noelward
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Is Inkjet Saving Commercial Print?
By Noel Ward, Editor@Large
Inkjet is in charge was the closing line in a recent article here that noted how inkjet presses are changing the playing field of commercial print. It’s ironic, given that a mere 25 years ago inkjet was a non-starter when it came to commercial print. For one thing, it was slow: Great for a few 4x6 images a minute on a small photo printer or a little faster on some home or small office inkjet boxes. But it was a non-starter for making money and real printing. Paper was not remotely optimized for spays of watery inks, print heads and nozzles were akin to shower heads, image quality left a lot to be desired, inks were less than durable, and color management did not exist. The vendors knew this and showed those they could trust what was to come. Many of us liked what we saw but remained skeptical.
Then the universe changed.
Changing faster and more profoundly than expected, inkjet technology, like it or not, is now the way an increasing volume of commercial printing is done. Inks improved and came in more colors. Print nozzles multiplied and got smaller. Ink and paper chemistry changed. Inkjet printers quickly replaced many toner machines used for transactional printing (bills, statements and the like) along with an increasing amount of direct mail, which was once produced on offset presses, as well as large swaths of commercial print once done on offset presses. Packaging is changing too. Inkjet won’t replace flexography any time soon, but as an alternative it works well. Ever curious, I think of the 6-color printer I use for photos and wonder how long it will be before some extra heads land on some fast production presses. I hear this is happening in beta testing and when it becomes real it will further change the game. I suspect inkjet versions of colors presently used on offset color stations beyond CMYK will be in place by the end of this decade.
Never say Never
On the direct mail side, I think of the owner of a thriving shop I’ve visited that had a couple of venerable offset presses and a pair of black-only toner printers. Nearly all the owner’s pages went through the offset presses for color work and those requiring personalization streamed through his toner printers. All of that is gone, replaced by a pair of inkjet boxes, with a third being installed. Interestingly, this is a guy who once assured me he would never buy an inkjet press. Well, never say never. He's hardly alone, and many shops I’ve visited sport a mix of toner, inkjet, and offset. Some have large format, based on the needs of their customers. A few are adding fabric printing, which is also enabled by inkjet technology. Same for vehicle signage, now easily capable of complete wraps compared to basic lettering. All of it is inkjet.
The Change from Offset
This is not to disparage offset printing. Trillions of pages have been offset printed and many more will be. It remains an excellent technology, especially with some of the latest presses. Many print shops will continue to use their big iron while also having an inkjet printer or two nearby because it’s a matter of what the best tool for the job. The rise of inkjet is by no means the swan song for production offset printing.
Offset will go on for a generation, perhaps longer. But the kinds of work and run lengths are changing and will continue to do so. The basic metric of offset, that per-page print cost declines as volume increases, won’t change but may matter less as print volumes decline. Customers who once ordered 100,000 copies of a document now place ten orders of 10,000, which may not be the optimal way to use your offset press. Or the total order declines to 65,000 done in ten runs of 6,500. Those run lengths are not always practical on an offset press but can be easier on many inkjet printers, offering flexibility in terms of production. Maybe something like this: “It’s a busy week but you only need 7,000 on this run. I can give you 2,000 copies tomorrow, 2,000 on Thursday, the rest on Friday. Will that work for you? No charge for delivery.”
Blame phones
Many people, you included, use a smartphone for many things. One of these is viewing photos and documents that arrive as messages or emails on the phone, some of which are not printed out or stream off the MFP near your desk. We’ve all sat in meetings where four-color documents that previously would have been printed are displayed on a screen or have arrived on people’s phones, tablets or computers. There may be nary a printed page in sight.
Likewise, some of your customers (and their customers) are printing less because they know a document may have a limited shelf life. They don’t need a hard copy or can easily print what they need on their local MFP. For example, guides and maps of attractions or product user guides that were once printed are PDFs are available online and printed on home or office printers, which does you no good at all. So are the product manuals for most products you buy, like both my MFPs and my wife’s vacuum cleaner. You’ve noticed this too.
This drives less demand for print volumes which in turn drives a decline in offset printing and a rise in inkjet. The companies that make the printers all know this, which is driving the rise of “light production” machines. More on that in a moment.
A generational shift?
The interesting thing is that while overall demand for print is declining some research indicates that members of Gen X and Gen Y still like stuff that’s printed—and personalized. This may or may not be an extension of the personalization delivered by phones and tablets but personalization can be replicated with inkjet printing, by mail and on one’s personal printer.
This can further shrink commercially printed run lengths. Perhaps ironically, this puts some high-volume inkjet boxes in a position similar to that of big offset presses: Too expensive relative to the demand. Some would argue that the situation can actually be worse for high-capacity inkjet printers because they were relatively expensive to acquire and some users find the beasts need to run steadily to support the monthly nut.
So far, inkjet delivers the speed flexibility needed to match the decreasing demand. But some inkjet printers have flexibility to print shorter runs more easily than their offset counterparts. Where it gets interesting is that some vendors‚ notably ones that have long focused on office technology, are rolling out what they call “light production” machines.
Presently optimized for print runs up to 100,000 or monthly volumes around a couple million, such devices are also attuned to the downward shifts in the print volume expectations of customers. These machines are also well-suited to the intrusion of small shops, including some quick printers. Some of those copying, scanning and MFP vendors are filling a need in the market. Will the vendors of higher-capacity machines move down market? As any do, more will follow.
So will inkjet save commercial print? I think so, but we’ll see.
Then there’s the ever-evolving tale of AI and the power of automation. Both are stories for other days. Stay tuned.
