Trends Commentary "Building Tomorrow 2025-26"
Discover the key trends shaping the printing inks industry in 2025-26
Key trends for printing inks in 2025-26
- 1Trends and opportunities shaping the printing inks industry in 2025-26
- 2Top formulation trends in printing inks for 2025-26
- 3Green & Circular: Key raw materials to watch in printing inks for 2025-26
- 4Healthy Future: Key raw materials to watch in printing inks for 2025-26
- 5Smart Functionality: Key raw materials to watch in printing inks for 2025-26
- 6Efficiency: Key raw materials to watch in printing inks for 2025-26
Discover the formulation trends shaping the future of the printing ink industry
According to our customers, these are the megatrends that will have the highest impact in 2025-26 based on different regions1
What formulation trends our customers think will be most important in 2025–261
- 75% of printing inks customers agree that healthy food packaging will be an important formulation trend.
- 86% of printing inks customers selected fast production processes as an important formulation trend.
- 90% of printing inks customers selected moving from coatings to films as an important formulation trend.
- 80% of printing inks customers selected removing PFAs as an important formulation trend.
Our technical experts’ view on the formulation trends in printing inks
Q. Which key product groups will be essential in formulating for the upcoming trends?
A. Printing inks formulations rely on four essential raw materials: resin, solvent, pigment, and additives. These raw materials will be essential in carrying out the megatrends, such as ink formulation to reduce VOCs or liquid waste or working to maintain the same quality but increase line speed. More specifically, we expect to see more sustainable surface-effective additives to increase scratch resistance, dispersing agents to obtain good colour strength, and crosslinkers to improve adhesion on substrate.
Q. What opportunities and challenges do you anticipate?
A. We do anticipate challenges when formulating for VOC emissions reduction for surface printing ink. This is due to relatively poorer wettability of water-based resins, which can result in lower printability results compared to solvent-based resins. This provides an opportunity for IMCD to offer the appropriate resins, pigments, dyes and additives, along with formulation advice.
Q. What specific hurdles might arise in developing sustainable formulations?
A. Recyclability of printed goods requires a perfect fit between the substrate and printing ink. When using water-based printing inks, it can be a challenge to meet performance requirements for functionality, such as oil and water resistance for food packaging. These formulations often have to be adjusted based on a country’s unique consumer habits. Some sustainable solutions will also depend on the readiness of equipment or the production line. For example, the lamination adhesive for BOPP (Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene) requires a wet-on-wet continuous production line.
- IMCD Coatings & Construction Global Customer Trends Survey 2025-2026, Printing Inks
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