Inkjet technology primed for new opportunities

KODAK RECKONS there's plenty of life in the old inkjet printer yet and so companies like it and HP will keep on flogging ink like there's no tomorrow.

There are a number of niches the inkjet hasn't yet crept into and inkjet firms are marking out the territory, preparing further carving-up, it seems.

According to Jim Hamilton group director at InfoTrends, "The high speed digital printing market is almost exclusively electrophotographic—toner, via laser or LED. There currently are only a small number of high-speed inkjet systems at the ultra-high end," he adds, "like the Kodak Versamark, cranking out huge volumes of output, to be sure."

But inkjets that are faster than lasers are moving into the offset space. Toner-based electrophotographic printing is approaching its speed limit, "while inkjet can keep growing, and inkjet can be less expensive in terms of equipment and consumables," Hamilton reckons

"People will want to print mixed colour and black and white documents cost-effectively, even if it's simply a colour logo at the top of a page, and inkjet will be able to provide low-coverage colour like this more cost effectively." he adds.

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