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Inkjet & Wide Format in Professional Photography

Introduction
 
InfoTrends/CAP Ventures new research report, Inkjet and Wide Format in Professional Photography, explores the professional photography market in relation to inkjet technology, with a focus on the use of wide format printers. The report considers photographers’ printing habits and perceptions, and discusses the role that inkjet technology and wide format applications play in survey respondents’ businesses.

Wide Format in Professional Photography: Market Overview

InfoTrends/CAP Ventures believes that the U.S. market for professional photographic inkjet printing (including hardware, ink, and media) was valued at $104 million during 2004.

Figure 1: U.S. Professional Photography Inkjet
Hardware and Supplies Revenues ($M) 

The majority of revenue from the professional photography market (almost $90 million) can be attributed to supplies, but there will also continue to be a valuable printer hardware market among professional photographers.

Our research tells us that although inkjet is already a well-established print technology in the professional photography market, there is still room for growth. InfoTrends/CAP Ventures believes that most of the growth in the inkjet market will be due to photographers that print their own work instead of sending it to a lab as well as photographers with dye-sub printers that switch to inkjet. Overall, inkjet hardware and supplies revenues in the professional photography market will increase at a CAGR of 6% to surpass $125 million by 2008.

Equipment Satisfaction and Purchasing Plans

Users of inkjet-based photo printing systems indicated an overall high level of satisfaction. When asked to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being unsatisfied and 5 being very satisfied, users reported they are generally satisfied with the print quality, ease-of-use, and image durability that they get from their inkjet-based photo printing systems.

When asked about their future investment plans for a new photo/art/proof printing system, over 60% of survey participants indicated that they planned to make a purchase within the next 2 years. 

Figure 2: What are your plans for investing in a new
photo/art/proof printing system?

This is the most aggressive number of respondents planning a new equipment investment that we have found among our wide format research studies, but it is partly driven by the existence of a lot of desktop and narrow format equipment, which has a shorter useful life span than wide format equipment.

Conclusion

Professional photographers are a key component of the creative segment of the wide format digital printing market, producing hundreds of photos, fine art prints, and proofs per month and showing a tendency to adopt more inkjet equipment in the future because of the low initial cost and high-quality printing capabilities.

The preceding is an excerpt from InfoTrends/CAP Ventures’ report "Inkjet and Wide Format in Professional Photography." The complete document is available immediately. To learn more about the report or to make a purchase, please click here to visit our online store or contact Alison Hipp at , ext. 126 or .