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.

APP to Halt Clearing of Indonesian Tropical Forests (Again)

by

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Greenpeace once accused Asian Pulp and Paper (APP) of “pulping the planet” because of APP’s wanton destruction of Indonesian rain forests. But after years of pressure from numerous NGOs including Greenpeace and WWF, things may finally be changing for the better. In June 2012 in response to customer … Read more

Food for thought

by

Recycling the daily newspaper has, happily, become second nature for most people, as putting rinsed milk bottles out for the milkman was a regular evening task of yesteryear. Since it is expected that newsprint will be disposed of, it is produced from low-grade paper, with bleaching rarely used as in graphic arts and publishing grades. … Read more

Still a Steep Hill to Climb

by

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Ricoh has recently published the results of a short survey it conducted at EcoPrint last year in Berlin. This wasn’t a particularly long or detailed project but it provides an interesting snapshot of where we are with sustainability awareness. The respondents were Ricoh customers in 24 countries Europe … Read more

The Eco-nomics of Print

by

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner There were two very clear themes in the sustainability session at the recent FESPA Global Summit. The most important of these is that environmental sustainability goes hand in hand with business efficiency. Within the Verdigris community we have all known this for some time, so it was great … Read more

Getting the Go Google-less Message

by

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner We have had an absolute torrent of response to the Go Google-less idea. The request to the industry to switch search engines from Google to something else has been amazing. The idea was to put pressure on Google in the hope of getting them to reconsider the Paperless … Read more

The Idiocy of the Paperless 2013 Campaign

by

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Greenwashing is bad enough but deliberately attempting to hijack sustainability awareness is downright poisonous. A group of corporations with Google at their head has set up a really stupid campaign. Using an environmental agenda the group is cloaking its need to up revenues through digital process management. They … Read more

The European Union’s Eco-Label

by

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Regulation, rules and compliance requirements are increasingly tangling businesses up in red tape, despite the efforts of politicians. The latest option for the printing industry to consider is the EU Eco-label, which was launched in August 2012. Thanks to the efforts of Intergraf, the European association of printing … Read more

Investing for 2013 and Beyond

by

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner It has been a trying year for most of us. This is mainly because of the difficulties of keeping up with everything, from Fespa, drupa and EcoPrint, through to the daily tsunami of news and information hitting us from every direction. It has also been tough because of … Read more

Green is the New Black

by

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Colour aficionados, Pantone, have announced its colour of the year for 2013, P17-5641 Emerald, described as “a lively, lush, radiant green … sophisticated and luxurious”. Pantone also describe it as “the colour of beauty and new life” and for the graphic arts industry green is an especially poignant … Read more