While the past 12 months have proven that even the wide-format sector can’t claim to have been completely immune to the tough trading conditions affecting print, it has nonetheless demonstrated a resilience seemingly rivalled only by businesses in the packaging sector.
 
The reasons for that are, broadly, two-fold: opportunity and applications. Or perhaps that should be a combination of the two: the opportunity of applications. Or even the application of opportunity.
 
However you configure them, what is certain is that both words figure heavily in this year’s Wide-format report. In the following pages we have taken a look at applications such as wall graphics, building wraps, fabrics, glass, metal and ceramics and the opportunities they can represent.
 
Of course, in many cases, once you’ve singled out the applications you want to target, and our survey should help there, it’s then a case of identifying the technology that is best suited to delivering them.
 
With that in mind, we’ve also tried to get under the skin of some of the hot technology topics, ranging from the return-on-investment quandary of implementing highly automated workflows or the comparative benefits of flatbed, roll-to-roll and hybrid digital printing systems.
 
All that remains is for you to find the best way to apply the opportunities to your business. And that’s where the real fun starts.

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Darryl Danielli ?Editor, PrintWeek