If you have any needs pls contact me-
Whatsapp number of Ivy: +852 57463641 (My Wechat +86 18933510459)
Email me: 01@songhongpaper.com
With the advent of the 5G and big data era, advancements in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, mobile internet, and big data analytics are reshaping the demand landscape and ecosystem of the printing industry. Reconstructing application scenarios, technical architectures, production processes, marketing models, and service delivery methods has become a critical priority. Through the strategic integration of digitalization, intelligence, industrial convergence, and green development in printing, the industry is exploring new business models, innovative products, and emerging services to meet evolving market demands and capture future opportunities and value. This transformation is catalyzing a shift in the inkjet printing sector-from data-driven printing services toward platform-driven development paradigms-enabling deeper integration, collaboration, and innovation among inkjet technologies and related advanced technologies, thereby shaping a new industrial future through technological convergence and breakthroughs.
Opportunities for the Development of the Inkjet Printing Industry
China's "14th Five-Year Plan" for the printing industry outlines key development strategies, including brand enhancement, major project leadership, industrial park and cluster development, integrated growth, international expansion, and talent-driven innovation. Under the dual-circulation economic framework, leveraging the Industrial Internet to optimize industrial chain structures and enhance innovation capabilities across the entire printing value chain hinges on developing new products, business forms, and models that address diverse market needs. These developments present significant growth opportunities for the inkjet printing industry.
Application of the Printing Industry Internet in 5G Scenarios
In recent years, the printing market has exhibited trends toward greater product variety, smaller batch sizes, higher quality standards, and increased sustainability. The proliferation of 5G-enabled applications in upstream sectors served by printing has introduced new requirements for manufacturing and services-including broader product portfolios, more complex use cases, and shorter delivery cycles. These shifts have accelerated the evolution of the Printing Industry Internet from traditional consumer-centric models focused on human connectivity to industrial Internet systems centered on the interconnection of people, machines, devices, and systems within the real economy. This transition enables comprehensive integration of all elements, the full industrial chain, and the entire value chain in printing manufacturing and services, thereby creating new development opportunities for inkjet printing, which excels in diverse and flexible application environments.
From the perspective of inkjet printing development, the Printing Industry Internet establishes an open, global communication network that connects printing enterprises, industrial clusters, and their internal assets-including equipment, production lines, personnel, workshops, warehouses, suppliers, products, and customers-facilitating resource sharing throughout the production lifecycle. It enables ubiquitous connectivity and integration of all production elements. Through the "circulation of printing data," information is collected, exchanged, and shared via smart devices and networks, forming continuous data flows. Advanced big data analytics tools are employed to store, analyze, and visualize these data streams, empowering decision-makers with optimal printing solutions in real time. This enhances printing efficiency, reduces operational costs, and increases data value, laying a solid foundation for inkjet printing to meet demands across various substrates, print volumes, and fully digital workflows.
2. Customized Publishing and Printing Integration
Over the past decade, the integration of publishing and printing has driven structural transformation across the industry chain. By establishing a digital publishing ecosystem, creating decentralized production centers, and developing precise big data services, the industry has achieved platform-based and efficient centralized production. This new model-guided by principles of "mobile-first" and "user-first"-leverages digitalization, intelligence, and integration, utilizing new media technologies to deconstruct content into diversified formats for multi-channel distribution and integrated dissemination. It strengthens core capabilities in publishing content management, platform-terminal integration, and the adoption of advanced printing technologies, while enabling interoperability and data sharing in publishing and printing operations. This provides readers with personalized, customized reading and data-sharing experiences, opening new markets, demands, and business models for data-driven, inkjet-based custom printing of books, periodicals, and newspapers.
In future data-integrated scenarios, the convergence of publishing and printing will leverage data-driven approaches to fully exploit segmented market resources-including content, audience data, and contextual insights-to deliver precisely tailored printing services. This approach not only satisfies traditional reader preferences and payment behaviors but also supports value-added customized printing services aligned with the consumption habits of younger generations, such as on-demand or dynamic payments for digital content. As a result, specialized printing demands are emerging from distinct geographic regions, cultural communities, and lifestyle segments, positioning inkjet-printed products and their data-derived services as essential bridges for cooperation, communication, interaction, experience sharing, and mutual benefit across diverse user groups. Simultaneously, this integration imposes new requirements on inkjet printing regarding the seamless integration of publishing resource information, structured publishing data, and visual data representation-particularly for intelligent and customized printing services. These developments create new opportunities for high-precision collection, analysis, storage, management, and value-added utilization of innovative, customized publishing content.
