How does Digital Printing Work?
Digital printing is the process of taking a digital image and printing it to either a laser or inkjet printer. Instead of using metal plates to transfer a high-quality image, digital printing involves pressing the image directly onto a media substrate. Digital printing involves a complex set of numbers and formulas. Images are captured from pixels, and the digital image is used to control the placement of ink, toner and exposure, to replicate the image.
Digital printing is different compared to traditional printing methods such as offset printing as digital printers don’t require printing plates. Digital printing can provide more benefits than traditional printing methods, and is developing quickly through advanced technology that is continually improving the process.
What is Offset Digital Printing?
One of the main commonly used traditional printing methods is Offset printing. You may or may not have heard the term and what it entails.
Offset printing involves an inked image being transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket, and then to a printing surface. Over the last five years, inkjet technology has simplified digital printing and made it cheaper, quicker and more efficient. digital printing machines are quickly closing the gap on offset output and it’s clear to see why. Hopefully you’re now more familiar with what is digital printing and how the process works.
6 Key Benefits of Digital Printing
Below are some of the main benefits of using digital printing instead of offset printing.
1. High quality digital prints
Digital printing provides an extremely high-quality end product. It’s particularly difficult to be able to tell the difference between a product that has been printed digitally compared to the same product that has been printed traditionally. This makes choosing digital printing a no brainer, especially as for most print jobs digital printing is incredibly cost effective.
2. Environmentally friendly
The Digital printing process uses fewer materials such as oil-based inks compared to traditional printing methods. Most digital printers also produce fewer CO2 emissions than many traditional printing presses. This makes it a great environmentally friendly option for digital printing!
3. Easy To Make Changes
With digital printing, any design or spelling error can be easily changed before the print continues as digital printing doesn’t require a permanent plate. As we know this can be a concern for all of our customers (and us!). Digital printing eliminates this worry, and can help avoid timely and costly delays of reprinting!
4. Variable Data Printing
Variable data printing (VDP) is a form of on-demand printing which can be used for direct mail marketing. Text and images can be easily changed from one printed piece to the next, using information from a database. Digital printing supports (VDP) as the digital image is changed with the variable data and then printed.
5. Quick turnaround time
We know that sometimes not everything can be planned in digital, and with that – our customers can sometimes request their Roll Labels with a smaller lead time!
Digital printing provides a quick turnaround time, meaning timescales can be easily met.
One of the main reasons digital printing offers such as a quick turnaround is because the process is more simplified and has less steps than traditional printing methods.
6. Easy To Fulfill Small Batch Orders
Digital printing allows smaller batch capability meaning customers can be offered more flexibility when it comes to order quantity.
Now you’ve got a better understanding of what is digital printing, you can now use it for your business. The technology for digital printing is always improving, with print quality improving and printing speeds getting faster, it’s no wonder that many are switching from offset to digital printing.
How can Roll Labels help with your digital printing requirements?
If you would like more information on if digital printing is the right choice for you, please get in touch with our friendly team – who are always on hand, and always happy to help!
You can also check out our Production Flow and see each step from your ordering to our dispatch and delivery!