In today's digital world, where computers assist us in nearly every aspect of our lives, there remains a significant room for conventional medium to imprint our thoughts and words. From kindergarten on, we have been reading: at home, school, work, and when retired. We have lots of literature around – books, manuals, newspapers, magazines where paper and ink work wonders. But has anyone of us ever tried to imagine the way letters and images appear? It is quite simple: by putting ink to the paper and cardboard.

Offset and digital printing are the most common methods of publishing books, leaflets, and another printed stuff for reading. It is useful to understand the distinction between the techniques employed for image transfer because this knowledge will help you with the right choice when ordering your printed products.

Which of the two beats?
In everyday life almost everyone of us noticed the information available on the front or back cover of a book saying how the book was produced, including the print house details, fonts, print run. But none of us would expressly spend time and think of the specifics of various printing methods unless we encounter a special task and are compelled to find out more about printing.

Several decades ago, when digital printing first emerged, its quality was significantly inferior to that of offset printing. However, the technology has advanced so much that today, so that digital printing can rival its competitor exhibiting higher quality. In fact, some digital machines even surpass offset in certain aspects.

The difference between the techniques consists in the process specifics, capacity, costs, and manufacturing time.

A special mould of the offset press has a template containing metallic elements impressing images against the surface. The template is unchanged during the whole process. The machine’s cylinder covered with a waterproof rubberized fabric helps transmit information onto the medium.

The digital process does not involve any plates, bun ensure immediate printing from electronic files without intermediate operations, including manual work. Laser printing is used for smaller printed items and short runs. Inkjet is preferable for large format printing.

Working Principle
Let’s consider some important details of image application, the techniques and equipment, to understand the way the methods operate.

Offset printing relies on an offset press the main components of which include the plate cylinder and the blanket cylinder. The first one holds the template composed of the printing elements. During the process, the rotating cylinders come in contact with each other making the ink transfer from the plate to the blanket and transmit a text or image to the paper. The paint spreads evenly resulting in sharp prints. The coat of the blanket prevents wear minimising maintenance and repair costs.

No intermediate devices or physical print plates are available for digital printing which is performed from graphic computer files, making the key difference from offset. Ink is applied with a laser or inkjet printer - a special machine everyone is familiar with. For complex tasks, commercial printing equipment is used such as large format printers, plotters, etc. Laser machines operate to generate images using dry pigments for fixing to the medium by heating, while inkjet equipment operates applying molten ink by UV curing, oxidation, or absorption.

Costs
Both methods normally demonstrate economic feasibility and are cost-effective in their own way. Therefore, to make the right choice, one must be aware of their differences.

Once offset printing needs the initial imprint, efforts must be made to prepare for the process to set out, and for that purpose you will have to:

1. get the plates manufactured and printed;
2. perform the setup of the pressing machine;
3. test the colours.

This is the number one expense.

Ink, paper, and much work result in a tangible raise of the total cost of the project. But the greater the volume, the lower price you pay per unit and the more cost effective your order.

Digital Printing has lower upfront costs since it does not need substantial setup or plate preparation making the whole process cheaper. Nevertheless, as the volumes raise its feasibility goes down making per-unit costs grow.

Circulation
As we pointed out above, significant arrangement costs affect the overall economic feasibility. They play the key role for the circulation, which depends on the press format, the design specifics, and other things. The minimum product run can be 250 to 500 imprints. With a larger number of copies the economic efficiency greatly improves.

On the contrary, as digital printing requires no pre-set, it allows to deal with the smallest print runs and maintain excellent quality remaining cost effective. The system computer monitors all the process making changes and adjustments to the process as often as needed, even copy by copy.

Urgency
Offset equipment features much higher operation rates than any digital printer. Nonetheless, the latter does not involve serious preparations that might take a week or longer. Therefore, it is not advised to decide on offset in case of tight deadlines.

Digital printing ensures immediate production as soon as the graphic files are available. It is widely used for advertising or other commercial purposes when you have to order a small or medium amount of printed matter. And by reducing the print volume, you will never lose in terms of cost per copy or quality.

Benefits
With modern equipment, you may be certain to enjoy top-quality prints regardless of the method applied. Just remember some differences.

If your materials are just in 1, 2 or 3 colours printed on various paper types, or should your project need fancy images with perfect colour rendering on any type of newsprint or coated designer paper, cardboard or vinyl - offset printing is for you as it ensures full-colour printing, supporting CMYK, Pantone, silver, gold, and various vanishes including offset, UV, water soluble, etc.

At the same time, for smaller circulations, digital methods will be handier as they ensure better productivity even though they lag slightly in clarity. Beside customisation, they offer proofing to help you get a general impression of the product you want. To become perfectly happy with the proof, simply make adjustments before your order is finalised. The proof will cost about the same as a single copy.

The most common products that suit best for digital inkjet web technology include:

1. low-volume (up to 5,000 copies) full-colour newspapers;
2. small and trial book circulations relevant for online stores;
3. newspaper inserts;
4. informational leaflets.

Whatever you choose, it is important to remember that either method will be good if they are used appropriately.