Litho Vs Digital Printing

Litho vs Digital Printing

by

smithwalker

20 years ago, digital printing was only good for quick print jobs and office print, and it was not very popular. But in the mid 90`s this trend changed with the arrival of new high-technology printers such as HP Indigo, Xerox, etc that showed the strong flexibility of digital printing. Since then, litho printing had to compete with digital printing to offer the best prices and the best quality. It can be difficult to select one instead of another because both of them have their own advantages.

Advantages of

litho printing

High image quality

Can print on different papers, plastics and films

Price is going down when the volume increases

Can print on large formats

Much faster printing process than digital printing

Advantages of digital printing

Short turnaround time

Short turn variable data printing

Less waste

Cheaper than off-set for low volumes

The di

fference of image quality with off-set is very small

Can use every software for data processing including pdf

Companies tend to explain that digital printing is the cheapest solution for a small amount of copies. And, on the opposite, off-set printing is by far the less expensive way to go for large volumes because digital printing is still much slower than off-set and offers only standard paper sizes.

But this affirmation is not always true. Large amounts can be cheaper with digital printing because this technique allows printing all colour pages at once without requiring an additional set-up. For sure the job by it-self will be done more quickly in off-set than in digital printing, but the time needed for the set-up and plate changes on the off-set printers will take much longer and will increase the cost.

How is Digital printing going to fit with today`s market?

After decades of the off-set domination, digital printing seems to have a significant advantage on its competitor now. Nowadays, companies want to personalise their documents, and on this market, Digital printing is very competitive. For quick turn time, emergency printings and short run jobs with no colour specifications, digital printing seems to be the right solution. Moreover, the digital printing improvements of these past few years such as the increase of the machine speed and of the sheets of paper used and the decrease of prices notably increased its competiveness on the print market.

Will digital printing overtake off-set?

Not now and not in the nearer future. Both technologies have their own advantages and disadvantages, and the most important point is that they can be combined. For example, you can print some pages in digital and use off-set to print images. It is obvious that digital and off-set printings both have their place on the printing industry, and they will continue to co-exist.

Smith Walker is a writer, who specializes in writing on

Litho printer

, Brochure Printing. If you are searching for

commercial printing

, booklet printer, please visit us at www.digitalprintplus.co.uk.

Article Source:

ArticleRich.com