Digital offset printing

Advantages of digital offset:

• High printing quality
• No films, no plates
• Short runs, personalised printing
• Changes possible at short notice
• Short leadtime
• Short-term delivery
  

Digital refers to a printed image created directly from digital data. It is used to create an image or to expose an offset plate within the machine. The image is transferred over a rubber blanket to the substrate. In contrast to conventional printing processes, there are no intermediate pre-press processes between the digital document file and the final print. No films, imagesetters, plates, platesetters, photochemicals and no waste.
A notable difference between conventional and digital offset is that electric ink (e.g. HP´s ElectroInk) transfers completely from the blanket to the substrate without the characteristic ink splitting of other conventional offset printing systems. This means that a new separation, in other colours can be created for every rotation of the press. This is called “on-the-fly colour switching”. Once the data is ready to be printed, printing with five, six or seven colours, in addition to CMYK, offers major enhancements in colour quality, range, fidelity and luminosity. Other processes are incapable of producing variable data, i.e. the ability to create sections of a job that vary from page to page (e.g. Serial numbered labels.) This process is made possible because, unlike other processes, a digital printer’s image carrier is imaged on a page by page basis. This is something which cannot be done on an offset press where permanent plates are fixed to a drum. Digital offset printing is very popular for short run jobs where the speed of a press is not needed.

• combination of xerography and offset
• short and medium runs + promotions and invitation jobs
• CMYK + extra colours
• printing width up to 308 mm