Print's Power Shift: Inkjet is the Future

By Toni McQuilken

"By 2028, nearly a quarter of all document pages will be inkjet."

Marco Boer, president of IT Strategies and Inkjet Summit conference chair, shared that statistic during the opening keynote session at the 13th annual Inkjet Summit. He also noted that, in 2024, 16% of all document pages were printed on inkjet, but added that by 2028 that number will climb to 24% — almost a quarter of printed pages.

Monday kicked off day one of the event, this year held at the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The day began with a golf outing for those looking for a little fun to go along with all the beautiful sun, but the main event began in the afternoon, with three great sessions to get everyone excited about the next few days.

To truly set the stage, Boer presented "A Definitive Break in the Print Industry Business Model: Moving from a Labor Intensive to a Capital Intensive Industry." He noted that first and foremost, we are moving from a commodity industry to a luxury — something brands are looking to get value from, not just throw away. In fact, Boer stressed that over the next few years, he sees overall volumes declining, but the value of what remains will be just as high, if not higher, than the jobs done today.

To get there, noted Boer, there are three things that the industry can count on:

"Communication to your customers is going to become more important than ever, because during this time of uncertainty, everybody wants to know what's going on."
"We are going to see rising costs. The good news, in a way, for us on the digital printing side of the house, is that we are moving from what used to be really a commodity product print to a luxury product. You're only going to print what you need when you need it, and you're going to be willing to pay for that."
"And the other big thing that we're facing is labor challenges, and I've talked about this a lot -- it's accelerating the labor challenges."

That said, he continued, "As I stand here, I'd like to be cautiously optimistic that as we wind our way through this, digital print is probably going to come out okay."

Marco Boer, president of IT Strategies and conference chair, opened the 13th annual Inkjet Summit with a riveting keynote session.

Boer noted that the tariffs, in particular, pose a major challenge for printers right now, and part of that is the fact that what goods have the tariffs imposed on them, and by how much, seems to be changing daily. Overall, equipment manufacturers sell around $26 million in goods in the United States annually, and then you have the costs of everything that goes with that: inks, substrates, etc. And while Boer noted that it's impossible to really say what that will look like six weeks from now given the rapid pace of change, he predicts the overall cost of goods across the print industry as a whole will be around 10-16%.

"But of course, there'll be outliers all over the place, because some things have such convoluted supply chains, and we are so interconnected around the world that it's going to be very difficult to identify what comes from where and how to tariff it, and, more importantly, how the heck do they collect it," he pointed out.

So printers should ideally be preparing as best they can, with Boer noting some will choose to buy whatever they can now in the hopes to get in before costs go up, while others will take a wait-and-see approach and hope things will settle in the near future. Both approaches have their challenges and opportunities both, so printers will have to navigate what is best for their situation and business.

"Inkjet has certainly proven it worthiness in our industry," he said. "This is the future of our industry."

Solving Problems with inkjet

Following Boer's keynote address were two panel sessions that brought up sponsors and attendees alike. The first, moderated by Boer, had representatives from the four keynote sponsors of the Inkjet Summit up to chat not just about their own technologies, but about how digital inkjet technologies overall are helping printers solve problems and grow their business. Boer was joined by Chris Petro, sales vice president, Strategic Accounts, Canon USA; Barbara MacManus, vice president and general manager, PageWide Industrial, HP; Dustin Graupman, senior director, Ink Jet Division, Kyocera Document Solutions America; and Mark Little, senior director, Global Product Marketing, Ricoh.

Moderator Marco Boer was joined for the keynote panel session by (from left) Chris Petro, sales vice president, Strategic Accounts, Canon USA; Dustin Graupman, senior director, Ink Jet Division, Kyocera Document Solutions America; Barbara MacManus, vice president and general manager, PageWide Industrial, HP; and Mark Little, senior director, Global Product Marketing, Ricoh.

One refrain the panel returned to over and over throughout their time on stage was "we make money when you make money: or that as inkjet press manufacturers, they aren't just focused on selling boxes. They are looking to come in and help printers solve problems, often with integrated solutions that make use of equipment and software from multiple vendors because the more volume and higher value pieces a shop can produce, the more equipment and software they will be willing to invest in.

The final panel of the night was moderated by Pat McGrew, managing director, McGrewGroup, who was joined by Albert Abbatiello, senior vice president, Operations, IMS (Liverpool, New York); Brent Hagen, chief supply chain officer, Lob; and Nicole Wood, vice president of operations, Japs-Olsen (St. Louis Park, Minnesota). The panel, "What Can You Automate in Inkjet Workflow," took a look at three different operations each in different stages of their automation journey. They shared what challenges they have faced, where they started, and where they plan to go next.

During the workflow panel, (from left) moderator Pat McGrew was joined by Albert Abbatiello, senior vice president, Operations, IMS; Nicole Wood, vice president of operations, Japs-Olsen; and Brent Hagen, chief supply chain officer, Lob.

One point they all made was to start with the "low hanging fruit" in the operation for those looking to get started with automation. Find the areas that today are manual intensive and require a lot of man hours, so you'll see the biggest benefits. Or choose the areas that will be easiest to automate quickly and get the process started.

However, the panel stressed, the key to automation working is creating a standardized system that applies to every job that comes in, regardless of what method it is submitted by, what press it is produced on, or what finishing is needed on the back-end. To successfully automate a print shop, starting with creating a process and training staff to use it is often the first hurdle before automation can truly begin in earnest.

And these were just a few of the highlights from the sessions, with attendees enjoying a great deal of insight, tips, tricks, and advice through all three keynotes and panels.

Looking ahead to tomorrow's agenda, many attendees — both those who have attended Inkjet Summits past, and those who are brand new to the event — noted they are looking forward to the networking and case studies the day will bring. There is also a great deal of buzz around the upcoming session from Steve Metcalf, founder, CEO, and chief innovation officer at IMAGINE AI LIVE. Metcalf plans to talk about AI strategy in the inkjet print environment, which many are looking forward to learning more.

If you want to attend Inkjet Summit 2026, stay tuned later this year when the application page will go live — all qualified attendees are invited to attend free of charge. Namely, those looking to invest in inkjet in the near future. And watch Printing Impressions and In-Plant Impressions magazines for more coverage as the event continues to unfold.