More than half of businesses are completely in the dark about how much they are spending on printing.

A major provider of printing ink, Cartridge World, states that on average, businesses spend £436 a year per employee on printing. Translate these costs across a large workforce and you’re left with a very large number as well.Yet while printing is a big cost, the demands of this industry are not changing any time soon. According to SmithersPira, the print industry could be worth $980 billion by 2018, fueled largely by demand for packaging and labelling.With costs and demands rising, any solution that helps businesses to slash their bill is extremely lucrative.

In essence, businesses have always had a dilemma when it comes to their printing operations. Large scale and high quality print jobs were traditionally handled by offset printing, while cheaper, quicker digital printing took care of jobs where speed and cost were of the essence. An uneasy impasse between the two has been the status quo for a while.

For big businesses, having two forms of printing for two scenarios doesn’t really help and certainly does nothing to shave money off the overall printing bill. Landa, a digital printing company has created a solution for large businesses with their large format printing solutions that tap into the benefits of digital technology.

Their developments in Nanotechnology were created to bridge a gap, forging a process that aims to finally unite the speed of digital with the scale of offset. The potential for a ‘best of both worlds’ solution is massive when you set it against the predictions of growth in this sector.

The printing business is an ever growing sector. Of course, the new developments of 3D printing are turning heads; however, this sector is already suffering. According to Money Week, the 3D printing business is experiencing a boom and bust hype cycle. Its solutions to the more mainstream printing needs are not as prevalent as businesses would like.

When looking at the costs of digital printing, it is necessary to weigh up the facts in the short, medium and long term. In the short term we can see that the cost of printing is significant and something that many businesses struggle to keep on top of. In the medium term, new technology and innovations offer solutions that could shave the time and cost off this and, in the long term, the savings could be massive. Those three factors combine to make this an industry well worth investing in.

By Kar

Dr. Kar works in the interface of digital transformation and data science. Professionally a professor in one of the top B-Schools of Asia and an alumni of XLRI, he has extensive experience in teaching, training, consultancy and research in reputed institutes. He is a regular contributor of Business Fundas and a frequent author in research platforms. He is widely cited as a researcher. Note: The articles authored in this blog are his personal views and does not reflect that of his affiliations.