The Development Trend of Printing Industry and Technology in the Early New Century

In the more developed countries and regions of the printing industry, the traditional printing industry has undergone major changes and qualitative leap forwards under the impact of contemporary digital technology and computer network technology. The general development trend is:
1. According to the latest interpretation of the United States Graphics Technology Foundation (GATF), due to the development of printing and communication technologies, their integration with optical, mechanical and electrical integration technologies has been widely used in the traditional printing and publishing industry. The printing and image communication industry is a general term for all industries involved in the image reproduction process. The image can be a picture. Photos or optical discs, etc., are recorded on different media via different input/output devices, so that the information carried by the images is perceived by people. The most common process of this information reproduction is printing. The printing and graphic communications industry includes not only the printing industry, but also print, packaging, paper, ink, equipment manufacturing, small and medium-sized image equipment centers, and internal printing companies in government, enterprises, banks, businesses, schools, and other departments. Printing and image transmission have become an important part of the national economy, the information industry, and people's daily lives. In the United States, it has become one of the largest pillar industries.
In 1998, the total output value of the printing and image communication industries in the United States was as high as 228 billion U.S. dollars (comparable to a quarter of China's GTP in that year), and the industry scale (employees and institutions) was second only to U.S. restaurant business. In 1999, the printing industry in the United States produced more than $155.7 billion in sales in the printing industry (including book and book printing, which was $24 billion, or approximately RMB 19.2 billion), making it one of the largest manufacturing industries in the United States.
The printing industry in Hong Kong rose to the top of Hong Kong's manufacturing industry in 1999. According to "Hong Kong Annual Report 99," there were 5,021 printing factories in Hong Kong in 1999, and there were 44,700 employees.
2. The widespread application of computer technology, digital technology and network technology in the traditional printing industry has resulted in a whole new technological innovation and fundamental change in the traditional processing process of “prepress, printing, and postpress”. New color desktop systems, direct platemaking technology, direct printing technology, digital proofing and printing systems, digital workflow, integrated solutions, cross-media publishing technology, remote network proofing printing and publishing systems, e-commerce printing, standardized cross-platform File formats and open document data exchange environments (such as PDF file format), as well as various computer-controlled prepress, printing, postpress equipment, are rapidly developed and used. All these make the printing production system integrated with the global networked information management system and the peripheral digital network environment, and become a huge graphic information resource and system, which greatly broadens the application scope and service time of printing graphic information. With the freedom of the region, unprecedented extension and expansion of the printing field and time have been achieved, and printing efficiency and product quality have also been greatly improved. The integrated production and management system based on digital technology and network technology has and will continue to profoundly change the traditional print production and management model. In this development process, the printing industry has become more digital and networked and has become an important part of the information industry.
3. The application of a large number of high and new technologies in the printing industry and China’s accession to the WTO will accelerate the adjustment of the product structure of printing companies, the re-segmentation of markets, the reorganization of assets, and the adjustment of the industrial structure of the industry, and will intensify the competition in the printing market: the withdrawal of enterprises, The bankruptcy, reorganization and merger will obviously increase: The scale operation will appear in the conditional enterprises and regions one after another: a group of high technology, new equipment and excellent service. Small-scale enterprises with standardized management will replace medium and small-sized printing companies with low quality and low efficiency. The printing market will be more diversified. On-demand and speed.
4. The rapid development of electronic media publications has impacted traditional media that use paper as a medium, and at the same time, it has been associated with books and periodicals. Print publications such as newspapers infiltrate each other, complement each other, and coexist for a long time. Electronic media publications will continue to maintain a rapid growth momentum. Traditional print publications still maintain a certain growth rate, and their growth rate is roughly equivalent to the economic growth rate in various regions.
5. The concept of "green printing" will penetrate into all areas of the printing process. A large number of new technologies, new materials, and new technologies that are non-polluting and environmentally-friendly and resource-recycling are used. (Yu Xiangdong)