The future of print: what to expect from 2026

Tim Carter, Commercial Print Director at Ricoh UK Graphic Communications, shares reflections on 2025 and predictions for how the market will evolve in the year ahead.

A version of this article was originally published in PrintWeek in December 2025.

What do you feel were the main trends and key industry developments in 2025?

In 2025, our industry continued to grapple with familiar pressures: rising costs, the challenge of attracting younger talent, and the push to increase automation and reduce manual touchpoints across production.

We also saw growing client demand for meaningful sustainability improvements. Customers are increasingly focused on lower-impact materials, recycling and waste-reduction methods, and openly discussing carbon footprint while still demonstrating the value of print to their own clients. 

Sustainability remains a major priority for Ricoh, and we're proud of the programmes and accreditations that support this. A standout example this year was the launch of our Pro C5400, our most sustainable production engine to date, built using recycled materials, showing how we continue to respond to customer and market needs.

We’ve also seen the drive to streamline processes and shorten product lifecycles accelerating. Alongside advances in workflows and AI, we’re seeing increased demand for post-print automation, including the introduction of robotics.

What do you expect to be the main trends, key industry developments, and biggest opportunities for printers in 2026?

In 2026, I expect the conversation around the value of print to intensify.

Market data shows that many UK printers remain concerned about losing customers to digital channels. As a supplier, our role is to equip them with the insights, data and learning they need to demonstrate print’s trust, effectiveness, and its strength when combined with digital. 

The IPIA’s New Narrative for Print project and the PRINT MADE THIS campaign we co-commissioned are strong examples of this in action.

Inkjet’s evolution will also continue to be a major driver of efficiency and innovation. We’re seeing new opportunities for our inkjet platforms across Graphic Arts, Publishing, and Critical Communications areas with higher expectations, more complex demands, and increasingly strategic conversations.

This shift is positive: it signals that we’re no longer just selling products. We’re being invited into boardroom-level discussions about growth, resilience, and long-term business impact.

What are Ricoh's own hopes and aims for 2026? Can you tell us about anything exciting in the pipeline?

In recent years, we’ve seen more Print Service Providers taking a longer-term, strategic approach, and we’ve been evolving alongside them. Our focus is on building relationships that grow over time and demonstrating sustained commitment to our customers’ success, not just achieving short-term wins.

In 2026, we’ll be leaning further into co-development: working collaboratively with customers to design and implement tailored business solutions that draw on any part of Ricoh’s portfolio, print-related or otherwise. 

These solutions are bespoke by nature, address specific challenges, and deliver meaningful, measurable outcomes.

We showcased several of these at our Print Evolution Live event in November, where the response was extremely positive, prompting us to share them more widely. None of this would be possible without our clients working side-by-side with us to ensure innovation stays aligned with their evolving needs.

How can suppliers better help printers navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities in 2026?

As customers look for deeper, long-term partnerships, suppliers must become fully embedded within their business ecosystems. That means being able to:

• Share market intelligence and research to support informed decision-making
• Integrate feedback and usage data into product roadmaps
• Collaborate on prototyping and validating enhancements
• Extend product value through software and modular upgrades
• Design improvements that work across diverse environments and support future growth
• Maintain ongoing, structured feedback loops long after deployment

And this level of partnership needs to span all areas of their business, from IT and cyber security to process automation, workplace solutions like AV, and long-term financial resilience. I’m proud to represent a brand that can deliver all of this for our clients.