It has taken a while to get back into the year, but writing may be more frequent now.

The Institute of Printing had a debate just before Christmas. I will write it up while I can still remember some detail but this won't be for a few days. I had to leave before the end to get back to Exeter but I did hear the main argumnets.

Although the motion that the print industry no longer needs skills was defeated, my main impression was the strength of the case that digital technology is now accepted for litho workflows as well as digital print as such. There was no attempt to argue against this, just the argument that new skills are needed for this approach to work.

On PDF, it was even claimed that most print customers are nowadays creating files that cause few problems for pre-press and that any issues around a lack of understanding will be cleared up soon. My own guess is that skills around tact and training will be needed to make print workflows seem less in need of skill than is actually the case.