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This article is from March 30, 2005, and is no longer current.

A Decade of DI: The TrendWatch Graphic Arts Perspective on the Changing Market for Digital Imaging Equipment

These TrendWatch Graphic Arts digital imaging reports examine the market(s) for digital cameras and scanners in the graphic communications industry.
1994 could arguably have been called “the year of the digital image,” as it was that year that marked the debut of the first flatbed scanners that were ready for prepress workflows, as well as the first real interest in digital photography for the graphic arts. We think we know what’s happened in the decade since-but do we? Both of these technologies have trickled down to the consumer level, but the extent to which that downmarket trend has benefited the graphic arts markets is less clear.
TrendWatch Graphic Arts today released its special report titled “A Decade of DI: The TrendWatch Graphic Arts Perspective on the Changing Market for Digital Imaging Equipment.” The report provides a complete view of both the historical and current markets for digital cameras and scanners in the graphic arts, as well as the forces driving and impeding the market for both types of devices. The graphic arts markets that TWGA looks at comprise printers, prepress firms, graphic design and production firms, publishers, and Internet design and development companies.
The report draws on both the extensive TWGA historical databases and current market survey reports to provide a complete picture of planned investment in digital imaging hardware. The report also provides detailed breakdowns of which price ranges of each type of device are preferred by each market. Other trending data provides both an historical and contemporary context for investment in digital imaging hardware.
Highlights
Among the creative markets, planned investment in both digital cameras and desktop color scanners is at record highs.
At most, only 15% of print and prepress firms have ever planned to invest in a color scanner in any TWGA survey.
Web design, development, and production firms say their preferred scanner investment is in the $500-$1,000 price range.
Researcher’s Comment
“The advent of do-it-yourself digital imaging-in the form of desktop scanners and then digital cameras-has had a profound impact on the industry, specifically the demand for outsourced prepress services. At the same time, conventional wisdom has it that digital photography is killing the market for scanners. The situation is actually far more complex than that, and each graphic arts market, from book publishers to Internet design firms, has its own individual imaging needs, which makes generalized pronouncements and forecasts difficult.”
According to the Report
The advent of digital ad delivery has done more to impede the market for scanners among magazine publishers and their printers than digital photography.
In Spring 2004, 23% of print and prepress firms planned to invest in a digital camera, most of them in the $1,001-$5,000 range.
Between 1998 and 2004, the percentage of catalog publishers who say they produce their own production scans in-house rather than outsourcing them increased from 21% to 43%; at the same time, the percentage of book publishers saying this only increased 5 percentage points.
In Winter 2004/2005, more than half of design and production firms have reported that high-resolution digital photography for print work has increased in the past 12 months.
The increasing focus on new media-like the Web and newer media whose resolution demands are significantly less stringent than those of print-will drive the future imaging needs of creative firms.
Price is $995 for 208 pages of text and graphics. Customers can also buy the Digital Cameras (106 pages) and Color Scanners (106 pages) sections individually for $500 each. Click here to order today.
For more information please read the Table of Contents.
To learn more about how TrendWatch Graphic Arts reports are developed, please see How TrendWatch Graphic Arts Research is Conducted.

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