Our big litho presses are perfect for larger print volumes but let’s face it, they won’t even get out of bed without a set-up charge. So, when it comes to smaller scale, more personalised printing they simply can’t touch digital printing for speed, low set-up cost and flexibility anywhere in the UK.
Digital Printing UK
Our small format Xerox and Indigo digital machines assure the very best quality reproduction on the market, and as close as you can get to litho. These digital presses are perfect for business cards, brochures, catalogues, proofs… in fact they are perfect for short-runs of almost anything! Digital is especially useful when it comes to highly personalised printing; where no two copies are the same.
Digital Printing Services that deliver
We are a digital printing company in London who are not only able to offer the best in terms of quality, but also deliver your printing in previously impossible-to-meet deadlines. When everyone else is telling you ‘no chance’, it is time to give our service a try!
Litho and Digital Printing
Despite the end results being very similar, there are fundamental differences between offset printing and digital printing.
With litho printing, a plate must first be created. This is a one-off template which doesn’t change once produced. Essentially, during the actual printing process, a drum within the printing press will turn, adding ink only to the parts of each sheet of paper that have been marked out or edged onto this plate.
Digital lithography printing
By comparison, although the term is occasionally used, there is really no such thing as digital lithography printing. This is because with the digital process, there is no original plate or template. Instead, each sheet of paper is printed in a bespoke manner, using technology more akin to the laser printer you might find sitting on your office desk. So litho digital printing is really a myth in that the digital approach is an entirely different technology and an entirely different approach to placing ink on paper.
Litho Printing vs Digital Printing
There are numerous pros and cons of both approaches to printing. We have provided an excellent educational series on the subject, including our litho vs digital blog.
Yet, even within the print community, you’ll hear debates about the best technology – litho or digital printing – to use for any given product. Take books for example, a low quantity may favour a digital book printing process, then again the multi-page nature of a book still means that even for relatively short-runs, there can still be a lot of paper involved. In other words, a lithographic book printing press might still be more cost-effective.
Just one of the many instances where a professional ‘digital versus lithography’ printing decision will need to be made.
Find out more about the litho printing process.
Advantages of Digital Printing
There are a number of significant advantages of digital print:
- Set-up is quick and easy. Unlike litho printing, digital presses do not require any form of plate or master to be created prior to starting a print-run.
- Digital presses avoid expensive start-the-run costs. Since there is no plate required, there is no up-front cost to firing up a digital print press. This means that the first sheet printed costs exactly the same as the 1,000th.
- Every printed page can be different. With the digital printing process, each page can be customised. This opens the door to personalised printing, for example including the recipient’s name on each copy.
- The key disadvantage of digital printing is that long runs can become expensive. This is because, although there is no set-up cost as discussed, there is effectively a click-charge for each copy printed. This means the cost can stretch well beyond the price of a piece of paper and the tiny amount of ink required for long-run litho printing.
In the early days of digital print, there were also legitimate concerns over quality. However, as digital printing technology has improved, so has quality. Nowadays there is little to no noticeable compromise in quality between litho and digital.
Large format digital printing
Still on the digital side we’re joined by large format machines which create giant posters up to 1m wide by almost any length. Perfect for banners (indoor and outdoor), display stands, exhibition graphics and of course giant posters. Laminated, mounted, eyeleted, you can basically dream up anything when it comes to high-quality digital prints.
One of the advantages of large digital print is that there is effectively no maximum size when using a poster printer.
Custom Digital Printing
From the digital print of business cards to individually printed name cards, customisation is the key advantage of the digital printing process. It’s easy for us to take your spreadsheet and insert the data onto each printed item.
With every single copy in your print-run being entirely unique, you could include a whole range of data in your CSV (comma separated value) file.
- Your customer’s name
- Your client’s address
- An individual image or photograph
- Or any other custom digital printing
Of course personalisation can drastically improve response rates for marketing material because it ensures that the prospect is personally engaged in the content which is strictly relevant to them.
Digital package printing
Going beyond personalised printing on paper or card, we also offer digital package printing. By using the same custom digital printing approach, we are able to print bespoke packaging, tailored to the individual needs of your clients.
Imagine your customer excitedly opening your product, housed in digitally printed packaging which actually has their name printed on the box. These are the types of digital printing templates that we are now able to provide.
Ready to help with your digital printing
Our sales team stand ready to advise on our digital print services. Please get in contact today or just give our team a call on 020 8963 0123.
