Inkjet & Digital Printing
2009 lifestyle trend: photo books with personal photos
Friday 17. July 2009 - Millions of Germans charmed by CEWE PHOTO BOOKS
The individual processing of digital photos has progressed from a niche existence to become a fascinating lifestyle phenomenon. Millions of photos are being produced today thanks to modern digital cameras. A rising number of amateur photographers are preserving these in personal photo books. The trendsetter here is quite clearly the CEWE PHOTO BOOK produced by Europes leading manufacturer CeWe Color.
While fewer and fewer photos are being produced as paper prints, the market for photo books is booming. According to the German Federal Association of Industrial Photographic Laboratories (BGL), sales figures in Germany jumped from 1.3 million in 2006 to more than 4.4 million photo books in 2008. The most important product in this development has always been the CEWE PHOTO BOOK. 500,000 books sold in 2006 were matched by as many as more than 2.6 million in 2008. An end to this trend is not in sight. CeWe Color thus reckons that sales will continue to increase this year to 3.5 million CEWE PHOTO BOOKS.
Widespread enthusiasm for designing
The new lifestyle trend does not come as a surprise. After all, almost everyone has a digital camera now and takes a large number of first-class photos thanks to modern technology. With the help of user-friendly software solutions it is quite easy for computer newbies to quickly transform their best photos into a souvenir of a special kind. The much-awarded CEWE PHOTO BOOK software is still most popular and is available as a free download. At the request of a customer, the software assistant will make an initial design proposal for a personal CEWE PHOTO BOOK. The assistant selects photos according to criteria such as similarity, image quality, contrasts, focus and brightness and arranges them logically and according to aesthetic criteria. So within a matter of only a few minutes a ready-made layout proposal will have been made and will only need to be released to place an order. A CEWE PHOTO BOOK can of course subsequently be freely processed and supplemented with texts, clipart and a lot more too if the customers wishes. There is something for all tastes thanks to the numerous design options and various formats and bindings.
The young and trendy love personal photo articles
Amateur photographers are everywhere. But most of the fans of personal print products such as photo books is trend-conscious, young and are very keen on new Internet developments. Current figures of GfK, a German consumer research organisation, show that it is notably women under the age of 30 who are partial to personalised photo products. The most popular photo motifs are family members, followed by holiday experiences. Nowadays, nobody wants to have their memories simply existing on the hard drive of their computer – they are to be shown and they should be shown. CEWE PHOTO BOOKS are handy and fascinating, trendy and at the same time affordable for anybody. Besides, among professional photographers, a clear trend is currently developing towards CEWE PHOTO BOOKS on genuine photo paper that provide a particularly good presentation of panorama photos across two pages, brilliantly planned and in brilliant colours.
Photo boom at Christmas
In addition to photo books, the other photo articles are also enjoying growing popularity. More than half of the German population is interest in calendars with personal photos, according to GfK. Photo greeting cards and photo canvases with exposures of personal memories are also very popular here. Many amateur photographers want to come up with ideas for personal gifts, particularly in the Christmas season. According to GfK, 68 per cent of all the photo calendars given away as gifts can be found under the Christmas tree. CeWe Color confirms this trend.
Every year the International Consumer Electronics trade show IFA which is held in Berlin proves that it is a reliable sensor for technological developments. CeWe Color will be presenting the latest trends on the photographic market to all the visitors in Hall 14.1 / 102.