Starting with IPEX 2002, this blog covers events relevant for UK print, including Seybold and DRUPA. See also website at www.atford.co.uk

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Back in Exeter. Yesterday catching up with things. Two main impressions now that drupa is a bit distant.

One. The web is till there, even at a tradeshow. Some companies now rely on the web and put less energy into exhibitions. I am still not sure what Adobe was doing there. They were very vague about the JDF input. Maybe they just wanted a chance to talk to different people about a possibility in the future. There was almost no information about PDF Jobready. I am pretty sure Datalogics was not on the HP stand. Maybe the web demo is enough. Microsoft and Macromedia had no stand at all. However, dotnet is in the background at the JDF Parc and Dreamweaver is assumed for the XMPie web option demonstrated on the Xerox stand.

Two. Some things have not advanced since IPEX 2002. At that time Pelagon showed how collaboration aspects of Acrobat could be used for mark-up and comment on proofs and designs. Maybe the costs of Acrobat are too high for enough people to have access to this. I did not see any signs of anyone using this at drupa. Drugs development and architecture are areas where it could be afforded maybe.

Also no sign of Printme. At IPEX there were several chances to try it out, spread around most of the halls. Maybe broadband has not arrived as expected. Checking the site it appears that most of the Printme sites are in the USA.