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print products in transition
Print is not dead. Print has become selective. And the very digitalisation that was meant to replace it is what makes it valuable again.
the obituary
and what it missesThe end of print has been announced so often that it has almost become a ritual. Every new generation of screens brings the same claim back: paper belongs to yesterday.
And at first glance the numbers seem to agree. Classic offset printing, the backbone of the industry for decades, is losing value; the long runs of catalogues, magazines and brochures are shrinking as communication migrates to digital channels.
But look only at that one curve and you miss the actual story. The global print market is shrinking in volume — and growing in value. Less is printed, but what is printed is worth more. Print is not dying. It is clearing out. And the engine of that shift is digital printing.
from mass medium to precision tool
the technologyThe decisive difference lies in the technology. Offset printing needs printing plates — which only pays off at high volumes, because the set-up is expensive. Digital printing works without plates. Suddenly what used to be economically impossible becomes everyday: the short run, the single copy, the series in which every copy is allowed to differ.
Market researchers at Smithers put global digital printing at around $167.5 billion in 2025 — with a forecast of more than $251 billion by 2035. While offset declines in value, digital printing grows by almost five per cent a year. Inkjet is displacing toner, and the strongest growth is long since no longer in advertising print but in packaging.
Less is printed and yet more value is created. Digital printing turns volume into meaning.
For companies — especially smaller ones and start-ups — that is a liberation. You no longer have to order ten thousand flyers to get a sensible unit price. You print what you need, when you need it, in the version that currently fits. A block of fixed cost becomes a flexible tool.
personalisation & finishing
the creative leverEvery copy a one-off
Because every printed copy can be addressed individually, content can be tailored to single recipients — variable data, changing images, personalised wording. In direct marketing that translates straight into higher response rates.
The best of both worlds
Not defending paper against the screen but combining the two: a printed piece targeted as precisely as an online ad, but with a physical presence no screen can deliver. In a world where digital messages scroll past by the second, the physical object regains attention — precisely because it has become rare.
Finishing for short runs
For a long time fine finishing — spot varnish, hot foil stamping, raised varnish — was the privilege of large runs. Digital progress has broken that open: impressive optical and tactile effects can now be produced economically in small quantities too.
What a display cannot do
Partial varnishing lifts individual elements. Textured varnish creates three-dimensional effects your fingertips read before your eyes register them. Digital hot foil brings metallic shine without expensive tooling. No wonder luxury packaging, high-end business cards and premium magazines rely on it. The object itself becomes the message.
sustainability built into the process
ecologyAn argument that used to count against print becomes a plus with digital printing. Because production happens on demand — only what is needed, only when it is needed — wasted material and dead stock disappear. No surplus card stock destroyed later. No pallets of outdated brochures.
Add to that more environmentally friendly inks, water-based colours, recyclable materials and more energy-efficient processes. That hits a nerve: sustainability stopped being a sideshow for companies long ago and has become a central decision criterion. More and more printers are moving to climate-neutral processes and recycled papers — not out of idealism alone, but because the market demands it.
With digital printing, sustainability is not a fig leaf added afterwards; it sits in the process itself: you print what you need, not what you might sell.
print stays — only smarter
takeawayLower production costs, flexible run sizes, radical personalisation, fine finishing and a built-in sustainability advantage — digital printing is not the emergency exit of a dying industry but its reinvention.
For brands that means writing print off gives away one of the last media that literally has weight. The skill is not choosing between digital and printed but interlocking the two intelligently — the reach of one with the commitment of the other.
A good printed piece today is not a relic but a decision: for the tactile, for value, for a moment that cannot be swiped away. Print is nowhere near finished. It has simply grown up — more selective, more precise, more resource-conscious than ever. Combine the craft with the idea and you no longer print volume. You print meaning.
Sources
- 01Smithers (2025): “The Future of Digital Printing to 2035” — digital print market $167.5bn (2025), forecast $251.1bn (2035), plus 54.3 % in volume.
- 02Smithers (2025): “The Future of Digital vs. Offset Printing to 2029” — digital up 4.8 % CAGR, declining offset litho values, shift towards packaging.
- 03Smithers (2019/2024): “How are Digital and Offset Printing Markets Changing” — the global print market shrinking in volume, growing in value.
- 04WhatTheyThink / Smithers (2025): inkjet displacing toner (72 % of new installations), strongest growth in the packaging segment.
- 05German Printing and Media Industries Federation (bvdm): changing media consumption, interactive and personalised formats.
- 06Intergraf (European printing and media federation): the growing importance of sustainable production processes in the print industry.
- 07Grand View Research / Mordor Intelligence (2025): commercial print market and offset services market volume as industry context.
print something that lasts?
From short runs to fine finishing: we think print and digital together — reach plus commitment.
