GRAPH EXPO & CONVERTING EXPO 02 -- Large-format Opportuniti

Small Slice of the Pie

However, commercial printers are getting hardly any of this business. In fact, the NPES report warns that even though large-format ink-jet printing represents "a large and growing incremental print market," commercial printers currently command only about 15 percent of it.

"There's a big market opportunity out there that printers are missing," contends Patti Williams of IT Strategies, one of the authors of the NPES study. She adds that "today, the retail value of large-format ink-jet output is about $18 billion worldwide. As we move forward, if printers don't put a stake in the ground in this area, their customers will never think of them as a source for this sort of work. They run the risk of a technological lock-out."