Colour Concepts is your one stop print and promo shop.
For over 20 years we have served as a print and copy shop for personal, small and large businesses. We can provide small or large quantities of copies and digital prints in a range of formats (wide, A4-A0) and paper weights. Colour Concepts also offers lithographic printing depending on the job at hand.
However we are here today to discuss one of the most common questions in printing: what is the difference between digital and litho printing?
Digital printing is the reproduction of digital / electronic images on a physical surface, such as paper. It uses dots of colour to produce an image using toner or ink. The ink or toner does not absorb into the paper but forms a layer on the surface. It combines four colours (CMYK) as does litho. The finished product does not have a coating added. It is much quicker and cheaper than litho. It is suitable for shorter runs where litho is generally suited for long runs.
Litho printing is known to be better quality to digital however in saying that, digital technology these days is so advanced that most people hardly notice a difference.
Litho printing uses an intermediary, where the inked image is transferred from a metal plate to a rubber blanket and only then to the paper. The artwork is separated onto four different printing plates and each plate prints a specific single colour – cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK). Together these colours combine to create a full
-colour print. Occasionally additional printing plates are added to print spot colours.
If a number of specific spot [Pantone] colours are required or a high level of accuracy, then specify litho printing although digital printing is now very good at matching certain Pantone colours. However litho will still reproduce tints, gradients and large solid areas of colour better than digital printing will.
Apart from the long and complicated set up fee that makes lithographic printing more expensive than digital, pages are printed page by page and then sorts out the order later ie: all page 1’s then all page 2’s then all page 3’s… where as digital prints print one complete copy at a time.
On another hand digital machines are limited to the types of paper stock they can print on compared to lithographic. However digital is slightly more forgiving in that it will produce good quality from images as low as 150dpi however 300dpi is the standard recommended minimum resolution. Litho needs considerably more resolution to create a good print.
They both have their pros and cons and it all depends on the application you are looking for.