By AbdulRasheed Afolabi
Introduction
The vital role of printing can be aptly captured in the saying “no printing, no business”. Hype apart, printing is vital to the day-to-day existence of man. How would the world be like without books to learn from? What kind of world would we be living in without newspapers and magazines to pass information? What would it be like doing business without printed documents for transactions or printed currencies as legal tender? It needs not much pontification to establish one indisputable fact: printing is vital to human existence.
The Gutenberg Revolution
Johannes Gutenberg, in the 1450s laid the foundation for the world's dependence on printing when he invented the printing press as a business venture. As Historians have rightly averred Gutenberg's invention transformed the world from a rudimentary society into the enlightened society of today by introducing a method of mass communication. Consequently, printing has extensively aided the spread of knowledge, and not just that, it has positively affected virtually every aspect of humanity.
Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian media guru, did well by calling his 1962 book The Gutenberg Galaxy. This is in admiration of Gutenberg's invention. In the book, McLuhan, argued that the advent of print is the key to our modern consciousness. Why was Gutenberg's invention such a big deal? Stanley Baran, in his book Introduction to Mass Communication, says the invention of the printing press blazed the trail for mass communication. His words: “(the) use of the printing press helped fuel the establishment and growth of a large middle class. No longer were societies composed of rulers and subjects; printing sped the rise of democracy. No longer were power and wealth functions of birth. Power and wealth could now be created by the industrious. No longer was political discourse limited to accepting the dictates of crown and church. Printing had given ordinary people a powerful voice” (P.44)
Printing Technology in Contemporary Nigeria
The advent of printing in Nigeria, going by available records, can be traced to the 19th century when the Christian Missionaries Hope Waddel and Samuel Edgerly established the Hope Waddel and Samuel Edgerly Press in 1846 in Calabar for the purpose of mass producing religious tracts and booklets. This effort led to the establishment, in 1854, of Rev. Henry Townsend Missionary Press and School where he trained pupils at Abeokuta. From this humble beginning that is based on the letterpress technology, the printing industry has blossomed into a multi-billion Naira industry that is massively driven by technology. It is worthy of note that the subsequent printing methods (viz: lithographic offset printing, gravure printing and the latest entrant digital printing) that came in the wake of letterpress printing are well advanced in the country; comparable to what obtains in the rest of the world. Direct Image technology, the latest kid on the block, was introduced into the country in 2001. Since the introduction of this cutting-edge technology, the face of printing in Nigeria has taken a stunning dimension. Gone are the days when majority of high quality printing had to be done abroad. The wide array of printing firms that have adopted the DI Press (and other similar print technologies like computer-to plate Ctp) is a glowing testimony to the great heights that the Nigerian printing industry has attained - an enviable feat that has assured printing firms' operational efficiency with the resultant effect of increased profitability.
This story of success is half told if the impact of technology is glossed over. Right from inception when the movable type was invented by Guttenberg to the present age, technology has played no mean role in transforming the printing industry. Technology has made it possible for printing machines to power up for productivity and has bolstered the bottom line. Why is technology such a dominate force to reckon with? The answer lies in the wisdom behind the saying “technology drives business, and business drives technology”. The technological changes in the print media industry have been spurred by print buyers' demand for high quality colour reproduction, shorter print runs and shrinking production cycle times. This is coupled with the fact that printers are always searching for ways to decrease production costs, increase efficiency, and enhance customer satisfaction. In order to maintain a high level of competitiveness, the printing industry is turning to new technologies, both to upgrade or improve production and marketing efficiency. At the core of this effort is computerization; emerging print equipment are becoming more automated by the day. Automation makes production workflow efficiency and effective by reducing human error to the barest minimum.
The imperative of adapting to new technologies was reiterated by Jakob Bejer, the CEO of a major print equipment supplier in Nigeria. He said in an interview; “Nigerian printers should do away with old method of printing equipment and wake up to the reality of technology advancement.” (Printers Digest Sept/Oct. 2005. p.25)
The New Media Threat
To opine that the transformation of the print media industry in Nigeria (and in the world in general) is solely driven by profitability factor would amount to a fallacy. Truth is: there are other factors to reckon with. One of these is the new media threat.
As at the 1980s, the communication scholar, Ithiel de Sola Pool, had predicted that “Networked Computers will be the printing presses of the twenty-first century.” Writing under the chapter titled Gutenberg's Last Stand?, Wilson Dizard, in his book Old Media New Media, says Sola Pool's prediction was dismissed at the time by most publishing industry experts as a futuristic fancy. However, sooner than expected, the reality of his predictions dawned on them; the electronic media, especially the Internet began to give print media investors a run for their money. Thus, in the words of Dizard, “the traditional publishing sector - newspapers, magazines, and books - are adjusting their operational styles to computer realities, as well as coping with competition from a growing number of new electronic information providers. (p.152)
The Electrification of Print
The emergence of the new media has not necessarily sounded the death kneel on print. According to Wilson Dizard, quoting the media scholar Anthony Smith, thanks to the computer, “there had been a complete re-organization of the concept behind the print medium”. Dizard explains that, “Although computers were used initially by publishers to turn out products in their traditional form, print computerization opens up innovative possibilities for collecting, storing, and marketing information for mass audiences.” (Old Media, New Media, p.153)
The possibilities that have been opened up are manifest in many areas of printing, publishing and packaging. However, in bringing the point home, it may be desirable to examine the influence of computerization in the areas of book publishing, newspaper and magazine publishing.
