After a difficult period, offset printing has returned to some sense of temporary stability.  Offset press sales are showing flat to slight growth, have reached automation levels that for even shorter run lengths can rival digital production printing, and continue to draw interest from commercial printers. However, highly productive and automated offset presses face a market where low-value print volumes continue to be in decline, resulting a net long-term decline in need for offset presses. 

The long-term trend of a reduction in low-value, high-volume pages with high-value, lower-volume pages is driving the interest and growth in production inkjet technology, and drupa was the place to be to see the new developments in inkjet technology.

Production inkjet technology for transaction, direct mail, and book printing applications had past the early adopter phase. We are now entering a development phase where innovation in ink chemistry will dramatically expand the range of substrates production inkjet can print on, and in turn the range of applications production inkjet address. More on this below.