Digital printing has found a home in package printing, but will it be a humble dwelling or a palatial estate?

By Tom Polischuk

Where we’re at today

Digitally printed packaging can be seen today in each of the package-printing market segments: tags and labels, flexible packaging, and folding cartons. Of these, label printing is experiencing the highest level of activity.

Ray Dickinson, product marketing manager for HP Indigo, notes that digital printing has been around at a practical level for about 10 years, and estimates that digital printing currently accounts for about 1 percent of worldwide label production. Not quite eye-popping numbers as yet, but he does note that the second half percent came about much faster than the first half percent, and this trend is likely to continue.