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Wide-format plays two roles in the printing industry—output for sale and output for proofing. Output for proofing is probably most common among printers with larger format presses. In our industry, output for sale is the most common wide-format application, but by most estimates only about 20% of quick and small commercial printers offer wide-format printing to their customers. Does that mean wide-format is an insignificant profit center? Not by a long shot.
The most recent Franchise Review (See Quick Printing, April 2007) found that wide-format accounted for only 3.4% of total sales in the franchise segment. However, with $1.98 billion in sales, that adds up to a significant $67.32 million. The most recent QP Top 100 survey found that wide-format accounted for 3.1% of the $636 million in total sales, or $19.7 million. That works out to $197,000 per company—hardly chump change.
Wide-format isn't new to our industry. Many printers have been offering it since the 1990s and earlier. However, it has only recently been tracked as a separate profit center. The 2006–2007 NAQP Pricing Study was the first association study to break out wide-format monochrome and color pricing.
Common Denominators
While there are exceptions to every rule, quick printers overwhelmingly use aqueous or dye-based inkjet output devices—usually no larger than 44". The other output process involves solvent-based or pigment inks, which offer their own set of advantages and disadvantages.
One of the major advantages of aqueous is that it avoids the problem of VOCs. It is also less demanding and is sufficient for most indoor applications. Also, the hardware, inks, and media are generally cheaper than with solvent.
On the other hand, solvent ink output, while more demanding and more expensive, can command higher prices because of its weather and fade resistance characteristics and better longevity, which make it suitable for outdoor applications such as signage.
Wide-format can include much larger output devices (grand-format) and flatbed devices, which are suitable for using rigid media. However, quick and small commercial printers have, for the most part, stuck with 44" roll media output devices from the likes of Epson, Encad, HP, and Xerox. The vast majority of wide-format output in our industry segment is color, although monochrome engineering output on machines from such companies as Océ and Xerox is occasionally offered. Some of the more recent output devices can handle both solvent and aqueous output.
Applications
The two most common wide-format applications for printers are posters and retail signage. Other applications include trade show graphics, legal displays, banners, and engineering drawings. With the improvements in printer resolution and pigmented (solvent) inks, the market for fine art output has grown. However, quick and small commercial printers seldom get involved in fine art reproduction. The same goes for such glamorous applications as floor graphics and vehicle wraps, although many printers have turned to outside sources to have their own delivery vehicles decoratively wrapped.
As with any technology, there is more to wide-format than simple output. Just as a printer would have to modify production capabilities in moving to a larger format press, so too would he or she have to figure out what was needed to finish the job that comes off the wide-format printer.
Perhaps the simplest application for a printer looking to get into wide-format for the first time is vinyl signage. Just pop in a few grommets and hang it up. Of course, there is more to becoming a serious wide-format resource for your customers. Framing, installation, mounting, laminating, installing window graphics, etc. all are value-added services that can make wide-format more profitable. At the very least, no printer should ever try to get into wide-format without a good laminator.
Future Trends
As quick and small commercial printers evolve into more complete service providers, wide-format is likely to become a much more common offering. There certainly remain space, pricing, and marketing issues, but providing a total package for a customer's communications needs will include signs and posters as much as envelopes and letterhead, brochures and booklets, or VDP and mailing services.
With continuing improvements in speed, resolution, color accuracy, print quality, and price, wide-format undoubtedly will become more and more attractive to those quick and small commercial printers who have been reluctant to enter the market. Some recent surveys have found that between 20% and 30% of quick printers see wide-format as a potential sales opportunity in the near future.
Will wide-format become as ubiquitous as computers, digital printers, offset presses, etc.? Perhaps not, but in this age of multi-media demands it should take its place along side all of the other services a quick or small commercial printer offers to customers.
author: By Bob Hall