The game between digital printing and traditional offset printing

The game between digital printing and traditional offset printing

1. Industry status: explosive growth of digital printing

In 2023, the total output value of China's digital printing industry will reach 160.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.5%, showing strong market penetration. The global printing market size is expected to exceed 310.9 billion US dollars in 2025, of which the annual compound growth rate of digital printing market value will reach 4.8%, and it is expected to climb to 209.1 billion US dollars in 2029. This growth is due to the following core driving forces:

1. The surge in personalized demand: The demand for customized products for "thousands of people and thousands of faces" in e-commerce, advertising and packaging fields has driven the increase in the proportion of digital printing, and its small-batch printing cost is 30%-50% lower than that of traditional offset printing.
2. Improved technical maturity: High-end inkjet equipment has reached the same level as offset printing in imaging accuracy (such as above 1200dpi) and color performance, and can even achieve breakthroughs in special effects such as metallic colors and UV coatings.
3. Environmental policy pressure: Digital printing uses water-based or UV inks to reduce waste emissions, which meets the green development requirements under China's "dual carbon" goals.

2. Technology comparison: Changes in the critical point of cost and efficiency

1. Cost game:
2. Traditional offset printing: Relying on long-run printing to dilute costs, taking a 40-inch offset press as an example, the printing cost of a 112-page book is the same as digital printing at 3,458 copies.
3. Digital printing: Breaking through the "starting print volume" limit, the cost critical point of the Chinese market has increased from 272 copies in 2009 to 5,000 copies in 2025 (medium and long run operations). After AI optimizes the production process, the unit cost is basically the same as offset printing.
4. Efficiency innovation:
5. Digital printing saves platemaking time through the "zero-plate" process and supports printing and modification, while offset printing requires stopping the machine to change the plate, and the efficiency disadvantage of multi-variety orders is significant.
6. The speed of inkjet printing has increased from 150 m/min in 2017 to 300 m/min in 2025, which is close to the level of traditional printing.

3. Application scenarios: Diversified penetration from the edge to the mainstream

1. Packaging printing: Carton digital printing machines can achieve "printing from one sheet", saving 2,500-5,000 yuan in monthly printing fees, and support personalized design, which greatly shortens the delivery cycle in e-commerce promotions (such as "Double 11").
2. Advertising and publishing: UV inkjet technology has become the mainstream of image display with an 80% penetration rate of outdoor advertising; on-demand publishing realizes book customization through variable data printing and reduces inventory costs.
3. Building materials and textiles: The scale of digital inkjet printing in the field of ceramic tiles and glass decoration has reached 3.3 trillion yuan, with the fastest growth rate in the Asian market, and the production cycle of multi-variety orders has been shortened by 50%.

4. Challenges and future trends

1. Existing barriers:
2. Offset printing still dominates high-precision fields such as luxury packaging, and the compatibility of Pantone spot color system with special substrates (such as leather and metal) is difficult to be replaced by digital technology.
3. The cost of digital printing ink accounts for a high proportion, and the price of UV ink is 20%-30% higher than that of traditional ink, which restricts the adoption of some small and medium-sized enterprises.
4. Technology iteration direction:
5. Intelligence: AI scheduling system reduces equipment downtime, machine learning optimizes ink volume control, and production efficiency is expected to increase by another 40% in 2030.
6. Domestic substitution: The information innovation policy promotes the localization of printers and consumables, and the market share of domestic equipment is expected to exceed 35% in 2025.
7. Market forecast:
8. The global digital inkjet printing processing cost will decrease by 8% annually, and the cost of thermal transfer printing will be the same as traditional printing in 2032.
9. The penetration rate of digital printing for packaging will increase from 7% in 2023 to 25% in 2030, becoming the largest incremental market.

Conclusion

Digital printing is reshaping the century-old printing industry with an "efficiency revolution", but it is not a simple replacement for traditional offset printing, but rather a "complementary coexistence" ecosystem. In the future, technology integration (such as offset + digital hybrid production line) and scene-based refined operations will become the key to corporate breakthroughs. Localized innovation in the Chinese market (such as Shandong Ruisheng carton printing machine) and policy dividends (green printing subsidies) may provide a new paradigm for the global industry.