Within the past two decades, there’s been something of a revolution in the world of printing. The rise of digital print has resulted in the ability of organizations that aren’t in the printing business and don’t have their own equipment in house to put out materials that are better looking, more personalized, and more affordable than ever before. Here’s why the switch to digital matters and why you should choose a print services provider that offers it.

Streamlined Design to Print Process

With traditional printing methods, the process of getting from a design to an actual physical printed proof is surprisingly painstaking. There are many steps involved, and it takes the printer quite a while to get a press set up to print any given piece of collateral. Once that is in place, of course, it’s relatively easy to print as many instances of that piece as are needed. 

For that reason, traditional printing methods are still popular with companies like retailers, who often need to print many thousands of catalogs, advertisements, or other mailed items that are all exactly the same. The cost of the initial setup is offset by the very low cost per item once the printing actually begins.

Outside of those very large volume orders, however, digital print carries significant advantages. Smaller print runs are often categorized as “on demand,” meaning that the printer produces relatively small volumes of a given project at the request of the client. Examples of small print runs could include political campaign mailers for a local district, advertising materials for franchisees to use for seasonal or special events, and retail printed materials like textbooks that are printed only in sufficient quantities for ongoing inventory.

Shorter Design to Print Time

Starting a digital print project involves sending a file, whether a PDF, image, or other type of digital file, to a digital printing press, which then uses the information to print the physical piece. This is an incredibly streamlined process compared with the traditional print equipment setup. The shorter setup time and ease of switching between digital print projects means that it is much easier for the print provider to handle small jobs for many different clients at the same time.

This convenience, versatility, and speed translate into lower costs for each print client, and the ability to print items that previously would have been prohibitively expensive under older printing methods.

Variable Data Printing

A huge advantage of digital print over traditional printing is the ability to vary the details printed on individual pieces of collateral. The most common example of “variable data printing” is printing the recipient’s address directly onto each piece, rather than printing thousands of identical pieces and inserting them into individually addressed envelopes.

Even for simple projects such as promotional mailers, the ability to eliminate envelopes and the process of inserting documents inside them for a given project can make a huge cost difference. 

This capability has additional important benefits in the area of data security. For insurance statements, bills, and other pieces of official mail that contain personally identifiable information, digital printing equipment can be used to print thousands of pieces, each with unique details related to its recipient, with similar speed as much simpler projects in which each piece is identical.

Affordability Factors

Minimum volumes are a major factor in the print services field. When an organization wants to print a book, manual, catalog, or other type of large form piece, they often run into issues with traditional printers over the number of pieces to print. Because the setup process is so in-depth and time-consuming, the printer would rather print very large volumes once the print project is set up. If a client only wants a relatively small number of pieces in total, the printer charges a much higher cost per piece in order to cover the expenses of setting up the project only to print a small volume. This higher cost for small runs is often prohibitively high for the client.

With digital print, on the other hand, it is very simple to set up even a large form project like a book, print a small run, and then switch to a different project. This opens up the possibility for a client to submit an order and print just a few hundred copies of a book or manual, without dramatically higher costs and without having to order more copies than are needed, which would most likely sit on inventory shelves and ultimately be discarded.

Versatility to Fit Each Client’s Needs

Many startup companies have come to the market with a great idea for a printed offering, only to find that they aren’t able to work out the finances up front to make their product available to the public. Without knowing what volumes will be needed at first, it’s a big risk for a startup to print a very large volume of pieces and place them in inventory. Ideal for that client would be a small run of initial pieces, then analysis of demand as customers begin to place orders. However, the very high costs of that approach with a traditional printer would be beyond the abilities of most startups.

Digital printing allows that startup to get their company up and running, offering print materials through their website without paying large amounts of capital up front to print huge volumes of those materials, in the hope that they will sell as anticipated. This flexibility is a huge asset to small e-commerce businesses looking to get their feet under them without a very large investment in stock up front.

Spectra provides digital print services for clients of all types and sizes, from new startups with a great idea to very large institutions like hospitals that need to send secure mailings to patients on a regular basis. Our entire print facility is SOC II Type 2 certified and 100% HIPAA compliant. We look forward to learning about your organization and helping you meet your digital print needs!