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Digital Printing

Written by: Paul Cruse

Article Overview: Printing is a term that we are all familiar with. Any one of you could show me something that had been printed, and if it had not come out of a desktop printer or photocopier it probably would have been done on a traditional printing press. There is, however, with the advancement of technology, a new method which can replace traditional lithographic printing and it is becoming increasingly popular for smaller quantities. It is called Digital Printing. In order that both areas are fully understood we have explained the traditional process below and have invited Robert Robinson- Woledge from Management Graphics in Reading to tell us about the benefits of Digital Printing as an alternative

Digital Printing

Traditional Printing process
In order for one to understand why
traditional printing is so costly for
small runs - we need to understand
the process.
Outlined below is an explanation of
the Lithographic printing process
First, the artwork or page layout has
to be turned into a piece of film.
This (if it is a positive film) will look
like a black version of the final
artwork on a sheet of clear plastic.
This film is then used as a mask
which is laid over a plate and when
it is exposed to ultra violet light the
image is transferred onto the plate.
During the printing process ink will
be attracted to the image on the
plate and repelled from the
background. Then the ink will be
transferred to the paper.
The majority of full colour printing
is made up of just 4 colours; Cyan,
Magenta, Yellow and Black; in
various mixtures of small dots
which give the impression of full
colour.
Therefore, to create a full colour
document, individual plates of
Cyan, Magenta Yellow and Black
need to be created for each page.
During the printing process as each
sheet of paper gets printed, it goes
through each of the 4 colour drums.
The plates need to be perfectly
aligned to the previous colour so
that each colour prints directly on
top of the previous colour. This
process is called registration. If the
plates are mis-registered you will
get an almost ‘3D’ effect on the
page. Registering the plates can be a
very time-consuming part of the setup
stage. When they are set up
correctly it is said to be in “perfect
register’.
For a document such as this
newsletter, one could spend 2 to 4
hours going through all the above
processes prior to it being ready to
print.
Although the cost of getting the job
ready for print becomes insignificant
on a very large run, it is a burden for
a small print run.
Digital Printing Process
The question that Robert Robinson
Woledge asks is - “How many times
have you needed full colour litho
quality printing for short run
projects, but have to settle for colour
copying as the only economic
solution?”
Statistics in the USA show year
upon year, print run lengths are
reducing.Where once a years worth
of promotional literature may have
been purchased in one order, it is
now possible to buy full colour print
in bite size chunks throughout the
year. Each print run could then
reflect any market changes, include
price changes or take account of
a competitors changing positions.
Moreover the desire to communicate
with colour continues to grow, as
does the need to communicate with
a higher degree of target market
sensitivity and ultimately 100%
personalisation.
Finely tuned marketing pieces
arouse a far greater response than
the old school of thought, where
dropping a million ‘flyers’ out of an
aeroplane were bound to achieve
sales. One customer tested the
digital print concept and found that
although the unit cost of printing
doubled, more accurate marketing
meant that sales dramatically
increased. Subsequently £20,000 was
saved on overall print cost, because he
was not buying thousand upon thousand
of promotional literature destined only for
the waste paper basket.
Maximising response
Successful target marketing pieces of
varying messages and content take time
to create, which is probably the single
greatest hurdle preventing companies
from maximising the response to
promotional literature, it is however no
longer cost prohibitive and will soon
become standard business practice.
The general quality of full colour digital
printing is at last approaching that of
litho, despite the early unsatisfactory
experiences of some print buyers when
digital print first came to the UK in 1995.
Two years on, having seen their presses
trying to ‘cut-it’ in the commercial
environment, manufacturer’s have
achieved much by way of research and
development. The word is getting around
and digital print is gathering momentum.
Soon its uses will be limited only by
imagination when 100% full colour
personalisation of every print, at print
speeds, becomes available later
this year.
Currently its uses vary from the humble
A4 single sided flyer to a 150 printed
page, perfect bound, glossy recipe book.
Since it misses out the film and plate
stages, by nature digital printing is fast
and service can be breath taking.
It is, and will continue to become a service
based industry, where service is the
commodity, not just the printed item.
In the main, digital print can finally call
itself a player and you can enjoy the
benefits of swift turnaround. 2400dpi
(dots per inch) imaging, perfect register
and Duplex (double sided - full colour
printing) whilst still being economically
viable.

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Article Tags: 3d effect, artwork, colour document, colour prints, colours, digital printing, dots, drums, full colour printing, job, lithographic printing, mask, mixtures, page layout, printing process, quality printing, robert robinson, setup stage, traditional printing, ultra violet light



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