The Effect of Digital Printing on the Printing Industry

As much of an impact as digital printing has made in recent years it has not been a overnight success. The start for the sake of argument started with the Xerox Docutech and black toner to compete on the very low end of the print market. Because of that most printers did not view it as a threat. Thus a new business model was able to be established, quick printers or franchise printers saw dramatic growth early on. Although very reliable now, the machines were prone to problems early in the technology. The joke was that you bought a technician when you bought the early machines. They became more and more effective and those printers that did not adopt the technology saw there black and white business decline. Most successful printing companies either purchased a Docutech or gravitated towards more color printing which the Docutech did not do. This drove the printing business into more of a retail quick print location or a manufacturing custom job shop for more complicated jobs. Established printers as a whole had a hard time grasping that the lower quality of the toner based machines were acceptable for many jobs and certain customers and the turn time was much better digitally. The total number of printing companies increased during this time if you counted total # of printing establishments.

Then came color copiers, direct imaging presses and the digital press. These did away with the need for expensive plates and makeready time and waste. You sent the file directly to the machine and the first couple of copies were what you were going to get. Again at the very early stages the quality was very questionable and the machines were less than super dependable. Quantities ordered were lower than what commercial printers could get excited about and they could not grasp the lower quantity and lower cost opportunites and quick trun times that quick printers had really started to embrace. The quality continued to improve and the machines became more reliable. The number of retail or franchise printers increased and the number of independent quick printers and commercial printers started to dramatically decrease. There are of course exceptions to this generalization.

This is about the time that quality improved enough and commercial printers started grasping what was happening that they embraced this new found digital color. Now many commercial printers have both offset and digital machines and can service their customers no matter what quantities they need.

The business will change again. It always has and the successful printers are the ones that focus on their customers needs and balance that with making enough return to support a very capital intensive business.

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Variable Print Programming

Variable printing by definition is where either image or text changes from one impression to the next in digital printing. It is not available in offset printing in line. Variable printing varies in difficulty from a simple name change on the low end to full text and image changes on the more difficult end.

For the most part the variable print programming comes from applying a database to artwork that has been modified to show where the variable part comes in. This is done by digital printing company that takes your artwork and will apply your database to the cell or area that you designate.

Factors that need to be considered are length or size of the variable part. Since it is software that is applying these rules it does not know the difference between say 2 lines or 3 where the text can be wrapped wierd or dropped. All picture sizes would need to be the same as that could also affect your piece from one impression to the next.

The best rule of thumb is to involve your printer early in the design process when he/she can still help guide you on what would be successful and what would not.

The variable print programming is actually done in a different software that helps marry your database and the software that the design is done in(Quark, InDesign, etc.) then when the file is ripped it prepares the job to change the variable cells on each copy.

It is a very effective way to market your company and has a historically much higher rate of return than static direct mail.

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