Types of Digital Printing machines



Posted: Monday, January 16, 2006

by
PrintPromotionGuide

Digital printing is a term that encompasses a lot of different equipment that produce different products and different levels of quality and expectations.


First let’s start with the term digital printing:
Digital printing’s definition is taking an electronic file and directly from that file creating your final output without going to plates or any other type of intermediary step or proof. It can be black or color.

The black is usually done by copiers on the low end and machines such as the Xerox Docutech or the Kodak Digimaster. These machines are capable of @ 100 copies a minute. Even these machines use toner although they are capable of higher resolutions than copiers. Although, higher quality than copiers the docutech & digimaster still don’t rival true offset quality of true offset presses.

The reasons these machines evolved and have become so popular is the ability to do low quantities at reasonable costs. They are limited as to the products and substrates that customers will use these machines for.The evolution of doing this same thing to color was a natural evolution. The higher the quality the better it could replace offset on the low end of the quantity spectrum.

Also as color digital printing machines improved customers deemed quality acceptable for more and more products and uses. Color copiers came first and use toner in the four base colors of CMYK to reproduce color photographs and images. The quality is on the low end for color and is susceptible to scratches and rubbing more than liquid ink. Then there is the classification of digital presses. There are toner and two types of liquid ink presses.

All of these color machines have strengths and weaknesses like any other kind of manufacturing process. Toner based machines are the IGen3 and the Nexpress. The quality is much better than color copiers but can still have toner look to them and sometimes don’t print smooth screenes. The only true offset entries are either Heidelberg or Ryobi machines. These actually produce temporary plates to produce the print job that is on press at that time.

This is true offset printing but has some limitations because the vast % of machines are small format and don’t have the ink carrying capacity that larger presses do. These machines also can’t print variable data printing where the image or text can be changed from sheet to sheet. The other liquid ink machine is the HP Indigo family. The Indigo 3050 can print variable data while rivaling offset quality.

The Indigo digital press family is the only machine that can print variable data as well as being capable of printing PMS spot colors as well. Customers will use this machine to print postcards, brochures, posters, sales sheets, flyers and any other printed product. These are your choices in digital printing. As final users have continued decreasing quantities of their orders and use more and more of customized marketing digital printing’s market share has increased. It is a powerful option to promote your business from small startups to large corporations.

Articles Related:Digital Color Printing


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Top-level comments on this article: (9 total)
» left by Ayodele from Nigeria 5 years 200 days ago.
I want Digital Separating Machine for press, I mean the one that will separate colours into cyan, magenta, yellow and black for press use. It must be able to print up to A1 size. Please feed me back
» left by 5 years 200 days ago.
All 4-color digital machines do the color separations automatically. So if you buy a color digital press it does that. Thanks!
» left by Anonymous 5 years 197 days ago.
i want to buy one for catalogue printing. could you please give me some model number or samples? and price? I can afford about 15,000 Great Britain Pounds.
» left by REMI from NIGERIA 4 years 142 days ago.
I want know the amount of Digital Separating Machine for Press all 4 colour or A1 size.
» left by sola orimoloye from nigeria 2 years 41 days ago.
please vfurnish me with your reply to Remi
» left by Iloma Madubochi R. from Ahoada, Rivers State. 2 years 38 days ago.
 
please i want to start-up a printing press business, i dont want to start with a machine that will give me problems, that is why  i want to go for the digital printing machine that does the seperation automatically, i.e. 4 clour or 1A size.
 
i also want to know the prices and your business location in Nigeria.
» left by Printing Guy 4 years 142 days ago.
Not sure that I understand the question. Most high end digital presses are going to run into the hundreds of thousands of American dollars. It is not an investment to be taken lightly.
» left by simon
from uk 4 years 100 days ago.
SIMTEX fr UK I will be greatful if u gv me diff locations where i can purchase a digital separating machine for A1 paper size, n diff prises. if possible websites of diff companies thanks
» left by LAWREZO from NIGERIA 3 years 229 days ago.
I WANT TO KNOW THE PRICE OF A DIGITAL SEPERATING MACHINE
» left by mackris from nigeria 3 years 89 days ago.
PLS SEND ME PRICES and pictures OF DIFFERENT PRINTING MACHINES DIGITAL AND MANUAL OK.mackris from Nigeria
» left by mian from earth 3 years 3 days ago.
is there any digital printing press or mashine which gives aout put both on paper and sheet in all sizes of paper n sheet direct from a portable usb device
» left by dave from nigeria 351 days 10 hours ago.
PLS LINK ME WITH A GOOD SUPPLIER/SELLER OF USED AND RECONDITIONED OR NEW DIGITAL COLOUR SEPARATING MACHINE.I WANT TO BUY.MY e mail address is nijisventures@yahoo.com
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