Is Offset Printing Dead in a Digital World?
Janet Schlarbaum Offset Printing Author: Diane L. Lee
The word digital has become commonly used in the modern world. Modern processes in industries such as banking, advertising, production, insurance, investments, and just about anything else have become digital. The printing industry is not spared from this digital wave, and most printing companies are employing powerful computers and high-tech printing machines for their digital printing services.
There are many advantages to digital printing technology. For example, digital printing processes electronic files and produces beautifully colored images without the need for printing plates. Without the plates, setting up the printing machines would require less time. Another advantage is that color manipulation, color-to-color registration, formatting, and all other image alteration processes are done electronically, which reduces the amount of waste. With digital printing, short-run documents and images can be printed on a relatively affordable price. Indeed, the benefits of digital printing have made it immensely popular.
Offset printing, on the other hand, is a more traditional printing technique where the inked image from a prepared plate is transferred to a rubber blanket then finally to a printing surface such as cardboard or paper. Offset printing is generally used in combination with lithography, which acts on the opposite properties of oil and water. The image to be printed receives the oil-based ink from the offset machine’s rollers. The non-printing areas, however, draws a thin film of water, which prevents ink from saturating the non-printing areas.
Offset printing produces images whose qualities are somewhat inferior to those produced by digital printing. Also, the aluminum plates used for the technique become sensitive due to chemical oxidation, and if they are not cared for properly, they may print in non-printing areas.
In terms of economic viability, offset printing is not practical for individual print or low-volume runs; the cost to print a low number of documents is often prohibitive.
So is offset printing archaic in this digital age?
Hardly. It is still the most common choice for efficient, high-quality, high-volume printing. A single print run can produce thousands of copies; and the more copies are printed, the lower the unit cost. Printing high volumes using digital printing, on the other hand, is very expensive, which is why digital printing is more suited for individual or low-volume print jobs.
Digital printers are more expensive to maintain than offset printers, taking a huge chunk of a company’s operating budget. Offset printers, on the other hand, produce high-quality copies using cheap and quick plates.
While offset printers use simple oil-based inks, digital printers utilize more expensive special inks and toners. Additionally, while offset printers can print on all kinds of paper and other surfaces such as plastic, wood, cloth, and metal, digital printers need special paper stocks that are manufactured specifically for digital printing. Needless to say, these stocks are more expensive than traditional ones.