For something so frequently referred to, the term “online print” is relatively ill-defined. There is agreement, though, that there needs to be an online component somewhere in the print procurement process. This can include quoting, ordering, payment, job tracking, template design, job upload, proofing, and more. But before getting too bogged down in definitions, let’s keep it simple and say “an online printer receives the majority of print jobs via a customer-facing web interface.”

Online print can be found in B2C (the classic web shop) as well as B2B. The latter is sometimes below the radar as it can include custom portals accessible only to specific customers. The functionality for each portal can differ a lot. It can be very basic, which could again raise the debate about at which point a print order portal is making the fulfilling company an online printer.

Since there is no unambiguous definition of an online printer, there is therefore some disagreement on the size of the market. Primir puts the value for Western Europe at $10.9 billion (almost €10 billion) in 2018. Eastern Europe trails at a meager $0.43 billion. The US in contrast is set at $6.6 billion. French online print expert Ludovic Martin puts the European online print market at €2.5 billion in his “State of Commercial Online Printing Industry in Europe in 2020” study.