Digital Printing Costs

Dallas, TX- Even if you see no increases in your printing budget, you may be lulled into a place where you haven’t checked the costs to have your printing needs produced. Small businesses are beginning to realize the cost per piece savings can be realized by having their printing produced by digital printing companies.

How would a consumer know when to go digital or continue to use the old standby offset printing? Obviously, a more rigorous campaign of marketing by the digital printing companies would be one solution. By marketing the fact that the cost per piece of printed material, when employing digital printing, is about 30% less than that of offset printing when producing 500-1000 impressions has resulted in increased customer bases.

Digital printing eliminates the price of plates and the costs associated with them. Therefore the cost per piece is significantly lower when compared to multiple color printing. A consumer, when requesting estimates, will realize the cost savings when utilizing plate free technology, thereby taking advantage of the opportunity. The price stays constant when utilizing digital printing. It’s like additional colors are free of charge. The more colors required per impression, the more the cost per piece due to the increasing amount of plates when printed on offset presses. Also, production time is lost due to multiple passes to complete the printing process through the traditional offset press.

Another area regarding the lowering the cost per piece and related to digital printing is the test time required for editing and proofing. With digital printing clients are provided with samples of proofs and using desktop publishing, proofs can be generated and files shared. With changes made offline, expensive costs of traditional press make ready time and color proofing is minimal in scope when looking for value.

So far we have discussed the plummeting cost per piece when using digital printing as the source of printing. Through eliminating printing plates, overcoming press approval delays, sharing documents and proofing systems, the customer is in a position to pick and choose their best and most cost effective method of any particular printing job. For instance they realize that contracting to have large run at high speeds and requiring up to four colors or more, the selection would be to choose offset printing. But where a client seeks personalized market material, the best choice would be digital printing. When in doubt and the customer cannot make up their minds for the best solution, it is better to research the market, bring in the printing professionals to state their opinion’s and then reach your conclusion.

For the small business customer trying to market themselves through the print medium, local digital printing outlets like quick print shops are convenient and generally nearby. This certainly makes it more convenient and personal when the parties to come together to fill their needs and requirements. This being the case products can be delivered quickly or just picked up. Many digital companies offer one stop shopping that will personalize the customer’s needs which can include mailing the marketing or informational material directly from their site. The price for this of course can be added to the cost per piece.

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