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At the SHIFT conference hosted by Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, zipcon CEO Bernd Zipper stood not only on stage as a speaker, but also in front of the camera of the Inkish team. In conversation with Morten Reitoft, the focus was mainly on UCP and Agentic Print. According to Zipper, both give print shops the chance to keep pace with the big players in the market. But speed is of the essence, he says, because anyone who only starts next year will be too late.→

Market

It was a simple sales announcement: GMG Americas will in future sell Durst Group’s software in North and South America. But the announcement contained a second piece of news, one likely to be more interesting for readers of beyond-print.de, because it reclassifies the Open Software Initiative of the South Tyrolean company: the open ecosystem has become the docking point for Durst’s AI layer, Kyveris.→

Market

"These flyers need to be in Antwerp by Thursday, what will that cost?" Since late August, a ChatGPT plugin has been answering questions like this with an order-ready configuration. The Dutch online print platform Print.com has developed its own plugin for ChatGPT. The connection reportedly runs as MCP, meaning it works for any AI assistant, not just ChatGPT.→

Market

Artificial intelligence costs money before it makes any. When it will start generating returns, and how, is the question that shapes the ONLINE PRINT SUMMIT (OPS) 2027. Under the motto "Turn Intelligence into Revenue," the event on 13 and 14 April 2027 at the Alte Kongresshalle in Munich will explore how intelligent systems translate into sustainable revenue. Koenig & Bauer comes on board as Major Partner, the first speakers have been confirmed, and the new OPS website is live: anyone who books their tickets before 26 October 2026 will receive the early bird price.→

Market

Three print shops are turning a loose "we know each other" into a proper company. That's not a story for the personnel notices column. That's one for the survival column. The most dangerous word in the print industry isn't "digitalisation," isn't "skills shortage," and it isn't even "Onlineprinter." It's "cooperation." For twenty years, this word has been hiding letters of intent without intent, partnerships without contracts, and networks that fall apart at the first price war like a wet cardboard box. →

Market

Monday: AI saves small and mid-sized businesses. Tuesday: AI agents break out of a test lab and hack a platform. Wednesday: the head of an AI company calls for his own industry to slow down. Thursday: a vendor calls and, remarkably, happens to have exactly the AI solution in his briefcase that he brought along. Friday: the press is running.→

Market

After its debut in November 2025, dpsuisse is following up. On 30 and 31 October 2026, the ThinkTank by dpsuisse meets again at the Riverside in Zweidlen-Glattfelden, this time with a single question: what happens when print jobs are no longer placed by humans, but by AI agents acting on customers' behalf? The testing happens on each company's own business, in real time. I'm co-moderating, so I'm not neutral here — I'll say that up front.→

Market

In early May, the Scandinavian Print Group took over the Limberg Group — several print shops in the Cologne area, with the parent company even coming out of insolvency proceedings. There was no press release from Onlineprinters about it. Yet the Scandinavian Print Group has belonged to the group since 2017, and the acquisition is even mentioned in the half-year report. Just without a name. A look at a consolidation that's deliberately running quiet.→

Technic

ChatGPT could already generate images before. What's new is what Adobe has been providing to probably the most famous AI chatbot for a few weeks now: a plugin that brings together more than 70 tools from Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat and five other applications. With it, users are meant to be able to edit existing files, access Creative Cloud assets and turn data into formatted PDFs, such as infographics. Within the chat, the plugin is meant to produce not just an image any more, but a production file.→

Market

There's a certain irony to this story. Johannes Gutenberg used his press to print not only Bibles but also letters of indulgence, physical certificates confirming that someone had eased their conscience financially. Around 570 years later, the European Union is putting an end to exactly this kind of "business model". And once again, the printing industry finds itself right in the middle of it — this time, however, on the customer side.→

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