Security Printing Market Growth & Trends

The global security printing market size is estimated to reach USD 4.04 billion by 2028, according to the new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to witness a CAGR of 3.9% from 2021 to 2028. Security printing deals with the printing of items such as passports, banknotes, product authentication, stock certificates, tamper-evident labels, postage stamps, cheques, and identity cards.

Security printing is widely used to prevent tampering, forgery, and counterfeiting. Different types of security printing techniques are used for different applications. The market is estimated to witness growth over the forecast period owing to rising incidences of counterfeiting and forgery practices. Counterfeiting practices are mainly rampant in banknotes, postage stamps, passports, stock certificates, identity cards, and product authentication. Security printing helps in the prevention of forgery and tampering of the aforementioned instruments.

The key end market verticals in security printing include Financial Services, Banking, Insurance, personal ID industry, ticketing industry driving license industry, passport industry, and birth certificate issuing. Several methods used in security printing involve holograms, Ultra Violet (UV) printing intaglio printing, micro printing, geometric lathe work, magnetic inks, anti-copying marks, guilloches, color-shifting ink, and rainbow printing.

Security printing can help prevent counterfeiters and reduce fraudulent instances. For instance, in the case of currencies and bank checks, micro printing plays an important role to avoid counterfeiting practices. Additionally, serial numbers enable easier identification of legitimate documents for auditing and tracking. The serial numbers are also used in detecting counterfeits by tracking a check digit. Magnetic ink character recognition technology considerably helps in the reduction of errors in the computerized or automated reading of documents and currencies.

The increasing need for brand protection is expected to support market growth. This can be attributed to the companies indulging in huge losses and reputation dilution due to the copying of the brand names by the product pirates. Increased emphasis on brand protection is expected to be conducive for market growth. Recently many of the techniques used to protect high-value documents have become available to commercial printers, with the use of traditional offset, digital platforms, presses, or flexographic.

Security paper and polymer materials are often used as substrates to perform security printing. Several methods used in security printing include magnetic inks, intaglio printing, holograms, micro printing, anti-copying marks, geometric lathe work, guilloches, rainbow printing, fine-line printing prismatic coloration, color-shifting ink, and Ultra Violet (UV) printing.

The market finds major applications in the banking and tourism sectors. The tourism sectors were drastically impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Restrictions on domestic and international travel have considerably affected the tourism sector. The shut-down of manufacturing units caused a delay in the production of security printer parts and accessories, leading to a decline in the sales of security printers.

Security Printing Market Report Highlights

  • Increasing awareness of various fraudulent activities among customers is expected to create new opportunities for the market growth
  • The critical factors driving the market growth are increasing technological advancements and the adoption of currency printing for better regulation and governance
  • Companies are heavily investing in the research and development of efficient technological solutions to secure financial documents and currency
  • The lithographic printing segment dominated the market in 2020 and is expected to expand its market share to more than 30% by 2028
  • The legal and government documents application segment held the largest market share in 2020 owing to increasing printing, reprinting, and circulation of banknotes and the growing tourism industry resulting in the rising implementation of security printing
  • North America is expected to witness considerable growth over the forecast period on account of the growing awareness about document security and high instances of forgery and counterfeiting
  • The prominent players in the industry include Agfa-Gevaert Group; DSS; Printegra, An Ennis Company; TROY Group, Inc.; and Wellspring Software, Inc. Key players are focusing on research and development, which, in turn, would help increase their market presence