A digital printing press operates in many ways more like a computer printer or photocopier rather than a printing press. But it is built to produce large quantities of documents at much faster speeds than most computer printers or copiers, and it is more expensive and takes up much more space.
Comparison to Traditional Printing
Traditional printing involves making negatives and then burning photographic plates that are used to transfer the image to the paper. The cost of the negatives, the plates and the labor costs of the people who make them raises the cost of traditional printing. Printers generally charge a setup fee, or inflate the cost of small quantity print orders, to cover these costs, making it expensive to print a small quantity of items. Digital printing works more like photocopying, eliminating a lot of the costs associated with the intermediate steps.
Benefits of Digital Printing
The lower cost for each printing job is a big benefit of digital printing presses. This is especially true for short print runs. Another benefit for companies that use these presses is that they require less personnel to run compared to traditional printing processes, and they take up less space. This makes it possible for a company inexperienced in printing to use one of these machines for its in-house printing, when the company would never consider adding a full print shop to its operation.
Examples of Digital Printing Presses
Xerox was one of the first companies to make digital printing presses and is still a leader in this field. Xerox makes both color and black-and-white printing presses, including the iGen line, DocuColor, Nuvera and the original DocuTech line. Hewlett-Packard offers the Indigo Press, Canon makes the imagePRESS line, and another option is the Heidelberg Quickmaster series.
Other Functions
Many of the digital printing presses feature functions besides printing. The machines can perform finishing tasks that would require separate machines if handled by a traditional printing company. These functions include cutting, hole punching, collating and several forms of binding. Many models can also print on both sides of the paper.
What the Future Holds
Though the cost is less, the basic end result of current digital printing presses is similar to that of a traditional printer. But the technology is beginning to change the end result as well. Digital technology allows for changes and customization in printing. This means that you could print 100,000 documents, but they don't all have to be identical. You could print the first third and then update it with breaking news for the rest of the press run. You could customize each mini-batch with specific stories that are of interest to different geographical regions or other sub-populations of the target audience.
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