50th: Long Road to Automation — From High Touch to Hi Tech

There wasn't much hedging when it came to developments in digital printing. The researchers appear to have been extremely bullish in their predictions, depending on how one defines "press" in terms of production speed.

"Field trials of electrostatic [digital] printing by single-color presses before 1973 will lead to commercial availability by 1977 and development of multi-color equipment will mature before 1980. By 1990, conventional book industry platemaking will be eliminated by direct or digital input belt presses, using image-production technologies such as ink-jets, electrostatic and photographic imaging. Those developments will affect commercial and newspaper printing, as well as book manufacturing."