Digital
Publishing
in Japan
In the US, printing is moving closer and closer to a predominantly digital
environment. How does Japan fare? In this first of a two-part look at digital
publishing in Japan, John Tyler views the industry through a wide-angle
lens. His next installment will zoom in on digital publishing at a company
and individual project level. by John Tyler
Ron Dicarlantonio didn't ship the film for his new CD-ROM package to the US for printing because he thought it was cheaper; he did it because he thought it was the more efficient thing to do. Even though his multimedia production company, 9003 inc., is based in Japan, Dicarlantonio thought that, since that particular product was being marketed there, a US printer was worth a try.
Upon receiving the final output, though, Dicarlantonio quickly decided to do all future work in Japan. "The gold lettering was blond; the gradient had disappeared; shadows covered everything," he complains. "But everyone in the chain had an excuse."
Dicarlantonio had chosen a route that many foreign companies in Japan consider: printing overseas. Companies do this because of some commonly-held beliefs about Japan's digital print/publishing industry: that the digital half of digital publishing barely exists; that, while Japanese standards are high, the service is not widespread; and that the industry here is incapable of adapting soon to a fully digital world.
Magazines and books
Let's take a walk into the local bookstore, where we can see the industry's recent wares. A knowing eye can scan a magazine rack and quickly separate those done by computer from those done by hand. "The ratio [of digitally produced pages to traditionally produced pages] is low," says Ko Kurihara, president of CoDesign (the design company that puts out MacWorld Japan). "Even in our magazine, where most advertisers are catering to the digital world, almost 50% of our ads come to us in the form of a mechanical."CoDesign has produced MacWorld 100% digitally since January 1995, taking over from a company that did it mechanically. ("That was our sales pitch to MacWorld US," says Kurihara. "It was obvious.") The company has no control, however, over how advertisers create their ads. "It's a contradiction," complains Kurihara. "We do the magazine 100% digitally, and the magazine's focus is digital work -- but advertisers still use analog methods." That's the nature of the industry. (One industry watcher suggests that less than 3% of all magazines in Japan are produced digitally.)
Books, too, are rarely done digitally. Charles E. Tuttle, Publishers, the largest English language publisher of books in Japan, still begins its products mechanically. "We're in a phase of transition, now," says Richard Keirstead, Tuttle's DTP manager, "because we design our books manually first." Tuttle has invested millions of yen in digitizing its system, and now boasts 29 computers, all Macs. Keirstead admits, though, that most of them are in design and editorial, not the printing department.
High standards/high quality
Digital publishing encompasses everything from producing your files on a computer and sending them off to a printer on disk, to using a digital press to print without the need for film or traditional inks. Digital printing and publishing are not widespread in Japan. When practiced, though, they are done well. In my research for this article, I was unable to find anyone who complained of low quality or standards in Japan's print and publishing industry. If anything, the standards in Japan may be too high.One example of high quality is seen in the printing resolution. Print media is produced in a variety of line screens, or lines per inch (versus dots per inch). Newspaper quality print is commonly 65 lpi, while glossy magazines are between 133 and 175 lpi. (Computing Japan is printed at 150 lpi).
More lines per inch mean better output, but also vastly larger digital files and memory requirements for the computers. While in the US and Canada the customer usually decides what lpi to use, in Japan the printers usually make that decision -- and it's almost always to use 175 lpi. "Japanese printers like hi-rez," says Kurihara. "They are quality maniacs. If they think a job will come out below their quality standards, they will refuse to do it."
Dicarlantonio admits that the standards are higher in Japan, and he laments his decision to try US printers. "No one does anything in the States at high resolution, and that's what the printer there said the problem was: resolution of the film produced here was too high."
Top-down management
So production techniques and standards are high in Japan. What good is high-level digital production if only a handful of printers and publishers in Japan work digitally? "If digital production exists anywhere in Japan, it's in Tokyo, here in Bunkyo-ku," says Tuttle's Keirstead, not sounding entirely convinced that it exists at all. Who, or what, is to blame for this lack of modern methods?Japanese management, the ballyhoo of the early eighties, seems the root of the problem. "The execs don't want to learn about all that is necessary for this kind of integral change," complains Kurihara. "They'd rather go out for drinks with customers."
