04.03.24
The global wallcovering market is huge. Spherical Insights has the global market at nearly $31 billion in 2020, reaching approximately $50 billion by 2030. As for the digitally printed portion of the printed wallcoverings market, analysts say it is growing rapidly, but there are differences in overall expectations.
MarketsandMarkets places the inkjet wallpaper side at $4.7 billion in 2022, reaching $13.1 billion by 2027. That would be a CAGR of 22.4%. Grand View Research had the market at $2.7 billion in 2022, growing by 18.2% through 2030. Business Research Institute placed the digitally printed wallpaper market at $2.44 billion in 2020, reaching $5.4 billion by 2026.
Digital ink manufacturers see similar trends, particularly in terms of how the market is growing as it moves away from gravure and screen, driven by the traditional advantages of inkjet printing. In a way, it is much like how digital printing is growing in the textle marketplace.
Michael Bush, marketing communications manager, FUJIFILM Ink Solutions Group, observed that digital printing of wall coverings was essentially made possible by the expansion of roll-to-roll wide format hardware into the décor market.
“It has been possible to produce digitally printed wall coverings since the introduction of scanning wide format print systems,” Bush noted. “However, an essential requirement for wall coverings is to have low-odor inks for interior use and the introduction of low-odor UV inks, eco-solvent and latex inks made this possible. The first applications were for environmental graphics in retail and commercial spaces offered by sign and display PSPs.”
David Lopez, product manager, Professional Imaging, Epson America Inc., noted that digital printing gained popularity for wallcoverings in the early 2000s, as advancements in technology made it more accessible, cost-effective, and capable of producing high-quality, color-consistent designs on various substrates.
“Before digital printing, gravure printing and screen printing were the methods traditionally used for creating large wallcoverings,” Lopez said. However, these methods were costly and could not accommodate quick turnaround times.
“Today, it is common to consistently change up a wall display, whether to accommodate the changing seasons or to publicize the next big project,” Lopez noted. “Digital printing provides advantages for sign shops to be flexible and make these quick changes, as well as offer an expanded color gamut to better meet branding and color requirements.
“Additionally, digital printing offers the ability to recreate intricate patterns with photographic quality, reproduce previous jobs easily, and meet just about any color requirement,” added Lopez. “This offers greater flexibility to print shops and increases output potential compared to traditional printing methods. Today’s digital printers demonstrate remarkable efficiency and productivity, enabling print shops to achieve more with fewer resources.”
Kitt Jones, business development and co-creation manager, Roland DGA, said that digital printing for wallcoverings has been around since digital printing was first developed and introduced.
“However, the ability to do a quality print with inks that can withstand exposure to the elements, human contact, and cleaning fluids – on media that is appropriate for wallcovering applications – has improved greatly over the years,” Jones observed. “Printers have also evolved, allowing for higher production as well as richer colors, unique textures, and stunning dimensional effects, such as those made possible by the Dimensor S, one of the most innovative digital printers in this space.”
"I believe it was first tried maybe 15 years ago, perhaps a bit longer. Wallcoverings could be printed with solvent inks, but it is likely the print quality was not always acceptable and the potential for odor from residual solvent can be an issue," said Paul Edwards, VP of the digital division at INX International Ink Co.
"With the advent of UV roll-to-roll printers, higher quality images could be obtained and inks could go through Greenguard certification to address any indoor odor-related issues,” Edwards noted. “Latex technology was introduced and became quite popular for wallcoverings since it is water- based and high quality, with low odor."
"Odor of the printed material is certainly a key factor for adoption, but the release of toxic substances in the surrounding environments was the most important consequence of printing with solvent inks," noted Marco Zanella, global business development director for INX Europe.
Zanella pointed out that the Greenguard certification, released and promoted by UL, is a legacy program introduced to label furniture components (such as indoor fixtures) that are painted with solvent materials.
"Here in Europe," continued Zanella, "wallcoverings have been digitized for personalization, customization, contract building and other similar segments. Latex from HP dominates but is being challenged by the UV curable process offered by the Canon Colorado platform, which is a unique interpretation of the energy curable process. Aside from these two processes, Dimense is a special process through which more 3D effects can be obtained. Progressively higher availability of wallcovering substrates, crafted to receive inkjet inks, have helped spread that decoration process in the last 10 years."
At this point, digitally printed wallcoverings have yet to take the dominant share of the wallcoverings market, but growth is there.
“Digital printing has a relatively very small share of the overall wall coverings market, if the huge décor wallpaper market is also considered,” Bush said. “In the sign and display area, there is continuing growth. Inkjet printing dominates in the production of short-run wall covering applications and this has also created a bespoke wall covering market with tailored wallcovering produced by specialist providers.”
"Without the benefit of real data, I think it has reached a significant share of the market where digital technology advantages can be applied," explained Edwards. "For high volume repeat images, it is likely that digital may have little penetration."
“While digital printing has gained adoption within the wallcoverings market, I still consider this to be an ‘emerging technology’ within this vertical, as many within the sector are still unfamiliar with digital print and benefits,” Jones said. “With the evolution of on-demand digital printing in other markets, such as object customization/personalization and apparel decoration, it makes sense that this adoption would expand to home décor and wallcoverings.
“In the past, designers and decorators, as well as other industry professionals, were limited to stock designs and having to purchase large quantities of products from overseas sources,” Jones added. “The availability of innovative devices like the Dimensor S – and the DG DIMENSE printing solution – makes it easy to bring production in-house, respond to customer demands, maintain better control over the process, and increase profit margins.”
Lopez said that digital printing has indeed reached a significant share of the wallcovering market.
“Within the past few decades, there have been many technology advancements in digital printers that have led to increased design flexibility, color consistency and substrate compatibility, ideal for the wallcovering market,” said Lopez. “Additionally, these technological advancements have benefited print shops by providing faster turnaround times and cost reduction in the production of wallcoverings.”
