Have you ever submitted a printing job request, only to find that it requires too much lead time and goes over your budget? This is the experience many customers have when inquiring about traditional plate printing jobs. However, there’s also the option to do your job using digital printing methods. When balancing things like cost and speed for a job, there’s a few things to consider when choosing between traditional and digital printing. Read on to learn the benefits of digital printing versus traditional printing.
Digital Printing vs Traditional Plate Printing
Digital printing is a printing method that takes a digital-based image and prints it to a chosen surface. The surface can be a variety of media, from paper and cardstock to fabric or t-shirts. This method of printing is often called “laserjet” or “inkjet” printing. If you print at home using a home printer and your computer, then you’re already using digital printing technology.
Unlike digital printing, which uses a digital-based image to print, traditional printing uses an analog plate. By this, we mean there’s a physical plate, often made of metal, that transfers the image from the plate to a surface. The surface can be a variety of materials, such as paper or fabric. Due to the process it takes to print, this method or printing is often referred to as “analog printing” and includes screen printing, offset litho, gravure, and more.
Benefits of digital printing
Is cost effective for smaller jobs
One of the primary benefits of digital printing is that it’s more cost effective for smaller jobs. A primary reason for this is that you don’t need to create custom plates for digital printing, which can bring more costs to your overhead. All you need to get started is an image in digital form and the proper ink.
With so many print options on the market, there is a lower cost of entry for digital printing printing. You can always adjust the type of ink to fit your budget. So if you have a job with fine graphics, you can choose the appropriate ink to showcase that.
With digital printer ink you also get clear, high quality prints at a more affordable price. In fact, you’ll have access to a multitude of commercial inks that may not be available for at-home printers. Such commercial inks have color finishes that are metallic, fluorescent, and even clear. With these ink options, your designers have a wider range of colors for your print jobs and can better adhere to your branding guidelines.
Offers fast turnaround times
Another benefit of digital printing is that you can complete a job fairly quickly, when compared to traditional printing. When there’s no need to create custom plates for a job, you can skip a lot of the prep work and get right to printing your image.
With digital printing, there’s also no need to color match to the original image. Say you have an image that you’d like to print. If you were doing traditional printing, you’d have to color match the inks to the image to ensure every copy is accurate. But with digital printing, you can create a proof which uses digital data to color match. Every copy should have a consistent color and quality, making it effortless and easy to print using this method.
Benefits of traditional printing
Better quality control
When it comes to printing a high-quality job, quality control is key, and with traditional printing this is achieved much easier. During a print job, there’s an operator who is manually printing the job “analog style.” This person also has the ability to visually inspect every piece to ensure it has been printed properly, and can make adjustments as needed during the print. Not only does this mean that you waste fewer images that may have errors, you also get more high quality prints every time.
Can be cost effective for larger jobs
While the buy-in cost for traditional printing is higher than digital printing, the overall cost of a job can actually be less. Once the initial set up is complete for a job (the plates are made and the original design is color matched), then the cost per unit would cost less. Therefore, the more pieces that you print, the less each print will cost. This can be ideal if you have a large job to print and you need to stay within a set budget.
Discover How Vital Pack Can Help Your Business with Custom Labels to Wow Your Customers
Whether you’re working with a budget or just want more time to work on prototypes or designs, there’s no doubt that digital printing has many benefits. At Vital Pack Label Lab, we specialize in digital printing on a variety of media.
Our prints are high resolution and use technology-enhanced features to produce the best quality prints for your products. Start your printing job with us today.