Offset vs digital printing: which one your job needs

The short answer

Digital printing wins on short runs, fast turnarounds and jobs where every piece is different. Offset wins on long runs, large solid areas of color, exact Pantone colors and thick or large sheets.

Commercial Printing Services runs both, so the choice is about your job, not about what the shop happens to own.

How offset works

Offset printing transfers ink from a metal plate to a rubber blanket and then onto paper. Making plates and getting the press up to color takes setup time, so the first sheet is expensive and every sheet after it is cheap. Offset reproduces Pantone spot colors exactly and lays down large solids cleanly, and it prints on a wide range of stocks.

How digital works

Digital presses print straight from the file with dry ink or toner. There are no plates, so setup is short, a run of 50 costs far less than it would on offset, and every sheet can carry different data: names, addresses, numbers or versions. Digital uses no solvent inks, which means no VOC emissions from the ink, and wastes less paper on setup.

Rules of thumb from our pressroom

These are the guidelines Commercial Printing Services gives its own customers:

• Choose offset when quality is the main concern, for higher volumes (more than about 250 business cards or 1,000 brochures), for stock thicker than 14 pt, or for a finished size larger than 12 x 18 inches.
• Choose digital when you need it in under about five business days, for lower volumes (under about 250 business cards or 1,000 brochures), or when you need variable data.
• Large flat areas of solid color look better on offset. Most photos and text reproduce very well on a high-end digital press.

What about color matching?

Offset can print true Pantone (PMS) inks. Digital simulates Pantone colors from four process colors, which gets close for most colors but not all. If a logo color must match exactly, say so and ask for a hard proof.