Advantages of Digital Printing


The use of digital printing has undoubtedly increased in recent years. In reality, digital printing made up 16.2% of the value of the worldwide print market in 2017. Due to its growing popularity, a lot of individuals frequently think that digital printing is the ideal choice for them, even though this isn’t always the case. Digital printing, which offers excellent speed, flexibility, and precision, uses high-resolution, digitally based files to produce an image or design on the selected printed substrate. However, this does not necessarily make it the best print method.

What is Digital Printing?

A contemporary method of production called digital printing creates prints from digital files. It entails the computer creation of your artwork, followed by direct printing of that artwork onto the material of your choice. Digital printing is an alternative to traditional techniques like lithography, flexography, gravure, letter press, and others because it does away with many of the mechanical steps needed for traditional printing, like making colour proofs and films, manually putting the pieces together, and creating plates.

Advantages Digital Printing

The many advantages of digital printing are starting to catch up with those of conventional offset printing thanks to recent improvements in the speed and quality of digital presses. Digital presses can be very advantageous for short-run work with quick turnaround, including the ability to personalise.

Quality

The output quality of any print process is likely its most crucial component. A high level of quality, complete with full colour and gradation, is guaranteed by digital printing. In fact, many people choose digital due to its flawless colour registration. It is still the only approach that offers this. As a result, colours look vivid and distinct, providing a wide range of creative options. Even white ink is usable. Even better, adding features like glossy finishes or embossed effects is simple to do, further enhancing the design.

Cost

The low setup costs of digital printing make it an affordable choice. Since there is no requirement for printing plates or colour matching, preparation is drastically minimized. This reduces the number of man hours needed because everything happens in a single procedure. As a result, digital printing jobs are often much less expensive than their screen-printing counterparts.

Speed

You may frequently be given a very short deadline to not only create the graphics but also print them when wanting to produce promotional materials. It can be difficult to turn this around by the deadline, so how quickly your printer can complete and deliver this is very important. Due to the lack of setup and manual intervention needed, digital printing offers a quick turnaround time when compared to other print methods like screen printing.

Greater Environmental Benefits

Because digital printing uses less ink, it is better for the environment. That is to say, ink is never injected anywhere other than where it is needed in the design—a significant departure from conventional techniques. This leads to far less trash and, generally, a speedier clean-up process. Digital printers have been shown to emit fewer CO2 emissions elsewhere. Even some professional printers use polymer-based inks, which don’t contain harmful air pollutants (HAPS). As opposed to solvent-based inks or UV-curable inks, they require less energy and produce fewer greenhouse gases.

More Accurate Proofing

Before printing hundreds of units, getting to see a sample of your design is essential. Doing so can mean the difference between having a flawless design and making a mistake that could cost your company money. Digital printing has the advantage of providing picture-perfect, exact proofs before moving forward with printing. The proof, which is frequently sent as a PDF, will give you a chance to examine the finished product and will allow you to check for any design changes, typos, or errors in judgment. You may carry out all of this knowing that your print expenditure wasn’t wasted. For example, when creating business cards, it is quite useful.

Greater Choices

The fact that substrates don’t need to be kept in place quite as securely is one of the obvious benefits of digital printing. As a result, more customization can be achieved using various materials. It is known that digital flatbed printers can print on objects with a thickness of up to 50 mm. Applications that other print processes could not handle are now possible. In other words, almost any material can be printed on.For this reason, everything from posters to outdoor signage is printed digitally.

Can be Print in Smaller Volumes

Digital printing offers the equivalent of a “print on demand” service and can be significantly more affordable if you need to print in smaller quantities. This is perfect if you only need to print a few posters, a few display boards, or a few pull-up banners. Due to the low setup required, printers rarely have a minimum quantity requirement, and you frequently won’t be charged extra if you simply need a few prints or a short print run.

Conclusion

Digital printing is always developing. Since its introduction in the early 1990s, the technology has significantly advanced. In another 30 years, it will be even more powerful. Each and every unit can be produced by a digital printing machine in a way that assures they all have the same appearance. Short-run printing enables buyers to “test before they buy.” As a result, packaging costs for large orders that don’t turn out as expected can be reduced with the help of digital printing.

For the industry, digital printing represents a new paradigm. It offers more options, features, and flexibility than more traditional printing techniques like offset or flexographic printing. Today, we demand accurate and current printed materials, so customers need printers that can deliver short-run colour printing of the highest quality at the lowest cost in the shortest amount of time. There are a few things to take into account before choosing how to print your design because it is not always simple to choose which process will work best for your job. To sum up, there is no justification not to choose digital printing for print marketing that is low volume, high quality, and affordable.

Updated on: 02-Feb-2023

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