Digital commercial color printing

Digital commercial color printing, commonly referred to as large format or wide format color printing, has become a significant highlight in the digital printing industry. With the rapid development of inkjet technology and corresponding equipment, digital commercial color printing has become a major growth point for corresponding manufacturers in this area.

The digital business color printing industry currently has a market share of $22.5 billion (us$) (in 1999). It is estimated that there are 7,500 to 8,000 business enterprises and the annual growth rate is expected to be 10% to 12%.

Digital commercial color printing companies are generally transformed from the traditional printing field (especially the photography service industry and screen printing industry). In more than half of these companies, most of the total profits (80% or more) are obtained from digital output technologies (20.2% of the companies are exclusively engaged in digital output, and 33.9% of enterprises have their share of digital output in the whole enterprise. Overall 80 to 90%). One obvious development trend is that digital output technology has become more and more important in companies in related fields, while the use of other output technologies is decreasing.

The current commercial color printing industry adopts other output technologies as follows: offset printing 11.6%, screen printing 17.8%, other printing methods 23.3%, rapid printing 25.6%, photocopying 31.8%, service industry 44.2%, photo agency 32.6, other 20.2% .

Previously, digital printing was heavily influenced by technology, and now it is also beginning to be affected by general market factors. The industry has experienced an unstable period of 12 to 18 months. During this period, many companies have been merged. Strong companies buy other companies. Smaller companies simply disappear from the market. Today's digital printing companies tend to devote more attention to small markets (narrow markets), and the markets they face are more localized (the degree of domesticization and internationalization is reduced).

Market Situation of Digital Commercial Color Printing Industry

Year Local Whole Country National International Market
1995 35% 34% 23% 8%
1996 39% 32.7% 21.4% 7.1%
1997 44.2% 35.7% 15.5% 15.5%

Similarly, the service targets faced by the industry are also changing. Advertising agencies are still the largest customer group in the industry, but the market share of agencies tends to decline. In 1997, 79.8% of enterprises sold products to The agency, in 1999 its percentage dropped to 67.4%. At the same time, the company’s sales share to social institutions and government agencies continues to grow, and the market share of companies such as companies and companies remains almost unchanged.

Among the four technologies used (ink-jet, electrostatic imaging, thermal transfer, and laser imaging), inkjet technology continues to grow in technology development and sales. At present, 95% of digital output devices use inkjet technology. Interestingly, although digital output devices using electrostatic imaging only account for 3% of the total, they account for 17% of all media.

The “large-format (or wide-format)” printing companies often say that they have played a big role in the development of technology (pressure printheads, pigments, and solvent ink adjustments). Drupa2000 and the following year's SGIA show launched a new generation of platform digital presses.

In the past one or two years, one area of ​​digital output commercial color printing is rapidly developing and attracting more and more attention - that is, digital exquisite printing, although its scale is still relatively small, but it is quite Importantly, its development has prompted the development of many technologies, especially high resolution printing and pigment inks.