Offset at a Crossroads

The conventional wisdom is that the quick printing industry has its roots in the AB Dick offset duplicator and the Xerox copier. We have certainly come a long way since then. From down and dirty to digital workflow, the quick and small commercial printing industry segment has evolved with the times and the technology. During that evolution, offset printing has remained a mainstay even as some of its contributions have declined. In the 2000 Quick Printing Franchise Review, single-color offset accounted for 14.4% of sales. That dropped to 4% in this year’s survey. Multi-color offset also declined as a percent of sales, although not as drastically. It fell from 19.3% of sales to 17.8%. Meanwhile, four-color offset doubled from 4.3% of sales to 8.3% of sales. The driver behind those changes is digital technology. Black-and-white offset was the first major victim of the digital age when such jobs migrated to monochrome copier/printers. Two- and three-color offset managed to hang in due to run lengths, quality concerns, and color click charges. Four-color offset grew to fulfill requirements for longer run lengths and quality. CTP has certainly helped offset to hang in, as have advances in press automation and capabilities. The question is, what role will offset continue to play as digital technology answers quality and run-length questions and new output technology such as inkjet enters the fray?