Digital printing technology advantages, classifications and industry development trends

Digital printing technology advantages, classifications and industry development trends

Digital printing is a new printing technology developed based on digital information technology, which is different from the complex process of plate making, plate drying and overprinting required by traditional printing, and is the core representative of the digital transformation of the printing industry. Its core feature is that it does not need to make plates, print and take it immediately, and directly outputs electronic files from computers, mobile phones and other terminals to paper, special paper, self-adhesive and other printing materials through digital printing equipment, eliminating the cumbersome processes in the middle and completely changing the production mode of traditional printing. With the advantages of flexibility and convenience, digital printing quickly adapts to modern personalized, fragmented and fast-paced market demand, and has become the fastest-growing segment of the printing industry.

From the technical principle, digital printing is mainly divided into two categories: inkjet digital printing and laser electrostatic digital printing. Inkjet printing relies on precision printheads to spray liquid ink on the surface of the substrate in the form of tiny ink droplets, with full color and wide color gamut, suitable for large-format advertising, posters, soft printing, packaging color printing and other scenarios, and can realize printing of thick paper, special paper, cardboard and other materials; Laser electrostatic printing uses electrostatic adsorption toner, after fixing high-temperature curing and molding, the printed text is clear, wear-resistant and scratch-resistant, strong stability, mostly used for office documents, bids, manuals, short edition books and periodicals, personalized desk calendars, business cards and other small printed materials, but also the mainstream equipment of graphic printing shops.

Compared with traditional offset printing, gravure printing, and flexo printing, the core advantages of digital printing are very prominent. First, there is no MOQ limit, supporting 1 print, and the cost of small batches and customized orders is lower, which solves the pain point of high price of traditional printing small quantities of customization; second, the production speed is fast, the documents are printed immediately after confirmation, and the delivery can be completed in a short time to meet the urgent needs of urgent bids, event materials, temporary publicity materials and other urgent needs; Third, it has strong personalized customization capabilities, which can realize one thing, one code, and variable data printing, such as personalized invitations, membership certificates, variable QR code labels, customized greeting cards, etc., and the content of each printed material can be independently modified; Fourth, the operation is simple, the degree of intelligence is high, the equipment is automated, the dependence on labor is low, and the entry threshold is low.

Of course, digital printing also has shortcomings, when printing in large quantities, the cost of a single piece is much higher than that of traditional offset printing, so it is not suitable for long-term orders of more than tens of thousands of copies; At the same time, high-end large-format digital equipment is expensive, and the color saturation and delicacy of large-scale color printing are slightly inferior to high-end offset printing. However, with the continuous iteration of technology, the shortcomings of digital printing are gradually making up for it, high-speed industrial-grade digital printing machines continue to come out, batch printing costs continue to decline, color calibration technology continues to be optimized, and the gap in image quality continues to narrow.

In the context of green and low-carbon development, digital printing consumables have high utilization rate, no plate-making waste, and no unnecessary pollutant emissions, which is more in line with green printing standards. Nowadays, digital printing has been widely used in many fields such as graphic and text quick printing, cultural and creative customization, e-commerce packaging, labels and stickers, cultural and creative products, and government affairs materials. In the future, combined with AI intelligent typesetting, cloud printing, and intelligent customization systems, digital printing will continue to upgrade in the direction of high-speed, intelligent, green and multi-functional, complementary symbiosis with traditional printing, and jointly promote the high-quality and diversified development of the printing industry.