Digital colour prints to leap to 372 billion pages by 2008

I.T Strategies report reveals that a total of 276 billion pages were printed on narrow format ink jet and colour EP (toner) printers in 2003. While only 50 per cent of these pages were printed in colour, by 2008 that figure is expected to grow to 62 per cent to reach 372 billion pages out of a total of 596 billion.

According to Patti Williams, consulting partner at I.T. Strategies, these results are indicative of a shift in the industry towards digital colour printers. “Growth in the digital printer industry today and in the future is predicated on the sales of digital colour printers, including narrow format ink jet printers and colour electrophotographic (EP) printers,” said Williams. Of the pages printed in colour in 2003, 81 per cent of them were printed on EP printers with this figure expected to increase to 86% by 2008.

Of the 86 billion pages printed on ink jet printers in 2003, about a third were printed in colour and I.T. Strategies expects this to increase to 114 billion by 2008. “In the home/consumer market, ink jet is virtually the only technology used to print in colour,” said Williams.

The report from I.T. Strategies also showed that a higher percentage of pages are printed in colour on digital colour EP printers than on ink jet printers, due to users making a price-driven decision to purchase them specifically for colour output. “The corporate/business segment is dominated by colour EP,” said Williams.