First-time users and who are learning the ropes tend to have the same question when ordering printed artwork: what’s the difference between digital print and offset print? While they both are impressive in their own rights, there is quite a bit of distinction, and it’s worth taking a moment to educate yourself on the subject before placing an order!
Digital Print
If you’re ordering less than 300 copies of a CD wallet, J-card, or other printed material, it will likely be printed using our digital press. Digital print works a lot like your home digital printer, wherein rollers apply colored toner to a sheet of paper, and heat fuses the image with the sheet. But unlike your home printer (unless you’re living in an industrial printing facility) our digital press prints at a higher resolution with richer CMYK colors than your typical consumer models. Its inexpensive start-up costs allow for affordable short-runs prints while still maintaining a high quality output.
Wide Gamut Printing is now available for digital print using our Xerox Iridesse Production Press! This allows for high-quality print embellishments to be added to short-run digital print orders. Options include…
- Fluorescent RGB colors: Using a specialty fluorescent pink ink, we are now able to print CMYK jobs using RGB colors. This means “hot” colors that would otherwise appear duller in print can maintain the vibrancy of your original digital design. Pinks, yellows, and oranges can now really jump off the page.
- Silver or Metallic spot: Sections of your artwork can have a silver or metallic shine to them, which reflects beautifully against the light.
- Spot gloss: Spot gloss creates an ultra reflective layer to certain areas of artwork or text, allowing you to add emphasis to your album title or band name.
- High opacity white: If you want to make sure there’s a stark contrast between your white text against your dark background, adding an extra layer of white will certainly do the trick.
Offset Print
High volume and high quality, the offset press is the golden standard for the printing industry. Far more complex than digital printing, an offset press requires metal plates with an etched design to apply ink to paper. Offset printing is typically used for larger runs (over 500 pieces), though through a custom quote you can request offset printing for shorter editions. Advantages include sharper and cleaner images, as well as the use of pantone colours allowing for greater colour accuracy. For cassette J-cards, offset print can be paired with our uncoated Cougar™ Super Smooth stock. You may want to consider this option due to it’s ultra high quality resolution and richer colours.