Discussion on the application and trend of printing, inkjet printing and digital printing in the imaging industry
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Printing, inkjet printing, and digital printing are the current image output methods. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these three methods?
First of all, the background is introduced. The author started with the processing of second-hand digital printing orders. Because of the high profit of high-end digital printing albums envied by Hengmei, the layout of the video business began three years ago. Later, he cooperated with traditional printing companies (mainly for photo paper processing factories to do photo paper printing output, basically no direct photo studio customers), and is ready to build a comprehensive image processing factory with three output methods. Unsatisfactory, in the process of cooperation, especially on the basis that everyone did not have direct photo studio customers, actively develop photo album products and participate in professional video exhibitions, but new customers have been developing badly, which led to the slowdown of business in this area. Down, each returned to the original business.
Printing is a very historic technique. It has been 200 years since the invention of photography in the early 19th century. From the earliest black and white manual washing to the subsequent digital printing, the principle is to use the photoreduction of silver halide. , through the development-fixing-flushing process, the image is presented onto the paper. The printing process is a chemical reaction, which is affected by the concentration and temperature of the liquid, and the color presented is not easy to control. With the development of technology, especially the development of digital laser printing in the late 1990s, the image printing industry is experiencing explosive growth. Science and technology continue to develop at a high speed. In the same period, digital cameras are developing rapidly, growing at a geometric speed, and the digital era of photos is coming. Around 2008, the printing began to decline gradually. It seems that many photos no longer need to be washed out. Coupled with the introverted character of the Chinese, more people are willing to save the photos as private goods. The technology giant is still advancing at a high speed. In a few years, home digital cameras have gradually been replaced by mobile phones. At the same time as the decline of personal photo prints, wedding photos and parent-child photos have become the standard of life. Before and after 2008, large-format printing quickly developed, driving the development of a number of professional image production factories.
Summary: The advantages of printing are: richer colors, more natural transitions, theoretically how many colors are available, how many colors can be printed; disadvantages: chemical reactions in photo printing process can cause pollution, metallic silver is precious metal, phase Paper production costs are high.
Inkjet printing
The inkjet printer was born in 1976. After 2000, the color inkjet technology gradually matured. The wide-format color inkjet printer represented by EPSON developed rapidly. With the improvement of the resolution and speed of the inkjet technology, the wide-format printer is relatively cheap. The price of photographic paper and alternative inks is not high, and the market entry threshold is low, which quickly occupied the low-end products of the photo studio album. The production cost of a photo album is about half cheaper than printing, which is mutually reinforcing with the low-priced photography group purchase products that suddenly appeared on the market. But inkjet also has high-end products, such as insisting on using original ink, the highest resolution printing, high-end photographic paper, art paper output, etc. The quality is not much worse than the printing, the photo color gradation and contrast are more advantageous, but the price is also better than the silver salt printing. Expensive.
Summary: The advantages of inkjet printing: cheap equipment, low requirements on the site and environment, cheap consumables, a wide range of printable materials, except for photographic paper, art paper, cloth, rice paper, synthetic materials, etc. can be printed; : At present, except for the slower speed, there are no other obvious shortcomings.
Digital printing
Digital printing needs to be more talked about. If you counted from the end of the last century of color laser printers, digital printing has been developed for more than 20 years, but digital printing technology is really applied to images. In strict sense, from 2008 onwards. The second generation of the HP Indigo series of digital presses began to appear. Prior to this, toner-based color laser digital presses were significantly different in color and quality from printing and inkjet printing. The imaging principle of HP Indigo is laser charge transfer + transfer, and the printing quality is basically comparable to traditional offset printing. The HP Indigo generation of equipment is basically not used in the imaging industry due to its immature, expensive, and high failure rate. With the introduction of the HP Indigo 3 Series and 5 Series products, print quality and reliability have increased significantly. With the purchase of such equipment for the output of high-end albums by some imaging factories, HP Indigo has attracted the attention of the entire imaging industry with its unique and environmentally friendly selling point. Digital printing companies have also entered the imaging industry.
