by Jim Lyons
[October 28, 2011] Recently, The
Lyra Insider blog included a brief reflection on Steve Jobs and his impact
on the printing and imaging business (see “The Onion Brings Printer Biz into Steve
Jobs Resignation Story”). Now, further reflections on his contributions
and quirks following his death on October 5 seem appropriate, especially in
light of all the attention following the publication of Jobs’ new biography.
Some personal and second-hand memories bring his passion and understanding to
light in a very industry-specific way.
According to the
new authorized biography, Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson, the legendary
and recently deceased Apple CEO can take credit for revolutionizing six or
maybe seven industries (the “maybe” being retail). Included on the list, as
mentioned during Isaacson’s October 23 appearance on the American television
show 60 Minutes and in the early
pages of the book, which was released Monday, October 24, is digital
publishing. While as a printing insider, I might refine that to desktop
publishing (and in fact thought that was what I first heard during the live
viewing of the show), that difference really might just come down to semantics.
Along with the other industries on the list, like music, animated movies, and
personal computers, desktop publishing is probably too fine a cut. After all,
“DTP” as we called it back then really did ripple through and help change the whole
of digital publishing and along the way, helped make the Macintosh a virtual
standard in that industry.
A more recent
Jobs innovation involves the Macintosh and Apple’s iPhoto application,
originally introduced just as digital photography was hitting its inflection
point a little less than ten years ago. This initiative was part of another
marketing push by Apple, which was looking to define another “killer app”
(PageMaker may have been one of the first) and in the process help sell more
Macintosh computers, which Apple did. As part of the value proposition, iPhoto
could help you organize your digital photos and create on-screen slide shows,
plus the software included the ability for users to order a photobook—a
professionally bound, hard-copy volume that would be produced off-site and
shipped in a few days to the user. The photobook was a big part of the
marketing campaign (including television commercials) that brought joy to
anyone from the hard copy business that happened to notice them (me, for one).
Apple continues with iPhoto today, and version 11 still prominently features
this photobook capability. Similar to DTP, others have followed suit, with
photobooks being one of the bright spots in digital photo printing and
retailing (see “Observations:
End of Summer 2011—Getting Those Memories Organized via Photobooks”).
How much Jobs had
to do with the very latest Apple print-prominent solution, he firm’s “Cards”
app announced with the iPhone 4S on October 4, is not clear, but Jobs’
secretive side was evident with respect to our query made to HP regarding which
presses are being used to print the cards. The app itself, only available recently, is a very “light” app so far, offering 20 or so
card styles in a limited number of categories. Users have the ability to send a
physical greeting card, customized and mailed conventionally (from Apple’s
publishing vendor), to the recipient of their choice (see “Life Imitates Art”). When we asked
about Apple’s choice of print vendor (and HP’s digital presses) this time, a
current HP vice president became a bit flustered, commenting on how secretive
Apple can be, but he assured us, with a virtual wink at least, that “the finest
quality digital press available” was behind Apple’s latest hard-copy
initiative.
According to the
new authorized biography, Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson, the legendary
and recently deceased Apple CEO can take credit for revolutionizing six or
maybe seven industries (the “maybe” being retail). Included on the list, as
mentioned during Isaacson’s October 23 appearance on the American television
show 60 Minutes and in the early
pages of the book, which was released Monday, October 24, is digital
publishing. While as a printing insider, I might refine that to desktop
publishing (and in fact thought that was what I first heard during the live
viewing of the show), that difference really might just come down to semantics.
Along with the other industries on the list, like music, animated movies, and
personal computers, desktop publishing is probably too fine a cut. After all,
“DTP” as we called it back then really did ripple through and help change the whole
of digital publishing and along the way, helped make the Macintosh a virtual
standard in that industry.
The desktop
publishing revolution goes back 25 years now (see “The
Greatest Printer Story Ever Told”), and Steve Jobs’ influence during
those heady early days was clear. Launching the original solution, which
included the Apple Macintosh, Apple LaserWriter printer with Adobe Postscript,
and Aldus PageMaker, Jobs along with his lieutenant John Scull (not to be confused with then-future-CEO John Sculley) were tireless
lobbyists for DTP and its ability to transform publishing workflows. In the
process, Jobs and Scully probably saved Apple and helped create a larger
industry with beneficiaries like HP and Microsoft taking the solution (or
perhaps a lower-end version of it) to the masses.
Following his
passing, much has been made of Jobs and his “standing at the crossroads” of
technology and the liberal arts, and the DTP revolution speaks volumes to that.
This movement required an understanding of the full complement of technology
required—the classic example (beyond the obvious Macintosh and laser printing)
being Adobe PostScript’s scalable type, along with the sensitivity to style and
design that was a Jobs trademark. (His passion for typography also comes out
in his famous Stanford commencement speech and his discussion of early training
in fonts and typefaces.) Then came Jobs’ skill as a marketer, with the
strong positive push that got the world excited about the power and economies
offered by DTP beginning in 1986…and his frequent trashing of HP as offering a
second-rate solution.
 |
| Photobooks remain a popular feature of iPhoto ten years after its intro |
The more interesting, Jobs side of the story comes in,
though, when he personally got involved with a photobook quality issue, in the
case of a very prominent customer complaint, in 2002, as remembered by Bill
McGlynn, who is a former HP senior vice president and was head of the Graphics
Arts group for HP’s Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) at the time, a group which
included the then-recently acquired Indigo digital typesetter product line.
(McGlynn is now president of Memjet Home & Office.) The Apple CEO, with his
characteristic passion for design and quality, got right into the middle of a quality
issue. McGlynn remembers the 2002 conference call he was summoned to, along
with his boss, Vyomesh Joshi, who remains head of IPG.
According to
McGlynn, “Apple’s supplier for the photobooks was MyPublisher, who used our
(recently acquired) Indigo presses for their production. None other than Paul
McCartney, yes, that Paul McCartney, had ordered 100 photobooks commemorating
his 2002 U.S.
tour. As he went through the stacks of books, individually adding his thanks
and a signature, personalizing each book as a memento for crew and others who
had made the tour possible, Sir Paul noticed inconsistent color and let Jobs
know about it.”
“We had a magenta
color shift issue at the time, especially on the older (TurboStream) machines,
and Jobs wanted to know how we planned to fix it,” McGlynn continues. He
remembers, “Steve even warned us, as he was in his car, returning from a dental
appointment while taking the call, that he was likely to be in an even more
cantankerous mood than normal.” McGlynn remembers an irate but passionate Jobs,
and in the end, MyPublisher got a new (HP Indigo 3000) machine, McCartney got replacement
books, and another Jobs story was born.
 |
| Apple Cards is a new Apple created iPhone app that features hard copy - in this case greeting cards |
 |
| Is the HP Indigo press still behind Apples latest hard copy initiation, Cards? |
So from DTP to
iPhoto to Cards (and we shouldn’t forget AirPrint), the Jobs legacy lives on
with Apple and the firm’s all-important role in the printing and imaging
industry. For this and everything else, RIP Steven Paul Jobs.
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