What is the difference between digital, offset and wide format printing?

Digital printing services,postcard,business cards,poster,flyers,letterhead,fridge magnet,docket book > Product information > Explanation — digital, offset & wide format printing in plain English

Whilst there are many types of printing, for our purposes there are really only three types of printing:

1. Offset printing;
2. Digital printing; or
3. Wide format bubble-jet printing.

 

Offset printing

Offset printing is the traditional printing method that uses wet ink, large printing plates, large machines, and is associated with a great deal of noise.

The above image is an offset printing press. They are big, they print high quality products in larger quantities, and they do it cheaply.

Economy — low unit cost   Products that are offset printed often have the shopping cart and green arrow associated with them, and offset printed products do offer a lower unit cost.

Our offset printing press prints on huge B1-sized sheets — the same size as ten (10) standard A4 letterheads — and when we print on these large machines:

• We gang print many jobs together on the one print-run — your A4 flyer or A7 card will take up only a small part of the printing plates that we use.
• We offer set quantities — because we gang print many jobs on one print run, we cannot offer customised quantities.
• We use standard paper offset printing stocks — by standardising the papers that we use, we are able get your job to press quickly (i.e.: if we had dozens of different paper stocks, then we would have to wait a very long time before we could gather enough jobs together for a gang print run).
• The plates are the most expensive part of the process, so long print-runs are quite inexpensive (i.e.: the ink & paper do not cost that much)

 

Digital printing

Digital printing is a more modern process than offset printing.

The above image is a FujiXerox iGen3 digital printing press. They are big, they print quality products in smaller quantities, and they do it FAST.

Print it fast.   Products that are digitally printed often have the the red arrow and red button associated with them, and digitally printed products are printed FAST.

Digital printing:

• Uses dry ink that is NOT messy — the dry ink is also called toner, and it is a powder;
• Are smaller machines that are quiet; and
• Does NOT use expensive printing plate — printing plates are the most expensive part of offset printing.

Digital printing is a bit like photocopying, but the quality is as good as (if not better than) traditional offset printing; so, quality is not an issue.

The advantages of digital printing:

• Given no printing plates are used, a print run will be specifically devoted to your job (i.e.: you will NOT share the print run with other jobs), and this means we can print the exact quantity that you want (e.g.: 254 invitations);
• Not only can you order irregular quantities, but you can order smaller quantities too (e.g.: 50 postcards), as there are no expensive printing plates in digital printing.

 

Wide format bubble-jet printing

For our purposes, wide format bubble-jet printing a cross between offset printing (wet ink is used) and digital printing (no printing plates are used).

The above image is of an Océ Colorwave 600 wide format bubble-jet printing press. They are small, they print quality poster in smaller quantities, and they do it FAST.

Print it fast.   Products that are wide-format bubble-jet printed often have the red button and red arrow associated with them, and wide-format bubble-jet printed products are printed FAST.

The features of a wide format bubble-jet printer are:

• Wet ink is squirted onto the paper — like many ink-jet printers that are in many homes and offices.
• Each page printed can be a unique page.
• It is a very slow process to actually print, but the set-up time is very short. So small runs can be done very quickly.

Our wide format bubble-jet printing press prints on A0-sized sheets — these are sixteen (16) times the size of a standard A4 letterhead.

The quality is quite high (far superior to any home or office printer), but the standard is slightly less than regular offset printing or standard digital printing.

Most wide format bubble-jet printing jobs are one-off, two-off, or up to twenty-off posters — larger orders are printed by offset presses, as offset presses are much faster once they have been set up (i.e.: once the printing plates have been manufactured and placed upon the press).

Please note that our wide format bubble-jet printing presses do NOT print all the way to the edge of the paper. You MUST have a 5mm white border on each edge.