2024 printing industry trends revealed: Digital printing is on the rise, sustainable development leads the future- Zhejiang Yueqianshu Digital Technology Co., Ltd

Source: Global Printing and Packaging Industry

As we enter the new year, there are several trends emerging in the printing industry, including automation and sustainability. Digital printing continues to be adopted across all sectors, with its inherent advantages helping to address challenges such as labor shortages and meeting the need for faster turnaround times, personalization and sustainability.

Duplo US President Rick Salinas said printing suppliers will continue to seek new innovative products in 2024. "They will also continue to look for every opportunity to improve processes to maximize profits. Meeting both initiatives will be a challenge for the entire industry."

Production flexibility and versatility remain a focus in the new year. "The solution must offer a good mix of high volumes on the one hand, and the agility required to change the application product type at will on the other. This is the only way to ensure that print providers can respond to changes in market demand in a timely manner." Landa Digital Shared Razali, Marketing Communications Manager of the printing company.

digital transformation

When we talk about digital transformation, Andrew Gunn, director of production marketing at Xerox Corporation, points out that digital transformation today means something different than it did 20 years ago. “In the past it was more about changes in offset printing, but today that’s assumed, now it’s more personal.”

Modern print providers are looking for tools that can help them better utilize their employees, increase automation, and leverage e-commerce to move more jobs from the web to the finished product.

Ray Hillhouse, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Plockmatic Group's Offline Business Unit, is firmly committed to the automation trend and moving the industry in the right direction. “For most markets we serve, smart devices cost less than human alternatives. Once purchased, it won’t ask for a pay rise, coffee break, compassionate leave, Monday morning/Friday afternoon questions or requests. Take frequent vacations.”

Ricoh U.S. senior manager of business development for graphic communications Mark Little and senior manager of in-plant business development Kenneth Tucker expect to see printers, whether commercial or factory printers, move jobs from offset to digital production . Technology trends in inkjet and toner digital printing are driving this trend.

Victor Gomez, director of Epson Americas, said that when it comes to the label industry, headlines continue to focus on faster digital presses that challenge flexographic printing’s position as a specialist in long-run printing. “The renaissance of hybrid presses has also served the high-volume segment. A segment that may have been overlooked in recent years is light-duty production, where digital presses that enable higher margins for short-run printing and represent a reasonable capital investment are likely to emerge during the recession. Mid-year recovery.

Overall, Gallus CEO Dario Urbinati expects the world economy to have an impact on trends and challenges that will continue from 2023 to 2024. “If we also see changes to sustainability goals, regulation and so on, the commercial pressure on processors who have not yet adapted their business models to digital is likely to be significant.”

Automation and artificial intelligence

The continued development and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) will play an increasingly important role in print automation.

Artificial intelligence will begin to bring actionable value to industries. As artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated and easier to use, Aurigma Customers' Canvas CEO Dmitry Sevostyanov expects to see more printers integrating it into their operations to optimize efficiency and enhance Function.

Artificial intelligence promises to automate everything from capturing job information based on natural language processing to automating back-end processes and providing a real-time view of printing. “We’ve already seen some experimental proofs of concept, but we may see the emergence of some initial products that actually put AI to use,” Lechesse said.

“We will learn more about the use of artificial intelligence and how it can further streamline print workflows to address key staffing and productivity challenges,” said John Henze, vice president of sales and marketing at Fiery. “Integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning will gain traction into workflow solutions that will increase automation and efficiency throughout the print production process.”

The continued expansion of rapid onboarding will accelerate the pace of change as organizations look for ways to increase efficiency and save costs. “AI initiatives continue to drive communications to be more personalized to ensure people receive the right message at the right time on the channel of their choice, which is no longer a marketing dream. With preference management, responsive HTML and real-time document conversion tools technology, it can become a reality. Low-code dashboard tools provide organizations with real-time visibility into managing print and mail operations, and we’re seeing more customers than ever using them to track digital channels and review customer responses ," shared Ernie Crawford, President/CEO of Crawford Technologies.

Stan Carmichael, director of special projects at Significans Automation, expects the use of robotics to increase, especially in large-scale printing and packaging. There are two types of artificial intelligence – generative and predictive. Generative AI is able to generate text, images, or other media using models that learn patterns to create new data with similar characteristics, while predictive AI uses statistical analysis to identify patterns, predict behavior, and predict future events.

It’s important to differentiate between types of AI and identify the pain points they solve. For example, Tonya Powers, director of marketing for production printing solutions at Canon Solutions USA, noted that generative AI may differ from previous approaches in how it is applied to the printing industry, while also being mindful of associated business risks.

One of the areas where AI is predicted to come in handy is design. Gunn sees it playing an increasingly important role in allowing designers to take files and change text by simply dragging and dropping with conversion tools.

Gelato vice president Pal Ness agreed, noting that artificial intelligence will revolutionize print-on-demand next year by streamlining the creation and design process for e-commerce companies. “We will see more design done with AI, and content in general will explode – creators who don’t use AI to design will risk losing customers. By the end of 2024, creators will use AI assistants to handle sales funnels, product descriptions, online sales, and other aspects of the business that machine learning can address.”

The role of inkjet

The growth of digital printing, especially inkjet printing, is a trend that will continue until 2024. Skandacor Direct manager Jon Condon expects more printers to adopt automation and print decoration as differentiators and profit centers.

Carmichael predicts that digital inkjet technology will continue to rise, with new devices being introduced and hybrid printing becoming more widely adopted.

