For Printing Pros Only: 5 Printing Trends That Will Blow Up in 2020
Printing efficiently is one of the most crucial things in conducting a successful business. If you’re one of the 30.2 million small businesses in the US, this is especially the case as you have little money to fall back on as a startup. Seeing as you don’t want to have unnecessary financial difficulty, staying on top of the most recent printing trends is a must.
Even if your business is a little bigger, you still don’t want to lose money. Pretty much, no matter where you fall on the business size scale, printing productively should be at the forefront of your mind.
At this point, you should be wondering how you need to change your printing habits this year. Well, we’re here to help you answer that question! Read on to learn some of the greatest trends in printing going into the new year.
1. Increase in Digital Printing
As of now, digital printing is already a big phenomenon. This pretty much means that items can be scanned and stored within copy and print machines. They can be pulled up again later as saved files and printed as many times as you want until they’re deleted. This is awesome because you’re less likely to lose files!
Digital printing is great because papers can be printed faster than ever before, maximizing output efficiency. It also allows for greater personalization in files because they can be edited digitally right before they’re printed.
While digital printing is currently used by these printing services (among pretty much every other printing service), those who don’t use it already will almost certainly switch to it. Without doing so, keeping competitive in the printing game will be nearly impossible.
2. On-Demand Printing
Print on Demand (PoD) refers to the phenomenon of print shops waiting until they receive an order from a company to print documents. The documents will have been with the print shop already, usually in digital form. They just will print as few (or as many) copies as necessary right away when the buyer demands it.
This is in stark contrast to what happened in past years. Print shops used to refuse to print a small number of copies because of the time, effort, and money that it would take to do so. However, with the expansion of digital printing, single document or limited-quantity printing is easier than ever.
3. Customer Flexibility
Because PoD and other digital printing services make getting copies easier than ever before, there’s increased flexibility for customers when trying to get copies. Whether you’re printing things out at your business or buying documents from a print shop, you can order a much wider variety of materials.
With every passing year, technology changes, and with each technology shift comes new opportunities. Current printer add-ons and accessories that are currently in development will soon make it possible to print on a wider variety of materials.
4. Greater Personalization
Because of this flexibility, personalization will be easier than ever before! You’ll be able to order a small number of documents, meaning that printing handouts for the workplace will be a simple task. You’ll also be able to print flyers in bulk but make them different colors or design styles to one another.
More than that, though, you’ll be able to print custom materials for your business more easily. This means sheets to give out at job fairs, sure, but what about rubber coasters? With the shift from printing only on paper to making it possible to print on many materials, this may be possible by 2021!
Greater personalization also means greater sustainability for your business. You can print exactly what you want, exactly when you want it- no questions asked! This opens the door for you to spend more energy on actually doing business than dealing with designing programs, handouts, or invitations to corporate events.
5. Artificial Intelligence
AIs are expanding to pretty much every market, and they’re going to revolutionize the way we print in the coming decade. Many printers on the market today use the WiFi to receive commands and get the job done. AI is going to create higher efficiency by giving data alerts to the printer that it’s a part of in the precise moment that commands are given.
AI bots can also help with connectivity issues by troubleshooting any problems that may exist automatically. They can suggest maintenance when machines or your network need to be looked at. Pretty much, an AI can do anything that someone’s thought to program it for!
Another thing that AIs will do to help us with our printing is to keep printers, copiers, and more safe from security breaches. As we talked about before, many of these machines are digital and continue to store sensitive information after copy or print jobs are completed. AIs can keep unwanted people off the network and secure this information.
More on the Best Printing Trends
We often underestimate the importance of printing in our day-to-day business operations, but it’s an essential tool that we use pretty much all the time. That’s why following printing trends is so important: it helps you stay productive and competitive as well as save money.
Now that you know all the best printing trends for the coming year(s), it’s time to learn more ways to raise the success or your business. Whether the business you run is made up of 20 people or 200, check out the ‘tools’ tab on our home page to get some of the best tools for your company.
Go get ’em, tiger!
