Wide Format Imaging

According to industry pundits, the wide- and grand-format market is experiencing continued growth that all industry pundits predict will continue.

"The grand-format industry is benefiting from the strength in the economy," says Kirk Green, owner of Ferrari Color. "The nation's companies are eager to get their message out, and digital graphics provide many ways to market."

"Wide-format imaging technologies have proven effective for many applications while opening doors to new and exciting opportunities in a growing number of industry sectors," says Michael Robertson, president of SGIA. "Graphics producers have taken advantage of this, successfully creating new business models based on the capabilities and characteristics of wide-format digital imaging."

And volume is increasing, according to Barry Polan, director of sales, for Crush Creative. "Larger scale projects with a high degree of complexity are increasingly becoming the norm. The days of a transactional based business are over. Almost all 'jobs' are larger 'projects' requiring the coordination of multiple product lines and solutions across multiple regions or countries."

Paul Lillienthal, owner of Pictura, continues, "Clients from all segments have demonstrated an overall strong demand. The retail/consumer markets do not appear to be holding back as much on print budgets as in previous years. Clients are seeing the flexibility and versatility that digital printing offers, ultimately providing a successful campaign and being cost effective."

According to reports from I.T. Strategies, the numbers support these observations. "In 2005, the retail value of printed output from wide-format graphics printers in the US was more than $11 billion and this is expected to increase to more than $17 billion by 2010," says I.T. Strategies' Patti Williams. "This is why print shops buy wide-format inkjet printers: they can make money with them. The overall signage market is relatively healthy and digital will continue to grow both incrementally and by taking share from primarily screen printing and some from offset."

"Overall, imaging segments appear to be faring extremely well right now," concurs A. Ron Waters, president and CEO, Durst Image Technology US, LLC. "Our customers are telling us they have more work than they can handle?some of the growth figures are just astounding. And I think if you just look around, you can see larger images showing up in more and more places. So if I'm a print provider today in these segments, I'm feeling very good about my business and its prospects."