Commercial Printers Upbeat About 2005, says TrendWatch

Expectations from within the graphic-arts community are strong that 2005 will be a good year for commercial printers, according to TrendWatch's recently released forecast, “Printing Forecast 2005.” In the report, 90% of respondents expect 2005 to be as good as or better than 2004. Nearly one-third of respondents (32%) expect business in the next 12 months to be “excellent, better than the previous 12 months.”
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Some highlights from the report:

— Quick printers have become one of the healthiest of the printing markets, and it has happened largely by embracing “value-added services,” as well as new technologies such as digital printing, color copying, and non-print services such as cross-media services.

— “Understanding where our business should go in the future” is the number-two challenge for creative firms.

— Twenty percent of all print and prepress firms consider “building a networked, digital infrastructure” as a business challenge, and this challenge is on an upswing.

— About 13% of all print and prepress firms have worked on targeted print jobs that incorporate “variable image, variable text” information.

— Printers say they work on “variable data printing” jobs much less often than do design and production firms.

Price for the “Printing Forecast 2005” report: $995. (TrendWatch: www.trendwatchgraphicarts.com)