December 7, 2017, Colleyville, TX—Madison Advisors today announced the release of its new research study, “Color Print Migration Market Update 2017.” The report provides an overview and analysis of color inkjet technology adoption by both print service providers and enterprise in-plants over the last five years, compared to expectations.  The report also supports Madison Advisors’ view that print will experience a revival thanks to color inkjet technology available in the market today.

“Our latest research reveals that adoption of color has grown, but not as fast as anticipated,” said study author, Gina Ferrara, senior analyst at Madison Advisors. "The data uncovered that 62 percent of the total images produced in 2016 by service providers and enterprise in-plants combined were still monochrome.  This shows there is plenty of opportunity for color inkjet printing to penetrate the transactional printing industry.”

Some key observations in the study include:

• Print service providers produced the majority of image volume: 81 percent of the total image volume was produced by print service providers, despite the equal number of service providers and enterprise in-plants involved in the study.
• Use of color is not volume dependent: With only 3 percent of the total image volume, broadband/cable had the highest use of color at 98 percent. Banks represented close to 25 percent of the image volume and yet 54 percent of those images were monochrome.
• There have been notable increases in the insurance and healthcare verticals: Although the insurance and healthcare verticals still continue to lag, the use of color by these two verticals combined increased to 16.3 percent, up from 5 percent in 2011.
• There is still a large opportunity for color inkjet growth: Of the total 39.78 billion images accounted for in this research, approximately 62 percent were monochrome, indicating that there is still a significant market opportunity for color inkjet.

Madison Advisors has observed the industry’s migration from monochrome to full color over the past decade. The report uncovers why many print service providers and in-plants have been slow to convert their transactional communications from monochrome to color. The analysis also examines the unexpected challenges and benefits of investing in color inkjet technology, as well as its impact on a multi-channel customer communications delivery strategy.

To purchase the full report “Color Print Migration Market Update 2017,” click here.