Charlottesville, VA (July 7, 2008)-INTERQUEST, a leading market and technology research and consulting firm serving the digital printing and publishing industry, has released a comprehensive new study of transactional printing in North America. The report is based on in-depth interviews with leading transactional providers who in sum generate nearly one-third of the digital impressions produced in the market.

According to Toby Cobrin, Director of INTERQUEST, "Transactional printing is undergoing major changes right now. The industry is consolidating, but at the same time new technology is coming into play in the area of color that will really have an impact. I think it's one of the most exciting periods of development for the market and the providers we interviewed for the study are extremely upbeat and engaged."

The study is based on 50 in-depth interviews with leading commercial and in-house transactional providers. It focuses on all transactional printing, including monochrome, highlight, and full color printing on laser and ink jet devices. In addition to providing market size and forecasts through 2012, the study analyzes the role and prevalence of promotional transactional ("transpromo") printing, the penetration of ink jet into the market, the impact of electronic media, postal issues, MICR printing, and developments in hardware and software.

"The two developments most on the minds of transactional printers are color and electronic media," said Cobrin. "Color transactional output has made a noticeable jump in volume over the past four years, and promotional transactional printing accounts for nearly half of the full-color variable data pages produced by respondents. We still haven't documented an appreciable impact on volume due to electronic media, but respondents are fully expecting to begin seeing a downturn by the end of the decade."

The study finds that nearly 80% of the transactional print volume reported by respondents is produced on continuous-feed devices, with ink jet equipment generating nearly one-third of the volume. Although many respondents report flat or declining black-and-white volume, highlight and full-color transactional volume is poised to account for more than a quarter of all transactional impressions produced in North America by 2012.

North American Transactional Printing: Market Analysis & Forecast (2007-2012)contains over 230 pages of text with 115 tables and charts. For more information, or to order the study, visit www.inter-quest.com, or call (434)979-9945.