Litho vs Digital Printing: Which Is Better?

Although most people probably think that printing has fallen out of favour, many businesses and individuals still rely on printing to advertise their products, promote their brand and highlight their ideas in a clear, colourful and tactile way.

If you’re thinking about printing informative documents or have a big project that requires a lot of design and colour, you may be thinking about which type of printing will suit your requirements. There are two main types of printing: litho and digital, but which is better? In this article, we’ll discuss the differences between these two types of printing, and which is the best one for the job.

Quality Litho Printing

Litho, or lithographic printing, is a type of printing where a colour image is reproduced by a set of four metal plates (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). Once skilfully “setup” on press, four layers of ink produce the colour image. Due to the very high resolution of Litho printing this often results in higher quality images, when compared to digital printing.

Due to the time and plates required to setup a printing press, Litho printing is better suited to higher quantities, where unit costs become lower than digital printing.

At TL Colour, all our vegetable-based inks are coated inline, so there’s no “drying time”. There’s also the choice of coatings, from invisible neutral, to gloss, matt or even a silky touch, for that standout promotion that “feels” so different.

Digital Printing

Digital printing is the process of printing digital images onto a medium. Unlike litho printing, there is no need for a printing plate. Instead, the digital printer will press the desired image directly onto the medium. For example, if you needed to print a photo, the toner would be pressed directly onto the surface of the photo paper, rather than ink transferred onto a plate.

Digital printing is the sort of printing that you would typically use at home. The production digital printers used by TL Colour have ultra-HD 10 bit resolution with four times more pixels than standard digital printers, and an advanced compact belt fuser that provides just the right amount of consistent heat and pressure for a given stock, resulting in stunning image quality Because this is so quick, digital printing is usually better for small printing jobs or fast jobs.

Litho or Digital Printing, Which Is Better?

Both types of printing offer significant benefits. If you’re looking for a small printing job, or have lots of different pages that need printing, it is recommended that you use digital printing as this is faster. However, if you have greater quantity printing jobs such as book or leaflet printing, Litho prints might be the right choice for you as they offer lower unit cost, together with higher quality.

If you’re still confused about litho printing vs digital printing and which one is right for you, speak to the experts at TL Colour. As experts in digital printing Oxford wide, we’re happy to provide help and advice.

Image Source: Unsplash