Most important is ... paper
Paper in printing and printing is probably the most important thing next to paints. Without it, printing would not be possible. Paper as a material has been known since 105, n. E., That is for a very long time. However, it was not until the twentieth century that more and more types of paper for various applications were invented.
And now we have paper chalked, white, slippery, coated with plastics, etc. All this to achieve different results of advertising and journalistic printing. The end result of the printed item depends on the choice of paper, its durability and durability.
Solid ink printers - Wikipedia
Solid ink printers, also known as phase-change printers, are a type of thermal transfer printer. They use solid sticks of CMYK-coloured ink, similar in consistency to candle wax, which are melted and fed into a piezo crystal operated print-head. The printhead sprays the ink on a rotating, oil coated drum. The paper then passes over the print drum, at which time the image is immediately transferred, or transfixed, to the page. Solid ink printers are most commonly used as colour office printers, and are excellent at printing on transparencies and other non-porous media. Solid ink printers can produce excellent results. Acquisition and operating costs are similar to laser printers. Drawbacks of the technology include high energy consumption and long warm-up times from a cold state. Also, some users complain that the resulting prints are difficult to write on, as the wax tends to repel inks from pens, and are difficult to feed through automatic document feeders, but these traits have been significantly reduced in later models. In addition, this type of printer is only available from one manufacturer, Xerox, manufactured as part of their Xerox Phaser office printer line. Previously, solid ink printers were manufactured by Tektronix, but Tek sold the printing business to Xerox in 2001.
Źródło: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_(computing)
Changing print needs
Printing is needed, no one has doubts about it, but are they just as necessary as 20 years ago? This is a debatable issue, but certainly the market needs and consumer demand have changed a bit.
The production of marketing materials increased significantly - leaflets, banners, promotional leaflets, and advertisements - and decreased the production of books and magazines, mainly due to the popularization of the Internet. Will we wait for the times when printers, DTP operators and printing house owners will have to look for a new job?