The first day of drupa was a predictable avalanche of press conferences, thoughtfully scheduled back-to-back so that it was necessary to leave one still in progress in order to hike to the next one. To the credit of most firms holding these sessions, they tried to keep them more or less on schedule, but it would seem that a little coordination and cooperation would go a long way. I generally avoid these opportunities to hear companies sound off on how wonderful they are, but I do make an effort to get to those of the major players.

In the Heidelberg conference Wednesday afternoon and those of HP, Kodak, Xeikon and Xerox today, all said (not unexpectedly) that digital print is here to stay and is a growing and expanding part of the printing industry. Moreover, most were in accord that one of the most important issues in the industry today is integration—refining how digital and offset printing can coexist at the same print providers and how the strengths of each can be leveraged to drive a company's business forward. Many of these vendor's customers have both digital and offset presses and say they need better integration across print technologies. Happily, most of these leading firms are working in this direction and here at drupa there are plenty of examples of workflows and software tools that make it easier and faster to shift jobs between offset and digital.

This proves the maturation of digital as a mainstream printing technology. To be sure, offset is in no danger of being supplanted by any digital printing system any time soon, but neither is it any longer the only game in town. Back in 2000, the hypesters dubbed this event the "digital drupa," because it was the first time digital presses were shown in any number. (Some of them even worked.) While that sounded good, it was little more than a label to celebrate the first puffs of a change in the wind.

This drupa is far different. Xerox's Anne Mulcahy pointed out today that the overwhelming representation of all types of digital printing technology at drupa 2008 is proof positive of what her company has been describing as the new business of printing. The number of digital print engines (of all types) now making money for print providers, the many digital technologies being shown here, the continuous evolution of all digital printing systems, and the promise of faster and more powerful machines to come show that digital --in all its forms-- will forever be as much a part of printing as words and pictures.

That makes this the DIGITAL drupa.

Noel Ward
WhatTheyThink.com