Beyond silver halide: What is driving digital print

Konica Minolta bets on embellishment and experience

For Konica Minolta (KM), the future of print in India extends "beyond a traditional photo album." Manish Gupta, head of product life cycle management and solution consultancy division, articulated a vision centred on "print plus embellishment" to create more appealing, emotionally durable products. This strategy signals a global pivot towards value addition as the primary driver of revenue, encouraging photo labs to diversify into comprehensive event applications, particularly within the massive Indian wedding sector.

Gupta noted a period of "very good growth" in the Indian digital print market, with hardware growth at a solid five to 10%, but a much faster trajectory in print consumption itself. However, he highlighted a critical "knowledge gap," stressing that customers need to maximise their digital investments by leveraging device data for business analytics. India remains a major focus for KM's global strategy due to its high growth and unique market dynamism.

TechNova creates a foundation for growth

The modern Indian photo album owes its existence to a synthetic substrate developed by TechNova. Pravin Jha, deputy chief operating officer of the Digital Print Media (DPM) division, recalled the disruptive foresight of Nova Life’s introduction in 2008-2009. The polyester-based film from their Taloja factory eliminated the endemic problems of silver halide—heavy weight, humidity damage, and fungal growth—by offering a lighter, non-tearable, and premium aesthetic.

"Polyester bought all those features which eliminated this problem for the end user," Jha said, confirming that the material provided the very foundation for the contemporary, tens-of-thousands-of-crores photo book industry. Beyond wedding albums, the non-tearable film is now critical for durable applications like bag tags, menu cards, and high-end real estate brochures. Jha projected that as India progresses, the consumption of non-tearable substrates will grow even faster than the economy, driven by the need to save time and labour associated with manually laminating paper.

Felix Schoeller elevates memory to archival art

Representing a long-view commitment to physical media, Pranav Vaswani, the director at Felix Schoeller, showcased archival-grade photo papers with a certified life of over a century. The German company's new product, Chromalux, signalled a literal shift in memory storage: high-quality HD aluminium panels designed for home and interior décor. This positions a memory not just as an archive but as a permanent fixture in a living space.

While acknowledging the general decline in home printing, Vaswani remains highly optimistic, noting that even a 1% print rate of the overwhelming volume of images taken daily would vastly expand the industry. He observed a cultural shift where people are increasingly recognising the "fleeting nature of digital files" and seeking to "preserve their memories in a paper format." The company serves this vast, diverse market through a hybrid business model, manufacturing raw paper in Germany and performing precise customisation at its converting facility in Turbhe, Navi Mumbai.

Fujifilm’s digital print strategy

L Santhil Nathan, vice president of Fujifilm India, described the Indian photo industry as being in the “final phase of the transition” from the ageing, costly silver halide process—which is declining at 15% annually—to nimble, digital-dry technologies. Fujifilm is driving this change with its toner-based Apios Pro series, targeting a 150% annual growth rate by replacing both old silver halide labs and competitors' expired machinery.

The key to success lies in a unique business model that deviates from the industry’s fixed click-rate charge. Fujifilm allows customers to purchase toner separately and pay a fixed price for service and spares, giving the printer unprecedented control over their cost of production. This flexibility is essential for the competitive, volume-conscious Indian market. 

Nathan concluded by noting the stabilising trend of a "merger between photo and graphic arts," allowing entrepreneurs to pursue both commercial and photo orders for a more stable business opportunity.

Polyplex targets the premium photo substrate market

Polyplex, a leading global manufacturer of polyester films, unveiled an ambitious strategy at the Consumer Electronics and Imaging Fair (CEIF) 2026 to dominate India's high-end photography and commercial printing substrate market.

Currently holding a significant market share in the photo album segment, the company aims to capture a commanding share within the next two to three years. This growth will be driven by the surging demand for durable, non-tear media, particularly in wedding photography.

NS Narayanan of Polyplex highlighted the core offering: specialised PET (polyethylene terephthalate) sheets, typically in 13x19-inch form, tailored for digital presses like HP Indigo, Konica Minolta, and Canon. These mono-layer polyester films, with specialised lacquer coatings for ink adhesion, have become the premium, non-tear alternative to traditional paper.

While acknowledging photographers as key influencers, Narayanan emphasised that the company's focus at CEIF was on educating lab printers and studios about diversified revenue streams. These include high-durability applications such as university certificates, industrial signage, backlit films, and even synthetic playing cards, positioning plastic-based substrates as a superior replacement for paper.

Polyplex, which manufactures these products at its Bajpur, Uttarakhand facility with a capacity comfortably exceeding current market demand, is confident that its focus on high-quality PET—which Narayanan compared to a luxury-tier automotive brand—will drive the next phase of growth in the evolving digital printing landscape.