In part it’s down to the rate of knots that new products are christened and the seemingly endless array of new applications being developed, but just as importantly, it’s down to the dynamism and diversity of the printers that employ wide-format technology.

That’s not to say that as a sector it’s without challenges; at the lower end of the market it’s becoming increasingly competitive as more and more commercial printers add wide-format to their offering, while at the top end there are a relatively high number of large businesses vying for the big deals.

However, it’s still a sector where innovation shines through and companies of all sizes can dazzle by taking a different approach with clients, employing new technologies or simply getting the basics right.

And these are just some of the areas we look at in the subsequent pages, ranging from embracing the challenges of colour management or the opportunities or otherwise of laser cutting, to looking at the kinds of technologies that can make a big difference for (relatively) small change and the excitement being generated by single-pass printing.

Because in a sector driven by innovation in both business and technology, sometimes its getting the basics right that makes the biggest difference.