Wondering which printing technology would help you get an affordable deal without sacrificing quality or the results you want? To get a better idea, let’s take a closer look at the two most common commercial printing systems: offset and digital printing.

The cost

Offset printing involves plenty of pre-printing steps like multiple image transfer from film to plate to rubber blanket and then paper. Hence, the cost goes up. The ink and paper are not the primary sources of expense from the printer’s part. Running large quantity printing project through the presses would distribute the pre-printing expenses to each of the piece printed. The more you print, the cheaper each item becomes.

Digital printing, on the other hand, trims down this process, making the initial expenses lower than its predecessor. So you can actually order one piece of print material yet pay a very minimal fee, something that’s not possible with offset printing.

In short, go for digital printing when printing less than a hundred copies to get low prices but opt for offset printing for wholesale prints at 500 copies to as many as several hundred thousands.

The bonus

In terms of special features, however, digital printing takes a clear advantage over offset printing. One of the unique and notable functions of this technology is variable data printing which allows you to print different parcels of information on each sheet without delaying the process. One of the common usages of this is sequential numbering wherein each piece fed to the printer is marked with a different number, as is the case of tickets, coupons and other print materials that require numbering.

The dilemma

So what if you need to have 1,000 tickets printed for raffle draws or entrance stubs? Clearly, you need variable data printing but you don’t want to spend a chunk of your budget for digitally produced printouts. Which one should you favor? Well, you can actually go for both.

How? Since the rest of the details in the ticket are similar, you can have them done through offset printing. The sequential number will then be printed on the ticket using a digital printer.

This way, you get savings from the traditional printing method yet benefit from the wonders of modern printing techniques.