Before we get into the BETTER part of digital printing, here’s more to support the “cheaper” argument. Digital presses are used for short runs, typically from 1 to 80,000, and digital is the ideal printing process for manufacturers who need full production run quality for their package and label sales samples, prototypes and comps. Because digital is “plateless,” the exact same process (and therefore cost) is required for either a four-color piece or a two-color one, another differentiator since the manufacturer does not have to compromise on the complexity or quality of the design to save money. Even before conventional printing presses are off and running, on a two-color label, for example, a manufacturer will have spent $200 (at about $100 per plate/color), where there is no cost for digital. Multiplying that out exponentially is when the benefit of going digital is ultimately realized. In the two-color label example, if additional changes are made requiring two more runs to achieve the final-approved packaging, now the company’s plate cost alone is $600.
BETTER: Technically speaking, the print quality of digital printing will match or actually be better than flexographic and rotogravure printing. Digital presses print perfectly round dots at 800 to 2,400 dots per inch. At 150 dots per inch, flexographic printing simply cannot match digital’s resolution. In fact, digital printing often requires the “fuzzying up” of images to represent flexographic printing, with the goal of having both printing processes look as similar as possible. That’s how a sample or mock-up can look like a package pulled right off the shelf.
