Is paper really a match for the digital force?

The end of the world.

According to a source that is steady as a rock, on Friday 21 December 2012 the world will cease to be. Whether mother earth will explode, evaporate or being sucked up by a black hole remains unclear. But the Mayans said so and Nostradamus agreed, therefore this must be true.

So why are we still debating the future of paper? Well, it certainly beats freaking for another year or so. And on the off chance of both the Mayans and Nostradamus being wrong: if the world doesn’t end, neither will paper. So, let’s first dig this one out and we all can go peacefully about this time next year. With or without a bang.

Drawing digitally on analog paper.

You’ve definitely heard about WacomTechnologies. The company is predominantly known for its pressure sensitive drawing tablets. Lots of artists use them. But those who can afford it still prefer the Wacom Cintiq, which is an interactive pen display. Why? Well, it has everything to do with eye-handcoordination. On a tablet you’re not watching your hand but the screen. On a Cintiq, you are actually drawing on the screen. Which comes closer to resembling drawing on paper.

The latest addition to their product line however, is neither a tablet nor a screen. It is a pen called ‘Inkling’. It has real ink and it is intended for drawing on real paper. Obviously, it is much more than that. It gives you the advantage of drawing on paper while adding the advantages of drawing digitally. The Inkling is nothing less than brilliant: it basically turns your Steinbach into a layered Photoshop or Illustrator canvas. It is high tech perfectly married up with high touch.

Magazines are in no need of an iPad version.

How does this relate to magazines? I know the following words must be very brittle by now because they have been used in and out of season. But here we go. Yes, we are indeed living in a world where digital rules, where everyone is always connected and where even the elderly have grown used to instantly sharing interesting stuff with their networks however distant they may be.

Isn’t it time to finally recognize that magazines are pretty much dead on paper and can only survive on a tablet?

Well, as somebody who has been typecasted as ‘a radical digital person’ all the time, let me break this one to you. Magazines most definitely don’t need an iPad version. They simply require an ‘Inkling’ of their own.

Have you ever tried reading –let’s say– WiredMagazine on an iPad? Even indoors it is quite a feat. I know lots of action games which are far easier to accomplish. Not in the least because, with action games, you’re not supposed to read while tapping, swiping, spreading and pinching. As much as I love Wired on paper, so much I hate it on the iPad. Nowadays, Wired is even giving away the digital duplicate of its magazine if you happen to have a paper subscription. Thanks but no thanks. I’m very much satisfied with my Attention-DeficitHyperactivityDisorder as it is.

But, wait, what with sharing stuff? Piece of cake. Thanks to the Dutch. Kind of.

New! Paper magazines with real Facebook functionality.

In the heart of Amsterdam, there is this startup called Layar. It is a buzzing young company with a considerable war chest. Their thing is ‘augmentedreality’ for mobile. And with the latest incarnation of their mobile browser (Layar 6), they are trying their best to prove the added value beyond gimmicks.

‘LayarVisions’ is directly aimed at the publishing world. At this time, it is the ultimate bridge between paper and digital. It does not require any codes to be printed while offering everything that is digitally possible on top of what you’re reading.

Let’s say you’re reading a very interesting article you want to share on Facebook. Simply pop out your smart phone, hold it on top of the article and –voilà– there you have it: a button which shares a link to the content you’re reading with whoever you want.

If a second screen makes sense for television, it makes sense for magazines.

Today, when you’re watching ‘So you think you can dance’, you’re explicitly invited to not pay attention to the commercials during the break but instead access exclusive content on your smart phone or tablet. Good for the sponsors, maybe not so for the advertisers.

But this is how one should see this: your smart phone is a perfectly legitimate second screen to your paper magazine too. And with an application like Layar 6 (or your own application using Layar’s API), just like Wacom’s Inkling, you are making plain stupid paper digitally smart.

And here is the best part: it’s totally up to your audience to access the smartness. Or not.