The next big thing in digital printing

Digital printing is a strong market segment and will continue to constantly grow in the future, according to reports released by Smithers Pira and Future Market Insights.

The Future of Digital Printing to 2024 – a report by Smithers Pira examining the worldwide digital printing market – is mentioning some interesting facts. If in 2013 digital printing had a global market value of around 131 billion US dollars, being used for flyers, booklets printing, brochures, books, comics and many other materials, specialists believe the market will have a 224% higher value by 2024, reaching approximately 400 billion US dollars.  Future Market Insights report is focusing on Digital Printing in Packaging Market in particular, which is expected to grow from a value of 11 billion US dollars in 2016 to more than 50 billion US dollars by 2027.

The same studies include important information regarding the details contributing in boosting the industry. As expected, technology plays a big part in the future of digital printing and manufacturers don’t lose time in developing new systems or in creating better ink. Because the consumer demand is high, and people are asking for better and better quality, this is exactly what the market will offer in the future: better, faster and cost-effective equipment, tailored to specific needs.

But before explaining what the future will bring in digital printing, it is worth mentioning that this industry is not limited to paper and graphics printing only, being also used for other different items, such as promotional materials, mugs, pens, textiles, photovoltaic products, automotive, glass, laminates and many more.

Inkjet technologies

Even though electrophotography is an important detail in the developing of digital marketing, being estimated to have a 16.6% compound annual growth rate and reaching 32 billion US dollars in revenue by 2027, specialists assume that inkjet technologies will grow more with the time, eventually overtaking electrophotography and accounting for more than 50% in terms of both volume and value of digital printing.

In the future, there will be no limitations regarding the variety of colours that can be printed, especially when it comes to fluorescent and metallic. If in the past inkjets were having issues because of some coloring boundaries, slow printing and low resolution, it is well known that nowadays the quality and the speed is superior to offset printing. And because inkjet has a more affordable price compared to offset, more and more consumers will choose digital printing, forcing the industry to grow and to bring new opportunities.

New marketing opportunities

Digital printing is an important part of a good marketing strategy, but the way of using such prints in marketing is starting to slowly change for the better, which brings more possibilities and opportunities for entrepreneurs. If before most of the printing was made on flat surfaces like labels, in the future more marketing specialists will choose to print graphics on the object itself, without using labels, thanks to the fact that digital printing on 3D objects is developing more and more. Therefore, this possibility will be used to develop new, more creative marketing strategies.

Packaging and wide format printing devices

While everyone is already familiar in a way or another with metallic and fluorescent colours or with printing graphics on 3D items, the future of digital printing industry brings something bigger and more dynamic than this: packaging printing. New methods will focus on both flexible and rigid materials, like corrugated cardboard, metal or carton.

For the time being, big players in the industry have already made a step ahead into the wide format market, in terms of variety, complexity and time efficiency. Therefore, print service providers with UV wide format printing devices will be the ones who will gain the most out of this opportunity, as the trend will grow globally in the near future. These devices will be backed by virtual support, linking all the elements into a single platform, meaning improved satisfaction for the consumers and increased profitability for the providers. Image processing, design, quality assurance, capabilities, components and many more elements, will be all linked together in a cloud platform.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that digital printing will continue to grow in the future, giving its importance for both providers and consumers. Contributing to cost reductions, enabling the opportunity for new applications, generating custom content and being fast – these are just few of the reasons why digital printing will become more advanced in the future, bringing new technologies available to everyone at an affordable price and with superior quality. The main focus of digital print service providers should be wide format printing devices allowing them to explore the packaging printing – an area expected to grow and develop, becoming the next big thing in digital printing!