Digital VS. CMYK/Off-set Printing

When working on a retail display, some clients may be new to the graphics printed on display. 

Prototype looks bright and more attractive, we want the colors on them! In production, colors appear a little bit dark to me...

What causes this difference? 

Come with me to find the reasons, here, we provide some reference to explain:

1) The first of those differences is the sheet size

Digital printing typically runs smaller sheet sizes—typically 19” sheets with some machines going up to 29”.

Offset printing on the other hand typically runs presses that are 29” and 40” sheets.

This increase in size occasionally allows for some kinds printing that isn’t possible on smaller sheets. Some examples include posters, books requiring large covers, and certain kinds of brochures, packaging materials, plastics, custom retail point of purchase displays etc.

2) The second of those differences is the color representation

Every piece of printing equipment offers slightly different interpretations and controls over how colors get applied onto a page. Offset presses can provide certain color controls that are superior to digital printing. For example, printing Pantone colors (a color management system) is more precise on offset presses because they actually use Pantone ink. This is important most typically for large corporate brands for which color consistency is worth a considerable amount of money.

Find below to know the difference visually:

3) The third of those differences is that digital presses are significantly cheaper for fast-turnaround projects

Digital printing offers shorter turnaround times because the significantly smaller setup time. Shops doing digital printing well can offer same-day and next-day printing much more efficiently and cheaper than those with offset printing.

For example, it would make sense to throw a project onto several digital presses that require minimal setup. On the other hand, throwing it onto multiple offset presses would require multiple plates and time to properly ink the plates.