The value of print is moving beyond the page

Quocirca's 2025 State of the Industry study found that 73% of print-industry respondents expected print volumes to fall further over the following year, by an average of 8.4%. Routine office print is shrinking, while other parts of the industry are expanding and devices are taking on a wider role in digital workflows.

The document has not disappeared

Covid accelerated a shift already under way. Employees working away from the office needed access to documents and the ability to approve transactions remotely, while processes that had relied on paper moved online. "As soon as you start digitising a process, it becomes a situation where print isn't required," says Mark Tyldesley, Sales Director at Ricoh South Africa.

Businesses still create and receive large volumes of information. Some remain digital, while others move between paper and digital systems. "Each one of those pages is printed normally in a business for a business process. There's no other reason to print a page," Tyldesley says.

The focus moves from the page itself to what happens to the information on it. Quocirca's 2026 cloud print research found that 78% of organisations are increasing their digitisation efforts, while 66% expect scanning volumes on multifunction printers to rise. More document activity is moving into scanning and digital workflows.

South Africa will move at different speeds

Digitisation is progressing unevenly across South Africa. Tyldesley says Ricoh South Africa is seeing greater uptake among larger businesses in the major metropolitan areas, where companies generally have more capacity to invest in new systems. Some business partners and suppliers need to understand how each customer works rather than assume the same approach will suit everyone. A large corporate automating document-heavy processes may have very different requirements from a smaller business or school that still relies heavily on printed material.

The device has to earn its place

The printer's role is changing too. Basic office-print hardware has become increasingly commoditised, and Tyldesley argues that if someone simply needs a standard black-and-white page, the brand of machine producing it matters less.

A multifunction device has more value when it connects physical information to the business. A document can be scanned into a digital workflow, then stored or routed to the people or processes who need it. This is part of Ricoh's move further into document management and business-process optimisation through DocuWare.

Quocirca found that 36% of industry respondents identified the move from a product-centric business to a services-led model as a leading challenge. "If that device adds value within your business some other way, suddenly the machine is no longer seen as a device," Tyldesley says. "It is seen as an enabler within your business process."

Production print tells a different story

Production print is moving in a different direction. Tyldesley says Ricoh is seeing demand for high-volume production systems, particularly continuous-feed and cut-sheet inkjet, as digital production technology makes shorter print runs more commercially viable.

Books are a good example. Conventional print economics favoured larger runs because set-up costs had to be spread across many copies. Digital production allows printers to produce smaller quantities more efficiently and move different jobs through the same production environment.

"Customers have changed. Their requirements have changed, and the requirements from the printer have changed," Tyldesley says. Commercial printers can respond to smaller orders and, in some cases, keep work they might previously have outsourced.

Smithers valued the global digital print market at $167.5 billion in 2025 and forecasts digitally printed output to rise from 1.8 trillion A4 equivalents to 2.8 trillion by 2035, a 54.3% increase. Falling office volumes tell only part of the story.

Value is moving beyond the page

The industry cannot build future growth around persuading customers to print pages they no longer need. Suppliers need to understand where print still serves a useful purpose and where technology can improve the way information is handled.

That changes the sales conversation. The machine matters less than the problem it helps solve. "Ricoh doesn't just focus on printing on a page," Tyldesley says. "It focuses on our product fitting into a business process within a customer and adding value."

Print is unlikely to regain the role it once had in the office. Its future lies in the areas where businesses still need it and where new technology is opening different markets. Print is not dead; its value is moving beyond the page.

ABOUT RICOH

Ricoh is a leading provider of integrated digital services and print and imaging solutions designed to support digital transformation of workplaces, workspaces and optimise business performance.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh's global operation reaches customers in approximately 200 countries and regions, supported by cultivated knowledge, technologies, and organisational capabilities nurtured over its 85-year history. In the fiscal year ended March 2023, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,134 billion yen (approx. 16.0 billion USD).

It is Ricoh's mission and vision to empower individuals to find Fulfilment through Work by understanding and transforming how people work so we can unleash their potential and creativity to realise a sustainable future.

For further information, please visit www.ricoh.com Media enquiries: Simone John, Ricoh South Africa Contact details: (011) 049-2003, simone.john@ricoh.co.za