Choosing the right print process: lithographic or digital

Commercial printers offer a range of different print processes suitable for different types of jobs. Each process has advantages and disadvantages over the others. In this article I look at each of the print processes and examine how they work and what their advantages are.

Lithographic press (litho)

Printing hasn’t really changed a great deal since Gutenburg gave us the printing press in 1468. Technology has allowed modern printing presses to produce millions of copies of a page in a single day, but the principle of applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon paper, thereby transferring an offset of an image, remains the same.

These days a printer creates a set of ‘plates’ which are used to press the image onto paper. There are initial costs involved in creating the plates and setting up the press. This means a litho job can be expensive and take time, but for large print runs it remains the most efficient process and also boasts superior quality and finish.

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