Speaking on the topic ‘Digital printing- today and tomorrow’, Gupta stated that by 2020 Asian print market would touch 20 trillion A4 sheets - the double of Western Europe its nearest print region in terms of numbers.

Opening his presentation by highlighting the global print drivers, he said that reduction in run length or shorter lead times, total variable printing, versioning and personalisation as the key factors apart from technology development and adoption, web to print system and digital print being the rest of the drivers.

Elaborating further on the key factors for the adoption of digital printing, he pointed out a survey where the rising requirement of short run firmly remains the primary reason for the growth of digital printing.

Recent improvement in digital printing technology, low initial set-up costs, rising requirement for personalisation and variable data were the other factors in that order which was highlighted in the survey. Environmental issues was the last in the list of factors for the growth of digital printing, the survey said.

Making his case for inkjet technology, Gupta said that the global print market volumes of inkjet would grow from 800 million A4 in 2016 to 2200 million A4 in 2024 whereas electrophotography would make a marginal jump from 1300 to 1700 million A4.

Contrasting inkjet with digital toner technology, Gupta quoting a InfoTrends forecast said that production colour inkjet which accounted for 45% of total digital colour production volume in 2015 would go up to 60% in 2020, while digital colour toner would grow at 7.6% in the same period.

The InfoTrends survey also expects the digital production colour volumes to double from 450 billion impressions in 2015 to 900 billion impressions by 2020.

The influx of digital production equipment was also highlighted by Gupta. Using IDC data, he said that the growth of digital production equipment in India increased by 12.6% in CY16 at 1176 in comparison to 1044 equipment in CY15.