Digital printing has had a major impact on the label industry over the past four decades.

It’s now more than 40 years since Labels & Labeling first started to carry news and features about digital printing technology, both inkjet and toner. Printing capability was black-only in those early days, and applications were primarily for marking or simple coding of address labels, tickets and tags  ̶  a far cry from today’s sophisticated multi-color, multi-application digital printing technologies that have grown exponentially in recent years for label and package printing.

Initially, inkjet print heads used in the early 1980s were 25mm wide, inks were still somewhat problematical, applications were limited, yet many of those early inkjet pioneers  ̶  like Domino Printing Sciences, Epson, Canon and others that were largely based around Cambridge, England  ̶  are now global operations providing digital inkjet printing, heads and/or control systems for a complete range of labeling and variable data printing solutions.

Toner printing technologies have also evolved at pace since the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the first IBM and Xerox high-speed laser printers appearing in the market. By 1984 the first Xerographic laser printing systems were starting to be used in the business forms sector, including for the production of computer and address labels.

Digital black and white or spot color toner printing onto labels, tickets and tags was already being carried out in the early and middle part of the 1980s by companies such as Delphax Systems, while GMC Digital Systems in Switzerland was also developing digital label and document printing solutions in the 1980s. A number of other digital document printing machines from Xerox, Canon and Nipson were additionally finding application in business forms plants for address and mailing label production. All these companies were using digital monocolor dry toner printing technologies.

In the early years of the 1990s came the evolution of the pioneering color electrophotographic printing systems emanating from Indigo and Xeikon, the forerunners of today’s liquid and dry toner color printing machines that now make up a large percentage of all narrow web press installations in the global label industry each year.

Transformation

The Indigo liquid toner system and the Xeikon dry toner system both used roll-fed web printing. Both technologies triggered a subsequent revolution and transformation in the way that, initially, short-run, personalized, multi-versions and varieties of labels could be produced in high quality color. Subsequent generations of HP Indigo and Xeikon presses have significantly further developed performance, run length, quality, durability and end-use applications.