3. Brand Customization Driving Packaging Innovation
As "5G + Industrial Internet" technologies continue to penetrate various segments of the printing value chain, a trillion-yuan incremental market centered on brand-driven customization is emerging. By deploying Printing Industry Internet platforms, enterprises can overcome internal inefficiencies and establish data-sharing networks and collaborative pathways across the printing ecosystem. Digital inkjet technology enables brand owners and small-to-medium enterprises to access digital resources and adapt to dynamic printing scenarios, fulfilling future demands for real-time responsiveness, omnichannel engagement, and high-quality, refined packaging innovation. These capabilities are becoming central to the intelligent manufacturing transformation of printing enterprises.
Currently, inkjet printing serves as a pivotal technological node enabling brand owners and printers to achieve intelligent, integrated, efficient, and customized production. It not only provides the technical foundation for reconstructing industrial ecosystems, application scenarios, and service models under the paradigm of "cloud migration, data utilization, and intelligence enhancement," but also facilitates seamless data integration between brands and printing partners. This addresses key challenges faced by brand owners-including diverse product categories, numerous small-batch orders, complex technical processes, low operational standardization, high unit costs, and narrow profit margins. Digitalization has empowered brand packaging printing with end-to-end digital and intelligent capabilities across order management, design, production, logistics, procurement, warehousing, and technical support, thereby unlocking new markets and growth opportunities for inkjet printing.
4. Intelligent Label Applications for Interactive Experiences
Driven by big data, cloud computing, 5G, and AI, the growing demand for "interactive experience + paper-digital integration" is transforming label printing. Customized label printing is increasingly embedded in daily life, reshaping consumer behavior and enriching community engagement. Establishing intelligent, multi-source heterogeneous data presentations for labels and creating novel user interactions, experiences, and applications represent emerging opportunities for inkjet printing.
Key technical considerations for enhancing user interaction through inkjet printing include: First, identifying user needs for intelligent label experiences, particularly those involving participation and personalization-such as personalized avatars for payment codes. Based on inkjet printing characteristics and substrate compatibility, standardized label element frameworks should be developed, incorporating user behavior patterns, perception data, preferences, and key concerns to guide and enhance intelligent user experiences. For example, ensuring seamless connectivity between labels and mobile devices across recognition environments, and integrating with AR/VR technologies to create immersive virtual experiences. Second, establishing a DIY label module tailored for inkjet printing that empowers users to design and create their own labels, fostering online collaborative teams involving all stakeholders. This supports platform-based co-creation and service delivery, enhanced by resource management, knowledge bases, revenue sharing, and value-added services to deepen user engagement. Third, implementing interactive operational interfaces-such as icons, charts, or flow diagrams-on the Printing Industry Internet platform for paper-digital integrated label applications. These interfaces allow users and buyers to monitor production progress, schedules, product styles, encountered issues, and support channels via control panels, smartphones, or smart terminals, enabling real-time oversight and collaborative interaction. This improves user experience and satisfaction through active participation.
Challenges in the Development of the Inkjet Printing Industry
The printing industry is currently undergoing a transformation within an Industrial Internet paradigm characterized by evolving technologies, customer expectations, and marketing strategies, with a focus on the interconnectedness of people, machines, and data. Efforts are underway to build comprehensive Printing Industry Internet systems and overcome data silos. The emergence of a new industrial model emphasizing "centralized production, distributed customization, intelligent services, and environmental value addition" poses significant challenges for inkjet printing, particularly in innovating pan-Internet applications involving human, machine, and data integration.
1. Urgent Need for Breakthroughs in Core Inkjet Technologies
Despite sustained market potential and ongoing innovation, the Chinese printing industry faces persistent technological bottlenecks. While the market for educational printing materials continues to expand, with rising quality standards, improved design, greener technologies, and cleaner supply chains, key components such as inkjet nozzles remain largely dependent on imports. There remains a notable gap between domestic digital printing equipment and international benchmarks. Moreover, a comprehensive platform, system, and ecosystem tailored to China's market characteristics and aligned with initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative have yet to be established. In particular, the industry lacks globally competitive standards, systems, equipment, and materials.
