The market overivew, ’The Future of Global Markets for Digital Printing to 2015’, by printing expert Professor Frank Romano, is based on extensive primary research, assessing the penetration of digital printing in printed media by major geographic region and end-use.
It includes analysis of digital print technologies globally and forecasts their impact on the market.
The report predicts that between 2006 to 2015 digital printing will account for almost 30 per cent of all printing produced worldwide at the retail level.
By 2015 China will be the major printing market of the world, with its share estimated to reach a value of €2.7bn.
The number of printing presses using offset, flexo and gravure is expected to drop from 1,153,966 in 2005 to approximately 674,064 in 2015.
At the same time, packaging and labels are likely to see huge growth, according to the survey’s findings.
Currently 75 million sq ft of labels are printed worldwide by litho and flexo presses but by 2015 more than 50 per cent of this volume will be printed digitally.
Direct mail, which the report said is suitable for digital printing due to the ease of personalising documents was valued at €1.9bn in 2005 and it is forecast to grow to EUR8.6 billion in 2015.
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