Short print choice

Although digital color printing continues to devour the analog color printing market, small format traditional offset printing still occupies a certain market space.
In the past ten years, digital technology has been infiltrating into the prepress and printing process. From the trend of page imposition, file transfer, plate imaging and printing, we can see that the simulated production process is gradually transitioning to digital.
The last difficulty in digital technology is the press itself, which is also undergoing digital transformation. However, although digital printing has attracted the attention of people in the industry and there are more and more topics concerning digital technology, traditional offset printing technology still occupies a considerable space, even for small-scale operations, in this area. Copying technology has a clear advantage.
In the past 20 years, A3 and A4 format office printing and copying technologies have made remarkable progress, mainly in terms of quality stability and performance improvements. At the same time, digital printing technology is also developing at an alarming rate, and each time the degree of technological improvement is getting smaller and smaller, the time interval is getting shorter and shorter.
It is obviously unfair to confuse digital presses and copiers, but there are many essential similarities in technology, especially for toner-based digital presses.
In addition to applications, digital printers and printers are trying to simulate the output quality of traditional offset printing technology. Under this driving force, the difference between color copiers and digital printers is shrinking.
However, there is still a clear distinction between digital technology and analog products. That is, for many printing companies, the gradually mature digital printing technology has a very attractive charm, and the low price of traditional processing methods also attracts customers. These two aspects are in a paradoxical state.
The confusing state Just as digital press technology continues to improve and gradually stabilizes, the performance of analog presses is also moving toward faster and more efficient. This phenomenon makes it difficult for customers to make decisions when investing in new short-run color printing equipment. What really determines is not which model of printer or printer to buy, but rather whether it is the purchase of a digital device or an analog device.
According to experience, digital printing has advantages over analog printing when the number of prints is between 500 and 1,000 printed sheets. For jobs below this volume, the advantages of digital devices are unmatched because they save on prepress costs. Therefore, many digital printing applications have been applied to new business models, such as personalized marketing materials and non-traditional types of print products, which are not accessible to analog printing. In this sense, it is impossible to make a concrete comparison of the costs of the two printing methods because digital printing also includes data processing and customer service, which are lacking in traditional printing methods.
Some new types of equipment, such as Xerox's Docutech 6060 or HP's Indigo 1000, are often used in short-run color printing. Although analog printing equipment can also perform these tasks, its competitiveness is significantly reduced.
It is 10 to 15 copies of ultra-short print jobs, or variable data printing (VIP), that the analog printing simply cannot compete with. The current market in this area is still in the early stages of development, but its development is very fast. The main reason for its unstoppable growth rate is due to market and cultural factors, not technical reasons.
Necessary data processing and imaging technologies are all in place and functioning, and data standards are gradually becoming stable, such as the Personalized Print Mark-up Language (PPML) and PDF formats.
Obvious signs
The ultimate goal of VIP (Variable Data Printing) mode is users and applications. Variable data printing has so far received widespread market attention and is confident enough to implement certain specifications and standards. Although it is quite obvious that personalized printed booklets have more repercussions than non-individual printed booklets, personalized printing is still not widely used. It takes time and patience to wait. Other difficulties encountered in optimizing databases for prepress output seem to have something in common with them.
Database management personnel rarely care about printing, and printing companies rarely care about the management of databases. After training, people who understand database processing and know how to print in color are even less. The most attractive place for digital printing systems than traditional analog printing systems is not critical to most small and medium-sized printing companies.
For many users, while digital printing has many attractive aspects, analog printing is more advantageous for small format jobs. This is also the reason why many suppliers of dual-color and four-color small format presses are increasing sales.
Raymond Hillhouse, Director of Sales and Marketing at AB Dick, said, “The market for small format presses is still very active. In the past three years, our company’s sales in this sector have continued to increase.”
AB Dick's Dick QP 25 and Ryobi 3302 printers are based on traditional offset printing technology and are usually equipped with output components that are imaged directly on the printing plate. This type of printing technology has been established and is very mature, reflecting more than one hundred years of experience. Technology and development level.
For example, the monochrome printer QP 25 is equipped with an optional second color print head. Mr. Hillhouse expects the printing opportunity to be successful. He said: “We have a large customer base and they need a new monochrome or two-color printing press. To upgrade, small format printers from other manufacturers may also replace and upgrade their parts. We have positioned the QP25 press as the most valuable conventional blanket printer in the market."
The potential for development Whether AB Dick or its competitors are aware that the market is predictable, it is clear that small-format simulation presses still have room for development, especially in sectors where electronics are not dominant. For monochrome and bi-color short-run business printing, analog printing technology is very simple and easy to use is very attractive.
There are quality issues, and analog printing has so far been the lowest cost, highest quality option in the field. Because these small format analog printers can print on a wide variety of substrates such as heavy cardboard and coating materials, it offers great flexibility.
The flexibility of the equipment is one of the reasons why Alphagraphics, based in Warrington, recently installed a small format press for short-run color printing to address the company’s growing problem of short-run printing jobs. Apex Digital Graphics provided the company with a Ryobi 3302 two-color printing press.
Company owner Chris Brown simply stated: "The 3302 hasn't stopped since it was installed." It meets customer needs that were previously unavailable to the company. It can print high-quality side job and A3 format jobs.
Personalized Services However, many users prefer to install a digital device. Healeys Printing Company is a lithographic offset printing company founded more than 30 years ago. At present, they have added a digital printing device to provide customers with personalized services that can achieve the level of traditional lithographic offset quality.
Mr. Philip Dodd, General Manager, said: “We have observed many different digital press products. None of them can achieve the quality level of our lithographic presses. Finally we found the HP Indigo press.”
He added: “The installation cost of this very competitive press is also very low and very attractive. Once we install it, we can provide customers with a wide range of product services. These products include those produced in short-run printing. Postcards, envelopes and business cards, etc. can also be customized or specially processed according to the customer's special needs.”
For many printing companies, adding a small-format simulation device for short-run color printing is almost a decision that does not need to be considered because it is a mature and very familiar technology. From the perspective of economics is also very reasonable, operator training is easy, and the risk is small.
The most commonly cited reason for customers to choose analog output over digital output is the cost of a single sheet. When offset printing is used, the cost of a single sheet decreases gradually with the increase in the amount of work, and the installation cost and the cost of prepress processing can be dispersed into a large number of copy products.
Relevant factors worthy of consideration Technically speaking, there is no prepress processing for digital printing. According to the traditional idea, the single-sheet cost will not decrease with the increase of the workload. This view should be revisited now because the digital printing workflow does not include traditional prepress operations but includes data and document management. Although this is not a problem that needs to be considered when dealing with the same job for each page, it is a relevant factor that is worth considering for variable information printing.
Although there is still much debate about investment simulation printing technology, the debate over the advantages of digital printing is still very weak. They may also be destroyed by the market as the concept of variable information develops. In short, there will be very attractive debates between the two technologies.
The combination of Ctp output and small format printers is much less risky and cost-effective, which means it can meet all the needs of customers in short-run color press jobs. However, digital printing also brings new opportunities, flexibility, quality, and performance to the company's future.
In recent years, the printing technology has developed so rapidly that it is clear that the future belongs to digital technology, but he will spend more time than most experts predict. It takes a long time for digital printing technology to occupy the color printing business market.