FuturePrint Podcast

Send us Fan Mail
Your press can be running at full speed and your business can still feel a step behind. For many print service providers, that is now the reality. The bottleneck is no longer the press. It is everything around it: orders arriving in ten different formats, information retyped by hand, spreadsheets becoming 'systems', and jobs stalling before they reach production.
In this episode Elena Knight is joined by Diana Pascual, General Manager of HP Industrial Print Software and Solutions, to talk about what she is seeing across the industry right now. We go back to the early thinking behind HP PrintOS and cloud data from presses, then on to the challenge of connecting MIS, ERP and CRM systems. We also look at why depending on 'the one person who knows everything' is a risk on the production floor and in IT. Diana explains why homegrown tools often start as an advantage and become a liability once security, documentation and modernisation can’t keep up.
We then get specific about AI in print production and where it is already delivering: scheduling, analytics, faster troubleshooting and operator support that keeps presses running. Diana explains what makes a secure, private and ethical AI production assistant different from plugging a public AI tool into your workflow, and why HP’s human-centric approach keeps people in control while taking away the repetitive work. Finally, we look ahead to 2030 and the rise of agentic systems, where software tools talk to each other, and at the foundations print businesses need to put in place now to get there.
You can hear more from Diana in the FuturePrint Industrial Print Report, out next month.
Subscribe for more conversations on workflow, software, automation and AI in industrial print. If you found this episode useful, please share it with a colleague.
Listen on:

Apple Podcast
Google Podcast
Spotify

What is FuturePrint?
FuturePrint is a digital and in person platform and community dedicated to future print technology. Over 20,000 people per month read our articles, listen to our podcasts, view our TV features, click on our e-newsletters and attend our in-person and virtual events. 
We hope to see you at one of our future in-person events:
FuturePrint Packaging, Labels & DTS Summit, 29-30 September '26, Valencia, Spain
FuturePrint Industrial Print Show, 11-12 May '27, Munich, Germany

Send us Fan Mail
Sustainability in Print: From Ambition to Action
What does real progress in sustainable print actually look like? Recorded live at the FuturePrint PodFest, this episode brings together three of the industry’s leading voices for an honest conversation about the gap between good intentions and genuine change.
Hosted by Steve Lister, Barbara Chaplain (Cimpress), Elizabeth Smith (INX) and Carlos Lahoz (HP) discuss the practical realities: why swapping one material for another is rarely as simple as it sounds, why around 80% of a product’s environmental impact is decided at the design stage, and why starting with imperfect, 'low-resolution' data beats waiting for the perfect numbers. They’re honest about the trade-offs too, from balancing food-safe inks with recyclability, to the end-of-life recycling gaps the industry still hasn’t cracked, and what tightening regulation like PPWR means for everyone.
Running through it all is a shared belief: no one holds all the answers, collaboration across the value chain is essential, and sometimes the most useful thing you can tell a customer is 'I don’t know, but let’s find out.' As Carlos puts it, 'a document by itself doesn’t change anything', which is exactly why this conversation is about action, not just ambition.
Listen on:

Apple Podcast
Google Podcast
Spotify

What is FuturePrint?
FuturePrint is a digital and in person platform and community dedicated to future print technology. Over 20,000 people per month read our articles, listen to our podcasts, view our TV features, click on our e-newsletters and attend our in-person and virtual events. 
We hope to see you at one of our future in-person events:
FuturePrint Packaging, Labels & DTS Summit, 29-30 September '26, Valencia, Spain
FuturePrint Industrial Print Show, 11-12 May '27, Munich, Germany

Send us Fan Mail
A corrugated box used to be judged on one thing: did it protect the product? That bar has moved. I’m joined by Kevin Miller, President and CEO of TRG Packaging and Display Solutions, to unpack how corrugated packaging and retail displays are becoming a front-line tool for brand experience, speed to shelf, and supply chain resilience. From colour consistency to the unboxing experience, we talk about why packaging quality sends a message long before anyone tastes the snack or tries the product. 

Kevin shares what changed across the last five years, especially the whiplash of pandemic-era demand and the lasting shift towards faster decisions, shorter runs, and marketing-led packaging. We get into what customers now expect from their packaging partners: competitive pricing, yes, but also nimble service, flexible graphics, and a supplier who can act like an extension of the brand team when people and roles keep changing. 

We also explore the rebrand and the strategy behind TRG Packaging and Display Solutions investment in BHS Jetliner Xceed industrial digital preprint. Kevin explains the network thinking: printing further upstream, using a hub-and-spoke model, reducing extra freight steps, and turning more sites into “graphics capable” operations without forcing every job onto one print method. If you care about corrugated packaging trends, digital print for packaging, and how converters build scale without losing agility, this conversation is for you. 

