NEW YORK -- July 27, 2006 -- TrendWatch Graphic Arts has released a pair of comprehensive Special Reports on digital printing in the commercial printing, creative, and publishing markets. Formerly announced as "Digital Printing 2006: Growth and Convergence in the Marketplace," the 104-page “Digital Printing 2006: Printers” and 92-page “Digital Printing 2006: Creatives & Publishers” take a comprehensive look at the continued growth and expansion of digital printing into these key market segments. These Special Reports analyze the data from past and current TrendWatch GA Printing, Design & Production, and Publishing market surveys, looking at current levels of adoption of digital and variable data printing, the unique business challenges and sales opportunities of digital printers, changes in various types of digital printing volumes in the commercial printing industry, the attitudes and perspectives of creatives and publishers toward digital and variable data printing, and planned purchases in all three segments. Data is broken down by market segment, as well as by shop size, where many of the trends driving this industry are found. Also available is our Mini-Report “Digital Press & Printer Investment Projections for the Printing, Creative, and Publishing Marketplaces” valued at $249. This 18-page report provides the coveted investment projections for printers, creatives, and publishers in digital presses, black-and-white and color copiers, and large-format printers. Key Conclusions from the Reports Digital printing is on a solid growth track. In addition to its steady growth as a sales opportunity among printers, we are seeing nice, consistent growth in digital printing and black-and-white and color copying volumes, as well as significant plans to invest in additional digital printing units, whether as upgrades or as additional capacity. Among creatives and publishers, we see consistent growth in their use of key applications like Web-to-print, variable data printing, and short-run digital printing; and among publishers, we also see modest but significant investment in digital printing hardware. Key to growth in the digital printing marketplace is the diversity of press sizes, speeds, and price ranges in the equipment market, reducing the barrier to entry and making digital production affordable for production environments and marketing budgets of all sizes and volumes. The data clearly show that the line of demarcation between serious players and those who can only afford to dabble are disappearing. TWGA Quote “Much of the news in these reports is decidedly good for the digital printing marketplace, but there are still areas of concern,” notes Heidi Tolliver-Nigro, TrendWatch GA analyst and author of the reports. “Printers are finding great opportunities in the variety of digital printing applications, regardless of the sizes and speeds of their presses. But while we are seeing growing openness among creative and publishers, there is a gap between the limited but growing volumes in these marketplaces and the strong growth we’re seeing at print shops. When taken together, these reports are both harbingers of good news in the commercial printing industry and a call to action in the creative and publishing marketplaces, where creatives and publishers are still figuring out where digital printing fits in their business models. We are, however, very encouraged by the innovation we are seeing, which often trumps volume in the early stages of market development.” News Highlights - 41% of all graphic arts firms now say they offer some type of digital printing in-house; - 17% of graphic arts firms say that their volumes of full-color digital printing are increasing “a little” (1-25%) or “a lot” (25% or more); - 11% of creatives see “digital printing” as a top sales opportunity for their businesses. 16% of publishers see “competition from Print on Demand publishers (like subsidy, self publishers)” as a top business challenge in the next 12 months, varying only by a few percentage points by type of publisher.