Once upon a time, digital printing for transaction printers and direct mailers meant over-printing mono toner on pre-printed shells. Then full-color toner came along and enabled personalization, improved response rates, and faster turn-times for direct mail, but it was a bit too slow and a lot too pricey for bills and statements.

When full-color inkjet became viable for customer communications, adoption was rapid and widespread across most transaction print organizations producing more than 30 million images per month. Full-color toner continued to gain traction with direct mailers and, as color quality improved, direct mailers have also taken on inkjet to such an extent that digitally produced direct mail images exceeded offset in 2018, according to I.T. Strategies.

Naturally, these changes had economic benefits for the transaction printing and direct mail companies using inkjet, but these segments weren’t the only ones affected. Before the digital transition, all of that volume also required a commercial print product in the form of rolls of corporate letterhead or direct mail shells that inkjet quickly made redundant. Commercial printers were the net losers for much of the digital revolution and particularly with inkjet. It’s no wonder that commercial printers long had an attitude of “never inkjet.” Inkjet was the enemy that cannibalized pages.