{"id":2208,"date":"2026-11-05T08:14:01","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T07:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaldots.info\/?p=2208"},"modified":"2026-11-05T08:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T07:28:07","slug":"doing-more-with-less","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaldots.info\/?p=2208","title":{"rendered":"Doing more with less"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\" The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trying to do more with less can be a useful business principle. It is how many companies in the prepress business survive and thrive despite technological upheaval. When digital prepress demolished traditional production methods and threatened livelihoods, companies had no choice but to find new opportunities. And doing more with less became an underlying concept for sustainable business practises that have transformed the printing industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once upon a time, the prepress business was very big business indeed but it, along with printing itself, had a big and negative environmental impact. It cost a small fortune to get a set of colour separations and printing plates made, and the process involved many chemicals and much waste. And the small fortune was why print runs were always so long, often leading to a lot of waste. Print buyers couldn\u2019t justify the upfront prepress investment unless it could be spread over many copies. There was a rule of thumb that 5000 copies of something was the minimum run length for traditional presses. So not only was it hugely expensive, it was wasteful by default and exclusive. The model also meant that printing was confined to a limited range of applications, unlike today where we can print anything and everything and too often do. Technology created new possibilities for efficiency and waste reduction, and changed the business model incidentally embracing environmental as well as commercial sustainability. With those advances came the chance to reduce print run lengths and move away from a scattergun approach to print markets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As technology evolved prepress processes became digital processes and colour separations and printing plates cost less and less to produce. Typesetting as was became a thing of the past except in the archaic language of trade book publishing. Technology democratised publishing because it lowered the cost to entry and technology made what was a complex process pretty simple and crucially more sustainable. The data management techniques to ensure accurate colour and content on the page are to quite a large extent in your mobile \u2019phone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crucially technology allows us to do far more with much less: look at the range of print products sloshing around the market. Just try to count the number of self-published book titles on Amazon. Many of these are produced on demand with digital presses. This is a far cry from the excess-and-inventory model that traditional book publishing sadly still follows. But for most other applications we are doing much more with fewer resources: imagination and the internet are driving new print applications and they are far less costly to produce than they once were. They can also be far less costly for the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But lack of appreciation of what the technology can do, say through process automation, puts the printing industry at risk of losing its sustainability edge. Automated on demand digital printing increases the industry\u2019s efficiency and helps keep waste levels to a minimum. We need to see more of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This article was produced by the <\/em>Verdigris Project,<\/em><\/a> an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print\u2019s positive environmental impact. This weekly commentary helps printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines. Verdigris is supported by the following companies: <\/em>Agfa Graphics<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>EFI<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Fespa<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Fujifilm<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>HP<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Kodak<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Miraclon<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Ricoh<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Unity Publishing<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Xeikon<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please also include the Verdigris logo and a link to this website. If you don\u2019t already have our logos, you can get them by downloading the <\/em>\u201cPublishers Bundle\u201d<\/em><\/a>. And don\u2019t forget terms of the Creative Commons license at the footer of the site. Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Trying to do more with less can be a useful business principle. It is how many companies in the prepress business survive and thrive despite technological upheaval. When digital prepress demolished traditional production methods and threatened livelihoods, companies had no choice but to find new opportunities. And doing more … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t