Cloud computing is a phenomenon that is taking the IT and business world by storm, pun intended! The cloud allows companies to save time and money by moving services online for a quicker and cheaper way to do things. The cloud is going to have an impact printing.
When a document prints it relies on the local operating system which has to have the correct driver installed for the printer. When you are in the office either at home or work this does not create a problem.
The problems occur when printing from mobile devices like iPad's. Google is aiming to create a solution for this problem by creating Google Cloud Print which will allow you to print from any device whether it's a desktop computer, laptop or mobile device.
Google cloud print is said to be in early stages of development but it is another good example of how the cloud can be used to save technology problems.
How would cloud print affect the print industry?
Google Cloud Print and other similar services could make providing art work to printing service providers a whole lot easier. If the design agency has created the work and it is stored in the cloud it can be printed from the cloud regardless of where the artwork was created.
Although it has always been possible to send artwork via email quite often large brochures with high quality images have been difficult to send via the web. This is because in order to preserve the print quality the images are very high resolution and many megabits in size.
For a printing company to be able to access artwork from the cloud could speed up the whole process. There are many technological changes going on that are improving printing services. Many people believe that the digital age we live in is killing the printing industry. This is not the case and the demand for quality printing is still very important to businesses in all sectors.