MarketsandMarkets places the inkjet wallpaper side at $4.7 billion in 2022, reaching $13.1 billion by 2027. That would be a CAGR of 22.4%. Grand View Research had the market at $2.7 billion in 2022, growing by 18.2% through 2030. Business Research Institute placed the digitally printed wallpaper market at $2.44 billion in 2020, reaching $5.4 billion by 2026.
Digital ink manufacturers see similar trends, particularly in terms of how the market is growing as it moves away from gravure and screen, driven by the traditional advantages of inkjet printing. In a way, it is much like how digital printing is growing in the textle marketplace.
Michael Bush, marketing communications manager, FUJIFILM Ink Solutions Group, observed that digital printing of wall coverings was essentially made possible by the expansion of roll-to-roll wide format hardware into the décor market.
“It has been possible to produce digitally printed wall coverings since the introduction of scanning wide format print systems,” Bush noted. “However, an essential requirement for wall coverings is to have low-odor inks for interior use and the introduction of low-odor UV inks, eco-solvent and latex inks made this possible. The first applications were for environmental graphics in retail and commercial spaces offered by sign and display PSPs.”
David Lopez, product manager, Professional Imaging, Epson America Inc., noted that digital printing gained popularity for wallcoverings in the early 2000s, as advancements in technology made it more accessible, cost-effective, and capable of producing high-quality, color-consistent designs on various substrates.
“Before digital printing, gravure printing and screen printing were the methods traditionally used for creating large wallcoverings,” Lopez said. However, these methods were costly and could not accommodate quick turnaround times.
“Today, it is common to consistently change up a wall display, whether to accommodate the changing seasons or to publicize the next big project,” Lopez noted. “Digital printing provides advantages for sign shops to be flexible and make these quick changes, as well as offer an expanded color gamut to better meet branding and color requirements.
“Additionally, digital printing offers the ability to recreate intricate patterns with photographic quality, reproduce previous jobs easily, and meet just about any color requirement,” added Lopez. “This offers greater flexibility to print shops and increases output potential compared to traditional printing methods. Today’s digital printers demonstrate remarkable efficiency and productivity, enabling print shops to achieve more with fewer resources.”
Kitt Jones, business development and co-creation manager, Roland DGA, said that digital printing for wallcoverings has been around since digital printing was first developed and introduced.
“However, the ability to do a quality print with inks that can withstand exposure to the elements, human contact, and cleaning fluids – on media that is appropriate for wallcovering applications – has improved greatly over the years,” Jones observed. “Printers have also evolved, allowing for higher production as well as richer colors, unique textures, and stunning dimensional effects, such as those made possible by the Dimensor S, one of the most innovative digital printers in this space.”
"I believe it was first tried maybe 15 years ago, perhaps a bit longer. Wallcoverings could be printed with solvent inks, but it is likely the print quality was not always acceptable and the potential for odor from residual solvent can be an issue," said Paul Edwards, VP of the digital division at INX International Ink Co.
"With the advent of UV roll-to-roll printers, higher quality images could be obtained and inks could go through Greenguard certification to address any indoor odor-related issues,” Edwards noted. “Latex technology was introduced and became quite popular for wallcoverings since it is water- based and high quality, with low odor."
"Odor of the printed material is certainly a key factor for adoption, but the release of toxic substances in the surrounding environments was the most important consequence of printing with solvent inks," noted Marco Zanella, global business development director for INX Europe.
Zanella pointed out that the Greenguard certification, released and promoted by UL, is a legacy program introduced to label furniture components (such as indoor fixtures) that are painted with solvent materials.
"Here in Europe," continued Zanella, "wallcoverings have been digitized for personalization, customization, contract building and other similar segments. Latex from HP dominates but is being challenged by the UV curable process offered by the Canon Colorado platform, which is a unique interpretation of the energy curable process. Aside from these two processes, Dimense is a special process through which more 3D effects can be obtained. Progressively higher availability of wallcovering substrates, crafted to receive inkjet inks, have helped spread that decoration process in the last 10 years."
At this point, digitally printed wallcoverings have yet to take the dominant share of the wallcoverings market, but growth is there.
“Digital printing has a relatively very small share of the overall wall coverings market, if the huge décor wallpaper market is also considered,” Bush said. “In the sign and display area, there is continuing growth. Inkjet printing dominates in the production of short-run wall covering applications and this has also created a bespoke wall covering market with tailored wallcovering produced by specialist providers.”
"Without the benefit of real data, I think it has reached a significant share of the market where digital technology advantages can be applied," explained Edwards. "For high volume repeat images, it is likely that digital may have little penetration."
“While digital printing has gained adoption within the wallcoverings market, I still consider this to be an ‘emerging technology’ within this vertical, as many within the sector are still unfamiliar with digital print and benefits,” Jones said. “With the evolution of on-demand digital printing in other markets, such as object customization/personalization and apparel decoration, it makes sense that this adoption would expand to home décor and wallcoverings.
“In the past, designers and decorators, as well as other industry professionals, were limited to stock designs and having to purchase large quantities of products from overseas sources,” Jones added. “The availability of innovative devices like the Dimensor S – and the DG DIMENSE printing solution – makes it easy to bring production in-house, respond to customer demands, maintain better control over the process, and increase profit margins.”
Lopez said that digital printing has indeed reached a significant share of the wallcovering market.
“Within the past few decades, there have been many technology advancements in digital printers that have led to increased design flexibility, color consistency and substrate compatibility, ideal for the wallcovering market,” said Lopez. “Additionally, these technological advancements have benefited print shops by providing faster turnaround times and cost reduction in the production of wallcoverings.”