By Noel Ward, Editor@Large
Inkjet is in charge was the closing line in a recent article here that noted how inkjet presses are changing the playing field of commercial print. It’s ironic, given that a mere 25 years ago inkjet was a non-starter when it came to commercial print. For one thing, it was slow: Great for a few 4x6 images a minute on a small photo printer or a little faster on some home or small office inkjet boxes. But it was a non-starter for making money and real printing. Paper was not remotely optimized for spays of watery inks, print heads and nozzles were akin to shower heads, image quality left a lot to be desired, inks were less than durable, and color management did not exist. The vendors knew this and showed those they could trust what was to come. Many of us liked what we saw but remained skeptical.
Then the universe changed.
Changing faster and more profoundly than expected, inkjet technology, like it or not, is now the way an increasing volume of commercial printing is done. Inks improved and came in more colors. Print nozzles multiplied and got smaller. Ink and paper chemistry changed. Inkjet printers quickly replaced many toner machines used for transactional printing (bills, statements and the like) along with an increasing amount of direct mail, which was once produced on offset presses, as well as large swaths of commercial print once done on offset presses. Packaging is changing too. Inkjet won’t replace flexography any time soon, but as an alternative it works well. Ever curious, I think of the 6-color printer I use for photos and wonder how long it will be before some extra heads land on some fast production presses. I hear this is happening in beta testing and when it becomes real it will further change the game. I suspect inkjet versions of colors presently used on offset color stations beyond CMYK will be in place by the end of this decade.
Never say Never
On the direct mail side, I think of the owner of a thriving shop I’ve visited that had a couple of venerable offset presses and a pair of black-only toner printers. Nearly all the owner’s pages went through the offset presses for color work and those requiring personalization streamed through his toner printers. All of that is gone, replaced by a pair of inkjet boxes, with a third being installed. Interestingly, this is a guy who once assured me he would never buy an inkjet press. Well, never say never. He's hardly alone, and many shops I’ve visited sport a mix of toner, inkjet, and offset. Some have large format, based on the needs of their customers. A few are adding fabric printing, which is also enabled by inkjet technology. Same for vehicle signage, now easily capable of complete wraps compared to basic lettering. All of it is inkjet.
The Change from Offset
This is not to disparage offset printing. Trillions of pages have been offset printed and many more will be. It remains an excellent technology, especially with some of the latest presses. Many print shops will continue to use their big iron while also having an inkjet printer or two nearby because it’s a matter of what the best tool for the job. The rise of inkjet is by no means the swan song for production offset printing.
Offset will go on for a generation, perhaps longer. But the kinds of work and run lengths are changing and will continue to do so. The basic metric of offset, that per-page print cost declines as volume increases, won’t change but may matter less as print volumes decline. Customers who once ordered 100,000 copies of a document now place ten orders of 10,000, which may not be the optimal way to use your offset press. Or the total order declines to 65,000 done in ten runs of 6,500. Those run lengths are not always practical on an offset press but can be easier on many inkjet printers, offering flexibility in terms of production. Maybe something like this: “It’s a busy week but you only need 7,000 on this run. I can give you 2,000 copies tomorrow, 2,000 on Thursday, the rest on Friday. Will that work for you? No charge for delivery.”
Blame phones
Many people, you included, use a smartphone for many things. One of these is viewing photos and documents that arrive as messages or emails on the phone, some of which are not printed out or stream off the MFP near your desk. We’ve all sat in meetings where four-color documents that previously would have been printed are displayed on a screen or have arrived on people’s phones, tablets or computers. There may be nary a printed page in sight.
Likewise, some of your customers (and their customers) are printing less because they know a document may have a limited shelf life. They don’t need a hard copy or can easily print what they need on their local MFP. For example, guides and maps of attractions or product user guides that were once printed are PDFs are available online and printed on home or office printers, which does you no good at all. So are the product manuals for most products you buy, like both my MFPs and my wife’s vacuum cleaner. You’ve noticed this too.
This drives less demand for print volumes which in turn drives a decline in offset printing and a rise in inkjet. The companies that make the printers all know this, which is driving the rise of “light production” machines. More on that in a moment.
A generational shift?
The interesting thing is that while overall demand for print is declining some research indicates that members of Gen X and Gen Y still like stuff that’s printed—and personalized. This may or may not be an extension of the personalization delivered by phones and tablets but personalization can be replicated with inkjet printing, by mail and on one’s personal printer.
This can further shrink commercially printed run lengths. Perhaps ironically, this puts some high-volume inkjet boxes in a position similar to that of big offset presses: Too expensive relative to the demand. Some would argue that the situation can actually be worse for high-capacity inkjet printers because they were relatively expensive to acquire and some users find the beasts need to run steadily to support the monthly nut.
So far, inkjet delivers the speed flexibility needed to match the decreasing demand. But some inkjet printers have flexibility to print shorter runs more easily than their offset counterparts. Where it gets interesting is that some vendors‚ notably ones that have long focused on office technology, are rolling out what they call “light production” machines.
Presently optimized for print runs up to 100,000 or monthly volumes around a couple million, such devices are also attuned to the downward shifts in the print volume expectations of customers. These machines are also well-suited to the intrusion of small shops, including some quick printers. Some of those copying, scanning and MFP vendors are filling a need in the market. Will the vendors of higher-capacity machines move down market? As any do, more will follow.
So will inkjet save commercial print? I think so, but we’ll see.
Then there’s the ever-evolving tale of AI and the power of automation. Both are stories for other days. Stay tuned.
