The Printers' Evolution
BB: What's your near-term outlook for offset printing?
Spall: Clearly, at a macro, the number of printed units will contract, but I do not correlate that to a troubled outlook. The market is massive, and for a nimble manufacturer the future is bright. We see digital print as just another tool to get the job done and totally complementary to our offset platform. When it is best to use offset, we will use offset, and when it makes more sense to go digital, we will use digital. Our customers care about the quality and value of their printing, not how it is printed. Most pundits say that the tipping point for digital versus offset book printing is around the year 2020, and that may be close [to correct]. Clearly, ink-jet holds promise for higher quality at a lower cost, and we are watching that closely, but the offset press manufacturers are still outproducing digital presses when it comes to run counts above 500 units, and the quality is still better in the offset world. I think this will remain the case for a number of years to come, but the scale is beginning to balance out between the two technologies.