It’s been a roller coaster year for printing shipments so far. We started 2025 slightly higher than January 2024 but wow did February tank, although there was a nice rebound in March. April shipments came in at $7.35 billion, down slightly from March’s $7.36 billion—but can we call it flat? Yeah, we’re gonna. April usually sees a bit of a decline (save for last year) but with economic turmoil from tariffopolooza starting to kick in, we may be biting our nails for the next few months. May usually sees a shipments rebound. Place your bets!

On the plus side, macroeconomic data haven’t picked up any serious signs of trouble, except for retail sales which, says the Census Bureau, were down 0.9% from April to May. Signs that consumers are starting to be more discretionary? Will print buyers start being more discretionary as well? But then the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow is tracking Q2 GDP growth at a whopping 3.4%. So “uncertainty” continues to be the word of the year.

Our Printing Outlook 2025 report is now available. Find out how print businesses fared in 2024—and what we’re likely to see in 2025.