Compared with printing and inkjet printing, HP Indigo's printed products have obvious differences in clarity and color richness. Since the adhesion of the electronic ink to the surface of the paper is poor, it is easy to scratch the screen. Except for coated paper, most of the specialty papers cannot be coated, and the water-based varnish can only be partially improved, and it is impossible to eradicate the defects that the screen is easily scratched. But in terms of speed, HP Indigo is far ahead. At this time, the market has been divided. Some manufacturers choose to make high-end photo albums. They mainly use children's double-sided leather albums and large-format wedding dresses. The selling point is environmental protection and novel design. However, this part of the market has limited capacity and needs to be printed and Inkjet printing competes for the market. The original business direction of the author is also the same, but the market has taught me the lesson, mainly because I have not done it well and have not insisted. The other part of the company, mostly digital printing companies, entered the field of photo books and commemorative books. This market is an incremental market and a new imaging market demand. With the e-commerce platform such as Taobao and the rapid development of WeChat in 2015, personal photo books have grown rapidly. The price of this part of the product is very low, the profit is limited, but the market capacity is very large. Many digital printing companies with production capacity update and purchase equipment in time to improve production efficiency and strong strength.
Since 2017, HP Indigo's fourth-generation digital press, the HP Indigo 12000, has been introduced, with improved print quality, format and speed, and reduced costs. At this time, digital printing no longer needs to compete with printing and inkjet printing, and the market development of personal photo books and commemorative albums is already very good. Traditional photo studio customers have relatively high color requirements. So far, the film master has color-processed each picture. This part of the photo emphasizes personalization and will fine-tune the color of each photo studio. Digital printing pursues consistency and accurately restores every pixel of the original image. At present, digital printing companies mainly serve as e-commerce order processing in the image market. What needs to be done is to continuously improve production efficiency and extend service length. The e-commerce platform is responsible for receiving orders and customer service. Digital printing enterprises undertake customer business through network platforms. Through a series of automated process processing, high-efficiency printing and binding are achieved. After inspection, it is packaged at the factory and delivered directly to consumers through logistics. At present, the "production + express" packaging costs are getting lower and lower, through software to improve automation, reduce error rate, use more advanced equipment to improve production efficiency to achieve profit.
In addition to electronic ink technology, there are currently UV inkjet printing technologies on the market. The UV ink is sprayed onto the surface of the substrate through the printing head, and the photo-solid reaction occurs rapidly by the irradiation of ultraviolet light, and the ink can be firmly adhered to the surface of the substrate, and no post-protection such as surface coating is required. And the substrate is particularly wide, from extremely thin 80g/m2 coated paper to 0.6mm thick PVC material. Due to the characteristics of the UV ink itself, the resolution is currently lower than that of a professional photo printer, and the graininess is slightly noticeable. The 4-color ink is not as wide as the multi-color ink. However, the strong production capacity also enables it to gain a share in the imaging market, and develop photo album products that are more suitable for the characteristics of the device, such as special paper, synthetic paper and other special albums are also expected.
The proportion of other digital presses in image applications is relatively low. The author believes that the future application of digital printing on images is mainly based on large format and high-speed digital printing equipment.
Different technology, different division of labor
The future development of the imaging market will be more and more subdivided, high-end products will be more personalized, and the volume of mass products will continue to grow. The 200-year-old printing will occupy a large share in the high-end imaging market, and the market acceptance of printing is very high. Many of the end consumers think that the printed products are of high quality, although many times, they do not inform consumers of product output. Under the premise of the way, put the works output by the two output methods together, and ask them which is better, many of them will choose inkjet printing products. As environmental pressures continue to escalate, the production of prints, including the production of upstream photographic papers and liquids, may be affected. At present, the inkjet printing market is relatively saturated. The original low-end products are taken away by digital printing, and they are going to the high-end, high-quality, and brand-oriented industries. Designing and driving products may be more marketable. The inkjet adaptability is high, and the personalized processing of each album is more convenient. Low-end inkjets require a film (with odor), and now the labor costs are getting higher and higher. The finished roll paper has few matching automation equipment and will continue to be squeezed by digital printing products.
The amount of digital printing applied to images will continue to grow in the future, and will also change the consumption habits of Chinese people. With the influence of existing customers, more and more people will pass photos on their mobile phones through WeChat, App, etc. You can get a beautiful photo album of your own with just one box of lunch. Although this kind of image product has low profit, China has a very large capacity and the future is endless. Digital printing companies are engaged in the imaging industry to work hard in the supply chain and serve e-commerce. If the goal is to serve traditional photo studios, the one-stop service provider of the photo studio may be more difficult, the customer channel is difficult to develop, and the photo studio needs more than just a photo album, but a series of supporting products, such as setting up a table, photo frames, etc. For category products, comprehensive service providers are their best choice for photo studios.
In the future, these three kinds of output methods will have their own key development directions, but more need for enterprise decision-makers to accurately control and position the market, do a good job in services and products, and greet a better tomorrow.