The Impact of Digital Printing in the Printing Industry: A Global Perspective

Abstract

Offset or Lithographic printing industry began as early as 1400 thru Johanes Gutenberg that invented the first printing machine according to Robert Lechêneof Britanica. Through time the printing industry evolved thru the development of newer printing technology. For a long time offset hailed over the printing industry because of its efficiency and cost. However, due to continuing developments in technology and high demand in high resolution and high quality printing,digital printing was born.The study aims to determine how digital printing affects offset printing industry in a global scale. The factors that were considered in this assessment are process, timeline, quality, manpower, materials, capacity,and profitability. Assessing the factors above could determine how the digital printing affects the offset printing industry globally. It was concluded that for now, offset printing quality is still better compared to digital printing primarily due to quality and cost concerns. However, further development in the digital printing technology are being undertaken to narrow this gap. Despite requiring fewer manpower and minimal machine expertise,digital printing fails in comparison with offset printing with regards to providing better printing output without sacrificing speed as well as providing cheaper materials in terms of ink and other consumables in general. It was determined that offset printing best suits in high volume printing requirements while digital printing is best suited with low volume requirements. However, the greatest advantage of digital printing over offset is the drastic reduction in pre-press process. Digital printing may replace the offset printing in the future across all spectrum of the printing industry if and when quality and cost issues are addressed and met. But in the meantime, as proven by the results of this analysis, digital and offset printing are complimenting each other towards attaining better profitability for printers. According to the latest report of drupe(a portmanteau of the German words druck und paper; print and paper respectively, is the largest printing equipment exhibition in the world, held every four years byMesse Düsseldorfin Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany), the largest gathering of printing exhibition in the worldthe printing industry posted an increase of 28% in 2015 sales and 27% in 2016. Functional inkjet increased from 61% in 2014 to74% in 2016. The data shows how the digital printing impacts globally in the printing industry.