Digital Printing in Government Study

According to a new study, the number of government in-plants using conventional printing equipment has declined steadily in recent years. Lithography now accounts for less than 30 percent of the printing produced in house.

These are some of the findings in the study, entitled "Digital Production Printing in the Federal Government: Market Update." It was just released by INTERQUEST, a research and consulting firm serving the digital printing and publishing industry. The study is based on interviews with respondents from in-house printing facilities in executive branch agencies and quasi-government organizations.

"We find that for the most part government in-plants are fulfilling an important function and are operating well within their legislative mandate," says David Davis, a Director at INTERQUEST. "Yet they face a challenging environment, including an aggressive move from all of government to migrate information online, budget cuts, and competition from distributed devices."

Although most categories of output at government in-plants are flat or declining, full-color digital printing is increasing as the cost to produce it progressively declines. This category of work now represents about 12 percent of the digital volume at the typical agency in-plant.

The study focuses on the equipment, applications, volume trends and challenges faces government in-plant facilities. It also examines how in-house printing fits into the overall federal environment, especially the relationship between these facilities and the Government Printing Office (GPO).