Hot Topics - Industry

Commercial Printing:
The commercial printing industry in the US includes around 35,000 companies with $90 billion of annual revenue. Several giants have multibillion revenues, but most printers considered "large" have annual revenues under $1 billion. The majority of commercial printers are small or midsized businesses that operate one production plant, employ fewer than 20 people, and have annual revenue under $5 million. Despite continuing consolidation, the industry is highly fragmented: the largest 50 companies hold only about 30 percent of the market. Small companies can compete effectively by offering better local service. Digital technology is changing the competitive landscape of the commercial printing market. Prices for digital color pages are falling below offset printing prices and companies who fall behind in the shift to digital printing are at risk.

Digital Printing:
The digital printing industry is increasing at a rapid rate due to the demand of print buyers. The major reasons behind this growth rate of digital printing are twofold: (1) digital printing allows having a different image on each sheet. Thus, allowing marketing techniques that cannot be offered through other printing processes. And (2) the turnaround time for digital printing is superior to that of web or sheet-fed printing. Other benefits include a less expensive set-up cost, short-run capability, and the quality of digital printing is becoming ever-so-close to that which you would find off an offset press. Still there are some limitations to digital printing, such as sheet size and high-quantity costs, but this should not stop you from jumping on that “Band Wagon” and taking advantage of this relatively new way to print.