InfoTrends’ Survey on Digital and Conventional Printing

Technology mix

The structured survey yielded detailed information about how each responding company is equipped for prepress and for production, regardless of run lengths. Regarding these initial questions:

• In prepress, surveyed companies own related software to a large degree, including, among others: color management (80 percent), artwork/file preparation (79 percent), and workflow management (54 percent). Meanwhile, 65 percent of surveyed companies own computer-to-plate systems.
• Surveyed companies use mainly analog presses, and a mix of prepress technologies. Of 228 total respondents, 96 (42 percent) have just analog presses, while 117 (51 percent) have analog plus some type of digital (e.g., digital press, wide format printer, tabletop printer). Digital-only converters are rare, just 7 percent.
• Printing equipment varies, but each category of converter has one type of analog press that dominates: flexo is the top choice for label converters (82 percent) and flexible packaging converters (76 percent); for folding carton converters, sheetfed offset is the top technology (92 percent).
• As to digital printing, again there is a mix, but not as well differentiated by converter type. Overall, high-end color EP presses lead at 64 percent of all companies that have digital printing. This is followed by wide format printers of some type (35 percent), and single-pass inkjet press (30 percent).

A general comment about print technology is that, while analog presses dominate, most converters have some type of digital printing equipment (Figure 3). That equipment is often not a color digital press, but rather a wide format inkjet printer or even a tabletop label printer of some type. For vendors of color digital presses, the takeaway is that a high share of converters—even flexible packaging and folding carton converters—are familiar with one or more digital printing methods.