The printed labels and packaging market in 2024 was valued at $517.9 billion, with a total of 14.3 trillion A4 equivalents produced, according to a new market report from Smithers, a market research firm focuses on the print industry.

Brand new research, published in The Future of Package Printing to 2029, shows that stability is returning to the market. Growth resumed in 2024 and will continue at a CAGR of +3.6% for both volume and value in the five years to 2029. This will push value to $618.2 billion in 2029 (at 2023 constant pricing), with output rising to 17.1 trillion A4 prints.

The report segments the packaging print sector by packaging material, print process, geographic region, and leading national market. This is informed by analysis of leading technical and commercial developments – including the increased adoption of digital print, improved automation of packaging print lines, changes in demographics and retail infrastructure, brand owner calls for more sustainable packaging, and the use of AI in print design.

Print processes for packaging and labels are seeing higher levels of automation, with prepress, printing and finishing operations increasingly connected and controlled by advanced software. This is favoring digital printing and analog methods that can be integrated into converting lines, with high levels of automation simplifying packaging manufacture.

Flexo printing is by far the largest segment by both volume and value. In value terms, the next largest are offset litho and other analog printing, with the former widely used for carton printing, corrugated preprint and wet glue labels, while the latter reflects the high use of dry offset for printing metal packaging and some rigid plastics.

Digital printing is now a mainstream production process for labels and is making inroads into corrugated packaging with many single-pass inkjet presses available for preprint and post-print operations; as well as many multi-pass wide-format and flatbed engines used for low-volume corrugated packaging. Digital print is making headway in cartons, with low-volume toner used for short runs, while B2 and B1 sheetfed launches are replacing some offset machines.

Three regions – Asia, Western Europe, and North America – contribute 81.5% of global package printing output value and 82.0% of the volume in 2024; these shares will remain broadly unchanged in 2029. Asia is the largest, led by China with its strong manufacturing base and export market as well as growing domestic consumer demand for packaged goods.