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The market will continue to grow over the next 5 years! What is the current state of the electrostatic imaging printing market?

Electrophotographic (EP) printing technology was invented by Chester Carlson in 1938. Xerox introduced the first electronic dry-process plain paper copier in 1959. In 1990, Xerox launched the DocuTech digital printing system, followed by the Indigo Eprint in 1993 and the Xeikon continuous-feed printing press, which promoted the development of production-oriented electrophotographic printing and has led the printing industry over the past thirty years in its shift from traditional offset, flexographic, and gravure printing to digital printing. As inkjet printing, as well as digital offset and flexographic printing, gradually capture more market share, the pace of development for electrophotographic printing technology seems to have slowed, but the field still has growth potential and innovative achievements. Therefore, electrophotographic printing may continue to be with us for a long time.

Market Growth Trends

For decades, the field of electrophotographic printing has continuously attracted investment and innovation. In fact, even in the face of competition from inkjet and traditional printing, electrophotographic printing technology has maintained growth thanks to several key factors: First, as a mature technology, issues related to media compatibility and post-press processing have been gradually resolved. Second, the initial equipment cost is lower than most other technologies, reducing barriers to entry in the industry. Although there are certain limitations in speed and paper width, these are increasingly being addressed through support for longer paper lengths and optimized imaging engine performance.

Looking ahead, the global electrophotographic printing market is expected to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.9% from 2025 to 2035, meaning the market size will expand by approximately 21% over ten years. Although this indicates relatively slow growth and a mature market stage, by 2034, the global electrophotographic printing market is still expected to reach about $11.24 billion. High-volume applications such as direct mail and transactional documents are particularly impacting the market share of electrophotographic printing.

Today, the main application areas of electrophotographic printing are concentrated in the following industries:

(1) Corporate and office printing: covering corporate offices, banks, insurance, government, and other sectors for transactional documents, business communication materials, manuals, and reports. With rapid turnaround, reliability, and cost-effective single-color and color documents, electrophotographic printing still dominates this field.

(2) Commercial printing and professional print shops: widely used for brochures, catalogs, bookmarks, banners, and business manuals, where high clarity and durability are required for high-quality print jobs.

(3) Packaging and label printing: increasingly used in labels, cartons, and folding boxes, especially suitable for applications requiring regulatory compliance, durability, and fast delivery.

(4) Education and healthcare sectors: suitable for economic printing needs for textbooks, forms, legal documents, and medical records.

Technological Innovation and Breakthroughs

Electrophotographic printers are mainly divided into liquid toner types (represented by HP Indigo) and dry toner types (used by most other manufacturers), and they are categorized by paper feeding method into sheet-fed and roll-fed printers-the latter having higher productivity but slightly lower application flexibility.

HP Indigo holds an important position in the electrophotographic printing market: since its launch in 1993, more than 10,300 units have been installed worldwide, covering 4,500 customers in 120 countries, with approximately 2,000 printers used for labels and packaging. According to IDC 2024 data, HP Indigo accounts for 51% of the digital printing press market, with B2 format printers (including the sheet-fed HP Indigo 10000 for commercial printing, roll-fed HP Indigo 20000, and sheet-fed HP Indigo 30000 for packaging) installed over 300 units. In the label sector, leveraging the 6K series and the pioneering V12 model, its printer installations exceed 2,500 units, with a market share of 50%. In flexible packaging, with over 400 installations, it has become a market-validated mainstream solution.

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HP Indigo V12Digital printer

Speed Improvement

Although most manufacturers of electrostatic imaging presses have also launched production-type inkjet printing products, they are enhancing the productivity of electrostatic imaging presses by increasing speed and optimizing the intelligence of new integrated operating systems. This is because, as an important component of the printing technology mix, there is an urgent need to improve the performance of electrostatic imaging printing.

Recently, several new electrostatic imaging presses have been unveiled, showing significant performance leaps. For example, HP Indigo Series 5 presses are 30% faster than Series 4; its V12 label press adopts a new Series 6 inline printing architecture (instead of the traditional shared impression cylinder printing architecture), with a rated speed of up to 120 meters per minute, supporting up to 12 ink stations.

The Xeikon SX3000 roll-fed press has improved its performance by 30% compared to the previous generation through a platform redesign. The new SIRIUS platform features hardware upgrades and design optimizations in substrate preparation, printing units, fusing, and cooling systems, achieving a top operating speed of 30 meters per minute (equivalent to 404 A4 pages per minute).

