Digitalization is no longer a future issue in the printing industry – it has long been a question of survival. While established online printing companies with fully automated processes offer prices that manual companies can hardly keep up with, many medium-sized printing companies are still facing the same problems as ten years ago: orders are accepted by email or telephone, manually entered into systems, print data uploaded via FTP, delivery dates managed in Excel tables. The result is unnecessary personnel costs, errors and a customer experience that is hopelessly inferior to that of online competitors.
This guide shows you five concrete steps to take your... Printing shop Systematically digitize in 2026 – from the first inquiry to the completed invoice. Not a theoretical concept, but a practice-oriented roadmap that you can implement immediately with the right software.
The urgency of digitalization in the printing industry has increased significantly in recent years. Two drivers dominate the discussion: the competitive pressure from specialized online printing companies on the one hand and the structural shortage of skilled workers on the other.
Providers like Flyeralarm, Onlineprinters or Saxoprint have not changed the printing industry because they print cheaper. They changed the industry because they automated the entire process chain. A customer uploads his print data at 11 p.m. today, immediately receives an automatic preflight evaluation, confirms the order and receives an order confirmation tomorrow morning - without a single employee having to take action. This capacity saving is the real competitive advantage, not the printing price itself.
For your regional printing company this means: You do not have to compete with the conditions of mass printing companies. But you have to offer your customers a comparably convenient and fast ordering process - combined with the advantages that you have as a local partner: personal advice, individual solutions, shorter delivery routes.
Demographic change is hitting the printing industry particularly hard. Media designers, printing technologists and commercial specialists are rare on the job market. At the same time, wages are rising. Companies that do not automate routine manual processes either have to hire expensive staff or live with capacity bottlenecks - both of which put a strain on margins. Automation is therefore not an option, but a structural necessity in order to remain competitive in the long term.
The first and most effective lever is the digitalization of incoming orders. As long as orders are received by telephone, email or even fax and are then manually transferred to a system, a considerable amount of time is required at this point - combined with a high risk of errors due to transmission errors.
The most direct way is a Web-to-print shop, which customers can use to configure and order their print products themselves. The customer selects the format, paper, edition and finish directly in the browser, immediately receives a price and uploads his print data. For companies that are not yet ready for a complete online shop, a digital order form is an interim solution: a structured web form that queries all relevant order data and automatically transfers it to order management.
In both cases it is crucial that there is no media disruption. The data entered by the customer must end up directly in order management - without manual post-processing. Also read our article about it Web-to-print entry for a deeper overview.
With PrintDesk, incoming online orders are automatically created as orders, including all product specifications, customer data and print files. The system immediately creates an order confirmation and automatically sends it to the customer. What used to take 20 to 30 minutes to process takes less than two minutes with automatic order acceptance - around the clock, without office hours.
As soon as an order is in the system, a chain of documents begins that were previously often created, sent and stored manually: order confirmation, production ticket, delivery note, invoice. Each of these documents takes time and carries the risk of errors when created manually.
A fully automated document workflow looks like this: The order is received → the system automatically creates an order confirmation and sends it via email → after production is completed, a delivery note is automatically generated → after delivery, the system creates the invoice and sends it to the customer. All documents are filled with the correct order data, output in accordance with the layout and archived in an audit-proof manner.
With the Workflow automation from PrintDesk This process can be implemented without manual intervention. The time savings are enormous: A company with 150 orders per month saves three to four hours a day just through automated document creation.
Manual data entry is the most common source of errors in order processing. An incorrect delivery address on the delivery note, an incorrect edition on the invoice, a special format forgotten in production planning - such errors not only cost correction work, but also customer satisfaction. Automated workflows always use the same data source, once recorded, and structurally eliminate this source of error.
Practical example: A medium-sized printing company in North Rhine-Westphalia reduced its error rate in order processing by 78% after introducing an automated document chain. At the same time, the processing time per order fell from an average of 34 minutes to less than 8 minutes.
For many medium-sized printing companies, having their own online print shop is the most ambitious step in digitalization - and at the same time the one with the greatest long-term potential. Customers today expect to be able to configure print products online, view prices instantly and place orders around the clock.
When choosing a system for the online shop, print shops are faced with three basic options:
For companies that want to build a real competitive advantage, a specialized web-to-print platform is the more economical choice in the long term. Please also read our comparison Print MIS vs. ERP.
Digitalization does not end with incoming orders. There is also considerable potential for automation in prepress and production. The first lever is the automatic print data check (preflight): Every submitted print file is automatically checked for printability - resolution, color mode, bleed, fonts. Correct files go into production immediately; Incorrect files are automatically returned to the customer with a detailed error report. This eliminates manual testing processes and reduces expensive post-processing.
The second lever is digital production control: Instead of printing out production tickets and physically attaching them to the machine, the printer and further processing access a digital job board. The status of each order is visible in real time – for production as well as for customer service and sales. Bottlenecks are identified immediately and capacities can be planned dynamically.
The integration of imposition software (imposition) and color management into the digital workflow closes the gap between job management and the printing press. Modern systems can automatically optimally fill print sheets, assign color profiles and transfer print data directly to the RIP software.
The last step of digitalization is also the one that changes the strategic management of the company: consistent reporting and controlling based on all digitalized processes.
What does that mean specifically? You can see at any time which orders are currently in which production status. You can evaluate the profitability of individual product groups or customers - and identify which orders bring margin and which are blocking capacity. Final calculations show you whether your preliminary calculation corresponds to reality. You can see at a glance via a dashboard: sales, open invoices, order volume, delivery reliability.
This data transparency is the basis for well-founded business decisions - and it is only possible if the upstream processes (order receipt, calculation, production) are completely digitally mapped. Companies that digitize their print shop not only gain efficiency, but also strategic control ability.
The digitalization of a printing company rarely fails due to technology, but often due to avoidable planning errors. Here are the most common stumbling blocks:
If you want to start digitizing your print shop today, we recommend the following pragmatic start: First, analyze where the most time is lost in your current process. Is it manual order entry? The print data check? The invoicing? Identify the biggest pain point and start there.
For most medium-sized printing companies this is digital order management the best entry point: The implementation is manageable, the ROI occurs quickly, and the system forms the basis for all further digitalization steps. From there you can add the online shop, production control and reporting step by step.
PrintDesk covers all 5 digitization steps in one integrated platform - from automated order processing to the integrated web-to-print shop. No long implementation projects, no expensive ERP.
Arrange a demo nowThe digitization of a printing company is not a one-time project, but rather a continuous process. But the first step – the decision to start concretely – is the most important. Print shops that consistently digitize today are creating a structural competitive advantage that will be crucial in the coming years.
The five steps in this article form a complete roadmap: digitize incoming orders, automate document workflow, set up an online shop, control production digitally, implement reporting. You don't have to do everything at once - but you should start today. Also read our article on ROI calculation for web-to-print to communicate the business case internally.
Web-to-print automation for modern print shops. A product from Druckhaus interactive GmbH.