Transition from Offset to Digital to Continue through 2029
Digital print processes are expected to see sales growth of 4.8% CAGR from 2024-2029
Digital print will grow to around a fifth (20%) of the global print industry’s market development value by 2028, as it continues to take work from offset processes.
Demand for offset litho has fallen by an annual compounded rate (CAGR) of 2.5%, from $354.4bn (£260bn) in 2019, according to a recently released market report from industry intelligence service Smithers, which has predicted a further decline to $308bn by 2029.
Driven by significant reductions in demand for publication print, especially magazines and newspapers, offset litho – still the most widely used print process – is facing challenges across many applications, with increasing competition from digital presses.
Digital printing has grown rapidly, seeing 3.4% CAGR from 2019 to 2024, to a total of $165.5bn. The rate of growth is only set to increase, with Smithers predicting 4.8% CAGR over the next five years.
Strong growth in flexo and packaging gravure processes have kept up overall analogue print values, with sheetfed litho faring better than other litho processes thanks to a buoyant packaging market.
"It is facing the same pressures in graphics and publication segments, but is benefiting from its use in packaging work," explained John Nelson, editor at Smithers.
He told Printweek: "Sheetfed litho volume will increase marginally over the next five years, from a projected 6.86 trillion A4 prints (2025) to 6.96 trillion (2029)."
Nelson added that print in the UK generally follows the global trend, with declining sales of newspapers and magazines.
He said: "Both national and regional newspapers increasingly publish online, sometimes exclusively so; the same factors are also impacting magazine volumes with titles closing, consolidating, or publishing less often, and with shorter print runs and lower page counts. In tandem, advertising budgets are increasingly moving to online channels cutting revenue for many publishers.
"Print volumes are forecast to stabilise over the next five years, but this conceals a further decline in publications print and increased demand for packaging work, where print run lengths and turnaround times are reducing, benefiting inkjet directly. For longer run lengths litho remains a high-quality solution in several segments, but is facing new challenges from flexo and gravure presses."
Digital presses are directly displacing litho work in several applications, especially as inkjet technology advances and takes on higher volumes of print-on-demand books, advertising, and transactional print.