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With the Print Show coming in September many people will be traveling to Chicago to look for digital solutions for their printing requirements.

Publishers are pushing printing companies into digital solutions with the understanding that Digital will provide short turn arounds & a more economically produced product for the short run market.

But what is short run?

For a printer accustomed to printing 50,000 or more a short run could be less than say 20,000, however a niche printer  may well be accustomed to printing 1,000 or less so their  interpretation of a short run may be less than 500.

Obviously the term "short run" is open to interpretation so lets look at the pro's & con's of digital vs offset.

Digital

• Cost to press - As long as the data is in the correct format jobs can be sent directly to the print engine.
• Makereadies  - Once the data is transferred to the print engine jobs are queued & transition between jobs is seamless.
• Waste - Higher than expected, Digital machines cannot print on acceleration or deceleration or during mill or roll splices, plus they require additional waste for service bars. Interruptions in the print sequence require the job to be restarted not resumed so previous good product is also wasted.
• Speed - although improving web speeds are still limited by quality concerns to less than 500ft/min
• Quality - Obviously digital printers can print very high quality halftones however not at speed to date. Other quality concerns relate to  frame back-up, as the web is printed on 1 side then dried turned over & printed again on the other side backup registration is difficult to accurately maintain.
• Reliability - Suspect
• Obselecence - 3-5 years

Offset

• Cost to press - Requires a pre-press dept to process aluminum plates
• Makereadies - Autoplate changers & Zero Makeready machines can minimize makeready times from 0 to 6mins.
• Waste - With auto inking & deinking features plus ZMR  both Web & Sheetfed can be competative on waste numbers.
• Speed - 15,000 sheets to 3,000ft/min
• Quality - Superior at speeds over 200ft/min
• Reliability - Proven
• Obselecence - 10-15 years

As I have been researching & writing this article I have even suprized myself with the logic or lack of it that is directing the print industry into digital solutions.

Yes there are digital print companies competing in the market today I would suspect however that they find it very hard to compete on any runs in excess of 500. The common consensus from the printers that I have spoken to is that digital machines are more of a "proofing" machine & are operated only as a service to secure other business.

Conclusion

It will be interesting walking the isles of the print show looking at the latest digital offerings. Looking is all I would recommend, if you need to become more efficient then reconsider conventional offset its reliable & the newer offerings will bring the ROI you require.