drupa 2008 – Keys for success in going digital

Since the appearance of the first machine back in the mid 1980s, sales of digital printing equipment and orders for digital printing have grown exponentially. Moreover, 78 percent of four-color print work is now done in print-runs of fewer than 5,000 pages, which offers a very clear indication of how far personalization has progressed (accounting for 30 percent of all printing work). In overall terms, the world print market now has an annual output of 3,800 billion pages. Of that total figure, digital printing accounts for 230 billion pages (200 billion for black-and-white printing and 30 billion for color printing). So the growth potential for digital printing is huge. As for color digital printing, it is set to grow more than ten-fold. Robert Corbishley, European public relations manager for production systems at Xerox, describes the “tremendous potential for digital printing. In particular, we are finding the strongest points in the market in applications for book publishing, direct mail advertising, promotional/transactional printing and collateral printing on demand. The strong market for personalization and general and instant printing is generating new applications and business opportunities for our clients, as is the market for packaging and photographic products.”