Printing was made possible through the invention of the printing machine or printing press by Johannes Gutenberg, way back the 14th century. This invention has revolutionized not only the printing world but it has paved the way for a lot of changes in the world’s social, economic and political arena. It has, in effect, revolutionized civilization.
Press printing is identified with the whole tedious printing process which can take months to finish depending on a lot of factors. The breaking of one machine or one step in the process can delay the whole printing.
Even with the use of computers, press printing still follows the traditional printing process including the use of plates which are actually in-like sheets where the images and the printed words are transferred. The plate then undergoes several processes before it is finally transferred to the negative and finally to the printed paper.
People in the olden days had no choice but to make use of press printing. They even considered the process already a boon considering what they had, or rather did not have, before press printing was discovered. But the popularity of digital printing has made a lot of improvements in press printing.
Here are the pros and cons of using press printing or digital printing:
1. Digital printing is definitely cheaper than press printing and it does not require thousands if not millions of pages before the printer can make a profit. This enables printers to accept small quantity orders as compared to press printing which required large quantity orders to break even.
2. While Digital printing offers colored printing, press printing is the best choice if you want to produce bright colors. Digital printing uses the four color process using yellow, cyan, black and magenta to produce a lot of combination colors depending of course on the types and quality of machines used.
3. If you want fast printing then the choice is definitely digital printing. Press printing requires a lot of pre-press and the work passes a lot of hands and people so delays will always be unavoidable. Clients can even opt to wait for digital printing depending on the workload of the printer.
4. While there are a lot of paper choices for digital printing the machines can only accommodate and process certain paper qualities unlike press printing which can offer limitless possibilities for the client in terms of the choice of paper.
5. Digital printing is still limited in terms of offering the whole like embossed printing, stamping and even special folding or stapling of printed materials. Majority of press printers offer these services and much more.
Both digital and press printing offer various choices for printing clients and they can choose which among the two types of printing will best benefit their required output. It is really a matter of choosing which of the pros and cons are important in the finished product. But generally, the two types of printing differ in terms of costs, quality, paper and the time it takes to finish a printing project.
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