In the roll-fed label printing field, the Konica Minolta AccurioLabel 400 is one of the fastest electrostatic imaging label presses, with a maximum printing speed of 40 meters per minute.

Not long ago, the top speeds of most full-color sheet-fed electrostatic imaging presses ranged between 80–100 pages per minute; for duplex-capable machines, the speed was usually halved. Today, we see a significant performance improvement in such equipment. For example, Canon imagePRESS V1350 reaches a top speed of 135 pages per minute; the Canon varioPRINT 6000 (Titan) monochrome press achieves up to 320 pages per minute; Konica Minolta AccurioPress C14000 (e) series prints at 140 pages per minute; Ricoh Pro C9500 (also sold as Heidelberg Versafire EP) reaches 135 pages per minute; Fujifilm Commercial Innovation IridesseTM (Revoria PressTM PC1120) has a top speed of 120 pages per minute, while its IGEN 5/150 model reaches 150 pages per minute.

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Ricoh Pro C9500

Comprehensive performance optimization

In addition to speed, the improvement of equipment comprehensive effectiveness (OEE) has become the focus of technology research and development, and the core optimization directions include.

(1) Media adaptation and stable paper supply: Whether it is conveying lightweight offset paper or heavy packaging media, envelopes or magnetic materials (each material has its own unique characteristics), it will have an impact on the paper supply and imaging process; Duplex printing can compound potential problems, especially as high-end sheetfed electrostatic imaging presses increasingly support 24-inch and longer paper sizes.

For example, the Canon POD DECK F1 features a fully pneumatic paper feed system with excellent separation performance and can handle a wide range of materials from light paper to heavy packaging media, envelopes, magnets, and more, automatically discharging problem media into the scrap tray even with double feeds, allowing for sustainable printing without operator intervention.

(2) Precise registration control: Konica Minolta AccurioPress C14000 is equipped with the IQ-501 intelligent quality optimizer, which can automatically adjust the front and back sides of the registration before printing, ensuring that the printed image is accurately aligned on both sides of the paper, minimizing registration deviations and manual intervention. Ricoh has also introduced a new paper transfer unit specifically designed to improve front and back registration, further enhancing alignment accuracy. news-600-1

Konica MinoltaAccurioPress C14000

(3) Color Stability Assurance: Today, most electrostatic imaging printers achieve precise color control through built-in online spectrophotometers. For example, the Ricoh C9500 is equipped with an automatic color diagnostic unit that monitors print output in real time and automatically adjusts color deviations. The Canon imagePRESS V1000 comes with a built-in densitometer that automatically measures 20 color patches (at 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% densities for each primary color) every minute (or every 102 pages); the imagePRESS V1350 performs this measurement between each image, and if a color is detected outside the tolerance range, the printer automatically adjusts in real time. Additionally, this series supports media calibration, creating custom media profiles, calibration according to the G7 standard, and even verification checks for multiple color standards. The Ricoh Image Quality Monitor (IQM) offers seven selectable detection levels, automatically comparing data processed by the Raster Image Processor (RIP) with scanned printed samples to identify and correct issues. Users can also adjust gloss based on the media and print requirements and perform fully automatic color registration to maintain image alignment and clarity. The Konica Minolta AccurioPress C14000 ensures color consistency for long runs by continuously measuring and correcting print colors, automatically detecting issues like color shifts and banding.

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CanonimagePRESS V1350

Expanding Color Capabilities

Nowadays, printing has become a true value-added communication method, and with the help of new digital tools, value-added printing is gradually becoming mainstream. Fujifilm Business Innovation's Iridesse™ uses CMYK EA-Eco toner for the first time along with Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) imaging technology, and is equipped with two additional stations for special effects processing. The two extra toner stations can be loaded with various specialty toners, including clear, pink, gold, silver, white, and high-gloss gold and silver metallic toners, achieving three-dimensional effects through multiple passes. Fujifilm Business Innovation also supports expanded color capabilities in four new entry-level to mid-range color production presses in the Revoria series (including the Revoria Press EC2100, EC2100S, SC285, and SC285S). These presses also use CMYK EA-Eco toner and VCSEL imaging technology, with resolutions up to 2400 dpi. It is expected that in the near future, other electrophotographic printing manufacturers will also launch more devices supporting expanded color capabilities.

Printing technology is by no means stagnant. The digitization and automation of offset printing have further enhanced its competitiveness against digital printing technology; production inkjet printing technology continues to make progress in terms of quality and productivity, with many new products being introduced. However, against this backdrop, electrophotographic printing technology is also experiencing a new period of technological growth, and thus it is expected to maintain strong market vitality for a long time to come.