Book Publishing
Desktop publishing has made book publishing a thriving trade in Nigeria, thus making it easier for new entrants to break into the field. Aspiring authors no longer live in fear of rejection of manuscripts from big -time publishers. There has been a “democratisation” of the book publishing business which has taken the toga of “self-publishing”. Book production is now mostly computerized, from the author's word processing to final printing.
The importance of books in national development cannot be hyped. The book needs of Nigeria as a nation are enormous. Meeting up with this demand requires a book production process that is cost-saving and competitive, for it is no longer news that some publishing firms now produce their books in countries like Malaysia and Singapore, and simply ship in their order into the country for marketing and distribution. This empowers the large-scale publishers to tilt market forces to their advantage. Desktop publishing, much like it applies to newspaper and magazine production is a blessing to small publishers because it helps in cutting costs and equally gives an attractive end product.
A major stakeholder in the book publishing industry, Dan Obidiegwu, in his keynote address at the 2005 annual Conference/General Meeting of the Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA) in December 2005, asserted that recent advances in information technology would greatly enhance productivity in publishing. He therefore advised that companies should adopt a policy of total computerization of all aspects of their operations as a sure way of achieving enhanced productivity and efficiency.
Newspaper and Magazine Production
The spate of extremely fierce competition that came from the electr4onic media has made the newspaper industry to embrace new technologies to better present its products (newspapers), in order to survive the onslaught from the electronic media, as well as stand out from the pack of other newspapers houses. Aside from investing in web-offset machines that assures speed (to beat delivery time), newspaper companies are investing heavily in computer-to-plate technology (ctp) a scenario that is well captured in Wilson Dizards words that “… newspapers have been moving towards computerization of their internal operations. Newspaper production is now almost totally automated, from newsroom word processing to computerized delivery programs.” (Old Media, New Media, p.160 )
C.t.p Technology in Newspaper Production
The print media industry has derived immense benefits from the Computer-to-plate (Ctp) technology. The magic of the Ctp is that it eliminates all the actions that used to be carried out on the outputted films by the stripper before imaging on the printing plates. The imaging in this case is done by a software that images directly to the plates.
The Ctp technology which has been adopted by many newspaper houses makes excellent colour reproduction a reality, even on newsprints. This has translated into endless streams of income to these outfits through exposure of press adverts.
Direct Image Technology in Magazine Production
Magazine publishers are not behind in the race of blending with the computer age. They are making the shift to new technologies in increasingly impressive ways with a view to improving their editorial content as well as their revenue. One of the strong points of magazine is the production quality. As George Belch and Michael Belch put it in their book Advertising and Promotion, “One of the most valued attributes of magazine advertising is the reproduction quality of the ads. Magazines are generally printed on high-quality paper stock and use printing processes that provide excellent reproduction in black and white or colour” (p.398)
The emergence of digitalized print operations in Nigeria has been a plus for the print media industry. To be specific, the introduction of Direct Imaging (DI) machine, mentioned earlier, has changed the face of colour reproduction in Nigeria tremendously. The top-class companies who, in their search for quality prints, had patronized foreign printing firms now do not have to go that far again. Central to achieving this landmark is the deployment of the Computer Print Control (CPC) which has taken away the control and regulation of ink from the subjective judgment of the printing machine operator. The CPC, popularly referred to as “the brain of the machine” takes over the tasks of ensuring the consistency of print, registration, etc. Consequently, the subjectivity of the printer's craft is replaced by the predictability of the machine.
The Future of Printing in Nigeria
As Marshall McLuhan did put it years back, “we shape our tools, and our tools shape us.” The search for means to transmit information quickly by man has led to the breaking of new ground. This is well encapsulated in the concept of technological determinism propounded by the maverick media guru, McLuhan. The view that the communication technologies we use have effects on how and what we communicate, when we communicate, the frequency of our communication, etc is what technological determinism is all about.
The future of instant communication in the print media industry in Nigeria lies in digital transmission technologies. This is no surprise, for it is certain that the printing industry is sure to feel the impact of the rapid advancement of technology, much like other fields of endeavour. Harsha Paruchuri in the article titled “Digital Workflow: Topics and Trends in the Graphic Arts Industry”, says advancements has provided us with networking working solutions in the past and are now providing us with solutions for the fast digital transfer of files from the customers to the printer. According to this writer, the digital transmission of data files is done through high band-width lines that make it possible for customers to send their files to the printer instantaneously. In addition, rapid transfer of last minute corrections before printing makes the system an attraction. However, for these digital transmissions to work well there must be high speed communication lines such as ISDN and TI. (Visual Communications Journal 1999, www.igea.org)
When a scenario as described by Paruchuri becomes a reality in Nigeria, then there would be the possibility of print media houses having their printing plants in different parts of the country, while an editorial office is maintained in just one location. From this editorial office, all editorial work and page planning can be carried out. Thereafter the planned pages can be digitally transmitted to the printing plants for reproduction. This will help save the cost of distribution and also ensure the availability of newspapers in the length and breadth of the country. Good enough the telecom industry is burgeoning by the day and there is no doubt that soonest we shall be in the promise land.
Conclusion
Without any flicker of doubt, printing has impacted greatly on the transformation of mankind. It has helped in spreading knowledge and as well empowered man to achieve great heights. As printing drive the wheel of human civilization, so does technology drive printing. It is this relationship between printing and technology that makes it crystal clear to investors in the print media sector of Nigeria's economy that technology holds the key to the returns on their investments.
- Afolabi is a printing technologist. He works at the printing unit of the department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos.
