However, in terms of the show’s key themes, we are in a greener industry and this is no longer just a marketing trend to attract particular customers or to comply with governmental guidelines. Sustainable print production is here to stay because it can make production cost-effective and maintain profit margins. Adopting green production processes is easier with shorter runs, lean manufacturing and just-in-time orders. What started as a marketing buzz driven by regulatory demands is now becoming an established practice for business benefits.

In addition, an increasing number of wide-format presses claim reduced power consumption and some even boast Energy Star compliance, something unheard of just a few years ago.

As for substrates, ‘compostable’ was the buzzword. There is a new breed of substrates that are not only recyclable or burnable, but can also be disposed of in landfill thanks to their degradation qualities. If printed with aqueous inks, the new kind of substrates, such as the Ilford Biomedia, can even be used as vegetal substrate to plant and grow from.

Fabric magic
At Fespa Digital, I saw the start of a possible saturation in the area of flexible outdoor and indoor printing. Also, textile printing technology and applications have come of age. The show had many exhibitors showing only garment and roll-to-roll textile printers, while other manufacturers showcased digital printers suitable for both flexible and textile substrates. The versatility of applications that textile printing provides offer printers a way to overcome market saturation. The opportunities to diversify and to offer a combination of printed services and applications and focus on better margin work. I met many acquaintances and witnessed a clear trend in former offset print workshops and copyshop owners looking to incorporate wide-format capabilities.

This would usually start with a hybrid machine with a view to investing in a more specialized, possibly high-volume, model. This is mirrored by vendors’ focus on lower-cost, entry-level models rather than or top-end specialised machines.

This could be attributed to Fespa Digital being hosted earlier than many manufacturers’ usual product cycle with Drupa on the horizon, but I definitely missed some mid-range jack-of-all-trades presses. The possible market saturation scenario in some wide-format digital printing applications may accelerate once B2-sized digital presses arrive with Drupa.

If those B2 presses can print on relatively thick substrates, wide-format printers for POS posters will need to find a way to keep customers and the work they provide as the productivity and cost of operation of the B2 presses will be significantly lower than wide-format presses.

I can’t wait for Drupa to see if I’m right.

– Juan Diaz Diaz, independent industry consultant & journalist

You can read the PrintWeek Briefing that this article originally accompanied here