Digital Printing versus Offset Printing

APRIL 20 2010

Without a doubt being ‘green’ is very much front-of-mind these days, and rightly so. No matter how you say it… eco-friendly, carbon neutral, environmentally friendly, earth conscious, green, sustainable, or any number of other popular catch-phrases… it’s really all about the same thing.

While the attention being put on being ‘green’ is very important and completely overdue there are many shrewd marketers and advertisers out there who will try to cash in on what they see as nothing more than the latest trend so you still need to be a discerning consumer.

Digital printing – why not offset?

At GreenDigitalPrinting.com we recognize our responsibility as a good corporate citizen and global citizen, so we have invested in the equipment, processes and materials to provide sustainable and environmentally-friendly printing solutions for our clientele. The bulk of the work we do is printed digitally, intentionally so, and for good reason.

The evolution of digital printing has revolutionized the printing industry. While traditional offset printing is considered an industrial process, digital printing is a computerized process which, by its very nature, is less wasteful and less demanding on resources compared to conventional print. Less waste and less consumption equates to a more environmentally friendly method of printing.

Digital printing has eliminated many stages of traditional printing that were time, energy and resource-consuming. This includes processes that were accompanied by liquid waste, solid waste and fumes - some of which actually require specialist treatment for disposal. Additionally, digital printing eliminates the use of chemistry for film and plate processing, as well as the substantial waste of materials used in the 'make ready' stage of offset printing.

Efficient printing - no ‘make ready’ stage

With an offset printer you cannot simply press a button and immediately begin printing. Time is required to prepare the machine to run a specific job which includes a lot of wasteful ‘test’ printing onto paper. This isn’t simply down-time for the machine as the time and expense of the make-ready process is passed through to the client in the cost of the finished goods.

With digital printing there isn’t any ‘make ready’ required and, due to this, digital printing allows for much shorter run lengths and quicker turnaround times. This in turn leads to less consumption and waste - it is estimated that prior to the advent of digital printing as much as 56% of all print was thrown away unused.

Quality printing – liquid ink versus dry toner

Talking about the benefits of digital printing is all well and good, but it’s a moot point if the digital printing produces inferior looking products. As previously mentioned, at GreenDigitalPrinting.com we have invested in the equipment, processes and materials to do the job right. While most digital printers use dry toner our Indigo printers use liquid ink which reproduces the quality ‘look and feel’ of offset print. In most cases the colour and clarity of our digital print meets (if not actually exceeding) the quality of offset print.