Ask any 10 people how they define “industrial printing” and you’ll likely get 10 different responses. One of those 10 people would be Frazer Chesterman, Director of FM Brooks, part of the Mack Brooks Exhibitions Group, which is bringing its InPrint Industrial Print Conference to Chicago on May 1–2.

“It's where print is used in some form of final manufactured product,” said Chesterman. “It could be packaging, but it could also be solar panels. It could be decals in cars, it could be interior décor. It could be a range of different things where print is used as either as a test or for short runs.”

The word “industrial” is usually where some of the confusion lies. “We’re not talking about ‘industrial’ as meaning ‘large-scale,’” said Chesterman. “Sometimes some of the big manufacturers talk about industrial machines. They mean a digital machine that will compete with an analog technology that’s industrial analog technology.” So whilst we often associate “industrial” with something big and powerful or long-run—think of the phrase “industrial strength”—in the digital age, “industrial printing” has come to mean short-run, at the very least customized, perhaps even personalized printing on objects as—or immediately after—they are being manufactured.