The term digital transformation should not be new to anyone working in the technology sector the last two decades. In many ways the benefits of ‘going digital’ seem to no longer need explaining, for many they have become gospel. I am not writing to argue about the many promised benefits. I do want to make a semantic point though, when most people use the term digital transformation they really mean “eliminating paper”.

Eliminating paper also has benefits but if you’re migrating from paper in 2024 it’s likely not a transformation. Most frequently when trying to convince someone to abandon their paper workflows and switch to digital the message can be summed up as “look, the screen is just like what you had on paper.” Today no one is selling the benefits of paper, only the costs. If we had as many paper salespeople as we had software salespeople here’s what they may say. Paper:

• Never runs out of battery.
• Does not become inaccessible due to missing a subscription fee.
• If stored correctly, will last for hundreds of years. For reference, both SSD and HDD’s see a failure rate between 3-5 years in production environments. Cold storage to magnetic tape can last 15-30 years.

My recommendation is not to throw your laptop, or even to switch to printing everything out. Instead I recommend tinkering with devices that can print something into the meat world where we all live. Buy that 3D printer you’ve been looking at for years. Start taking notes in a physical notebook. Dig out the old label maker.

In my case, I purchased an inexpensive thermal receipt printer off of eBay. Using the excellent escpos library I found it very easy to get started. My first project was a program that printed off my friends and families birthday one week before – so I could send them a message or schedule a gift.

If you have any fun paper project suggestions please get in touch. Contact.