Digital or Offset Printing for your Business Cards?
If your company has a need to print business cards for your employees, there are so many options to consider that it can be confusing. Regarding the most important point, the price, there are two ways to go about printing a batch of business cards: offset printing or digital printing. To help you make an informed decision on which would be better for you, here is some helpful information about each method.
Offset Printing for Your Business
With offset printing, an image is transferred, or “offset,” from a plate, to a rubber blanket, to the sheet of paper where the ink is applied. Those inks can be a four-color process (CMYK) or a combination of Pantone (known as “spot”) colors. The plate is created (using computer-to-plate technology) prior to printing and contains the printed image. Plates are created in separations for the colors being used. For example, if a four-color CMYK press is being used, four plates, one for each color is created. Because of set up, offset printing is intended for larger runs, with longer turnarounds. Offset printing works on a wide variety of surfaces besides paper, including wood, metal, leather, plastic and cloth. The quality and cost effectiveness of an offset run for high volume print jobs is tremendous. Digital presses have made great strides in achieving a similar cost benefit, but offset printing is still king for high volume runs. The offset process also produces extremely high image quality.
Digital Printing for Your Business
With digital printing, an image is sent directly to the printer using digital files (like high-resolution PDFs) and others from software applications like Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. This disposes of the need for a printing plate, which is used in the offset printing process, saving both time and money. Since a plate does not need to be created, digital printing makes for fast turnaround times and urgent print jobs. Instead of having to print large, pre-determined runs, requests can be made for as little as one print. While the quality of offset printing is still a little better, digital printing methods are constantly changing to improve quality and reduce costs.
Which Method Is Better For Business Cards?
So which printing method should you choose for your next run of company business cards? Well, it depends. First, you should consider quantity. If you have a sales team that distributes a high volume of business cards annually, you may consider a large offset run of cards to save money. However, if your workforce experiences a lot of frequent turnover, you may consider going digital for one-off runs as needed. Also, if you want a really heavy paper stock, you may need to go with offset printing. There is really no wrong choice; it just all depends on your individual needs.
AlphaGraphics offers a variety of printing services in Deerfield, including both offset and digital printing for business cards and much more. Give us a call today and let us help you determine the right solution for your business.
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