Decisively Digital –
Print 09 Confirms Offset Is in Decline

By Pete Basiliere, Gartner

For the first time, the largest print trade show in North America, Print 09, was definitely a digital print exhibition. The show put an exclamation point on my observation last July that “2009 officially marks the beginning of offset printing’s long decline.”

Print 09 is North America’s quadrennial trade exhibition,  taking up nearly all of both halls at McCormack Place in Chicago. The smaller Graph Expo show takes place during the intervening years.

Pundits, even before the show’s end, were trying to prop up offset. One wrote that it was “obvious” that “Print 09 is an offset litho show” while also noting the decline in offset presses at the last three Graph Expo trade shows.

How bad was the decline? Well, look at it this way . . . Heidelberg, world renown manufacturer of offset presses that has the premier booth location at all Print and Graph Expo events, brought only four --- yes, four --- offset presses to the show. (To be fair, the company also had a full-size poster of another press on the booth’s back wall; a digitally printed poster, that is.) On the other hand, Hewlett-Packard brought about 24 digital presses and printers!

Similar ratios held true for technology providers such as Canon, InfoPrint Solutions and Océ. Another interesting dichotomy: The sprawling Xerox booth was jammed with digital presses, software kiosks and people. Across the aisle, offset press manufacturer Ryobi had wide open space, a couple of presses and few attendees.

(In a first for a printing trade show where attendees expect to see live examples of the quality work that presses and printers can do, Kodak, which straddles offset and digital printing markets, did not bring any equipment at all.)

Now don’t get me wrong. I hold Heidelberg and Ryobi in very high regard. I have been fortunate not only to buy and make money with their presses but to also visit their respective manufacturing operations, which were top notch.

No doubt offset will dominate certain types of printing (books, catalogs, magazines, etc.) for some time to come, but even in those markets offset volumes are declining as digital printing makes inroads. Digital printing is the viable and accepted alternative to offset that creates compelling communications.

2009 marks the beginning of offset printing’s long decline. A Gartner survey of production print equipment buyers found convincing evidence that, for the first time, long-held preferences for offset printing have been up-ended. Offset's dominance has been superseded by digital printing's quality and value for the money.

The decisive transition from offset to digital printing at Print 09 ratified our survey results. But more importantly, the software and hardware technology providers exhibited the digital equipment that you can use --- now --- to provide compelling, targeted and relevant print communications.

Join Pete Basiliere at the 2009 Print & Imaging Summit for a can’t miss conference agenda!

Pete Basiliere is research director in the Technology and Service Provider organization at Gartner, providing research and advice on production printing systems and applications, including best practices, market strategies and technology trends. He also writes this ongoing column “Pete’s Perspective,” covering high volume transaction output topics, at OutputLinks.