quite a tidy sum—and especially nice odds for authors, given the dearth of books published only in electronic format. Yet, with only 80,000 viewers/readers currently in consumers' hands, e-books are currently struggling to gain acceptance. Not only are there few viewers, but the existing technologies have a long way to go to challenge printed books in terms of quality, navigation and ease of use. Screens are small and the displays, which are based on projected light, are not easy to read

Having just returned from Chicago, home of the Graph Expo trade show, I must now return to the drudgery of daily work. And right now, that means forecasting the future of the prepress industry. If only prognosticating were easy. Frankly, it's anything but. The data are clearly contradictory. On the one hand, sales are rising (although profits are not) and all the leading researchers seem to agree that this is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. On the other hand, there looms the impact of the Web, which most pundits predict will severely impact commercial printing's future. Yet, if navigating one's way through the crowds tromping