Dr Mark Fleming found that colour digital presses are only producing at 8% capacity compared to 37% for monochrome digital and 70% for conventional presses.
His research also suggests that the solution to the problem does not lie on the much-vaunted application of full-colour variable data.
Stimulating demand will rely on reduced costs to allow it to compete with conventional printing. Fleming said that reducing costs was up to equipment vendors and he was encouraged by the steps taken by Xerox and Xeikon.
A similar picture was revealed by research published by CAP Ventures at Ipex.
