What is digital printing?
Digital printing images each sheet directly from the file, with no plates and no make-ready. That means it starts producing immediately and the first copy costs almost the same as the thousandth — which makes it the right process for short runs, prototypes and anything that has to vary sheet to sheet.
The absence of set-up is the entire commercial argument. There are no plates to image and no press to bring up to colour, so a digital job can go from approved file to finished work in a fraction of the time an offset job needs, and a run of fifty is economically sensible rather than absurd.
It also does one thing offset cannot do at all: change the image between one sheet and the next. Serial numbers, QR and DataMatrix codes, personalised names, regional variants of the same pack — all of that is straightforward digitally and impossible from a fixed plate. For serialised pharmaceutical coding, that capability is the whole conversation.
The cost curve is the mirror image of offset. Cost per sheet is roughly flat, so it does not improve with volume, and above a break-even quantity offset becomes and stays cheaper. Where exactly that crossover falls depends on the size, the substrate and the finishing.
On quality, modern digital output is very good and on many jobs indistinguishable from offset without close comparison. The genuine limitations are that true spot and Pantone inks are simulated in process colour rather than printed as mixed inks, the range of substrates and sheet sizes is narrower, and some finishing options are more restricted.
Related
Terms that go with this one
- Offset lithography Offset lithography is the process behind most commercial printing. Ink goes from a plate to a rubber blanket and only… Read more about Offset lithography
- Variable data printing Variable data printing changes elements of the design from one printed piece to the next, driven by a data file.… Read more about Variable data printing
- Make-ready Make-ready is everything that happens on press before the first saleable sheet: mounting the plates, setting the ink keys, getting… Read more about Make-ready
- Spot colour A spot colour is an ink mixed to a specific colour before it reaches the press and printed from its… Read more about Spot colour
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