digitaldots.info

Digital Dots is an independent graphic arts research group specialising in digital prepress, printing and publishing technologies. The company is a collection of like-minded consultants and professional journalists with decades of experience working in the graphic arts industry. We publish a range of articles and reports and we also manage The Verdigris Project.

Waterwash flexo plates

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The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke made a bold admission during the company’s drupa press conference. He said that: “the print industry is a dirty industry … one of the things we can do is to clean up the dirty chemicals.” A key technology for achieving this goal is water … Read more

Environmental policies

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The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Changing behaviours is what environmental awareness and regulation is all about. The graphics industry has come a long way as far as sustainability goes, steadily improving its environmental impact for the last few decades. This has mostly been to improve its bottom line, cutting waste and process inefficiencies … Read more

Preparing for drupa 2020

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The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Now that drupa 2016’s over, we can start hoping that at drupa 2020 the environmental will be in sharper focus. This year’s organisers missed a great opportunity to take the sustainability lead. Drupa 2016’s attendance and sales numbers show that print is in rude health. Investment into print … Read more

Paperlab Update

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The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner At drupa we were privileged to interview Seiko Epson’s Minoru Usui, CEO and president of the company since 2008. Mr Usui outlined his vision for Epson’s amazing PaperLab technology. PaperLab is an integrated system for producing new paper from waste paper without using water. PaperLab shreds office paper … Read more

Energising

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The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner At the recent ISO working group meetings for graphics technology, a new standard was introduced for improving the environmental impact of digital production printing devices. The new standard is closely related to the ISO 20690 document for measuring the energy consumption of this sort of device. However, the … Read more

Getting Eggy

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The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner When we think of the circular economy, hard boiled eggs aren’t necessarily what comes to mind. But they can make an important contribution, particularly when it comes to packaging. Eggs are one of nature’s best examples of effective packaging. Manufactured packaging, mostly using paper and plastics, shares the … Read more

Climate scientists and carbon accountants

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The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Every week week we get bombarded with new information about the dismal condition of the planet and its inhabitants. But sometimes we come across ideas and initiatives that are actually inspiring.  For instance an Egyptian mathematician has told us about his formula for calculating the energy consumed when … Read more

Paper Chains

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The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner We’re all familiar with the annual shindig the World Economic Forum (WEF) hosts at Davos in Switzerland. It combines spectacular scenery with spectacular visions for our collective economic future. But we are probably less aware of the regular white papers the WEF puts out. One of their latest … Read more

Sustainable by Design

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The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner We go on a lot about what printers can do to reduce their environmental impact. But we hardly ever mention the contribution graphic designers make to sustainability. As with colour management, a designer’s decisions during the creative stages of a project, can have a profound impact on the … Read more

Another Green World

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The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner It seems like everyone’s at it. Humdinger green plans abound, but some green initiatives are better than others. And some have more credibility than others. The ones that bash paper are the worst. If you read or hear claims that paper’s use is responsible for the mass destruction … Read more