The direct-to-film printing market remains a profitable high-growth sector, and the reasons behind its success – from technological innovation to low investment costs and flexible production – were highlighted throughout WTiN’s second installment of Innovate: Direct-to-Film Printing from 25 to 26 March. 

WTiN’s senior editor and digital textile lead, Joseph Link, showcased WTiN’s proprietary DTF market data and highlighted the biggest drivers behind the statistics in his presentation, ‘Unveiling market insights: Tracking the growth of DTF printing’.

Link said: “There has been a huge increase in DTF productivity over the past four to five years. Output has gone from essentially nothing to more than 7 billion prints covering an area of 184 million sqm.  And demand for DTF printing will continue to grow before showing signs of plateauing.

“By 2030, DTF equipment will be printing more than 10.1 billion prints, but an important consideration is whether that will be a result of increasing demand for printed garments, or because the DTF sector continues to erode the market share of more established garment printing technologies?”

He continued: “It could be a bit of both, but given the volatility in consumer confidence, which looks set to continue considering the threat of trade wars, the