Was 2013 the beginning of renewed growth and confidence in the graphic arts? There were hints both for and against. Suppliers have experienced substantial upheavals, witnessed in ownership changes as at Xeikon and reorganisation at Goss. Outright collapses and closures include Ilford, Polytype's Virtu business unit and Lüscher; the industry also suffered the loss of Efi Arazi, founder of Scitex and the eponymous EFI. Conversely, 2013 saw gains from relatively new suppliers Ricoh and Konica Minolta, while there were dramatic turnarounds and glimmers of hope for major players.

Most notable is the restructured Kodak, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2012 as it faced down a $7 billion (￡4.27bn) tsumani of debt. A shadow of its former self, Kodak's future is in professional printing and film for movie-makers; all high-overhead, low-profit consumer stuff is gone. Heidelberg also appears to be turning around, with latest figures showing a smaller sales drop than expected. News of its strategic partnership with the aggressively expanding Fujifilm can only help its prospects. Although Heidelberg's operating result remains a negative two million euro (￡1.68m), staff numbers are falling and prospects of profits by fiscal year end are discernible; this is vastly better than 2012's $47 million (￡39.52m).

Beleaguered HP saw some respite in 2013 despite the disappointing closure of cloud MIS pioneer HiFlex barely a year after its acquisition. Q3 2013 numbers were marginally less gory than previous quarters, revealing slight improvement in the debt position; revenues and earnings are down year-on-year, but the operating margin is (sort of) better than it was. Printing performed less badly than other divisions, with a revenue drop of one percent and a 17.7 percent operating margin. This might encourage a loosening of the purse strings, but don't bank on it: HP's top brass appear to misunderstand what printing is all about. Maybe they'll prefer to sell it off?

EFI had a great year, gobbling up MIS companies and introducing new machines, including the GS3250LX, one of many examples of performance optimisation in wide-format digital. Print-head manufacturer Xaar has also been on a roll. Other wide-format innovations are Mimaki's JV400-SUV, combining the benefits of solvent and UV-curable inks, and the Durst Rho P10-200, which with 415,000 printable colours surpasses even flexo.

Label printing is also simmering; a bizarre array of machines is now configured for this application, including Xerox's Color 570, an MFP that can print to label stock, and Memjet's Vortex 851R, listing at around ￡5,000. This year's pricier but more fully-featured introductions are the Screen Truepress Jet L350UV and the FFEI Graphium.

Cost remains at the heart of everything and was largely responsible for the wholesale hemorrhaging of Ipex's exhibitor base. Yet rising confidence in the UK is driving renewed interest: Goss and Komori have returned and a comprehensive seminar programme could be enough to turn the tide. Sessions are free, in line with ubiquitous cost sensitivity.

Much of the schedule reflects this year's increased awareness that successful content delivery depends on effective data management. Workflow became more fully integrated in 2013, with web-to-print moving out of its niche. Companies such as Chili Publish are working with suppliers to extend a workflow's reach out across the internet. This was once Job Definition Format (JDF) territory; however, interest in JDF in 2013 dwindled to the merest hint of a whisper, bumping along the bottom of the irrelevancy pool.

In strong evidence in 2013 was the shift to the cloud, especially for colour management: PantoneLive, GMG's CoZone and ColorConcepts Colibri provide cloud-based colour management tools, but it isn't clear that the cloud solves problems of colour appearance accuracy. Adobe's decision to provide CS exclusively via the cloud to subscribers has had a mixed reception in the graphic arts. Print's environmental impact credentials also gained a boost with the publication of ISO 16759. A framework for carbon calculators, ISO has been selling this standard at a healthy clip since publication in July and was first achieved by Ricoh in August.

There is plenty in the pipeline to make us excited: the digital printing of folding cartons received boosts in the form of support in Esko Suite 12 and Landa's intent to build a dedicated press. In textile printing, dedicated new technologies from Kornit and Hollanders are set to cause a stir, while in liquid toner we should watch HP Indigo's Series 4 technology and Xeikon's Trillium. 2014 looks to be an exciting year for digital print, and Efi Arazi would be proud to see so much of his vision becoming reality.