From an application standpoint, to meet future market demands, inkjet printing must establish multi-dimensional data linkages and enable online collaborative interactions across the printing value chain-spanning business, data, control, management, capital, and service flows. Within a holistic platform architecture encompassing intelligent edge computing, ubiquitous networking, trusted Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and Industrial Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), the industry must advance "networked + intelligent" operational coordination. This will systematically address bottlenecks in product design, R&D, process control, quality assurance, and supply chain logistics in customized inkjet printing. By integrating with Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS), Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), and Dynamic Pick Systems (DPS), the printing process can be digitally reengineered for transparency and visualization. This fosters reusable and revalued data and resource models under digital and intelligent governance, reducing technical complexity and labor intensity for frontline workers, significantly improving productivity, and meeting the demands of a future trillion-yuan-scale market characterized by massive small-batch orders, diverse technical processes, low standardization, high costs, and thin margins.
2. Urgent Need to Build an Industrial Internet Platform for Inkjet Printing
Endowed with inherent resource-sharing capabilities, inkjet printing is pioneering integrated service models such as "publishing + printing," "design + printing," "packaging + printing," and "label + printing." In 5G + Industrial Internet scenarios, by integrating with product, information, and value chains of related industries, it can serve niche printing markets with digital, precise, intelligent, and efficient solutions. Efficient allocation of printing resources, traffic, services, management, and applications will enable personalized experiences such as "cloud printing of books and periodicals," "cloud packaging," and "cloud label customization"-presenting new challenges and opportunities.
The Printing Industry Internet is transforming traditional manufacturing models, production organization, service systems, and industrial structures by enabling comprehensive connectivity among people, machines, and things; full integration of elements, chains, and value networks; and intelligent data collection, transmission, analysis, and feedback. This optimizes resource allocation, maximizes the potential of inkjet equipment, technologies, processes, and materials, enhances enterprise efficiency, and enables differentiated products and value-added services. To establish a dedicated Industrial Internet platform for inkjet printing, efforts must begin with four core dimensions: foundational data, data association, data collaboration, and data value creation. This involves identifying common technologies for inkjet Industrial Internet applications and building customized platform solutions. Second, inkjet process reengineering and prioritized application projects should be developed to meet enterprise needs across business demands, product quality, cost-effectiveness, and smart manufacturing. This includes realizing "centralized production with distributed customization," "integrated digital design and prepress," and "efficient, green production with remanufacturing services." Third, in alignment with the goals of "connecting to the cloud, leveraging data, and enhancing intelligence," the platform must expand market reach through networking, enhance product functionality through digitization, deliver collaborative online production services, and optimize resource allocation through intelligent systems-achieving true "digitalization, precision, intelligence, and efficiency" in inkjet printing.
3. Urgent Need to Optimize Standardization of Multi-Heterogeneous Data in Inkjet Printing
Current inkjet printing applications face dual challenges from "paper-digital integration" in customized printing and personalized value-added services. Overcoming data fragmentation requires addressing multiple stages-including planning, editing, production, and printing-across diverse imaging technologies, data formats, operational modes, and stakeholder interests. Particularly, standardizing multi-source, heterogeneous data across cross-temporal, cross-spatial, and cross-organizational collaborative operations, as well as along upstream-downstream production and information chains, remains a critical technical bottleneck.
From a data chain perspective, standardizing multi-heterogeneous data in inkjet printing requires: First, systematically mapping data formats across upstream and downstream business, production, management, and service processes associated with inkjet applications. This includes standardizing and normalizing data in digital content creation, product manufacturing, content management, and application deployment. Collaboration with publishers, brand owners, and label users is essential to align business processes and modularly configure personalized user preferences for inkjet printing. Second, adopting XML-based structured data technologies. By adhering to predefined compliance standards, inkjet-printed content should undergo structured processing, converting non-XML files into validated, compliant XML formats suitable for structured content storage, management, and reuse. This approach accommodates both small and large document formats used by authors, editors, designers, and producers in collaborative workflows involving structured editing, style design, layout engines, interactive typesetting, and data processing. It streamlines the printing process, improves production efficiency, lowers manufacturing costs, reduces data preparation time, and expands the range of applicable products and user segments.
