Digital Printing
Digital printing has entered the market during the last years, and significant development in the digital technology will happen during the next years. Digital printing todays is, however, more to compare with high volum office printing than with conventional printing.
For the reader the digital print is identical to the conventional print. The print is built from ink and paper and seen by the eye in exactly the same way. The big difference is how the print is produced.
In conventional printing the information on the printing cylinder is either on offset plates pr gravure cylinders. The prints in a print run are all identical. In digital printing every copy can be different as the information on the printing cylinder changes from one sheet to the next. This means that the press must be programmed and controlled by a computer. The initial programmed work is big and the transferring of data to the printing computer. The initial programming work is big and the transferring of data to the printing cylinder makes the press significantly slower than conventional presses. Prints can, however, be made on demand, and there is less waste in digital printing.
Digital printing is today most suitable for short runs. In this area it has also generated and new printed products. Which previously were too expensive to produce. The printing machines are also relatively small, and their productivity low. In the future, however, digital presses will develop. And their speed and productivity will make them competitive with conventional printing. Today they has taken some small jobs from sheet fed offset, but in the future their competitive ability will gradually develop to bigger products. This does not mean the the total volum of printing on paper changes.
In the future there will also be combinations of conventional and digital printing. The conventionally printed products will be complemented by digitally printed elements.
When the media market turns digital, the techniques for printing on paper will develop too. Prepress operations will in the future be totally firmless. The techniques for making printing cylinders will regardless of printing method utilize digital technology. This will reduce make ready times, and make it easier to change the printed information. The use of digital technology makes it possible to produce short runs competitively. By combining different printing methods it will also be possible to make demograpihic print runs, where every copy is different. This development of conventional printing is necessary to keep it competitive in the future.
From Internet
29 March, 2012
