The Design Gap: The $21B Digital Printing Industry is Still Evolving

Digital printing services (expected to reach $27.2 billion as an industry by 2026) has been quietly advancing behind the scenes for years. But at some point, the industry (and printers, we’ll share in the blame!) stopped trying to educate designers and design students about the full breadth of capabilities offered in digital.

But since we spend a lot of time with designers, design students, and design departments (especially of schools), we get to show them what latest options are available to them– the ones that keep us at the forefront of printing technology and the reason we’re going on 40+ years of being one of the best printing services in Dayton, OH. 

Here are just a few of our favorites:

• Fewer Design Boundaries

  • In the past, It was almost impossible to lay down an opaque white ink, so the default was to print on white paper (regular ink is transparent, so it needs the white of the paper to give it color). But now that we can print a solid, opaque white ink?
  • That means we now have the ability to utilize colored papers, adding a dimension that has to be seen to be believed. Laying down white ink (in varying densities) and then adding colored ink on top adds a whole new depth to a printed piece that used to not be possible.
  • We have printed some truly dynamic pieces utilizing white ink that are hard NOT to notice. White ink has changed the way a lot of designers approach their craft. We’ve also introduced digital metallic and pastille colors, making all the more room for creative ideas and unique executions.

• Unique Substrates

  • Paper isn’t just paper anymore! Teslin, Tyvek, vinyls, clings, metallic, pearlescent… there are SO many things you can print on to upgrade your print campaign’s user experience that did not make sense before digital printing services like ours.

• Short Run, High Quality Color

  • Yes, you can print 100 (or fewer) pieces that honestly look better than if they were printing on an offset press, without breaking the bank. You just need to make sure you’re selecting the right digital press, the right paper, and that you have good communication with your printing partner to make sure you reach your desired outcome. (We’re pretty good at all that.)

• Dynamic Content

  • Yes, every one of those sheets above can be different. But, the scope of Dynamic Content goes a lot further than variable data. It also allows you to “talk” directly to your audiences, adding different segmentations and personalizations to your piece, whether that be in the form of images or text.
  • The result? Greatly improved ROI!

• Sustainability

  • Simply put, digital printing services use so much less of everything. We use just what we need for a project, not the stacks of make ready paper, solvents and mixing of inks and throwing away the extra, rags, cotton pads and clean up sheets commonly used in offset jobs.

In the busy world we live in, it’s hard to take the time to re-learn what we think we already know. But given industry and marketing trends, it’s worth your time to tell your printer, “Show me some cool stuff that I can do now, that I couldn’t do 5 or 10 years ago.”

Want to see?