 | Need for Print |  |  |  |  |  |
People rely on paper. From postcards to billboards we are surrounded by messages on paper. Paper has been the basic tool of the thinker for hundreds of years, so it is culturally charged. People expect particular shapes for photos, architectural drawings, business documents, textbooks and novels.
A lot of paper is used for business processes. In 1975 the average US office worker used 62 pounds of paper per year. In that year George Pake who headed Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) was asked what an office might look like in 30 years time and suggested it could be a paperless office
(BusinessWeek June 30th 1975). PARC invented Ethernet and (arguably) personal computing. Networks and screens should allow screens to replace paper. However PARC also invented the laser printer and its ability to spit out paper quickly and easily may be one of the reasons we are still waiting for the future.
What actually happened is that by 1999 the average US office worker had more than doubled consumption to 143 pounds of paper per year (and a grand total of 700 lbs per year). Typically people typed records into the computer and then printed them out again. Half of the documents printed have a life of just 2 days. (Xerox has tried fading ink on reusable sheets)
Printing is often important to understanding and absorbing information. Compared to most screens there can be more information on a printed page (8 million pixels on a page of A4, just 2 million on a 1600x1200 screen). Unlike screens a page easily allows things like marginal notes, crossing out and highlighter pens. New print technologies like laser and inkjet printers made printing easier so people did more of it.
There are some signs that paperless storing of information is catching on. Demand for paper has fallen back so that in 2006 US office workers used 127 pounds per year. The 12% fall might not mean much: it might have been rising awareness of the cost of print, or information better designed to be read on screen. It could have been economic malaise, offices with 12% fewer orders to process.
We might expect that screens will reduce the market for print, whilst digital print will erode the market for conventional printing presses. Newspaper consumption is in decline, people get their news from TV or a screen. Most business processes involve short snappy transactions and should be screen based. People seem to be shifting from printed books to e-books (Amazon's Kindle outsells hardbacks). The digital print industry will change. Rather than a conventional print run of a thousand obscure poems or textbooks publishers print on demand using digital techniques. People print fewer pages but they print reports with coloured pictures instead ofoffice forms so the costs of printing have often risen. Other parts of the print industry change as well; conventional printers use plates made by laser printers. Conventional and digital printing aren't very distinct things any more.
(figures on US paper consumption from Business Week / Xerox)