Cloud Software + Digital Printing + Distribution Channel = Rise of DIY Printing
Legions of do-it-yourselfers are creating and selling goods over the Web since technology and infrastructure have driven down the barriers of entry to almost nil. Stay at home Moms and other crafty people are making small batch products to sale sell on Etsy. Tinkerers familiar with computer aided design (CAD) are selling design plans and products from lamps to toys on Ponoko. As of now, there is no marketplace with equal sophistication for printing but might be possible.
Do you use Yahoo! Mail, gMail, or maybe even Hotmail? Each of these is a cloud based application that is used remotely from any computer with an Internet connection accessing the "cloud." Flash, XML, CSS, PHP, HTML5, et al., represent the nerdy backbone that powers all of the sophisticated uses of the web we know and love from checking e-mail to watching Hulu. These sites provide one basic functionality, respectively e-mail and video streaming, but there are cloud based applications that are quite advanced. Salesforce and Google Docs are just two examples that are full featured, cloud replacements for traditional software. Software as a service (SaaS) offers many benefits to the end users such as accessibility, price, maintenance, backup, and overhead. As for a print application, the key is in the ability to make the software accessible and sophisticated yet overly simplistic for the end user. The application would also need to interface on the back end with a number of digital printing devices. EFI's recently released Fiery Vue (movie) application shows promise in two of the three areas but still requires client software installation.
The second issue to address for DIY Printing is the actual printing devices. Whether it is a digital proofer or digital press, the device itself is dumb! It is the software interfaces that drives the true capabilities and output of the machine. Such software must be able to control and monitor every aspect of the device to offer absolute automation. The machines must also be equipped to offer the most automation similar to what has been done with the Espresso Book Machine. With the correct mix of software and hardware end users using a web interface could submit, pay, and monitor their printed creativity.
Unlike Etsy or Ebay, a DIY Printing operation needs physical equipment to produce the goods instead of pooling a a vast amount of finished goods from individuals. If you want to offer pickup service instead of shipping the printed product, which could be cost prohibitive, a DIY Printing operation would need the infrastructure and distribution possibilities of a FedEx Office (formerly Kinko's). Contrary to what you may be thinking FedEx Office or similar does not currently offer this type of service. At these outfits, you need to upload or hand over your files to an operator and pay high rates in return for your printed product – no cloud, no end user control, no automation. Naturally this leaves two possibilities, partner with an existing national outfit or possibly franchise a low cost, high profit outfit similar to the promises of the Social Print Experiment.
Services and marketplaces like Etsy and Ponoko suggest a market exists for DIY Printing, the only question is who will build it?
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