Ricoh’s Clickable Paper has
won a European Digital Press
Association (EDP) award for
Best Valuable Innovation (sic)
to go with its 2013 Graph
Expo Must See ‘ems Award
and the French Xplor Grand
Jury Award for Innovation.
Clickable Paper, which Ricoh
plans to launch in the UK this
autumn, is an interactive print
solution that gives readers of
paper-based communications
one-touch access to six
different online resources, such
as video/multimedia, web sites,
e-commerce portals and social
networks, via a smartphone or
tablet.
Benoit Chatelard, Ricoh
Europe General Manager,
Solutions, says Clickable Paper,
which is based on Ricoh’s own
image recognition technology,
is very appealing for businesses
that want to add value to
printed marketing material.
He said: “With Clickable
Paper, publishers and
advertisers can create highly
interactive, multi-media
campaigns that yield rapid
results. It also protects core
print-based businesses, while
reinventing them at the same
time, with a unique marketing
service that delivers rapid
ROI. Results are trackable for
greater reportability.”
Ricoh claims its solution is
more secure than QR codes
and permits the re-purposing
of already printed materials
without marking, editing or
reformatting source documents.
While a Clickable Paper logo
can be printed on the page
to inform the reader that
images are hot spots for more
interaction, the technology
doesn’t require visible marks of
any kind.
In one pilot project in the UK,
commercial printer Barnwell
Print incorporated Clickable
Paper into a 4,000 run of a 274-
page book so that readers could
watch a video about fishing.
Barnwell Print managing
director Julian Barnwell said:
“When we saw Clickable Paper,
we immediately recognised its
enormous potential. Clickable
Paper enables publications to
be used as a portal to direct
readers to all kinds of extra
information or entertainment.
It brings printed publications
into the world of interactive,
multi-channel communications
and offers real-time tracking
of reader response that has
heretofore been difficult
to achieve with a printed
publication.’’
6
PRINT.IT
01732 759725
Bulletin
Interactive paper
clicks with the
judges
The European photo prints
market is still larger than
the photobook and photo-
merchandise markets
combined, despite a volume
decline of 9% in 2013.
According to new research
from Futuresource Consulting,
the photo prints market
continues to make up the
lion’s share of revenues within
the European photo industry,
generating revenues at retail
that in 2013 were 130%
the size of the combined
photobook and photo-
merchandise markets.
However, volumes are falling
fast – down 9% in 2013 to 10.5
billion prints, with a further
decline of 9% to 9.6 billion
predicted this year.
Jeremy Wills, senior market
analyst at Futuresource
Consulting, said: “The photo
prints market continues to be
impacted negatively by digital
content sharing, particularly
social networking, smartphones
and tablet PCs.
“However, there is a positive
impact from the growing
number of images
captured daily by
smartphones, and the
emergence of photo
printing apps within
social networking
and image sharing
platforms. Wi-Fi connection
from smartphones to instant
print kiosks, which is currently
being rolled out at several
retailers, is also likely to have a
positive impact.”
Futuresource expects the
instant photo-print channel to
decline slightly by 1% in 2014
after plateauing in 2012 and
2013. A rate of decline slower
than the market as a whole
means that it will increase its
share of the total market from
14% in 2013 to 21% in 2018.
The retail over-the-counter
channel, which remains the
largest print pathway in Europe,
accounting for 42% of total
orders in 2013, is experiencing
the greatest decline in volume
terms, falling by around 14% in
2013. Futuresource forecasts a
further 13.5% decline in 2014.
futuresource-consulting.com
Digital content
sharing drives down
photo print market
Last year’s
champion
Karrie Webb
in action on
the 18th
green
WiFi connection from smart-
phones to instant print kiosks
is a positive development for
the photo prints market. The
Kodak Kiosk Connect App lets
users wirelessly transfer images
directly from an Android or iOS
smartphone to a Kodak Picture
Kiosk for printing within minutes.
Users can print images and
create and print photo books,
greeting cards, calendars and
photo cards.
Swinging into action
For the second year running, KYOCERA Document
Solutions UK Ltd is the official printer and copier
supplier to the ISPS HANDA Ladies European
Masters, which takes place on July 3-6 at the
Buckinghamshire Golf Club, London.
Toshiba TEC is the official office
automation supporter of the
Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
A56758 Toshiba Advertorial Strip Ad.indd 1
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