Last December, in my year-end recap of 2015, I pointed out that “virtually all corners of the printing industry had something of a renaissance in 2015,” and a survey we had conducted last fall for our Dr. Joe Webb and my New Dynamics of Commercial Printing: 2016 report, found a level of optimism not seen in the printing industry since the late 1990s. Now, we’re mid-way through 2016 (in case, like me, you lose track of the space-time continuum), we find that the industry was right to be optimistic going into 2016. In our brand new report—the 2016 Mid-Year Report and 2017 Preview—being released this week, we report on the latest economic, technological, and cultural trends affecting the industry.

The value of printing shipments remains strong, even given that the industry’s run of consecutive months of generally positive comparisons to the prior years ended at 22 months. Given what we’ve all been through in the past couple of decades, that’s nothing to sneeze at—and may even be worth celebrating. No, it’s not 1998 again, but neither is it 2011.

As for the state of the general economy, it’s not terrible, not even bad, although it’s not through-the-roof terrific. (It’s also by no means the bleak, desolate hellscape it’s occasionally portrayed as.) Many of the key economic indicators have rebounded from the depths of the Great Recession: