50th: Long Road to Automation — From High Touch to Hi Tech

The recap included a look at developments that it even labeled as "blue sky." Among the more interesting:

o Computer-controlled paper manufacturing and demand printing will be accomplished in-line at the same site. Tanked substrate fluid would be converted into a printing surface at the feeder end of the press and the printed product would be delivered at the output end, bound and wrapped, ready for the truck. [Wow, on-demand printing is one thing, but on-demand paper? That falls into the category of a solution in search of a problem.]

o Ink-jet printing "could be the most significant new imaging technology in the next 15 years, emerging from 40 to 55 years of experimentation to become as revolutionary as movable type." The process could mass produce newspapers, periodicals and books. [Doing the math puts the ink-jet revolution as having occurred by 1985, but 2008 has brought predictions of this being "The Ink-Jet Drupa."]

o Electrostatic and powder-printing methods may eliminate printing plates and couple into computer and facsimile transmission systems. They would adapt to new, flexible printing applications such as on-demand book printing or satellite newspaper printing. [OK, this development took more like 30 years to become commonplace, but that's pretty good for a "blue sky" prediction.]

For the 25th anniversary edition (June 1982), Printing Impressions asked more than a dozen industry notables to provide predictions for the next 25 years. Again, not to poke fun at people asked to do the impossible, but a few of the answers are entertaining for how far off they are, while others are surprisingly right on the button:

Joel Shulman, editor, Flexographic Technical Association: Flexographic printing technology will overtake all other printing technologies because it has color process capability equal to gravure and offset, prints on more substrates than any other process, is less costly for average and short runs in web operations, and is environmentally more acceptable. [Shulman at least gets points for being such a strong advocate for his industry segment.]