Digital printing refers to any printing process that uses digital-based images and software to produce a variety of publications. Digital printing usually involves desktop publishing software, digital illustrators, and high-volume, large-format printers. Digital sources make printing more affordable and accessible to everyone. If you want to get the most from your project, learn from these digital printing benefits.
Top 5 Digital Printing Benefits
Digital printing benefits are numerous. As these digital printing benefits show, it makes it possible for anyone to create high-quality printed materials easily.
1 It saves money. Designing your brochures, booklets, posters, signs, and other materials online is far more cost-effective than putting paper layouts together. You can make last-minute changes easily without having to throw away a layout you just spent hours editing.
2 You can get your materials faster. Digital printing speeds up the process of going from design to finished product. New printing presses work well with digital products. This means fast turnaround and the ability to work on tighter deadlines.
3 It makes small-batch printing affordable. In the past, the work and cost of full-color printing meant companies only used it occasionally. Some companies couldn’t afford it at all. Today, even the smallest business can print four-color projects in small batches. On-demand digital printing allows companies to get materials when they need them instead of having to stockpile large quantities of printed materials that might be outdated, one of many digital printing benefits.
4 You can make changes at the last minute. Digital printing lets you switch artwork, text, headlines, and more right up to the point of production. You can respond to changes at your company or in your industry and know that your materials are up to date.
5 It creates integrated marketing. Digital printing means you can use the same artwork and logos on a wide variety of materials, including your brochures, catalogs, business cards, banners, signs, newsletters, and more. Get a cohesive marketing campaign that can keep up with you.
Use Standard Fonts from Trusted Sites to Enjoy Digital Printing Benefits
Digital printing gives you a lot of design flexibility. If you’re using new fonts in your design, be sure you are using standard fonts that are universally recognized and used by most printers. Buying fancy new fonts isn’t a good use of your marketing budget. Those fonts that look great online may look blurry when you expand them to poster or billboard size. Standard fonts will stretch to fit—and look good no matter how large your printed product is.
There’s another benefit to using standard fonts. Some fonts you buy online come with web-only licenses. Do you have permission to use them on a printed project? Avoid these headaches by finding a font that is sure to work.
Choose the Right Color Profile
When designing digitally, always use the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) color profile. This is what your printing company uses. It’s also what high-end printers use to create colors, so you’ll get a better sense of what the colors look like when you print an early proof. The CMYK color profile allows you to create a rich variety of vivid colors, including Pantone colors and spot colors.
You May Need to Trap Your Colors to Enjoy Digital Printing Benefits
Trapping in design refers to both the prepress production and the process that takes place at the printing facility. Here’s a brief explanation.
Trapping in printing
Trapping is the technique of printing one ink on top of another one. There are two types of trapping. Wet trapping involves placing a layer of wet ink over another layer of wet ink. Dry trapping means laying wet ink on an ink color that has already dried.
Skilled printers can do this without causing the ink to bleed. Improper trapping can make the ink bubble into little beads that spoil the look of your product. This ink also tends to rub off easily.
Trapping in digital design
Trapping is used in prepress production to keep colors clean and sharp. When you have two colors placed next to each other, you don’t want to see gaps of white between them. You also don’t want them bleeding into each other and creating an ugly muddle of colors. Trapping mistakes can happen because of various problems, including:
- Inaccuracies in the image setter
- Printing plates that shift or stretch out
- Type of paper being printed on
- Inaccurate copying from film to plate
How to trap colors
There are different techniques used to trap layout elements. In the days when film was used to prepare printing plates, trapping was done photographically. Now that most design is digital, the software takes care of trapping. Most prepress illustrator programs include a trapping option. You can select trapping on intermediate files, on print-ready PDFs, or during rendering.
Do you need to trap colors?
You may not need to take this step. Today’s digital content software comes with a trapping option that allows you to take care of trapping easily during prepress production. For the best results, ask your printing representative what they prefer.
Get Some Proof
One of the more important digital printing benefits is the ability to see proofs before your documents come off the press. Your printer can run a prepress proof that closely mimics the final printed copy. If you want a proof that is almost identical to the final version, ask your printer to run a proof on the press they will use for the job.
Unlike offset presses, digital presses can easily print one-off jobs like this. When you see the final proof, you’ll get a good idea of what the colors, fonts, and text layout will look like. You can still make changes at this point.
Enjoy Digital Printing Benefits
We hope you’ve enjoyed this look at digital printing benefits. If you want your printed materials to look their best, contact Dazzle Printing. Our top-notch printing, outstanding customer service, and fast turnaround are available at affordable rates. Use our quote estimator tool or contact us through our website today to enjoy digital printing benefits.
