Fujifilm recently hosted VIP customers from across the U.S. at its 23rd annual Print Summit in the company’s Hanover Park, Il headquarters. This two-day event included panel discussions, presentations and time spent in the Innovation Hub, where visitors got to experience Fujifilm’s latest and greatest print technologies firsthand.
Industry expert, Marco Boer, Vice President of IT Strategies was a keynote speaker at the Summit and gave his perspectives on industry trends and print’s future in a presentation titled 2023: the year that started the tipping point from conventional to digital printing. Marco has graciously given Fujifilm permission to share this informative talk in a series of posts, which will be published throughout the next four weeks. Please be sure to check out the first post below, The Tipping Point:
For over 35 years, IT Strategies has been asked, “When will digital printing replace conventional printing?” We always answered that digital printing isn’t going to replace offset. It’s growing independently of conventional printing, irrespective of the decline we’re seeing in certain traditional print segments. That was until COVID happened, which changed the way we live our lives in so many ways, including how print is produced and consumed.
While offset remains so big and so important – and the majority of print volume is still on offset – digital printing is becoming more and more vital. COVID has accelerated that trend. The pandemic dramatically affected the workforce and the global supply chain, and we’re still seeing a scarcity of paper and a very tight labor market – alongside rising costs for both.
With flat print budgets, these higher costs are resulting in shrinking print volumes. As such print is becoming more of a luxury item, so what gets printed must be increasingly relevant and timely. In other words, print is getting a lot more expensive for end users, so it has to offer a lot more value!
At the end of the day, “When will the tipping point from conventional to digital print volume happen?” might not be the right question. A better question might be, “When will customers spend more money on procuring digital print than conventional print?” In this series, we’ll take a deeper look at the new, high value digital print model that’s emerging and why.
Tune in next week for the second post in the series on the effects of rising paper costs. After that, we’ll take a deep dive on the U.S. workforce, then we’ll get into the different print segments, how they’re evolving and where digital printing creates an advantage. Be sure to watch this space!
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Learn more: Fujifilm Revoria Press™ PC1120
