How printing is changing

I've noticed over the last several years that the printing industry has become more service driven utilizing more of a targeted approach from the marketing side. This has in turn caused a decrease in the quantities being printed for direct mail and collateral thus reducing printer's margins and increasing the chance for error. To combat this printers have grasped onto digital technology to supply 1 to 1 marketing to their clients and end users.

Although Digital technology hasn't quite gotten as good as offset their is a noticeable effort made to get more in line with offset printing. For any variable pieces or short run small signature/postcard jobs digital printing is the way to go. It offers a time savings as well as cost efficiency not mentioning the environmental benefits that go with using less paper and wasting less raw materials with the exception of toner based ink.

Offset printing will still be a strong player for many years within the Printing Industry however as time goes by we will see less and less large run projects and more and more small run specialized variable projects.