A letter from the Editor

Gorazd Golob

Editor-in-chief
gorazd.golob@jpmtr.org

The first issue of the Journal in 2019 is comprised of five papers, with a total of 86 pages, more than average in the previous year. The trend is positive.

Again, topics from a broad border area appear, that at the same time indicate research trends in the field of print and media, which for a long time is not only traditional printing of books and booklets, newspapers, and magazines.

The first original scientific paper published in the present issue covers the field of printing of the nucleic acid. It is from the research area that can be considered conditionally as the field of bio-printing, however, it is interesting also because of the selected methods for evaluation of the results of the experiment, based on the fluorescence measurement method that is probably not well known to established and more traditionally oriented researchers in our field. The second paper presents the research results of an improved method for the production of a printing form for pad-printing, which enables the use of this printing technique for the printing of electronic devices.

Two review papers follow. The first deals with low-cost chipless RFID tags, which some years ago promised a revolution in the labelling of products in retail sales, it, however, did not happen due to too high tag price. With the development of technology presented in the paper, it is becoming increasingly topical. Another review paper deals with augmented reality and print media, which is bringing additional functionality to the print media and hence new opportunities in the future.

The last paper deals with movie genres, their characterization, and recognisability. Despite some dilemmas regarding the scope, it has been accepted as an interesting example of media coverage, including movie and video.

Our editor Markéta Držková again prepared Topicalities section with an overview of news in the field, new literature and interesting events. The presented patents on printing inks, granted to inventors and assignees in 2018, are covering traditional and digital printing techniques, and are dedicated also to speciality and security print products, printed electronics and sensors. The news from Enfocus and Ghent Workgroup gives an overview on the latest activities in pre-press. The detailed presentation of UK’s Centre for Process Innovation shows state of the art research capabilities in the field of printed electronics with a detailed introduction of research labs and advanced commercial printing equipment for prototype and small scale production.

In the Bookshelf the latest editions are listed, covering typography and design, graphic communication business and library technologies, printed electronics, sensors, 3D printing, and even some history, including the transcription and translation of the oldest Spanish printing manual from the end of 17^th Century.

Academic dissertations presented are from UK and German universities. The first one was defended at the University of Sheffield by Preeyanuch Voravickositt, who studied users’ needs, experience and e-book collection management in Thai academic libraries. Guohua Hu’s research was from the field of graphene and related 2D materials, nanoengineering and functional printing; the thesis on printable 2D material optoelectronics and photonics was defended at the University of Cambridge. Stephan Pröller defended his thesis on morphology of printed organic solar cells at the Technical University of Munich.

A number of conferences, congresses, trade shows and other events organized worldwide for a next few months show a significant interest of the industry, academic and research institutions for intensive communication and opportunities for the exchange of knowledge, technologies, presentation of their work and interests. Most of the presented events have a long tradition, some are a result of merging and transformation of previously well-known traditional events into more attractive and up to date conferences and trade shows. This is also an opportunity for ambitious new organizers and attendees.

The Journal is currently in good condition, with an appropriate number of submitted papers for publication, currently in review and editing process for next issues. However, we are expecting your valuable research results and interesting submissions, giving us the opportunity to further improve the quality and the status of the Journal in the dedicated research fields and on the lists of indexed journals. The Call for papers is constantly open. Also, your information on interesting events, new books or academic publications from the fields covered by the Journal will be taken into consideration by the associate editor Markéta Držková (marketa.drzkova@jpmtr.org).

Ljubljana, March 2019

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