Graphic Arts Magazine July / August 2019 | Page 17

Cover Story
Trends and business opportunities
with wide-format printing
Alec Couckuyt
Trying to better understand the business opportunities wide-format print offers requires
a better understanding of the dynamics in the printing industry in general, and more
specifically, the business trends within our industry. Understanding these trends will
make it a lot easier to identify which wide-format applications fit into your business
model, which in turn will drive your investment strategy. In the first part I’ll spend some
time on the evolution of wide-format printing and the impact on the printing industry
as a whole. Secondly, I’ll focus on the trends in wide-format printing and I’ll end with some
points of view on what should drive your investment strategy in wide-format printing.
But before we get started, I just want to
spend some time on the wide-format
terminology itself. It is sometimes hard to
make a distinction between definitions
and applications. They seem to be inter-
mixed on a regular basis and there is no
clear distinction on the definitions.
Terms such as wide-format printing,
large-format printing and even grand-
format printing are intended to make
a distinction between the size of the
finished print product. Then there are
roll-fed and flatbed printers, making a
distinction between substrate usage.
We make a distinction between display
graphics and technical document sys-
tems, referring to signs and displays on
the one hand and engineering and
architectural prints on the other. More
recently we’ve seen more emphasis on
textile printers, referring to a specific
application. In addition, we talk about
sublimation, thermal inkjet, aqueous inkjet,
UV-curable and latex all referring to ink
technologies. You’ll be forgiven if you
feel confused these days with this wide
range of different terminologies in the
wide-format field. For our purposes I will
continue using wide-format printing as
the common denominator throughout
this article. I do not intend to cover
“speeds and feeds” of all available printers
in the market, I’ll leave this to the more
technically inclined writers. I will focus
on the business-related aspects and
opportunities these wide-format print
products offer.
@graphicarts
The evolution of
wide-format printing
Initially wide-format applications were
geared to engineering and architectural
businesses and to poster / billboard
businesses. These business segments
required equipment with the ability to
print on much bigger print media than
what was available through the more
conventional small-format printing
technologies. The major technologies
used in engineering and architectural
businesses went from “blueprints” to
pen plotters and for posters / billboards
businesses, screen printing was the
technology of choice. Equipment vendors
had designated divisions to support
these specific segments. For example:
Xerox and Océ were two of the original
key vendors offering a wide range
of products for technical document
system solutions to the engineering and
architectural business segment. Colour,
speed and size however were limiting
factors at that time.
The introduction of digital printing,
especially inkjet printing, changed
the landscape. In today’s market
wide-format printing equipment has
expanded its capabilities to print high
end colour (even beyond CMYK, with
added extra ink channels), at much
faster speeds, and on far bigger sizes,
with the ability to print on a much broader
range of substrates including textiles,
rigid boards, fabric-based media etc.
This technical evolution in wide-format
printing has basically expanded the
application gamma, reaching far
beyond the original applications of
engineering and architectural blue-
prints and the posters / billboards
market segments. In today’s wide -
format Print environment, we see such
GRAPHIC ARTS MAGAZINE | July / August 2019 | 17