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As a relative newcomer to the world of print, I am amazed on a regular basis at how much it surrounds and impacts your day to day life. Much of what is around you is printed and we don’t really ever think about it. However, the scope for the future and opportunity of print is even more mind blowing.
The idea that print technology will substantially shape our lives in only a matter of years is fact. I am becoming increasingly obsessed with 3D printing, and the prediction that the home of the future will include 3D printers and we will have the ability to print whatever we want is just amazing.
Print is becoming more and more creative and for me, it is an exciting time to be a part of this print evolution.
For the OCD amongst us, in a world full of germs, imagine if you were able to print with antibacterial ink?
Imagine no more. An antibacterial ink for printing adverts on supermarket checkout conveyor belts has been through a testing process for over two years. And the results are extremely reassuring. The ink is said to be able to kill bacteria such as E. coli, MRSA and the salmonella virus ‘with 99.9 percent effectiveness over a 24-hour period’. With the amount of food which I can only imagine is regularly spilled at checkout (and not properly cleaned up!), including meat and blood, milk and eggs, this can only be good news.
This got me thinking about what else we can print with this magical antibacterial ink?
Could hospital walls be printed to ward off germs? How about laptops? The amount of bacteria your keyboard harbours is horrifying! Cleaning your kitchen work surfaces could be also a thing of the past if they were beautifully printed with antiseptic ink.
The opportunities of print are endless and it is only imagination that holds us back.