By Frank J. Romano January 13, 2006 2006 will be the year of digital print. By the end of the year, 40 percent of printing firms will have some kind of digital printer for document production, above and beyond any wide format printers. These production page printers will be used for on-demand materials (mostly promotional) as well as a growing number of variable data printing, transactional, and web-to-print applications. 2006 will be the year of the rebirth of offset lithography. Press manufacturers will continue to accelerate job changeover, increase substrate range, add inline functions, and extended gamut approaches. Larger format presses will make continuing inroads. 2006 will be the year of continuing mergers and acquisitions. By the end of the year, over 2,400 printing firms will be acquired or will merge to record the highest number of annual consolidations ever. 2006 will be the year of hybrid printing--offset and gravure, rotary screen and flexo, digital print and everything. Workflows will adapt accordingly. 2006 will be the year of holistic marketing. Advertisers and marketers will seek cross-media promotional programs that integrate print and electronic media in new and innovative ways. Printers will adapt to this important trend. 2006 will be the year of target marketing. Postal increases will engender a move away from mass mailings toward more personalized mailings. Post cards and self-mailers will abound and most print mail will link to some form of electronic response or website. 2006 will be the year of flatbed inkjet printing. It will start with signage and point-of-purchase printing and extend itself into many other market segments, including packaging and converting 2006 will be the year of specialty printing. Printing on labels, plastics, and other esoteric substrates will increase. Decorating (foil stamping, embossing, etc.) will increase in use. 2006 will be the year of package printing and converting. New technology will bring digital production approaches to flexo sleeves, corrugated relief plates, and more efficient full-color reproduction. 2006 will be the Chinese year of the dog, the Internet year of VoIP, and the printing industry year of marketing awareness. Printers will succeed not because they can run a press, but because they can run a marketing program.
