Politics And Printing

David German, manager of Reproduction & Mail Services for the City and County of San Francisco, offers another explanation: "People can do one-page color really fast on their little ink-jet printers, so now they're wanting to incorporate it into their documents," he observes.

Like Tucker, German sees his offset business fading—but he's not lamenting it. His in-plant has moved boldly into the future, emphasizing Web-based ordering and digital printing. The shop will soon shed one of its last two offset presses, replacing it with an Indigo or Xerox digital color press or a Heidelberg Quickmaster DI. His customers, German says, want short-run color. He has lost some of this type of work to a commercial printer with an Indigo press, and he doesn't want to lose any more.