One of the greatest challenges facing the forms manufacturing industry these days is the need to broaden products and services to replace revenues lost by shrinking volumes of print-based forms. The challenge is that the new products and services towards which many manufacturers are leaning—marketing collateral, direct mail, and other commercial print—cannot be sold using traditional sales techniques. Suppliers are competing with Internet-based direct sales for short-run and static work, while end users are shifting toward program applications and personalized communications, which require a completely new sales relationship.

It wasn't that long ago that, if you wanted to get into digital printing, you only had a few options to choose from. There were copiers suitable for office printing and quick print work, a handful of production digital presses, and high-speed black-and-white machines for transactional and what we now call “transpromotional” work (high-volume 1:1 personalized letters, such as for insurance or financial applications).

Label Expo, held every other year in the United States, provides an excellent view of a dynamic printing industry segment that abounds with opportunities, new technology and product innovations. The equipment, materials, supplies and systems on display reflect the current state of the label printing and the future as envisioned by machinery designers and other industry suppliers.   Label Expo 2006 showed a strong but rapidly changing label industry with major shifts in product mix and intense focus on equipment productivity and versatility. A trend clearly visible in new press capabilities at the show was the gradual merging of label production into a boarder narrow-web package printing industry.