Hassle-Free Printing Services: How to Choose Between Digital and Offset Printing?

Hassle-Free Printing Services

In the printing industry today, you will often come across two different terms all the time; digital printing and offset printing. With the digital products replacing the traditional machinery globally, the print industry is also seeing a shift towards digital printing and away from offset printing. However, there is a huge demand for offset printing, and it doesn’t seem to fade away anytime soon.

Most businesses seeking printing services in San Antonio often get confused while choosing between offset printing and digital printing. While digital printing is more convenient and cheap, the offset printing requires huge machinery and may cost a bit higher than the digital printing option. The primary factor that comes into play while choosing between offset printing and digital printing is the quantity and the quality of the print job.

Offset presses are highly recommended for high printing volume, whereas digital printing options are suitable for printing smaller quantities. Offset presses are old school and use aluminum plates and rubber blanket to transfer the image onto the sheet of paper. Hence, the machinery requires much space. On the contrary, digital printers rely on toner or liquid ink for printing taking reference from a digital file either store on a computer or a flash drive.

Which is the Best Printing Option for Hassle-free Printing?

Concerning quality, the old school offset presses are the best. However, if you take convenience and time into factor, digital printing option is the most productive. It is often tough to decide between digital printing and offset printing based on a couple of factors. The easiest way to choose between the two is by considering all the elements and picking the best printing option based on your print requirements.

Benefits of Digital Printing

  • It is very cheap when printing 500 or fewer copies.
  • Much faster when compared with offset printing
  • No need for any setup or plate creation.

Benefits of Offset Printing

  • Offers a supremely advanced image quality than digital printing
  • The printing costs are highly affordable in offset printing if you order in large quantities.
  • Offset printing works on different surfaces, thanks to the versatile media handling

Factors to Consider While Choosing Between Digital or Offset Printer

As explained earlier, you can’t decide between digital printing services or offset printing services by focusing on a single or two factors. At Shweiki Media, we often ask our customers to focus on the following six elements to find the best printing services in San Antonio.

The Turnaround Time:

Time is crucial, and when it comes to printing, it becomes a critical factor. Offset printing takes time, whereas digital printing is fast and ideal for meeting deadlines. So, if you are on a tight schedule, then digital printing is the right pick for you.

Total Quantity Required:

Digital printing is more suited for small or medium sized printing jobs. On the other hand, offset presses are preferred for high quantity printing. So, if you are looking for longer runs then opt for offset presses; else go for digital printing to save money.

Proofing:

Initial set up such as proofing becomes very expensive in offset printing. However, digital printing doesn’t require such an initial setup, and you can start printing with even a single sheet of paper.

Colour Matching:

For CMYK, both digital and offset printing offer similar outputs. However, printing companies in San Antonio prefer SPOT colors or Pantone for offset presses. Toners or liquid color ink are mainly used in digital printing.

Paper Selection:

350GSM is the limit of the paper thickness when it comes to digital printing. On the contrary, offset printing can efficiently manage heavier paper stock exceeding 350 GSM. Offset printers are designed to work with larger sized paper sheets and a wide range of substrates.

Over to you!

Choosing between digital and offset printing isn’t as complicated as you think. Just follow the above instructions and consider all the factors before picking the right printing option. You will find hundreds of publishing companies in San Antonio offering either digital printing or offset printing and sometimes both.

Always choose a printing service in San Antonio like Shweiki Media that offers both these options and the experts can guide you better in making the right choice.

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