Digital inkjet will continue to grow and take more of a share of the print space, said Carlos Martins, solution manager for Martini Books technology and digital solutions Mike Wen. "Quality used to be a concern, but it's not really an issue anymore. Speeds will continue to improve, technology will continue to evolve, and the break-even point for offset or digital printing will continue to rise."

Andrea Durbano, vice president of sales at RISO, believes that the growth of inkjet presses has come at the expense of black toner equipment. “The day is fast approaching when monochrome digital presses will no longer be needed. The metrics we have from high-volume print shops clearly show how black and white jobs are migrating to color inkjet at a rate of 20%-30% per year.”

John Melling, senior director of OEM inkjet marketing for specialty printing and technology solutions at Hewlett-Packard Co., emphasizes that when considering inkjet, you need to know which specific type - continuous inkjet (CIJ), piezoelectric drop-on-demand inkjet, or thermal Inkjet (TIJ). Each inkjet printer has different advantages and limitations, and it will take ongoing work to educate the market that not all inkjet printers are the same. "Our TIJ is ideally suited to the packaging world, offering high speed, ease of use and high resolution."

Jeffrey Zellmer, vice president of global sales and strategy for Eastman Kodak Company, noted that CIJ solutions (such as the technology that drives PROSPER presses) provide productivity, quality and cost advantages because it is able to print at very high speeds. For mid-length runs, CIJ is capable of delivering offset quality of 200 lines per inch at 152 meters per minute, even on glossy paper with high ink coverage. “This allows inkjet printing to print more and larger jobs than ever before at a lower cost than offset printing. As a result, we expect CIJ technology solutions to continue to replace offset presses.”

Inkjet printing is expected to remain more profitable in the long run. For equipment suppliers, Win-Martins said binding equipment will become more integrated with digital printing equipment, including not only physical connections to binding but also smart workflows that can handle the entire process from file to finished book.

Therm-O-Type President Chris Van Pelt predicts that labor costs will continue to grow at an unusual rate, staffing shortages will persist, and the loss of technical skills due to the aging of experienced employees will become a serious problem. “These factors will require printers to replace outdated, low-volume equipment with more advanced, more productive models,” he predicts.

Another emerging trend is how testing is implemented. “We have optimized prepress quite a bit but are not leveraging the same prepress technology for print and postpress challenges. If postpress inspection tools could gain more benefit from the way our prepress systems handle work, That would be great,” said Mike Agnes, executive vice president of the Americas at Miaohua Software.
Software, Workflow, IT

In addition to imaging technology, in-plant and commercial presses will have a competitive advantage by leveraging the vendor's expertise to go beyond hardware speed and deliver business optimization, data integration and workflow improvements, Little and Tucker said.

Sevostyanov predicts collaborative personalization will gain momentum as buyers demand more seamless approval workflows to speed up the ordering process. “This involves developing more advanced online tools to facilitate collaboration and streamline the approval process for custom products.”

Mark Jeeves, director of sales and marketing at Color-Logic, said that as digital presses become more popular, it becomes more important for print providers to become more involved with graphic designers producing print files and graphic designers learning how to produce those files. more and more important. “We will continue to see the need for brand and marketing executives to differentiate marketing materials to meet the next generation of customers with increased purchasing power.”

Santosh Moulay, vice president of business development at InSoft Automation, sees a shift from legacy technology platforms to new technology platforms. "IT plays an important role in decision-making, resulting in open, easy-to-integrate and flexible systems."

ebb and flow

Popular applications such as direct mail are affected by a cultural shift that favors the options offered by digital printing technology and the software that drives it.

"Direct mail volumes continue to fluctuate and slowly decline. As of the second quarter of 2022, direct mail volumes were down 14.8% year-over-year, but direct mail is a resilient medium. The travel, credit card, and retail/consumer industries have all found the benefits of direct mail Usage has increased," attested Kevin O'Connor, vice president of channel marketing and planning at Quadient.

DirectMail 2.0 marketing director Michelle Bocchino predicts that direct mail will continue to advance through a variety of technologies that help more targeted and automated marketing campaigns. “Direct mail is not going away and the industry will continue to adapt and evolve in the changing marketing environment.”

Advances in printing technology and mail processing equipment have made printed mail more impactful and efficient. “Innovations in mail processing equipment, such as folder inserters, will help businesses increase productivity by reducing manual processes and allowing employees to complete their jobs faster,” O’Connor commented.

Ryan Semanczyk, President of Transformations, concluded: “Artificial intelligence is advancing very rapidly, and we expect this trend to continue until 2024. Businesses need to adopt this new technology or risk being severely left behind.”

sustainable development

Digitalization will continue to play an important role in the printing industry through 2024, and Powers believes that using more environmentally friendly materials can reduce customer costs. A commitment to sustainability is important from a company mission perspective and as a company A means to make the brand more attractive to customers.

Media is moving towards sustainability. “One of the trends I’m seeing is functional fiber packaging replacing plastic,” explains Julie Brannan, vice president of global sales for S-One Labels and Packaging.

Julie Brannan, regional sales and sustainable solutions director at Monadnock Paper Mills, anticipates continued demand for sustainable products. "Environmental concerns, consumer preferences and the changing regulatory environment will dominate procurement practices. The development of personalization, rapid market access and digital solutions will continue."

Carmichael also sees an increasing focus among consumers and corporate buyers on the sustainability of printed products.

As we begin the new year, some noteworthy predictions come into focus. With advances in productivity in digital printing and postpress equipment, integration and automation through software tools, and a new era of digital transformation, artificial intelligence comes to the fore.