The Differences Between Digital On Demand Printing And High Quality Offset Printing

By Author: Vikram Kumar
Total Articles: 9652
Comment this article

In terms of technological development, digital on demand printing is a fairly recent development compared to high quality offset printing. One of the assumptions that most people make is that offset printing is better quality than digital printing. This is certainly not the case. While offset printing has been a reliable high quality printing process it has some drawbacks when compared to digital printing. Each method of printing has its own distinct advantages and disadvantages.

In order to understand the specific advantages and disadvantages of each type of printing, it is necessary to first understand just how each printing method works. Offset printing is more mechanical in nature, since it does not utilize the high tech processes that digital printing does. Essentially, an image is burned onto a metal plate, which in turn accepts the ink that is then transferred to a rubber blanket before finally being “offset” onto the printing surface. With offset printing, once a plate is burned, all copies printed from that plate will be identical in nature.

Digital printing, on the other hand, makes use of laser technology. ...
... The laser creates a static charge on a rotating drum and this static charge then attracts the ink (or toner), thus transferring the ink to proper areas on the paper. Because a laser “redraws” the image every time the drum rotates it allows for the ability to change the image with every rotation of the drum. This means each copy being printed can be different from that last one. There is no need to create a new plate for every different version of a printed piece.

Cost & Quantity

One of the most important considerations when choosing between digital printing and offset printing is quantity. While printing a small quantity using offset printing can be very expensive in terms of per-unit cost, that cost goes down dramatically as quantity increases. If you have a large quantity of material to be printed, then offset printing is likely the better choice. If you need only a small quantity printed, however, digital printing is likely to be much more cost-effective.

Print Medium

Most people think only of printing on paper when they think of printing, but in reality printing can take place on a wide variety of surfaces. Digital printing technology is capable of printing on many different substrates such as plastic, vinyl, labels and canvas. This is particularly useful for design projects where, for example, you might want a brochure, a window cling sign, labels for a CD disk and a plastic loyalty card, all to promote one product!

Accuracy

Thanks to the modern technology used in digital printing, it is more accurate than offset printing in a few ways. Image quality is one of them, because the ink used in digital presses is not absorbed into the paper fibers the image does not “spread” so you end up with a sharper looking image. Also, the ink on a digital press dries instantly so you don’t have the problem of “offsetting” where ink that hasn’t had enough time to dry marks the backside of the sheet above it in the pile.

Which One To Choose

Whether you choose digital on demand printing or high quality offset printing is dependent on the many factors mentioned above. For example, a low volume job that requires a high degree of image reproduction accuracy means digital printing is the more suitable choice, whereas a high volume job or one that needs a large sheet size means offset printing is the better choice.

Both digital on demand printing and high quality offset printing have their distinct advantages, and Influence Graphics is highly experienced at both types of printing, producing high quality end products that you can be sure you will be satisfied with.