Technology of Print Media

Mass communication began with the invention of the printing press. Until the more recent development of the internet, printed media, radio and television had been the primary means to publicize information. The need for Information Design in the realm of print media is very diverse; ranging from books, magazines, and newspapers to large format items such as signs and billboards. In addition, many products such as clothing, computers, and appliances have printed components. We are constantly surrounded by printed items, which can range in importance from crucial road signs to annoying junk mail. Each printed item conveys a message - it would be difficult to imagine a world without this information.

Print technology has certainly evolved from the earliest wood presses, but the basic idea remains the same - using a form to press ink onto some type of surface. Digitization of information has changed the printing industry primarily by affecting the way images are transferred to the final printed surface. Current printing technologies often include workflows that are almost completely digital. Artwork is created digitally and transferred via network to digital presses. These large commercial presses operate with the same technology as smaller personal inkjet or laser printers, in which the ink is sprayed on the paper with micro-droplets, or fused to charged areas of the paper by laser technology. The color systems for offset printing or digital printing can be very different. Offset printing uses a CMYK (C-cyan, M-magenta, Y-yellow, and K-black) color combination to create full-color printing, or by mixing a specific color ink used for one or two color printing. Inkjet or laser printing technologies usually use a RGB (R-red, R -green, B-blue) color combination which is the same color space used for computer screens. There are many other types of printing processes, such as silkscreen, used for signs and clothing; or flexography, used for packaging or other non-flat surfaces. As a communication medium printing will probably be around for a long time to come, but the technology and processes used will continue to change.

The popularization of personal computers and the development of desktop publishing software in the early 1980s deeply impacted the fields of graphic design and publishing. According to Robert Lindstrom's book, Multimedia Presentations:

…the personal computer began its career in the late 1970s processing numerical data….By the mid-1980s….the personal computer was busy revolutionizing print communication with powerful new desktop publishing hardware and software. (Lindstrom, 1994).

Page layout applications, like Aldus PageMaker or QuarkXPress, and image editing software, like Adobe Photoshop, enabled the condensation of several job duties, such as typesetter, graphic designer, layout artist, and darkroom technician. These job duties were usually separate and distinct prior to the development of these technologies. Older technologies became obsolete, such as Compugraphic typesetting machines and darkroom equipment.

The internet has changed the business model for publishing companies. For example, most newspapers have accompanying websites in which articles and news stories are published along with the printed version. As a result, subscriptions for the printed versions of newspapers have decreased, and new revenue generating options must be explored. As an example, in a recent article in the Press Democrat, writer Carol Benfell reports that:

The Bodega Bay Navigator, a newspaper that has chronicled the happenings of the Sonoma County coast for nearly 20 years, will become an Internet-only publication July 9…Joel Hack, owner, publisher and editor of the 1,000 circulation weekly, said the cost of printing the paper and mailing it…now exceeds the annual subscription price...By publishing on the Internet, Hack said he would be able to cut the cost of his subscriptions, provide a forum for more community input and continue to print the local news and syndicated features readers are accustomed to. (Benfell, 2006).

In addition to subscriptions, advertising is a crucial source of revenue for newspapers. Advertising on the internet is quite different than advertising in printed media - offering new challenges and opportunities for the publishing industry. According to a report compiled by the The Media Center "…ten years after the emergence of the consumer Internet, the evidence is overwhelming….Lost advertising is not coming back; it is being restructured and redistributed." (The Media Center, 2005). In an interview with Laurel Harper of How magazine, David Siegal projected the impact of the web on the printing industry:

By the year 2005, there will be 7,000 fewer commercial and in-plant printers, declining by 1,000 per year. Today's 6,000 digital-service providers - trade shops, service bureaus, etc. - will drop to about 1,300, according to TrendWatch (an organization that conducts surveys of the creative Industry). While printing demands will increase, both print and television will continue to feel the Web's impact. Periodicals will suffer, books will not. (Harper, 1998).

The blending of print and online media also affects print designers. Robert Black, in an interview in How magazine, projects that designers will "be pushed into multidisciplinary areas, like marketing and business consulting….Many designers will inevitably be involved with engineering or software development, like Clement Mok, [a leading proponent of Information Design]." (Harper, 1998). Publishing and journalism professionals are also adjusting to changes in media. According to Jack Balkin, a professor at Yale Law School:

Journalism has to research, in the future, how people get information, how they understand it, how they use it. It's not about ethics and newsprint anymore, but about online trust and interfaces. These are not traditional issues of journalism, but about the changes in technology. (qtd. The Media Center, 2005). •