When weighing which printing method is most appropriate for your project, there are certain considerations that you have to take in such as quality and speed. But other than these two, another important factor is cost. Cost determines if you can afford quality and speed. By carefully comparing digital and offset printing, you can get affordable printing while also achieving the other plusses.

Digital versus offset: the process

Offset printing involves film making and color separation. Images are transferred from plates onto rubber blankets and then on the surface of the paper or cover stock.

Unlike the previous process, digital printing is shorter. Film making is no longer done, and the file is directly transmitted to the printer.

Recently, a method called computer-to-plate technology came into the picture and revolutionized offset printing. Through this, the image is transferred onto a printing plate without passing through the step of film making, and this results to sharper printouts.

Digital versus offset: the quality

Some claim that outputs of offset printing cannot be outdone by those of digital printing. Offset printouts have consistent results with high image quality. Moreover, offset printing makes it possible for specific colors or shades to be duplicated with the use of Pantone inks, an option not available to digital printing.

However, digital printouts are continuously improving and some digital printers are actually capable of producing printouts that are comparable to offset outputs.

Another development with digital printing technology is the increased consistency in results and vibrancy of images.

Digital versus offset: the speed

Offset printing proceeds at fast rates but, at the same quantity, digital printing finishes printing jobs faster. Much of this can be attributed to the shorter process involved in the latter.

In addition to this, digital printouts dry faster than offset outputs. Ink in printouts have to be allowed to dry first before sending them to the next processing step such as folding, binding and packing to avoid the ink from smearing.

Since digitally produced printouts dry faster, the waiting time is automatically eliminated. Succeeding processing steps can be done as soon as printing is finished.

Digital versus offset: the cost

A significant part of the cost of offset printing goes to the preparation step prior to printing. After this, only minimal cost is added due to the ink and paper.

With digital printing on the other hand, set-up cost is lower but bigger cost is incurred as the number of prints increase. This is contrary to offset printing wherein the cost is reduced by increasing the number of copies to thousands.

Note that once printing commences, the cost of digital prints cost more than offset prints.

The trends are actually simple: for offset printing, as the number of copies increase, the price decreases whereas with digital printing, as the number of copies decrease, the price decreases.

Digital versus offset: the verdict

Both printing methods can offer affordable printing and certain levels of quality and speed. It just depends on what kind of printing project you have and what material you need. Just remember to reserve high volume orders for offset printing and low quantity printing jobs to digital printing.