Is a Digital or Traditional Printer Better?

The traditional printing world is dominated by large printing presses that lay down ink on your paper one colour at a time using a mechanical process. A traditional printer is great for large print runs where they have a very small unit cost for each item printed, and by using spot colour inks they can faithfully reproduce the same colour months or even years later. Where a traditional printer runs into difficulties is in smaller jobs. There is a significant cost to just set up the press, which makes the unit cost higher and usually necessitates minimum quantities of 500 or 1000. Also, because of the cost of a printing press, which can reach into the millions, the machine must be running constantly to realize a profit, meaning that the printing company will typically have their presses booked weeks or months in advance creating a long turn-around for your job.

The digital, or short-run printer, is the ideal solution for those jobs where the traditional printer has difficulties. A digital printer has more in common with a photocopier than it does with a printing press and excels at smaller jobs. The digital printer requires very little set-up and so very rarely has any minimum quantities set. This reduced set-up time also means that it is fast, sometimes making while-you-wait prints possible. On the downside, the cost per unit is always higher using a digital printer. This is offset somewhat by removing the minimum quantity restrictions, allowing you to save money by printing only what you need. The other significant issue with a digital printer is colour consistency. Although modern printers are much more accurate than older equipment in this regard, you will still notice slight differences from run to run in some colours.

At The Artstract Co. we give you the choice. We have digital printing equipment in house to handle all your short-run printing needs. We can run most jobs in 24-48 hours, keeping your business up and running. And never again will you have to throw away 800 business cards because of a minor change, we'll run cards in quantities as low as 100. But when your needs are a little more demanding, we offer competitive pricing on large runs through a close partnership with a traditional printer. Or if your needs stray to larger formats, we have an engineering plotter and copier and large format giclee printer for those extra special photos. No matter what your needs, The Artstract Co. has you covered.