Apple Japan is very aware of the resistance of Japanese industry to change, especially the high-tech kind. Japan is Apple's second-largest market, and the task now is to encourage the Japanese publishing industry to change technique. From the beginning of this year, Apple has been pushing large organizations --groups like the Japan Publishing Consortium -- on the benefits of digital (and Macintosh) production techniques.
Digital revenue
One convincing argument that industry should listen to -- one that US companies are now heeding -- is the advantage digital publishing offers to advertisers. If anything will turn a chary executive's head, it's the promise of more advertising yen.Digital publishing in its purest form uses digital printing presses, those that don't use film or traditional inks. On this point, the Japanese industry stands out in its non-participation. In a recent issue of the Japanese magazine SuperDesigning, which contained five feature articles on digital publishing, not a single advertiser offered a digital press. Some were selling digital printing systems, but all were pushing traditional PostScript devices and imagesetters. Not even Agfa, which has one of the five digital systems in use today, mentions more than a desktop scanner in its one-page ad. Agfa's June ad in Publish, a US magazine with a similar readership, though, devotes 12 full-color pages to their digital Chromapress system (and opens with the titillating catch-copy, "Johann Gensfleisch Gutenberg -- Inventor, Genius, Hasbeen").
Yet digital presses enable a concept referred to as "atomic" marketing -- targeting the absolute highest common denominator: the individual. A publisher using a digital press can actually print a different ad for each individual reader (as MacUser in the US has done). The possibility of being able to cater to individual readers (a magazine's subscribers, for example) should convince many more advertisers that their ad will get the desired response. And this, in turn, would convince executives in the industry to change their weary ways.
A filmless, inkless printing future is still years off. But companies who produce print media -- be it advertisements, magazines, or books -- can change from traditional to digital processing and get an immediate increase in efficiency. And that doesn't mean they have to go overseas either. Ron Dicarlantonio searched, and found, a printer in Japan that does what he wants, how he wants it. Now he gets correct colors, correct proofs, and satisfying final products.
That's one company doing their work digitally; one printer delivering the goods. Let's see the numbers grow.ç
Paperless production
When is a magazine not a magazine? Can a magazine still exist when the medium disappears?Just a couple of years ago, you wouldn't have thought that a magazine could exist without the paper it was printed on. But that's not so anymore. Today, there are digital magazines -- "e-zines," they're sometimes called -- online, on disk, and (for your shopping convenience) in your nearest bookstore.
Of the several CD-based Japanese magazines being marketed, POD (billed as a "general entertainment" magazine) is probably the biggest selling title. Foreign companies are getting involved as well. EigoMedia, for example, began producing English Alive on CD-ROM in February, targeted to English-language learners. "In Japan now, lots of publishers are putting out bilingual magazines: Mangajin, Miniworld, etc.," says Russell Willis, president. "We have just taken that one step further and made a magazine-format CD."
Preparing a digital magazine is substantially different than preparing its paper cousin. The biggest difference, of course, is that the pages are printed as zeros and ones, not half-tone dots on paper. The staff roles of a traditional magazine also morph into something decidedly electronic. Layout artists give way to programmers; artists of necessity work on screen rather than with sketch pad or canvas. "We use people who have a programming background but who are not programmers," says Willis. "Programmers plus alpha, as they say in Japanese."
While traditional magazines use QuarkXPress or PageMaker to lay out their pages, an e-zine uses Macromind Director or Hypercard, or one of several other programs dedicated to on-screen presentation. "Printing" of a CD magazine differs from its paper-based cousin both in method and cost. After being edited and laid out, a digital magazine must be mastered, then sent to a manufacturer for copying onto individuals discs. The price per "copy" for "printing" a CD magazine (blank disc plus mastering cost) might be roughly half that of a four-color paper magazine (paper and inks, plus labor costs) (c) Copyright 1996 by Computing Japan magazine?
