Offset Printing vs. Digital Printing. Which to choose, Digital or Offset Printing?

As a small business owner, you probably print. Whether it is flyers, posters, catalogs, booklets or postcards for the holidays – you need high quality, cost efficient, quick prints. Someday or another, you will face the question whether to choose Offset or Digital printing.

Offset Printing is the most common printing technique. Even the newspapers you read are printed using the offset printing method, because offset printing can efficiently answer commercial printing and massive high volume quantities. The motto of offset printing is “the more you print, the less you pay!”

How does it work? In offset printing, the desired inked image is transferred, (hence “offset”) from a plate, onto a rubber blanket, and eventually to the printing surface. This process delivers high image quality, and allows producing clean colorful prints.

• Pros: Offset printing can provide your business a cost efficient solution to mass printing. When choosing offset printing, you will enjoy cost efficient production because offset printing was and still is the cheapest method to create massive quantities, and achieve high quality standards.
• Cons: Longer turnaround time and printing is less consistent which means that the final results may appear different from one another. Offset prints must also dry before handling.

Digital printing can answer all of your short print runs, or large format printing needs using the latest eye popping colors. Digital printing reproduces digital images on a surface of your choice. Dozens of materials are also available.

Digital Printing, unlike off-set printing, offers the customer more flexibility because printing plates are not required. Changes can be done on a short notice, using advanced software technology.

Digital Printing can also incorporate VDP or Variable Data Printing which means that every print can be modified and personalized according to the changing need. It allows the printing company to produce industrial amounts of letters with different names on each and every one of them.

• Pros: Good for low quantities and short turnaround time. Every print will look exactly the same and you can print variable text which is great for direct mail, letters, bills and marketing with a personal twist.
• Cons: Only one color scheme. No unique inks are available while in offset printing you can choose between overgloss, fluorescent, and metallic colors.

As you can see, your choice depends on varying factors. When you need a work done quickly and in small quantities, you’ll probably go with Digital Printing. If you need larger quantities in high quality, you’ll probably choose offset printing. Remember that both offset and digital printing have advantages and disadvantages and every printing project can benefit from one or the other.

If you’re not sure which printing method is right for you, let our professional Poster Printers staff assist you on your next poster printing project. They will do a great job on your full color posters and photo poster printing. In fact they will guide you in choosing the right method of printing, since there are times when it is more cost effective to print your poster digitally and there are times when it is cheaper to print it by offset printing.

The Poster Printers manufacture posters in various sizes, including catalogs, magazines, trade show displays, brochures, as well as postcards and business cards.