This Week in Imaging: Current Trends in Digital Production Printing – Inkjet, AI, Automation, and More
With the Printing United Expo scheduled to take place shortly in Las Vegas, the focus will be on the current state of digital production printing. Following is a look at current trends:
- Since about the 1990s, print volumes continue to move away from traditional offset to digital production printers, the latter of which feature short-run flexibility and more environmentally friendly consumables. But the move has been slow, with offset still making up about 80 percent of production print jobs. Inkjet production printers, with their lower energy consumption versus laser, also continue to make up a greater share of the digital production printer segment, making up about 60 percent of the total digital segment, and about 77 percent of the total color digital segment.
- Many commercial print shops are replacing older, slower equipment with fewer, higher-output digital production printers, reducing physical footprints and operating costs, and are increasingly adopting digital inkjet production printers.
- Artificial intelligence and automation are redefining pressroom efficiency through self-optimizing systems and predictive maintenance.
- Presses now integrate directly with print Management Information Systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM) software for remote cloud oversight and dynamic job scheduling.
- Environmental regulations and corporate initiatives are driving a major shift toward water-based, eco-friendly ink formulations that minimize harmful chemical emissions.
Expansion into New Markets, Enhanced Image Quality,
Meanwhile many OEMs continue to expand into new markets, particularly packaging and labels. Production inkjet is also experiencing strong growth in corrugated packaging, folding cartons, and industrial labeling applications.
Laser production print OEMs are also enhancing image quality with extended color gamuts, including fifth-color specialty options such as metallic, white, and neon color toners, allowing output to rival that of traditional offset quality.
Last, OEMs continue to expand into variable data printing which enables hyper-personalized direct mail, custom packaging, and on-demand book publishing.
How are Traditional Office Copier/Printer OEMs Expanding into Production Printing?
Traditional office copier/printer OEMs have been expanding into production printing to offset flat or declining office print volumes caused by the global transition to hybrid workspaces and paperless workflows. Because high-volume commercial digital print continues to experience growth, these OEMs are leveraging their existing dealership infrastructure, as well as their inkjet printing technology, to capture the higher-margin production print segment.
Rather than relying solely on traditional toner-based equipment, OEMs are developing cut-sheet and continuous-feed high-speed inkjet engines:
- Ricoh: Has leveraged its proprietary industrial print-head technology to introduce commercial platforms like the B2+ sheet-fed Ricoh Pro Z75 and the continuous-feed Pro VC series.
- Canon: Has expanded aggressively from light-production office copier/MFPs into heavy production-print spaces using high-production platforms like the Canon varioPRINT iX-series and ProStream series.
Transitioning Office Dealers into Production-Print Providers
OEMs are retraining their traditional office equipment dealer networks to sell office and production print. Some dealers are bundling office copier/printers, managed IT services, and commercial production hardware under a single contract.
Bridging the Gap with “Light Production” Hardware
To capture mid-size corporate print rooms, universities, and local print shops, OEMs have also created light production printers. These appear as over-size office copier/MFPs but feature heavy-duty duty cycles, advanced media handling, and inline booklet finishing modules. Examples include the Xerox Versant series and Canon imagePRESS series, which offer a lower financial barrier to entry than an offset press.
This Week in Imaging
Office Printers and Copier/MFPs
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Market Research
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Acquisitions
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