Subscribe to the FuturePrint Podcast, share the episode with a colleague in packaging or print, and leave a review with the one idea you’re taking back to your team.
Listen on:

Apple Podcast
Google Podcast
Spotify

What is FuturePrint?
FuturePrint is a digital and in person platform and community dedicated to future print technology. Over 20,000 people per month read our articles, listen to our podcasts, view our TV features, click on our e-newsletters and attend our in-person and virtual events. 
We hope to see you at one of our future in-person events:
FuturePrint Packaging, Labels & DTS Summit, 29-30 September '26, Valencia, Spain
FuturePrint Industrial Print Show, 11-12 May '27, Munich, Germany

Send us Fan Mail
Printing should not feel like gambling, yet colour matching in decorative print and textile printing often turns into endless trial runs, wasted substrate and stressed teams. We’re joined by Duncan Ross, Managing Director at AVA CADCAM, to talk about what actually makes colour predictable across a modern digital print workflow, from design creation to RIP to pressroom control.

We get practical about how AVA’s CAD and CAM approach helps teams take artwork from tools like Photoshop and make it genuinely fit to print: correct repeats and scale, smarter colourways, and early warnings for out-of-gamut areas and overprints that will fail later on the printer. Duncan also shares what he sees in the market right now, why cost saving has become a top priority, and how tighter colour management can reduce the number of attempts it takes to match a customer target, unlocking real productivity gains.

Digital versus analogue is not framed as a battle. We explore how décor manufacturers can test and develop designs on industrial inkjet, then keep them transferable to analogue presses for volume by working within a common colour space and controlling variables. We also cover collaboration with printer manufacturers and workflow partners, plus the sustainability upside of reducing blind sampling, wasted energy and unnecessary shipping of inaccurate approvals.

If you care about colour management, print production efficiency, workflow integration and making decorative printing more sustainable, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share the episode with a colleague, and leave us a review with the one workflow change that would save you the most waste.
Listen on:

Apple Podcast
Google Podcast
Spotify

What is FuturePrint?
FuturePrint is a digital and in person platform and community dedicated to future print technology. Over 20,000 people per month read our articles, listen to our podcasts, view our TV features, click on our e-newsletters and attend our in-person and virtual events. 
We hope to see you at one of our future in-person events:
FuturePrint Packaging, Labels & DTS Summit, 29-30 September '26, Valencia, Spain
FuturePrint Industrial Print Show, 11-12 May '27, Munich, Germany

Send us Fan Mail
What happens when an automation company approaches digital printing as a manufacturing challenge?
In this episode of the FuturePrint Podcast, Marcus Timson speaks with Mike Seitel, owner and CEO of Norwalt, about bringing digital inkjet directly into production lines and helping manufacturers reduce their dependence on conventional labels.
Founded in 1971, Norwalt built its business around product handling and assembly automation for consumer goods, medical devices and pharmaceuticals. Its move into printing began with a straightforward customer request: find a way to eliminate labels. Seitel explains how approaching the challenge without established printing assumptions helped the team explore different solutions.
The conversation examines the pressures reshaping packaging production, from smaller batches and changing ingredients to sudden demand driven by social media. Seitel discusses how inline direct-to-shape printing could reduce label inventories and make manufacturers more responsive.
He also addresses the practical demands of industrial adoption. Speed, reliability, printhead maintenance and sustained performance all matter when printing becomes part of a working production line. Norwalt’s approach includes rigorous acceptance testing, flexible integration and the possibility of introducing digital printing alongside existing labelling equipment.
Looking ahead, Seitel explores opportunities in food, beverages and personal care, including ingredient information, traceability and 2D codes. He also shares his thinking on robotic changeovers, AI-assisted diagnostics and factories with far greater automation.
For manufacturers, OEMs and printing technology providers, the discussion offers a perspective on what happens when product handling, engineering and print are developed together, with the performance of the whole production line in mind.
Listen on:

Apple Podcast
Google Podcast
Spotify

What is FuturePrint?
FuturePrint is a digital and in person platform and community dedicated to future print technology. Over 20,000 people per month read our articles, listen to our podcasts, view our TV features, click on our e-newsletters and attend our in-person and virtual events. 
We hope to see you at one of our future in-person events:
FuturePrint Packaging, Labels & DTS Summit, 29-30 September '26, Valencia, Spain
FuturePrint Industrial Print Show, 11-12 May '27, Munich, Germany